Adeola's Thoughts

My thoughts on anything and everything that takes my fancy, including medicine, science, health, fitness as well as global and cultural issues.

[adeolasthoughts]

ICS: My Story

Name: Adeola

Hometown: London, England

Volunteer Agency: Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)

Project title: Enabling Youth for Employment and Entrepreneurship

Based in: Machakos, Kenya

Volunteering at: Light of Hope Youth Initiative (LOHYI)

My Story and Personal Development

 Sitting at home bored, scrolling through Instagram one day, I stumbled across an advert for ICS.  I was intrigued, particularly as it seemed to link with the National Citizen Service (NCS) that I had completed earlier and because I was looking for something to do during the summer. Never would I have imagined, that 10 weeks later I would have found a new family, in my fellow volunteers (particularly my host home counterparts) and have many stories to tell about my personal growth and development, impact on a community as rich and dynamic as Kenya and my entire ICS experience.

Upon clicking the link, I was taken to the ICS website, where I saw many images of young people engaging in active projects, interacting with people from different countries and enjoying themselves whilst doing so. I read of a programme that runs for 3 months, challenges and develops volunteers while they work on meaningful projects, immersing themselves in a community somewhere around the world that they have never been before. I found solace in the prospect of being involved in something that could create a lasting impact on a community, that I could engage with people from all walks of life and that my skills would be of value in a team of people of such high caliber.

Initially I had registered my interest in the programme, simply thinking of it as a possibility of something I could do as part of my gap year. It was a very daunting prospect, however, especially for someone who had only ever left England for 4 weeks in total, to Nigeria, with her parents. The idea that I would be miles away from home for a total of three months, working on something completely new to me, was something that simultaneously terrified and excited me.

Through this programme, I have been given a new perspective on life, seeing children that have very little, live a happy, fulfilled life in what some would call slum areas. Seeing these same children in school, with the respect and love they have for everyone they meet. Having the opportunity to shape these children's perception of the world other than what they are used to seeing in Kenya and teaching them important life skills such as how to have healthy relationships, maintain good hygiene and goal setting; seeing their eyes sparkle as they confer with their peers and I answer their of questions was also something that inspired me throughout the program. Learning about issues surrounding sustainable development and different global issues that can hinder this progression on the training sessions before and during the programme and on the various Active Citizen Days has made me more knowledgeable about many different subjects that I previously knew little about.

I have learnt and been given an opportunity to fine-tune my strengths as well as an opportunity to identify and to work on my weaknesses. I have learnt to be more confident in my abilities and to showcase my strengths, and that the British mentality of modesty, bordering on self-depreciation was dangerous to both the quality of my work and my opinion of myself. Learning from my Kenyan counterparts has taught me not to be afraid to say what one is good at and that this is the first step in achieving any goal as a team, because the most successful teams work according to everybody's strengths, using each person's strengths to counteract their weaknesses.

ICS has allowed me to challenge myself and combat my fear of failure, by giving me a safe space to try new things and realise that any action is better than no action, that I should have more faith in my ideas and try them out even if I am unsure of the outcome, because every step taken can be used as a learning curve. It has helped me identify skills I never knew I had and develop new ones at the same time. In the future I want to become a doctor but as a result of ICS, I now also want to be an advocate for community and worldwide development and the empowering of youths. The confidence I have gained in my abilities and well as my public speaking, communication and writing skills will all act as valuable assets now and in the future.

   A few Photos:

My host Family and I

Sanitary Pad Distribution

Teaching

Picnic at Mwania River

[adeolasthoughts]

Body image, Health and Fitness

Recently, I did something I never thought I’d have the confidence to do, I took part in a Naked Calendar - Newcastle University RAG Calendar. I did it with a few of the girls from my rugby team who were brave enough to stand stark naked between a set of rugby posts (thankfully we had our backs facing the camera). It was to raise money for a charity called look good: feel better which helps women with cancer, which got me thinking about a couple of things one of which being body image, and the other being health; both of which I’ll touch on today.

As someone who has always tried to hide their insecurities through clothing and never liked to look at herself in a full-length mirror, being part of this calendar was a big step for me. I have been on this road to body confidence for a while now and it has been a long and difficult journey. I have been very committed to going to the gym 4-5 times a week and have switched up my eating habits to include much more fruit and vegetables and less foods with a high glycaemic index. As I have seen changes in my body that I never thought possible, I have been even more motivated to carry on. I am stronger than I have ever been, dead-lifting 70Kg and squatting 75Kg and my stomach is flatter than it has been since I can remember. This post is not a “look at me, I’m great” post, contrary to what it may sound like, up until this point. I’m trying to promote body confidence, as well as the benefits of taking health and fitness seriously.

