gettingrooted-blog

[gettingrooted-blog]

Why do you think those two are hugging and crying? my resident asks as we watch our attending embrace a man about his age. It’s because one year ago that patient was given four months to live. I saw him then, he looked like he was on his deathbed.

No one knew what he had

But our attending figured it out. He diagnosed him.

It was a rare form of leukemia.

You know it’s rare when Google’s feeble attempts to help out only turns up a handful of journal articles.

Do you know how he knew?

He read an article about it a few weeks before.

Everyone laughed at him, but he remembered that article and demanded we run the tests.

Turns out, he was right.

Never forget, reading saves lives.

To the first years, just staring out your med school journey, not sure why they signed up for this. To those who just finished boards, and never want to pick up a text book again. To the premeds, who just want to finish up their pre reqs and get to medical school already. To the spouses, who wonder if they will ever see their significant others without a textbook again.

This is why we do it.

This is why we stay up past our bedtimes.

And wake up before the sun.

This is why we memorize overly complicated pathways until we can do them in our sleep.

Why we can name every class of antibiotic, even those no one uses anymore.

This is why we push ourselves to be better every day than we were the last.

Why we put our lives on hold.

Not for more letters to put behind our name.

Not for some number on a score sheet.

Not because mom told us to.

We do it because one day, a day that will occur far faster than we are ready for, we’ll have our own patients.

One day someone will come in and ask you “so doc, what is it.” And you’ll say to yourself, I know this.

So when the tediousness of studying gets you down, don’t forget:

Reading saves lives.

[gettingrooted-blog]

Medicine is about critical skills

Me: Hey, can I practice my long bone injury splinting?

Trainer: Sure

Me: I just really want to develop my skills

Trainer:...

Me: I want to be good at what I do, you know?

After I'm done with splinting his arm

Trainer: Listen, being a good medic isn't just about splinting. What you're doing will get you to pass your state exams. What you need is to learn to think outside the box. I'll pick a medic with weak skills but a good mind over a good technician. You're used to a very controlled environment but that's not how the real world works. You'll be in situations that you won't do everything right. I'm not saying that you should cut corners but you may miss some steps because you're focused on saving a life.

Me: Yeah...

Trainer: So what I want you to focus on is Patient assessment. I want you to figure out if this person is sick or not sick. Are they going to die? And what you can do to keep them from dying. You need to know in under 2 minutes what's going on. You need to get to the bottom of things so that you can save your patient. That's true whether you're a basic, a paramedic, or any other medical field. Medicine is about critical skills, focus on that.

[gettingrooted-blog]

[gettingrooted-blog]

Semester postmortem: 3 things what worked

During the Fall semester I noticed that I couldn't really remember what I had just read in my textbook or enough information for my tests. I was also terrible at writing lab reports. I felt, mostly, stupid and defeated. I wasn't sure that I was cut out for the Pre-PA journey. But when I stopped beating myself up, I realized that I just didn't know how to study and how to write lab reports. Christmas break was a perfect time to try to figure that out. Learning As Craft The first shift I made was to take a craftsman approach to learning; to look at learning as a skill to be acquired like any other. I got the idea after reading sections of Cal Newport's book So Good They Can Ignore You. Even though it is directed at careers, the core concepts apply equally to school. (I actually have to finish the book). That was enough to get me to focus on improving rather than just being angry at myself. Spaced Repetition Aka See the information multiple times The second thing that I did was to look for resources on memory and how the brain works. After sifting through countless YouTube videos and websites a few themes emerged. 1) Pre-read before lecture (and make condensed handwritten notes). 2) Add additional information to your notes, during and after lecture. 3) Review regularly and test yourself on your knowledge (in writing). Made My Prof. my Mentor Lastly, I approached my professor early in the semester, told her that lab writing was an area of weakness for me and that I wanted to improve significantly. I also asked if she would be willing to give me a lot of feedback on my lab reports so that I could be a better student. I knew that I was asking her to do more work but I framed it in a way that she would be willing to be an ally in my quest for academic improvement. As a Thank you, I tried her to make her feel like I appreciated the effort that she was putting in as a professor by working hard and participating during lecture when she asked questions. And when something wasn't right, I asked "What could I have done better?" This is a totally new way for me to approach school but I like it much better and I like me much better too.

[gettingrooted-blog]

Tutorial: how to make organized notes.

Read the objectives of the lecture. If there aren’t any, flip through the lecture slides and make an outline. This puts into perspective what you need to be learning and what you should get out of this lecture.

Skim the book to get familiar with how the information is divided compared to your outline or objectives. While doing this, you’ll figure out whether or not you need the extra details from the book. Sometimes the lecture is enough and you could keep the textbook just as a reference to things you don’t get.

