I'm in week 2 of my IM placement and it's going really good.
The others (students, interns, registrars, consultants) have been very friendly and accepting of me as an "outsider", or "elective" med student, especially seeing as they rarely get international electives at the particular hospital where I am training.
My knowledge: there are gaps, but they're not HUUUGGE huge. Just bigger than I'd like. Not so embarrassing that my position as a final year medical student is questioned. Not at all. Well, not to my face.
Some things I have been doing have been seen as more advanced than expected for an average medical student and that has made me feel a lot better about myself. Those things include: writing the progress notes during ward rounds, reading the obs/drugs charts, placing IVs, and being eager to learn more than the bare essentials. Some med students do that, but it's not expected until intern year.
Some things that make me look a bit behind include my lack of in-depth knowledge on certain pathophysiology and pharmacology questions. Some of the rarer diseases, I also don't know as well as the local medical students. When it comes to the more common stuff, I think I have a really good grasp on the basics, thanks mostly to my paramedic background. For example, the Intern asked the Consultant why she didn't start her Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus patient on metformin (a Type 2 DM drug).
I am learning a lot about how ward rounds work, I went to an M+M session (morbidity and mortality), am generally keeping up with the discussion about patients and their management, and generally not looking TOO stupid. Whew.
Apart from the hands-on and clinical observing experience, this rotation has (so far) given me the boost in motivation that I really needed to get me back into the books and focused on up-skilling myself in the areas I need to improve. The first half of med school is all about keeping up with the pace of the course; been told what to study and when. The second half is all about (finding and) attending placements, consolidating knowledge, and filling in the gaps as you go along.
So, today is exactly six years since my first day of medical school! Wow! So I always knew it would take me five-and-a-half to six years to do a four year course. The reason being: the first two years I did part-time. This was always my strategy from the beginning (financial, mostly). It turns out that it is probably going to take me seven to seven-and-a-half years! GASP!
**Goes into cardiac arrest
The others (students, interns, registrars, consultants) have been very friendly and accepting of me as an "outsider", or "elective" med student, especially seeing as they rarely get international electives at the particular hospital where I am training.
My knowledge: there are gaps, but they're not HUUUGGE huge. Just bigger than I'd like. Not so embarrassing that my position as a final year medical student is questioned. Not at all. Well, not to my face.
Some things I have been doing have been seen as more advanced than expected for an average medical student and that has made me feel a lot better about myself. Those things include: writing the progress notes during ward rounds, reading the obs/drugs charts, placing IVs, and being eager to learn more than the bare essentials. Some med students do that, but it's not expected until intern year.
Some things that make me look a bit behind include my lack of in-depth knowledge on certain pathophysiology and pharmacology questions. Some of the rarer diseases, I also don't know as well as the local medical students. When it comes to the more common stuff, I think I have a really good grasp on the basics, thanks mostly to my paramedic background. For example, the Intern asked the Consultant why she didn't start her Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus patient on metformin (a Type 2 DM drug).
I am learning a lot about how ward rounds work, I went to an M+M session (morbidity and mortality), am generally keeping up with the discussion about patients and their management, and generally not looking TOO stupid. Whew.
Apart from the hands-on and clinical observing experience, this rotation has (so far) given me the boost in motivation that I really needed to get me back into the books and focused on up-skilling myself in the areas I need to improve. The first half of med school is all about keeping up with the pace of the course; been told what to study and when. The second half is all about (finding and) attending placements, consolidating knowledge, and filling in the gaps as you go along.
So, today is exactly six years since my first day of medical school! Wow! So I always knew it would take me five-and-a-half to six years to do a four year course. The reason being: the first two years I did part-time. This was always my strategy from the beginning (financial, mostly). It turns out that it is probably going to take me seven to seven-and-a-half years! GASP!
**Goes into cardiac arrest
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