The pictures below were taken in Dec 2017 and Nov 2018 respectively. Though I may look happier in the photo on the left, I can assure you, I am much happier and more comfortable with the way my body looks now, than before.

Now, I know some may berate me for only saying this once I am well on my way to building a new body for myself through nutrition and exercise, but it is only whilst I have been on this journey that I realise, my body was beautiful before I decided to get stronger and is also beautiful now, but in a different way. All bodies are beautiful, and no-one should be made to feel less than, if their body does not conform to society’s current standard of beauty.

For me, the real evolution of beauty has been in the process of me realising that I am capable of far more than I could have imagined, which I have learnt through working out, but also helps me mentally, in other aspects of my life, such as academically and socially. It makes me feel more independent and like I can do anything I put my mind to and it has increased my sense of self-worth.  Knowing your worth means that people cannot take advantage of you and that people gravitate towards you because they see your confidence in yourself and admire you for it. It also means that you never say “I can’t” but always strive to see how “you can” do things that you want to do in life. I urge anyone who has been undecided about whether to join a gym and actually start taking it seriously, to take the plunge. It has had such a positive impact on my health, fitness and overall well-being and I hope it can be, for you too. If anyone wants any help with this, feel free to drop me a message and I’ll get back to you.

As someone of Nigerian decent, being around people of the Nigerian community has made me realise that we don’t do enough exercise, or take enough care regarding our health, and I know this is not just an issue facing Nigerians, but many other ethnic minorities. Our cultural foods are high salt, high carb and fried in lots of vegetable or palm oil and of all the Nigerian men and women above the age of 30 that I know, none of them do any form of regular exercise. Many of them suffer with Type 2 Diabetes or High Blood Pressure and some will be well on their way do developing it but are oblivious. Simple things such as deciding to take a brisk walk instead of the bus, on the way to work, or choosing to take the stairs instead of the lift, taking a 30-minute walk, instead of those sleeping pills or painkillers to calm you down and clear your head, can all contribute to you living a healthier lifestyle. Reducing the portion of jollof rice on your plate and replacing it with some vegetables can do wonders too!

Adeola

[dxmedstudent]

Hi! How did being an artist help you in medical school? One of my professors knows that I draw as a hobby and he told me that that might be "somehow advantageous" in med. I disagreed with him, as drawing only ever distracted me from my studies (and I'm always too pressed for time to try drawing structures for anatomy when I study on my own). Still, I am curious to know if there was any way that being an artist helped you out in med school and maybe at work as a doctor.

I think advantageous may be a strong word. I think all sorts of interests can help you be a well-rounded person, and can give you transferrable skills that are useful when you are in medicine. With art, you’ve got things like:

becoming more observant of small details; when you observe things to draw, and break things down, it becomes a trait you can apply to spotting, say, signs of disease.Colour, shape, texture, these are things you are training to notice without even realising that you are. I think it extends to observing people as well. Their mannerisms, their motivations, how they sit and stand. An artist is a people-watcher.

If you draw people, you get to learn the human form pretty well.

It helps for anatomy learning, because you’re already interested in how the anatomy works together, and you’re better at putting your understanding of it together onto paper.

patience and perseverance; if you are used to working tirelessly on a piece of work, you can apply that skill to studying. Art is all about putting in rather tedious effort, and it helps you learn not to give up too easily.

fine motor skills; it teaches you to feel very comfortable using your hands in creative ways, which is very useful for practical skills or surgery. Or examining patients.

creativity; I guess in medicine that can flow into skills like lateral thinking. You’re used to thinking up ways around your problems (’how the hell do I draw/make this’ being a very common one), and you learn to persevere when an unusual situation comes up.

it just sort of keeps you from burning out. Because it’s something that keeps you happy. Keeping yourself happy is very important, particulalry in the burnout-zone that is medicine. In a more general, non-med school sense:

It can also help you make others happy, and give back to things like fandoms or friends etc. You can literally bring things into existence out of nothingness, it’s bloody awesome!

