more coffee, please

always drinking copious amounts of coffee // first year med student // 21 // come say hi, i need friends xx

[diaryandgirl]

how I changed my life on YouTube ♡

[aliciavstudies]

psychiatry week 2/6: inpatient

officially have finished my first week of inpatient psychiatry!! tbh i wasn’t super looking forward to psych, because it’s encapsulates everything i am bad at - long and detailed notes, difficult conversations with patients, and working with staff 1 on 1, but it was better than i expected! it’s nice to get the chance to truly sit down with patients and talk to them to figure out what’s going on. especially after surgery where you can only spend 10-15 minutes with a patient, spending 45 min to an hour feels very luxurious. my staff has always been very patient and kind which always makes a huge difference in terms of how much i learn/enjoy a specialty :-) 

i also had my first call psych shift which was a very interesting experience. i learned how psych is really a service where you have to advocate for patients , even when they aren’t necessarily capable to make that decision. it’s also interesting because at the hospital where i work, the psych emerg department is separate from the rest of the emerg. 

those are my preliminary thoughts hehe <33

[aliciavstudies]

obgyn week 6/6

hello hello! i thought i would do a final check-in for obgyn as i’m preparing for exams. obgyn was an interesting rotation because each week we would explore a diff part of obgyn - birthing unit, maternal fetal medicine, gynecology, and gyne onc, and they also set up community clinics so that we could see what they do in the community! the variety was nice, but definitely stressful to switch so often and feel lost every monday. 

i think overall, obgyn is an interesting mix of medicine and surgery, and there is so much variety of what you can do after you graduate. calls were also quite busy b/c women give birth at all times of day (lol!). i can see the appeal of obgyn, but i don’t think it is the right fit for me. 

ps. isn’t this the prettiest picture of my friend <3

[aliciavstudies]

surgery week 5&6 /6: acute care service (general surgery) 

this elective marks the last two weeks of surgery (& the hardest two weeks of the rotation)!! 🥳🥳 acute care service is a branch within general surgery, and essentially deals with all the emergencies of general surgery, like appendicitis, mesenteric ischemia, and bowel perforations. it’s known for being a very demanding week - I personally worked from 5:45am - 6pm almost every day not including the 24-28 hour call shifts. 

i was genuinely surprised by how much i enjoyed gen surg!! since it’s known for the horrible hours, i was expecting to really hate my life, but i had a lot of fun and learned alot. first of all, my team was so lovely, the gen surg residents were quite nice and understanding, and the off-service residents were amazing. one of the off service residents i worked with on urology, so i was already comfortable with him. so baseline i felt a part of the team, and supported by my residents. i think also because gen surg relies on med students, i felt like i was actually being helpful and less of a burden/nuisance to teach. it was nice to come into the hospital and actually feel like my presence was necessary yk? 

second of all, i think i really enjoyed the actual medicine aspect of gen surg. the disease process made sense to me and the surgeries were logical solutions to the diseases. the patient population was also very diverse, and they would operate on young people in their 20s and older people in their 90s, and honestly, they all recovered quite well from surgery. it was to see the patients come into the hospital super sick, but leave walking, talking and smiling.

lastly, the call was definitely bad but it helped me appreciate how gen surg is needed. essentially any surgical issue could be solved by gen surg & (i personally think) it’s one of the core specialties needed to keep a hospital running. i remember for one case, there was a bladder rupture and my residents weren’t sure if urology was going to come in (because they do home call) but they weren’t especially worried because they could also fix the bladder themselves. i think that’s amazing!!! they just have the skills to fix a large portion of the organs in the peritoneum!!! 

ANYWAYS LOL this was a long post, but i just have a lot to say about gen surg. <333

xoxo alicia

[haly-reads]

jan 04, '23: notes, tea//

[aliciavstudies]

surgery week 3/6: plastic surgery

my last week before the xmas break was plastics! this was pretty nerve-wracking for me because it was one of the specialties i was interested in, but something i didn’t have too much knowledge about. i also didn’t have too much time to study because my cousin visited me the weekend before i started, so it was just a very hectic time. 

this week, i was exposed to clinic, clinic, and more clinic LOL which was a tad unfortunate, considering my interest in surgery is mostly because of the OR but i still feel like i got some exposure. i saw hand clinic, oral-maxillary clinic, and procedure clinics, which are generally skin cancer excisions. i did manage to go to one OR morning where i saw hand cases, which consisted of an arthoplasty, a scaphoid repair, a syndactyly release, and a nonunion fracture. 

overall, i felt like i gained a better understand of what the specialty is about, but i am a bit frustrated because i feel like i didn’t get a lot of exposure to the specialty and it was a bit intimidating to speak with the residents/staff, esp b/c i felt they weren’t overly welcoming. BUT i will do some reflection and see how i feel in the new year hehe. 

