#lifeandlectures

[lifeandlectures]

May 2018

I bought way too many books and then had to flee from the rain into the nearest coffee shop. Not sure whether to call this afternoon a win or a fail, but either way my cup matched my surgery textbook

[lifeandlectures]

Ok so I'm definitely on the ace spectrum somewhere (vaguest coming out ever i know) and I really wish there was a platonic version of tinder. Almost all my friends are also med students and I don't have time for clubs or activities. I just want to chat with people from different backgrounds and meet the nice ones for platonic friend-dates where we go to museums and bookshops and the botanical garden n shit

[lifeandlectures]

Story Time

One day I sat in a microbiology lecture and a woman came in who introduced herself as a researcher. She asked us if we'd agree to participate in a study about MRSA in medical and agriculture students. We all agreed and she took swabs of our mouths and noses. We asked her: "How many of us do you think will have MRSA?" We were about 50 medical students. All of us had worked at least three months in nursing. Some of us worked as nursing assistants on weekends. Some were licensed nurses, even. The scientist said: "Well, we test bio undergrads, too. They are the control group as they've only come into contact with antibiotics and infected people as much as the average population. We haven't found MRSA on any of them so far. You guys have had some contact with patients and antibiotics, but from my experience I'd say perhaps one out of the fifty of you will test positive. The agricultural students, however - oh they have MRSA." She didn't give us any numbers as her work wasn't finished yet. She only said she regularly found MRSA on agricultural students. She came back a week later with our results. None of us were positive.

Note: This isn't meant to diminish the importance of hygiene and careful use of antibiotics in medicine. But as someone who cares about public health, I think it is important to note that medical providers for humans aren't the only ones who cause multiresisting strains of bacteria, nor can we solve this problem on our own.

[lifeandlectures]

Every semester there is a day when we don’t have class. Instead, there are lectures on all kinds of subjects and everybody - even non-students - is invited to go to any random lecture they’re interested in. No previous knowledge required. A lot of students treat this like a holiday, but I really like having the oppprtunity to hear about artificial intelligence, substances used for colouring, and confucianism in modern China all in one day.

[lifeandlectures]

I'm half-way through the Week of Horror (3/6 exams done) and I already know I passed two of them!

I'm especially glad I passed the one that was basically four oral exams in one. Urology fucked me up because I was quizzed on a completely unexpected subject and I only got a C but since grades don't really matter for us, I don't care. (I'm still proud of my As in Surgery and Immunology though haha)

My OSCE went okay-ish, I fucked up twice but I hope the overall score will be fine.

Pathology 1 & 2 and Radiology off we go!

[lifeandlectures]

Spring 2018 is a bit confused, it thinks it's summer, but I support it. I'm procrastinating by reading a philosophy textbook. I'm a weird med student (I'm actually really interested in medicine, I promise!) Smoothie recipe - mixed frozen berries - 1/2 banana - some oat milk (150ml? idk??) - add orange juice and water until it's liquid enough to drink - some chia seeds (optional)

[lifeandlectures]

I'm turning into the Appartement Mom™

What is happening I don't *have* any maternal insticts except for my little brother

[lifeandlectures]

Standardized Patients

Look, I get why we‘re doing this.

Conversations about illness, disability, and death aren‘t easy. Especially not if you‘re having them with a complete stranger. So in order to prepare us as much as possible, you have us play pretend with an actor in front of 5 other students and a professor.

I don‘t mind that people are watching. I have an active imagination, I can immerse myself in the situation. That‘s not the problem.

But can you at least try to give us cases that actually makes sense?

If you tell me: “You‘re the new primary care doc of this patient, this is your first conversation with them and your task is to talk about an advance care directive“ maybe dont tell the actor to block off any coversation on this topic?

In real life, I would NOT press this issue on the very first appointment, especially not if the patient

1. was taken aback when I introduced myself as her new primary care doc (We‘ll see about that! That‘s still my decision to make after all.) - I managed that situation well, but still, not the best start

2. was clearly not amused that her daughter had asked about her and wanted to speak to me (again info I was given beforehand) and said daughter had already pressured her to make a living will - I‘m not conspiring against you with your daughter, I swear!

3. had different, important topics to talk about

I would have loved to talk to her about her meds and her general situation and just get to know her. But if you tell me the living will is my MAIN task, you give me ten minutes, the patient blocks off completely, speaks without pause about other stuff and then you criticize me for interrupting her (If I hadn‘t, I couldn‘t have said a single word, I didn‘t even finish on time as it was) and for trying to get her to talk about a living will (that was literally my task)...

Honestly, that‘s just not helpful. If it hadn‘t been my explicit task, I wouldn‘t have pressed that point in the first place. Not on the first meeting. I get these conversations are supposed to be difficult, but I‘m also supposed to learn something from the feedback. I still don‘t know what my professor wanted me to do. I still don‘t know how I could‘ve handled that situation any better, except wait for her to trust me, get to know her, and then breach that topic again. Which I would‘ve done anyway if it wasn‘t for that specification.

So yeah. It‘s fine to put your students in uncomfortable situations if you make sure they learn something from them