I guess if you choose to go the commissions route, it can teach you basic business sense. How to freelance, how to market your art, how other artists get stuff done. Even things like taking requests can teach you a lot. I follow a lot of artists, and picked up a lot about working as an artist through that and through the odd experience. It’s a different world…

Beyond that, I’d argue that our exposure to creative media, whether through literature or art, makes us learn a lot about human nature, and gives usa lot of skills that we can apply to understand our patients. I believe that we all need to be students of human nature first and foremost. Because you can’t really help people if you don’t understand them. That’s why I think all med students should have the chance to experience medical humanities; because there is so much more to being a good doctor than anatomy or pathology. Having hobbies itself remains a double edged sword, because they can detract from your studies. And people don’t get just how bloody time consuming drawing is. You don’t just get to draw it once, you get good by spending many hours drawing over a long period of time. Though each individual piece takes less time with practice, that’s only possible following a lot of hours that you’ve already put in. So art can be a time-intensive hobby that takes away from your medical time because your time and energy are finite things. But it also means that you need to develop ways to balance your obligations and do your work whilst sheduling in healthy time for yourself. So I think it can definitely help in many ways. But like any hobby, if it takes up too much of your time and energy, it can negatively impact your medical life. You only have so much time and energy to do stuff, after all!

[adeolasthoughts]

Endless Strain: It’s no wonder our doctors are leaving the profession

It is worrying to think that a lot of the doctors that complete medical school in the UK will not be practicing medicine in a few years time, though it is the stark reality of the situation facing the NHS at the moment.

For someone to spend so long training, to learn the necessary skills to become a qualified doctor (most of which are vocation specific) and then decide they no longer want to continue their medical careers, is almost unfathomable. How can we allow such talented hard-working, caring junior doctors to leave the profession because they cannot cope with the stress working for the NHS or because they are not able to provide the standard of care required for their patients under the current time, staffing and facility constraints? How can we sit back and watch as our health professionals crumble under the pressure from the management to hit "targets" which provide a sense of pseudo-success for a system that is quite obviously failing? It is not a question of just developing ‘thick skin’ and dealing with the situation, in fact doctors are often very resilient and determined individuals. These are the people who dedicate every day to making sure we are well, surely it is our duty to ensure that their jobs are not made more difficult than necessary. It is the least we can do.

It is obvious the NHS needs help and although it is a nice gesture, the answer to its problems does not lie in simply increasing the number of spaces at our medical schools. In fact, this just adds to the problem, creating a bottleneck of enthusiastic junior doctors who quickly become tired and overworked, part of a system which they feel helplessly unable to save. It is a system of long hours, long waiting lists, constant gaps in the rotas, and the never ending problem of lack of bed space. We need to create an NHS which is less strained, not only for the patients, but to make it an environment that the staff enjoy working in. 

I do not know what we can do to improve the current situation, however I am glad that we are no longer denying the problems we face. Some seem to believe that a lack of funding is the main problem, and I am inclined to agree with them. Putting more money into the NHS could only serve to improve it. The NHS continues to decrease their provision of certain services to keep in line with the never-ending budget cuts and it is becoming increasingly difficult to balance high quality patient care, with this.

As someone who has been very proud of the NHS and always wanted to practice medicine as part of a well-established healthcare system that provides a free service at the point of contact, it is deeply disconcerting to think that one day I may be forced to choose between working for the NHS and having the ability to support my family both with money and with my time. I may have to choose between looking after patients like me who have not got the means to pay for private healthcare and the ability to live a comfortable, balanced and healthy life. It's a tough decision to make. How do we save the NHS that we all know and love?

[lonestarmd]

Hey ya’ll! So we’re nearing the end of the interview season and I wanted to share a few inside tips about what I have come to see as “good” responses to my questions. I know that this may not be valuable for many people in the current interview season but I hope that people in future cycles will find it useful! Later this cycle, I’ll make another post about “what to do if you didn’t get in”. But it’s still too early to throw in the towel!!

“Tell me about yourself”: I want to hear about the characteristics of your personality not mentioned in depth in your essays. So you can mention your research and volunteering and such, but also tell me about how tenacious, or driven, or kind, or organized you are. I want to hear that the interviewee has a sense of themselves.

“Tell me about your research”: Your opening statement to this better be less than 2 minutes long. I don’t want a presentation on your research, I want to see that you understand what you were doing, and that you can explain a complex topic to me succinctly. Because that’s literally what doctors do all day every day. If I want more details, I’ll ask and then feel free to open up!

“Tell me about a time you failed or made a mistake”: People will often tell me about times they failed a class or test and that’s fine, but not the best answer. I love it when people open up to me about times they made deeper mistakes and learned from them. One applicant told me about a time she seriously messed up coordinating a supply run for her company in Iraq and her soldiers were left without food for 2 days. Everyone was fine but she had to deal with that aftermath for literally years. Now that’s a mistake I want to hear about.