xoxo alicia

ps. enjoy these scrumptious desserts <3 

[aliciavstudies]

surgery week 1-2/6: urology

hello hello! sorry for being mia for a little bit - i was in the middle of writing exams & transitioning to a new block :-) but i am back and officially on surgery 🥳🥳 this is the block i’m probably the most excited for because i’m hoping that it helps give me more insight into my career path hehe

i kicked off the surg block with urology! definitely not my first choice, but at least it is a more chill way to start surgery. generally, rounds started from 6:30-7 am and our days ended around 3-4 pm which is not bad at all. 

this week has been a mix of clinic, cystoscopy, and ORs (both day surgeries and bigger open cases). i’m not super interested in urology as a specialty, but it’s been cool to see such a big variety. 

overall though, i feel like i’m still trying to adjust to surgery and it’s been more difficult than i anticipated, so here’s hoping this week is better. 

[aliciavstudies]

pediatrics week 4/6: ctu & exam

it is officially my last week on peds !!!

tbh now that it is over, i think i will actually miss it LOL i learned a lot, the majority of the staff and residents have been really nice and helpful, & i think the parents are generally quite grateful for your help :-) 

ctu this week was much better b/c i felt like i finally had the lay of the land. i felt more confident in my abilities to work, and more comfortable being independent. also i think i was more comfortable with my team so <333 much love. 

the hardest part is probably trying to study after work 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 i literally feel like i’m about to fall asleep every time i open my laptop after my shift LOLOL and honestly, idk how people fit in everything into their day, it feels like there’s too little hours for anything but work, sleep, and eating. 

[aliciavstudies]

pediatrics 5/6: ctu 

clinical teaching unit is one of the rotations i was really dreading, because it is one of the busier blocks within peds. basically, the everyday schedule is: 

7:45am - handover from the night team 8:30am - divide the list 9:00am - pre-round 9:30am - round 12:00pm - lunch/do some quick tasks 12:30pm - check in with patients & write notes 4:30pm - handover to night team

so it is a lot of stuff LOL and it is super overwhelming when you don’t know the patients, but i’ve had a pretty good experience. i’m really lucky in the sense that my team is super nice and supportive, and even the staff are there to ensure that we don’t have to do too much work. it isn’t my favourite thing in the world, and ctu can feel tedious at times, but i do appreciate how i can check in with the same patients everyday and my schedule feels regular again 

ps. how pretty is the view of the hospital 

[aliciavstudies]

 pediatrics week 4/6: peds emerg

so this week, i was in the emergency department which is absolutely crazy right now. the wait times have made it to the news because it can be a few DAYS before being seen 😵‍💫 so i went into this week with a lot of apprehension, as I just felt like everyone was going to be mad, and the environment too hectic for me to enjoy, but i was pleasantly surprised! 

I can definitely see the appeal of emerg. you go in and fix the patient’s most acute problem, so they leave feeling better and you leave feeling like you impacted someone’s life. also i think in emerg, you’re kind of the jack of all trades. you see everything and you can do everything. in my week, i saw a couple of castings, lots of sutures, and a resuscitation, so it is a good mix of procedure and medicine.  it definitely is too hectic for me to do forever, and i really don’t enjoy shift work but for a week, it’s been quite enjoyable. 

ps. all my pictures are just at coffee shops LOL 

[aliciavstudies]

welcome to the clerkship diaries <3 

idk how often i can post as i am in clerkship now, but i want to make some more consistent study habits after my work days, so here we go again  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

i’m not sure how often i will update my blog, right now i’m thinking perhaps once a week so that i can update my thoughts on my rotation and hopefully that’s enough time to take cute pictures hehe. 

[the59thstreetbridge]

witanddelight_

[milaminart]

8 hours till submission deadline

check my insta if you want 🐰

[mereljournals]

“If you are happy in a dream, does that count?" — Arundhati Roy

[mernoir-e]

Day 14-15 of Summer Studying Challenge

14th July - Would you rather stay in one resort for a month or travel across the country for one month? 

Travel across the country of course !! I love exploring new places

15th July - Are there any special events for you in the summer? (for example, birthdays, festivals, etc.)

I’m not sure if this counts but my birthday is on 9th July, it was a beautiful day, the celebration and everything:)

[bennistudies-deactivated2023112]

83/100 days of productivity | 27.07.2021

may I offer some cafe vibes? today I tried working at a cafe with friends but everyone doing their own thing for the first time and I think it went quite well. got a topic for my next exam done even though it took me 3 hours bc of chatting inbetween slides

study things I did today:

FDVL2 exam notes (stigma & marginalisation in inclusive teaching)

[morsaclizombi]