Wednesday, June 7, 2018
Double post! I went to visit Dr. Pipal today at Ventura Community College. I took Anatomy V01 with him during Spring 2018, and can honestly say he is one of the most intelligent, funny, awesome people I know. Anyone who has the opportunity to take a class at VC, I highly recommend taking Dr. P’s anatomy with lab. Even if you’ve already taken it with another professor at some other institution, just take it again with Dr. P. You won’t regret it.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I first decided to take Anatomy. It’s not a prerequisite for medical school, so I hadn’t thought to take it beforehand. To be honest, the only reason I took Anatomy was because I told my interviewers at RVU that I’d take the course in preparation for medical school anatomy. They seemed to favor that, so I didn’t want to go back on my word.
I’m so glad I took the class.
Not only was Anatomy a great course to get back into school-mode with (I graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2016, so it’d been a good year and a half since any real academic stimulation), but it was also a challenge course that got me critically thinking and applying what I learned to real medical cases. Traditionally, the course is designed as an intro-level Human Anatomy class for community college students. However, after approaching Dr. P in his office hours twice a week, every week, I think he caught on that I could handle a little challenge. Then came the case reports. Dr. P pushed me by giving me progressively harder, trickier case studies that required me to apply what I was learning in class, do some (or a lot) of outside research, consult my fellow MD/DO coworkers, and practice my oral presentation/delivery skills. He took extra time out of his already hectic teaching and personal schedule to write up weekly reports for me to work on, for no other reason than my own personal benefit. (No, I did not get any extra credit.) As if that wasn’t awesome enough, he went so far as to write me my own personal “challenge” final exam, which entailed questions taken from the Board Review Series Anatomy Book and other sources. I remember having so much anxiety going into that final because I felt the pressure of needing and wanting to do well to impress Dr. P. My good friend Cat, who’d become my close companion in Anatomy lecture, told me she had never seen me so stressed about a test before. Haha. I wonder how much stress I’ll feel once I actually start medical school. :P Dr. Pipal also wrote me a phenomenal letter of recommendation for the RVU Healthcare Leaders Scholarship that I applied for (tbd if I won or not), and not only that, but was also SO generous that he gave me TWO brand new books I’ll be needing in medical school (Pathologic Basis of Disease and Basic Clinical Pharmacology), along with a Tromner Reflex Hammer (those fancy ones neurologists use), and a pen light (to check those optic cranial nerves and to see if you have strep pharyngitis). He also gave me copies of BRS Embryology/Physiology, Atlas of Human Anatomy, Textbook of Medical Physiology, and Human Anatomy, 4th ed. Just amazing. I can’t say enough great things about the course and about Dr. P, because, well, it’s obvious. The amount of support and encouragement I’ve received from him is immeasurable, and I’ll never forget that. Thank you so much, Dr. P. :)