“Where do you see yourself in 15 years?”: I want to see that you’ve put thought into what kind of medicine you want to practice but have not restricted yourself to one field. This is kind of a bonus question. It doesn’t hurt if you mess it up because I didn’t have an answer for this when I applied, but it really helps if you can answer it well. Good answers include the range from: “Practicing community based medicine somewhere and finding a good work-life balance” to “returning to my home country to found a medical school catering to women and fighting corruption in healthcare”.

“Tell me about your support system”: This is a super important question. The two people in my class who have dropped out were both dealing with crazy personal lives (an incredibly messy divorce, and a family that exploded following a death). I want to hear that you have people who you can depend on, and that those people are themselves stable. Resiliency in applicants and in the loved ones’ of applicants matters much more than many other traits. This is part of the reason I love non-traditional applicants. They tend to be so dang resilient!

“What was your most significant volunteering or shadowing experience?”: If your eyes don’t light up when you tell me this, I don’t believe you. Tell about something that actually moved you, not something that you think should have moved you. I want to see passion and love for something.

A few random tidbits: I don’t mind if people tear up, or cry a little, but please try not to full-on sob. It’s hard to redirect an interview following that. Since I’m a younger student, I don’t notice slang and vernacular as often as the older interviewers do but I do notice it if it’s in excess or inappropriate to the situation. I like to hear about people’s faiths, and I feel that is a common theme with most of our interviewers. But don’t feel pressured to tell us if you don’t want to! I like it when people are married/ engaged so please do let me know about that! It shows emotional maturity (most of the time). If you mention a child or pregnancy, I’ll ask about how you will manage but only if you mention it first. There are lots of people (including women) in my class with families so it can def be done!

[lonestarmd]

I miss interviewing and hopefully I’ll be able to do a few this year! I can’t believe I’m back in the interviewees’ spot again!

[dxmedstudent]

'People want a family, a social life': the part-time working revolution

From doctors to teachers, millennials to older women, more than half of us now work flexibly. But is it a lifestyle choice, or a way to deal with increasing stress?

Last year, researchers from the King’s Fund studying pressures within the NHS were surprised to notice how few GPs in the practices they observed were working full-time. And while the rise in part-time family doctors has been blamed on the feminisation of medicine, with young working mothers supposedly reluctant to put in the hours that older male GPs did, that’s not what the researchers found.

“We’d gone in thinking we would find younger women working part-time, but we found women and men, and also older men,” says Beccy Baird, fellow in health policy at the King’s Fund. “GPs work in half-day sessions, usually a three-hour clinic, and I don’t think we found any working more than eight sessions [four days a week]. Six was much more common and, as they came closer to retirement, dropping down.”

You don’t say. I mean, we docs could have told you this, except the media are pretty good at demonising us rather than asking why we’re adapting our working patterns. I’m still mad about the ‘Millennial doctors are all too lazy to work because they are all going part time” article. I just haven’t gotten around to writing about it. But regardless, the point stands that instead of examining why people are going part time in medicine, people have been quick to assume it’s all about women wanting to have children (which there is nothing wrong with, BTW, and plenty of men want kids too!), or about people just being so darn millennial and lazy to work like their stoic old peers.  I don’t know any full time GPs, either, if I’m honest. Becuse being a GP is an incredibly pressured job with lots of paperwork, and work outside of just the hours you spend with a patient. I would know, having done it as a rotation. So the burnout rate is so high if people work what used to be considered full time hours. Like I literally talked to multiple GPs from different practices who said the same thing. The job’s become so pressured that working ‘full time’ is seen as increasingly impossible. And the truly amazing GPs I worked with told me that they were struggling to cope. The article does go into some detail that people are increasingly citing job stress as the reason they are changing their work patterns. I think it’s really good that they also focus on how working part-time has worked for people with disabilities or conditions. Likewise, it presents teachers working part time so they have more time to do their paperwork as empowerment. When it’s really a desperate coping mechanism, just like my GP colleagues working ‘part time’ who are basically working 40h. Because a full time doctor definitely works more than 40h in even an average week. I have a lot of sympathy for teachers, because like docs people often assume their job is easier than it is. ‘How hard can it be?’ They say. ‘You work from 9-4pm and get lots of holidays!’. Except they have a ton of paperwork and lesson planning and marking, so they end up putting in lots of hours that other people don’t see. And the work that society doesn’t see, society doesn’t value. It seems to present it as no biggie if docs work part time, financially. But plenty of people struggle with money; medicine may be well remunerated, but it is also an expensive job to practice. GPs have to spend tens of thousands of pounds a year on indemnity insurance, amongst other things. We spend thousands and thousands on training ourselves.When people go part time, it’s still a really difficult decision to make personally, because it still has huge financial and training implications. And of course teachers are a lot less well-paid, so they certainly aren’t going part time because they are flush with cash. It’s really much more about maintaining sanity, than it is about saying ‘well, I’m so rich that I don’t need the money, so I’ll work fewer hours’. What we truly need, isn’t just to allow people to work less hours (and get less pay) so that they can make the excessive hours and hidden work of their excessively stressful job bearable. Whilst it’s an important coping mechanism for people whose jobs are really, really difficult, we need to recognise that it’s still not ideal. Because their jobs entail so much work that it’s impossible to actually do them full time and have some semblance of a life. Like, being a teacher shouldn’t have to mean so much work that basically all your evenings are spent doing work. Being a GP or doctor likewise shouldn’t mean that working part time actually means mroe hours than most people work during full time jobs.

