medstudentgettingpersonal

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

Hi! Do you have classes in English or in Polish?

Polish ;)

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

6/01/19

Slept in with hope to regenerate better (as I'm still sick😔)

Sent tons of email invitations, did some administrative work for the upcoming scientific conference

Studied statistics

Editted my article

Did some ironing

Read lectures for tomorrow's clinicals

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

4/01/19

-finished radiology

-cleaned the kitchen

-took a nap because of a dreadful migraine

-planned presentation for meeting of my student research group

-doing some reading for next week ft korean facemask

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

3/01/19

Happy new year everyone, hope you all are well rested and ready to smash finals season :)

This year I'm changing up this blog a little bit. I'm always on the go with studying, volunteering, doing research and it gets really busy so instead of taking a break from this blog I decided to turn it into productivity/gratefulness log. Recently I've read that having such log can be helpful if you're into practicing mindfulness etc. I decided to try it because sometimes I don't feel like I've been productive while I actually have done tons of work, Ioverlook small precious moments, simple things I'm grateful for, I forget to take good care of myself...

So instead of only focusing on goals and future plans for this year I want to become more aware of the present.

Survived radiology class

Finished writing patient’s history and suggested plan of treatment for psychiatry

Set a date for oral psychiatry exam

Ate healthy dinner

Successfully interviewed 8 patients for a research project

Solved 6 online dermatology quizzes

Organised student clinical shifts for my student research group

Ended work before 12a.m. and had some time for myself

Take care and stay motivated,xx

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

Can you tell me if universities in Poland are public or private? And in the second case, if you can you apply to a scholarship? Thank you very much! 😁😁😁

Hi, the majority of medical and non-medical universities in Poland are public, there are 2 or 3 private medical unis. 

When it comes to scholarships you have limited options as almost all of the programmes are public = free (taught in Polish). Therefore there is a huge difference between scholarships in Poland and US.  Every uni has its own scholarship programme, so you need to research them individually.

I’m not sure if there are scholarship options for foreign students doing courses in English, you’ll need to check it as well.Have a nice day xx

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

8/12/18

So happy that I can have regular library study sessions with my study bae @sheisamedstudent <3

This time I’m trying to figure out some issues that arose during the research meeting with my professor. It’s ok tho because diabetology is very interesting (at least for me) ;)

Have a nice, productive weekend!

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

1/12/18

It is freezing and I’m feeling extremely moody this whole week - unable to concentrate, constantly tired etc. At least I have made an attempt to study ophthalmology for Tuesday’s quiz but it’s going so slowly ugh. Hoping to be in a better place mentally next week tho! 

Have a nice weekend and regain forces for the upcoming one ;)

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

28/11/18

So grateful to have @sheisamedstudent to support me and spend quality time with. Another study sesh this week, concentrating on research projects.

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

25/11/18

Lil studysession with @sheisamedstudent doing ophthalmology and pediatrics.

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

19/10/18

Another study session with my studybuddy @sheisamedstudent . Mutual motivation is the key to success.

What are your plans for Friday? I'm planning how to handle emergency medicine reading during this weekend so that I'll have some time to go to the gym and regain energy for the upcoming week.☺️

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

Consistency is the key✨

16.10.2018

Today wasn’t really productive but I stick to studying everyday - so it’s not that bad! 🍂

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

How was the IB? I take the IB now and I've just finished the first term. It's been stressful but not as much as people made it sound tbh.

I had the same feeling, it was quite a lot of work but majority of people made it seem worse, mission–impossible-like hard for some reason. Everything can be handled properly if you schedule and use your time wisely, IB is a great way to learn that. The second year of IB is much more loaded because of all the internal assesment, tok essays, cas and so on but you'll get used to it after your 1st year.

It is helpful to rationalise our stress and fear of school, certain subjects, exams. Because you conclude there is no added value, even something opposite you get more distracted. Low level of stress is motivationg but we have to be aware that being constantly stressed is definitely harmful for our health and academic performance hence it is better to divide a project or exam prep for smaller steps than try to tackle it at once and last-minute. Also don't take everything that people say about IB seriously 😁

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

12/10/18

Very brief sesh on paeds today with @sheisamedstudent ✨💕

So glad we're starting next week having clinicals on the same ward, paediatric gastro.

Enjoy the weekend 🌞

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

9/10/18

After-clinic library session grind is on. I'm catching up on my ENT cases at the moment.

Motivating one another with my dear friend and best studybuddy ever @sheisamedstudent 💕Girlpower!

