The last two days of studying have been very productive but awfully frustrating. Biochemistry and microbiology are two courses which we covered in medical school (four months of microbio, at that), but it’s so much wrought memorization that it’s easy to often mix things up… especially when terms like rubella,…
It’s time to prep for the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step I! Baylor Med students tend to take Step I in the spring-time of their third year. Because we start clinical rotations 18 months into medical school, we have a year of rotations under our belts before embarking…
After submitting two papers Friday afternoon, I officially finished my month of Family Medicine. It was a fantastic experience, and I learned a lot about the “patient centered medical home” (PCMH) with regards to coordinating a patient’s healthcare holistically across many specialties and time beginning with the primary care physician.…
Family Medicine has been my first real outpatient experience, and two weeks of clinic have certainly flown by! My preceptors have been incredibly gracious in taking time to teach me tricks to the physical exam, treatment regimens, establishing rapport, and making sure I see a wide breadth of cases. I’m…
After commuting 60 miles round trip to the Texas Medical Center for a year, my Family Medicine rotation has given me an incredibly nice reprieve – the clinic I’ll be working at is down the street from my old high school and pre-school. Basically, it’ll be a 15 minute commute…
The last year of clinics have been full of successes and failures. I’ve helped patients and learned a lot, but I’ve also come up short when it mattered most. One year ago, I wrote a summary of my goals as a clinical medical student, and in retrospect, I feel that I’ve…
After taking clinical shelf exams in Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, OB/GYN, and Surgery, I’ve arrived at a conclusion which may be shared by others who, like me, aren’t gifted test takers – multiple choice exams cannot accurately assess a student’s clinical knowledge.
Yesterday evening… after admittedly pulling an all-nighter to cram for the departmental exam… I finished my neurology rotation. Between Thanksgiving Break, no weekend responsibilities, and the rotation being only a month long, I only spent sixteen days at my clinical site. While that amounts to relatively little exposure compared to…
After table rounds this morning, one of the residents asked me if I wanted to do a bedside lumbar puncture (LP). I instantly jumped at this opportunity and proceeded to gather the patient’s consent, LP kit, and other supplies necessary for the procedure. In the meantime, I tried to recall…
Neurology has gone by so quickly! Our hours are great, we don’t work on weekends, and a lot of each day is spent traveling to and from lectures/conferences at the main campus. After morning rounds (which can sometimes take a few hours), my colleagues and I scatter to follow up…