[adeolasthoughts]

My Journey: where am I now?

Over the past year, I have very much neglected to post anything on this blog. For that, I am sorry. Sorry to myself and anyone who actually enjoys reading what I post. I really lost myself in the whirlwind that was A Level preparation and my final year of compulsory education. Unfortunately, despite this, results day did not go as I had expected and I was disappointed with my results. I ended up having to go through clearing, to get a place at university. Initially, my plan was to take a gap year and re-apply to study medicine, but in light of my results, I have decided to go to Newcastle University and study an undergraduate Biomedical Sciences degree to give me some background knowledge, before actually starting my degree in Medicine. This is an opportunity I am immensely grateful for. I believe that everything happens for a reason and after going to visit Newcastle University, I fell completely in love with both the city and the university. It combines beautiful, picturesque, old buildings with modern day architecture providing a perfect amalgamation of the two. I would very much recommend the university to anyone considering it. Not only is it pretty, it is a Russell Group university with very reputable academics teaching in their fields, the people there are very friendly and there are lots of facilities available also.

I believe that this experience will help build my character and indirectly contribute to me becoming a better doctor. I hope it will allow me to develop more resilience which is necessary in lots of different aspects of a practicing doctor’s life, from dealing with rejection, to dealing with the death of patients. Many people get to medical school before they face any challenges academically, the fact I will have learnt how to deal with this before medical school, will prove useful. I take this opportunity to encourage anyone struggling at any stage of their journey to becoming a doctor. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Whilst it is very easy to get lost in going through the motions of just doing work because you have to, it is important to remember why you are doing it, what you wish to get out of it and above all make sure you enjoy every moment of it. Do not give up. Also, do not lose yourself, try and distinguish between what makes you “you”, apart from your academic or professional achievements. I’d like to believe that being a doctor will become my profession which I will enjoy with all of my heart, but I am more than my degree, more than my profession, more than my grades, and more than my achievements. I am unique, I have other traits, talents and gifts that make me who I am, everything else is just a bonus.

For me, I believe the process of becoming a doctor and the growth it ensues, is almost as important as reaching the end goal itself. Rather than the years to becoming a consultant seeming long and arduous (as it may seem, to many).  I see it as time for me to grow and develop, mentally, academically, and personally into the best doctor I can be. I am very much looking forward to my time at Newcastle, and will endeavor to post regularly during my time there.

[tobeagenius]

Alzheimer’s Disease

More infographics on the human brain and behaviour @tobeagenius

[fyp-science]

Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count, really count.

Albert Einstein (via fyp-science)

[wherefunsurvives]

Work Smarter, Not Harder: study tips psychology taught me

study in shorter intervals and take breaks (ie, 40 minutes studying and 20 minutes break)

during your break don’t watch tv or surf the internet. get outside if you can and go for a walk. or at least listen to some instrumental music and walk around your hall. or meditate or do some art. anything that doesn’t require super directed attention. this allows your attention to be replenished. it’s like a muscle and you gotta give it time to rest. tv doesn’t allow for that.

relate the information to yourself and your life. creating visual images will improve your memory.

when studying, take notes by hand and put them in your own words. generating material yourself will encode the material better in your brain, and you’ll remember it better

don’t just reread, rehearse! quiz yourself on the materials. if you use a visual image “memory palace” technique, walk yourself through it. you’re likely to remember information you’ve tested yourself on better.

organizing information into groups that make sense create more connections in your brain and allow you to remember things better. the more meaningful connections you make, the better.

make sure the last thing you do before bed is study. no phone, no netflix. your brain will process what you’ve just done while you sleep and this improve recall.

(feel free to add any!)

