Well... it's certainly been a long time since I've posted an update. I apologize for it being so long, but I assure you that I've been busy attempting to navigate med school with its clear, and not-so-clear obstacles.
I'm sure no one reading this really needs much more of an explanation of the classroom things that have been going on, but some of the outside-of-lecture things have been interesting this semester. First off, in fourth semester, you spend a lot more time trying to get experience making decisions with how to manage patients, and you also spend a lot more time examining paid patients. This has brought up a couple of interesting goings-on with Yours Truly.
The first one that comes to mind is a thing called Stan. Stan is a patient simulator and is short for STandardized mAN. Basically what happens with a Stan session is me and 8 of my fourth semester classmates are turned loose on a scenario that is basically "this person presented to the emergency room with X". It's a good concept, and I applaud Ross for giving us this kind of educational experience. But... how they designed the experience runs almost exactly counter to the strengths of their simulator. Their simulator is designed to provide an experience like you'd see George Clooney doing on E.R. You know, pushing drugs on someone who came in with a heart attack, stroke, or vehicle accident, and needs serious resuscitation RIGHT NOW.
Unfortunately, we were given much less emergent scenarios, and with the first one, the proctor had the patient monitor up. It's basically the thing that goes "beep" with every heartbeat, but current ones show the heart rhythm, oxygen content of the blood, respiratory rate, and several other things depending on how many bells and whistles you've attached to the patient. Well, my critical mistake was to actually bother to look at this monitor and ask questions to the patient based on what I saw on the monitor. I was told in no uncertain terms that this was something We Were Not To See. I was rather disappointed in that experience because I have always believed that more information in a clinical setting is better by default. One more hidden lesson here, I guess. Never point out the weaknesses in a simulation.
There are several other things that have been less than rewarding this semester, but I'll try not to bother anyone with them. I am happy to say that with my other Stan session, my proctor praised me and gave me top marks for the exercise. I was remarkably surprised by this because I'm a critic of this instructor. She is not a very good lecturer, and before this session, her only redeeming qualities were her amazingly fair and straightforward exam questions. Were I in the administration here, I'd "promote" her out of her lecture position and make her a second-in-command of the simulation group. She was that redeeming.
There is a very unique thing that occurred to me the other day. I've grown used to Dominica, but I haven't grown into a Dominican. I was walking to Eddo's, our other corner store here, and for some reason, I had a Garrison Keillor monologue going on in my head. It isn't that I was drawing a connection between them. But, the normal things here are normal enough that I can separate myself so much I can daydream daydreams I would have in Nebraska and it's not weird, not off-putting, and not something that would make me homesick. It's a different normal, a here normal. Yet, it's not a normal-normal.
But, the end is in sight. 68 hours of lecture left, starting with 8 hours tomorrow. Then 2 solid weeks of exams. 40 days and a few hours on Dominica left. Becky and I have an apartment in Miami already. And, a visit to Nebraska planned. However, there's a hitch. Ross requires that everyone pass the USMLE Comprehensive Exam before we are allowed to sit for the required Step 1 exam. The Comp is the Tuesday of my first week of fifth semester in Miami, September 16. It's four hours long, and comprehensive, as the name would suggest. So, I'll get to enjoy significant amounts of time looking at a book, when that's the last thing I want to do. What's a body to do, though, right?
In other news, it looks like another tropical storm may or may not be headed our way. The last reports have said that it was weakening, but no matter what happens, it'll be here this weekend. We're expecting to lose both power and water for several hours. Such fun, such fun. I guess that's life's way of urging me to practice for my practical exams.
As the Dominicans say, be cool mon.
-j
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