I completed and passed (although with a less than comfortable cushion) Course Two prior to the Christmas Holidays. Having completed 1.5 weeks of Course Three I'm going to go out on a limb and say that MSK/Derm (Course Two) was my least favorite course. I found the organization lacking, the material not especially interesting (especially Rheumatology), and the course as a whole was rushed. Dermatology was quite interesting but I wouldn't have minded spending another week on Dermatology to cement some of the topics in my brain.
I was very ready for and enjoyed a restful and relaxing Christmas break with some of it spent in Southern Alberta and some of it spent in Northern Alberta. It was classic Canadian Christmas weather - decent amounts of snow and not too cold (other than the -36C at High Prairie) which made outside activities very enjoyable. Cross country skiing, tobogganing, snow mobiling, and sitting in front of crackling fires with large amounts of chocolate and other Christmas goodies were very much appreciated.
I was not ready to return to the information infusion that is Med School but I'm slowly getting into the swing of things again. Course Three is an eleven week course which is almost as large as Course 1 (12 weeks). The topics we are covering are the cardiovascular system (heart and blood vessels) and respirology (all about the lungs). Thus, I have christened it 'Beating and Breathing' to follow Blood and Guts, Skin and Bones, and now Beating and Breathing. We have begun with cardiology although there are components of respirology integrated as the two disciplines are very closely integrated - neither the heart nor lungs can fulfill their function without the other so it is a very logical integration. Tomorrow we will be heading to the hospital for a couple hours for our first cardiac clinical correlation session. This should be quite exciting because we may have another opportunity to use our stethoscopes for their original purpose - to listen to heart sounds. Beating and Breathing is one of the most crucial units simply because so many things that go wrong with its components cause death very rapidly. Thus, physicians in virtually any specialty need to be familiar with the various pathologies that can occur. Heart disease is still the number one killer in Canada so it is something that we need to learn about as future physicians.
One of the most complicated tasks we are coming up against so far is the interpretation of ECGs. An ECG aka EKG aka electrocardiogram is a recording of the electrical activity of the heart which gives the trained interpreter very large amounts of information...however, at this point in time I'm having a difficult time telling what a normal ECG looks like; it still primarily resembles a bunch of squiggles to me.
A while back a request was made for me to outline a 'normal' day at med school so I thought I'd give you an idea what a day at the UofC looks like. To give a bit of background first; med school for us here at UofC doesn't involve much 'assigned' work. We don't have worksheets, essays, quizzes, etc to complete for the most part. Our primary 'assignment' is to assimilate and integrate massive volumes of material that we will need to recall at some point in the future. Thus, we have scheduled 'Independent Study Time' for some of us this translates into 'time to deal with the necessities of life' i.e. catching up on sleep, getting groceries, and occasionally some studying. Thus, we usually have one morning and one or two afternoons a week that are not scheduled with lectures. Often we do Physical Exam sessions or Clinical Correlation sessions in this time. However, when nothing is scheduled they are ours to use as we please.
Monday
8:30-12:30 - Healthy Populations - 2, 3, or 4 lectures about topics in epidemiology, social determinants of health, understanding underserved populations, etc.
- This time block is sometimes used for other kinds of lectures such as course related material (Breathing and Beating) or other longitudinal courses such as Global Health.
1:30-3:30 - Main course material lectures - anatomy, physiology, pathology, treatments, disease processes, patient presentations, etc.
3:30 -5:30 - Case Studies
- We have case studies at various times but they are often in this time slot. Case Studies are almost always 2 hours long.
Friday
8:30- 12:30 - Main course material lectures - surgery, radiology, etc
- Anatomy small groups (time in the labs with cadavers, etc) are also slotted in at various times like this.
12:30 - 5:30 - Independent study time.
* This is just a sample but gives an idea of how our day goes.
To conclude this large post I thought I'd discuss History of Medicine. I choose in the late summer to sign up for an elective course called History of Medicine. For medical students this is an elective course that falls outside of regular lecture times (Monday 12:30-1:30, and Thursday 5:30-7:30). I'm not certain if I would sign up for this course if I were doing my first year again but there have been some interesting lectures. This past Monday I presented a 50 minute talk regarding Artistic Responses to the Black Death. I did some research and then prepared a presentation. Combined with a presentation I completed in December it fulfilled my requirements for the course and if all goes as planned there will be a letter in my official file that I completed this elective course and fulfilled the requirements. This information will be included in the file that is sent to Residency Directors when I'm applying for Residency and hopefully be a useful component in allowing me to settle and do my residency at my school of choice.
The time has come for me to return to the world of valves, bronchi, septa, percutaneous coronary interventions, ischemic cascades, and flash oedema, but hopefully my future posts will be more regular than they have been in the last month and a half.