[adeolasthoughts]

Art and Medicine

An Essay on the links between art and medicine

Art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.[1]The main feature is that it requires creativity and lateral thinking which provides people with different viewpoints and perspectives of particular situations and is very useful for effective problem solving. Medicine is the science or practice of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.[2] Its regard as a science means that it is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical world through observation and experiment.[3] At first glance, these two terms appear to be antonyms of one another. One which is expressive and the other which is regimented, however throughout this essay I explore how this is in fact not the case and how the study and practice of medicine relies on art.

An in-depth understanding of the human anatomy, is an area of knowledge required by all doctors. It enables them to link patient symptoms to possible diagnoses effectively. Anatomical drawings provide a visual representation of the aspects of the human body and help people understand it. Historically, medicine and art have been successfully intertwined, the development of medicine has also been dependent on art.  Medical illustration for instruction first appeared in Hellenic Alexandria during the early 3rd century B.C. covering anatomy, surgery, obstetrics and plants that had medical properties. [4] Initially, anatomy was linked closely with science, culture and art, many of the anatomic drawings were amalgamations of these themes with the aim of simultaneously educating and entertaining the viewers. Some of which depicted cadavers as very much alive, full of character and eccentricity or contrastingly, dead. An example of this is pictured below.

This drawing [5] shows the subject as a young man emerging from the bushes on a hill. This background helps to add a feeling of anticipation and a sense of an important revelation being expressed. This could also be used to express the fact that the knowledge of the intricate structures that make up the human body were only just being discovered at the time that this drawing was created. The artist depicts the male subject’s outer bodily features in a very realist style which enables the viewer to be able to relate to the subject and clearly identify it as a human being. It also influences the viewers’ perception of the organs being exposed in this piece.

On one hand the organs being shown seem real and believable as they are part of what seems to be a very real human being, expressing emotions not dissimilar to those that the viewer experiences on a daily basis. The way that the subject averts his eyes from the gaze of the viewer and uses his skin to cover his torso, expresses a sense of shyness and timidity that many people would have experienced as well as showing a sense of modesty.

On the other hand, the organs being shown seem unbelievable and magical. This is because the use of surrealism is a prominent component of this piece. One is not able to lift up their skin and reveal their organs as depicted here which makes the organs being revealed seem fake and unreal to some extent. Deeper analysis shows that the subject is positioning his hands as a magician does, adding an awe-inspiring, magical, implausible dimension to this drawing. Whatever the interpretation, this drawing links the educational and artistic properties of anatomy, seamlessly, leaving the viewer to make their own conclusions as to what is real and what is not.

Specific aspects of practicing medicine can be described as art. An example of this is surgery which is defined as ‘the treatment of injuries or disorders of the body by incision or manipulation, especially with instruments’. [6] During the process leading up to surgery, often many imaging techniques are used to provide the surgeon and their team with an understanding of the condition they are dealing with, the pathology and how to go about rectifying the situation. These images themselves can be seen as art, they are visual representations of the body that tell a story, some of which make use of the different densities of aspects of the human body to create a detailed picture. Together they can be seen as art as each imaging technique enables to see the body slightly differently, examples of this include ultrasounds, which only show soft tissue and MRI scans which show a cross-section of the body part being scanned. The invasive aspect of performing a surgery is also very artistic. A subtle example of this is that surgeons create incisions in the body enabling them to retract the skin, exposing organs of different shapes, sizes textures and densities. Upon revealing the aspect of the body concerned, the surgeon must inspect it and uses different tools to operate on the patient, cutting, stitching and removing parts of organs or blood vessels for example. The intricate workings of the body are being altered here improving bodily function in many people and leaving a lasting impression on the recipient. The need for a delicate hand, manual dexterity, a sense of purpose and an understanding of the medium that is the human body, is not dissimilar to an artist molding his structure or drawing his subject in a medium of paint or pencil. A more obvious example lies within the subspecialty of Plastic Surgery. This variation of surgery is most concerned with the outward appearance of different parts of the human body examples of such surgeries include rhinoplasties (nose jobs) and breast reconstructions from cancer. These require very intricate stitching to produce minimal scarring and the reshaping of parts of the body to look more aesthetically pleasing and more natural.

For surgeons, some of the most artistic procedures are found in microsurgical techniques where tissue is transferred from one part of the body to another based on establishing a new blood supply. This allows the surgeon to re-establish tissue in another location that can be rebuilt into something else. Here, the lines marking the division of medicine as art or science are increasingly blurred. Such procedures not only require extensive scientific understanding of anatomy and blood supply, but also are dependent on the surgeon being able to reshape one kind of bone into another. In the example of a tumour being removed from the mouth, a leg bone can be transplanted and carved into a mandible, for which an artistic perspective is paramount.