Write down the first objective and flip to the page in the book that has the information pertaining to that objective. Read the lecture slide then refer to the book for details.

Combine your lecture notes with the textbook information. Do this by rewriting the information in your own words and try to be as concise as possible. 

Keep doing this for every objective. Paste things if it helps.

Make sure that you’re not just copying information. Use visual aids as much as possible. Put the information in a table, flowchart, diagram, etc.. (refer to this post to see how I make my flowcharts).

When you’re done with all your objectives, go through the lecture and your notes to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

General tips on how to keep them organized:

Be systemic. Making objective-oriented notes is one way to do that. 

Use two (or more colors). Color-coding information helps me remember it + it doesn’t look that bad.

Section your objectives according to the topic. Then make sure that when you’re writing out the information, it’s in a sequence that’s understandable.

Disclaimer: this is the way I’ve been making my notes since I started med school. By no means am I claiming it’s perfect or that everybody should follow it.

Hope this helps and as always, happy studying :)

[gettingrooted-blog]

Note to Self: Read their Website!

Just called to find out about a shadowing opportunity at a clinic and was interviewed on the spot! I should have gone to their website to brush-up before calling. Ugh.

[gettingrooted-blog]

People will kill you over time, and how they’ll kill you is with tiny, harmless phrases, like ‘be realistic.

Dylan Moran (via onlinecounsellingcollege) This. Good reminder to ignore a friend of mine because her comments have been really discouraging lately.

[gettingrooted-blog]

So glad I recorded all of my class lectures! It's helping me with reviewing for Finals.

[gettingrooted-blog]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind!

I’ve been trying to line-up some hours with PAs and it has been tougher that I thought it would be.

I’ve tried to get hours at an urgent care center and a nursing home and I’ve been turned down.

Why?

Liability.

I haven’t been given a thorough explanation but that’s what 3…

[gettingrooted-blog]

My state/county is perhaps a bit more litigious. I'm still asking around though. So far it has payed off. I just got a positive response this morning! (As an aside, I think that the businesses who run nursing homes are really afraid of getting sued. In my area, two major nursing homes have been shut down by the Dept. of Heath for major violations.)

I’ve been trying to line-up some hours with PAs and it has been tougher that I thought it would be.

I’ve tried to get hours at an urgent care center and a nursing home and I’ve been turned down.

Why?

Liability.

I haven’t been given a thorough explanation but that’s what 3...

[gettingrooted-blog]

Late Night Studying

[gettingrooted-blog]

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Have Now Spread To Every Part Of The World "Bacteria resistant to antibiotics have now spread to every part of the world and might lead to a future where minor infections could kill, according to a report published Wednesday by the World Health Organization. In its first global survey of the resistance problem, WHO said it found very high rates of drug-resistant E. coli bacteria, which causes problems including meningitis and infections of the skin, blood and the kidneys. The agency noted there are many countries where treatment for the bug is useless in more than half of patients.”

Read more from the Associated Press at huffingtonpost.

[gettingrooted-blog]

Trying this new way of staying on top of my to-dos and be more productive. Using it to set up a study schedule for the next month. Seems cool.

[gettingrooted-blog]

RIP

A patient we took to the hospital died. He was actively vomiting, had aspirated blood from a GI bleed and was 90+ years old. When we dropped him off, my trainer said matter-of-factly, "He's dead. If he survives the bleed, he'll probably get an infection." With a DNI (do not intubate) and DNR, there wasn't much the MDs at the hospital could do. You could see it in their eyes. Sure enough he died 3 hours later. I am not shocked but I am still new enough to feel a bit of loss.

[gettingrooted-blog]

Shadowing

I've been trying to line-up some hours with PAs and it has been tougher that I thought it would be. I've tried to get hours at an urgent care center and a nursing home and I've been turned down. Why? Liability. I haven't been given a thorough explanation but that's what 3 places have said so far. I'm not sure what the future holds for upcoming Pre-Med, Pre-PA students but I know that litigation will continue to be a huge issue right.

[gettingrooted-blog]

Stellar!

I emailed my professor to thank her for spending extra time helping me refine my lab report. She thanked me and called me a stellar student. *gasp*

[gettingrooted-blog]

Lonely People

One of the things that still continues to surprise me when we go out on calls to the homes of elderly people, is how alone they are. They always have a TV on and there is often no family around other than an aide. Last night one of our patients upon refusing to go the hospital countered that she would love to go out for pizza instead. We all laughed but in that joke there was some truth. More than medical care she wanted to have some human contact, share a meal with someone. So simple yet so rare at her age. What does this say about our culture? How do we value the old and frail?