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

Hi n.n ! What stylus do u use for ur ipad? c:

Hi! It's called Cosmonaut by StudioNeat. It takes some time getting used to it because it is quite wide. Unfortunately my iPad does not support Apple Pencil so I have this one but it does the job well ;)

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

Hi, I'm medical student from Russia. May I ask you, where do you get your photos from histology? Our atlases for 30 years already and lots of information is out of date. Can you tell me which site is useful?

Hi! I think this site might help you: http://www.histologyguide.com/index.html looks great. I studied histology 3 years ago but then I was using Sobotta Histology Atlas :)

Good luck!

[medstudentgettingpersonal]

Some time ago I published a similar post on how to study anatomy. I received a lot of positive feedback from you which is why I decided to continue this “series” and tackle a big one today - pharmacology :)

Main tips

in my opinion (and it worked out pretty good for me) the right approach and learning strategy is crucial during your pharmacology course. I would always start with a big picture:

Start with learning groups of drugs acting on a certain system

Learn the pathophysiology background first (it is very evident in drugs used to treat cardiac diseases –you have to know/revise the pathomechanism so that you know exactly what events take place in what order e.g. how the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system causes hypertension and on how it can be prevented.)

In case of drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system, learn what kind of receptors are important (alpha, beta-adrenergic, muscarinic, nicotinic), their location, what happens when stimulated, what happens when blocked

Knowing the basic functions, mechanisms, receptors of a certain system now you can go into more detail aka learning specific drugs one by one; look out for characteristics: mechanism of action, side effects, contraindications

What is crucial here, as you learn drugs from the same group (for example all the drugs that are beta-blockers) you’ll know that the main mechanism of action of all of them is pretty much the same – but exam questions often highlight how we can differentiate them, which one suits the needs of a certain patient best, why this drug, not the other form the same group? Great solution here is to make tables of some kind of graphs where you specify what makes those drugs different from one another (e.g. b-blockers differ in terms of generations, 1st generation b-blockers are not selective hence they won’t work for every patient-indications/contraindications; additional vasodilation mechanisms – nebivolol stimulates NO production while propranolol doesn’t etc)

The next step of mastering pharmacology is to learn the doses and in what form a drug can be administered (e.g. when in an emergency (acute angina) you’ll give your patient aerosol instead of pills because such form acts quicker)

When you’ll learn few groups of drugs it is important to study drug interactions, which can be co-administered, which can’t; learn CYP enzyme inhibitors and inducers (you’ll thank me later)

This list is a general take on learning pharmacology, this is the order which made the most sense to me and (I hope) is quite logical. Of course, feel free to modify the order of the process, whatever suits your needs.

Some extra things I want to stress out:

When I learned pharmacology I became aware that my study method and approach was different depending on what chapter/groups of drugs I was studying, so be aware, you’ll need to make adjustments as you study, some examples:

Autonomic drugs: at first figure out the receptors (where and how they work) then accordingly proceed with learning drugs

CNS: at first revise psychiatric disorders, neurotransmitters, pathomechanisms, symptoms, then study drugs

Respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular systems: revise physiology and pathophysiology in general, then learn groups of drugs, then drug details etc

Endocrine: take your time and revise how hormones work (sounds silly but made sense to me), what are major endocrine disorders, then learn drugs

Antimicrobial drugs: revise major micro information (Staph, Strep, H. influenzae, aerobic, anaerobic, which microbes are characteristic for respiratory disorders in children and elderly, meningitis, zoonoses…) so you know what is happening for starters and then just stick to sketchy pharm videos and antibiotic therapy guidelines of your country, it’s not as hard I promise

Antiviral, monoclonal antibodies, antifungals: SKETCHY, SKETCHY SKETCHY, they were the hardest in my opinion

Resources

Sketchy (link) - best thing that could happen to us, pharmacology warriors, check it out 

anki flashcards (based on sketchy videos or you can make your own) (link) - spaced repetition is the KEY to success, be systematical and revise the material unless you know it perfectly, it works

lecture notes/class notes + Lange Pharmacology book (link) - pay attention what your professor emphasises, here you’ll have the basic information as well as the details

Pharmacology recall (link) - great source to begin working on a certain chapter (read and answer first chapters of questions) and then very helpful as you prepare for an exam - you just go by and check if you can answer all of the questions

Summing up

It takes a lot of time and effort to learn pharmacology. The subject itself is not quite enjoyable and very demanding yet it is very important for your clinical knowledge. Prepare yourself to struggle and fail sometimes but get up right on the spot and try again until you pass your exam - I passed mine, so will you.

Feel free to message me if something here was unclear to you or you simply need some motivation/someone to talk to :)

I hope it helps some of you!