If doctors are criticized, it is often not for their lack of knowledge, but for a lack of insensitivity and for ignoring or being oblivious to the emotional distress affecting their patients. Mahajan (2006) warns doctors against allowing the science behind medicine to inhibit their humanity and sense of empathy. If medicine is viewed purely as a science, then the importance of successful patient-doctor communication and interaction is ignored. A knowledge of and ability to engage with fine art in particular, being able to deduce possible interpretations of artwork and be aware of the underlying emotional connotations being emphasised in the piece can help within the practice of medicine. This is because it makes a person more receptive to the people and emotions present around them, makes them more likely to notice intricate details regarding a person’s physical, mental and emotional state which can be crucial in correctly diagnosing a patient and providing the most suitable treatment overall for that patient. Also, the ability to analyse artwork can prove to be a great skill for doctors. This is because in the analysis of other subjects such as chemistry, the conclusions drawn are mostly based on fact that has been proven or a theory that is being developed, whereas art analysis draws on instinct, emotional response and the perception of a piece. Being able to look beyond the facts and particular list of symptoms to match a diagnosis with a patient can create a much needed patient-centered approach to medical dilemmas, focusing on the patient as a whole, seeing the bigger picture and then matching the patient with the diagnosis rather than the other way around. [7]

Though medicine relies on it, art can be its own form of psychotherapy involving the encouragement of free self-expression through painting, drawing, or modelling, used as a remedial or diagnostic activity.[8] The goal of this is to improve people’s mental health, specifically by reducing anxiety, helping to manage behaviour and addictions, allowing the client to explore their feelings and resolve emotional turmoil. Art therapists use their understanding of visual art in conjunction with counseling theories and techniques. It is widely practiced in hospitals, psychiatric and rehabilitation facilities, schools and other clinical and community settings and it is a prime example of how art can not only link with medicine but enhance it. [9]

TO

Sources 1. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=art+define 2. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=define+medicine 3. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=science+define 4. History, Present and Future of Medical Art http://www.vesaliusfabrica.com/en/related-reading/karger-gazette/medical-art-through-history.html 5. National Library of Medicine Tabulae Anatomicae: Venice, 1627. 6. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=define+surgery 7. Lisa Sanders: Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis (2009) 8. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=define+art+therapy 9. http://www.apexart.org/exhibitions/berlet.htm

[wayfaringmd]

Hi Wayfaring! I was wondering, have you ever wondered if there is a point to the medical profession? And if so, what are your thoughts on it? My uncle (an engineer, not a doctor) was telling a couple of kids not to enter the medical profession because it's useless - people still get sick and die in the end anyway. I'd deck him for that if I could, but I had to think about it too.

Ask a mom whose baby is on a ventilator if medicine is useless.

Ask a soldier whose life was saved in surgery after an IED blast if medicine is useless.

Ask an elderly man with metastatic cancer who is finally resting comfortably with home hospice if medicine is useless.

Ask someone who has survived a code blue if medicine is useless.

Ask the Billions of people who have not gotten smallpox or polio if medicine is useless.

Ask a stroke patient who is re-learning how to walk in physical therapy if medicine is useless.

Ask a pregnant woman whose baby is delivered safely if medicine is useless.

Ask someone with pneumonia on their last day of antibiotics if medicine is useless.

Ask a diabetic who takes insulin to keep them going if medicine is useless.

Ask a man whose Prozac kept him from killing himself if medicine is useless.

Ask a person without access to healthcare if medicine is useless.

Sure, all these people will eventually die anyway. But medicine improves both their quality and quantity of life. And that isn’t useless. 

[rhoga]

Heart attacks symptoms are different for women. I recently learned this. 

[veggiebaker]

Everyone should know these things.

[yourownpetard]

Note, this isn’t some weird feminist unnecessary gendering thing. Symptoms do actually vary by sex.

[adeolasthoughts]

Diagnosis: "Every Patient Tells a Story"

By Lisa Sanders Reading the book "Every Patient Tells a Story" has given me some insight into diagnosis, a crucial aspect of working as a doctor. Doctors may need to seek the expertise of more experienced practitioners and those in different medical fields, on their 'quest' to reveal a patient's diagnosis. This highlights the necessity of teamwork and effective communication.Different doctors, through different experiences, previous patients or wider reading, may be more able to identify different medical conditions. Nobody can know it all. Asking for advice from collegues helps doctors make sense of patient's conditions using a technique of differential diagnosis. Differential diagnosis is a term I have heard being used a lot, but previously I had not understood its gravity. It is defined as the process of distinguishing between diseases that present similar clinical features. It involves the application of huge volumes of knowledge and understanding of medical concepts. The thought processes required to eliminate possible diagnoses from the list, that don't 'fit' with the patient's symptoms, coupled with the ability to hone in on key, case-specific details is intense. This is why it is so important for doctors to understand the links between traditional topics taught at medical school, such as pathology, physiology, anatomy and biochemistry and the diagnosis of the conditions they encounter. The study of medicine requires a commitment to "life-long learning". This book specifically highlights the problems regsrding the use of the physical exam to help diagnose patients. Some doctors feel more inclined to rely on the analysis of laboratory testing, than to use physical examination to arrive at a conclusion. It is said that the skills of doctors in completing the exam do not improve between being an foundation years and registrar years. There is a lack of growth and development in this area. The opportunity to attend workshops on how to effectively conduct physical exams, could improve performance in this area, rather than one simply being left alone to complete it. One of the most thrilling aspects of this book are the anecdotes. They all contain descriptions of real situations and patients and the stories surrounding their difficult diagnoses. It has informed me of intreguing conditions such as canaboid hypermesis and pernicious anemia and sparked my interest in similar conditions and the potential difficulties surrounding their diagnosis. Although I do believe that the author has slightly exaggerated the difficulty of diagnosis and some stories seem slightly stereotyped, the book is very well-written and informative. It provides the reader with great understanding of how doctors arrive at accurate diagnoses and lots of annecdotes to keep the reader engaged. TO

[adeolasthoughts]

"Pronounce Her Dead"

After a shift at the hospital where I volunteer, I had a quick conversation with a Junior doctor on the ward.

I was told of the situation regarding a patient who had been previously examined by a doctor and been found to be “dead”. However, on cross - examination from a collegue, it was found that her pupils were responding to bright light and the patient still had a pulse in the carotid artery, though it was very weak. The patient could not be described as dead.

Why had the patient been pronounced dead? - It could be that the previous doctor did not carry out all the necessary tests to ascertain whether the patient was still living (due to forgetfulness, or because they were pressed for time). Or it could have been that the doctor was unable to correctly interpret these crucial signs of life. Either way, a mistake had been made and it needed to be rectified.

The doctor I spoke to, was being pressured by the patient’s family to issue a death certificate. She refused. After being informed of this, the first things I thought were: why did the patient’s family want the death certificate so much? How might the pressure of the family have influenced another doctor’s perception of the patient? Could this have impacted on the previous doctor’s judgement?

Though the patient seemed to be dying, nearing the end of her life, she was not yet dead. I asked the doctor how it felt to be going against the judgement of her senior collegue and was told that as a doctor, one must be confident in their own judgement as long as they have evidence to justify their conclusions. One must also take responsibility for their actions as, if the patient was then to wake up ‘miraculously’ in the morgue she, having signed the death certificate, would be held accountable. From this, I learnt that doctors must make their own judgements and not always rely on the judgement of others when making crucial decisions. I also learnt of the ever- present pressure facing doctors in the NHS to be quick, especially in moving patients to make room for others that need a bed.

I was pleased to learn that the NHS do not have a “blame” culture and instead try to educate their staff so they can learn from their mistakes. Enlisting such a culture in the NHS would lead to a sense of shame amongst healthcare professionals and ultimately lead to many people endangering patient’s lives by concealing their mistakes, for fear of being reprimanded. Despite this, it is a sobering thought that a simple momentary lapse of judgement in the medical profession could have such astounding concequences. Somebody who was clinically alive, could have been pronounced dead.

[dxmedstudent]

A day in the life of a junior doctor. Shared by a junior doctor on Facebook, whose identity I’ll keep private as per usual.

The day they describe isn’t a one-off or a worst case scenario, it’s pretty common to have this level of , this kind of experience is common. And it’s this constant struggle that grinds us down; the feeling that we are struggling to provide adequate care in the face of underfunding and systems which don’t prioritise properly. We chose these jobs because we want to do good, and work to the best of our ability, so being severely pressurised and limited to the point where we can’t is very distressing. This is real; my close doctor friends were saying something very similar to me just the other day.

And worst of all, the blame displaced onto you and your colleagues by the media and those who just don’t know how the system works. It’s disheartening to feel blamed and judged for the shortfalls in our system, which have been engineered by politicians, not hospital staff.

[studyinglion]

Medblrs, UK medblrs specifically, reblog this and I will follow you!

[from-miss-to-dr]

xxx

[adeolasthoughts]

Medbrls are life xx