<p>S moved to his new home last Monday after closing on his condo the Friday before. His residency officially begins of July 1 but activities have already begun.</p>
<p>Three days of Orientation began on Monday with his residency white coat ceremony today. Since we couldn't be there it was a bit surreal to see photos with Dr. ____ on the white coat.</p>
<p>As my Physician/Surgeon neighbor told him, "welcome to the NFL!". </p>
<p>It's still hard to believe that it's been four years since he started Med school and even harder to fathom that he has six years of residency still ahead plus another year or two of research and then two more years of a Fellowship.</p>
<p>For those looking for a short cut, there really isn't one....it's certainly not a profession for the faint of heart.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are several 6-year programs…one that comes to mind is the Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency–combines gen surgery and cardiothoracic into 6 years instead of doing a fellowship in cardiothoracic itself</p>
<p>It’s actually a six year categorical Surgery program with one year of research built in. There are also some options available if you want to use the year for something other than research.</p>
<p>Just chat with my colleague a little. His D is about to finish her 2nd year in residency with another 4-5 years to go. Other than the long working hours, there are still examines to pass. His D has been juggling between work and study. In addition, the financial burden is substantial. Her salary is not enough to pay for the living expenses in a big city. The examines are expensive too. It could be quite depressing. He figures that parents may need to shell out 5K 10K /year to show support. Any student loan would be extra. Is this about right?</p>
<p>^ I do not need such a prayer if DS told us nothing but the truth. He declared to us that he does not want to use anything (knife or the modern-day “laser knife”) to open up another person as his career. (One of his concerns: What if I do not cut it right and the patient becomes crippled or even dead?!) Considering the fact that he seems to be enthusiastic about IM (physiology/biochem topics in MS1?), what he told us may be true.</p>
<p>He also told us that after the MS1 students cut the body in the anatomy class, the students from the school of nursing will come in and observe what these MS1 students have done. (They do not want to “waste” the body. They want to use the body to its fullest as it is very valuable, as I heard.) His group happened to have a body without a lot of fat. He said it saved them a lot of work.</p>
<p>Another funny story is that, in the physical exam class, most female students are not comfortable to be examined by their peer male students. So, if a group has two male students and two female students, the male student will practice on the other male student, and the female student on the other female one. Is this usually the case, or his group is an “outlier”? (It is not that their group members do not get along well with each other.)</p>
<p>^
the physical exam thing is pretty typical. The proper technique for listening to the heart/feeling it beat through the chest wall requires putting your hands very close to the left breast (most girls preferred to practice on guys even). </p>
<p>As a first year, we were split up for learning/practicing this stuff in our class on it so people of the opposite gender weren’t even in the same room. 2nd year we were mixed although most of the time 2nd year is spent learning more innocuous components like head/neck. They didn’t split the 1st years this year by gender and apparently some people were NOT pleased.</p>
<p>For maneuvering around breasts and finding the femoral pulses, I just practiced with the people in my class I was closer with as we felt more comfortable letting each other do that compared to the random classmate we were paired with in class.</p>
<p>Re #9: We do most of our curriculum in groups of 8, and you work with the same group of 8 for 8 weeks. By the time we got to PE stuff, we already knew each other so well that it didn’t really matter. Sometimes I worked with male classmates, other times female, and maybe I’m the crazy one…but I really didn’t care one way or another. In some strange way, it’s a nice bonding experience.</p>
<p>Congrats eadad, you have good reason to be very proud!</p>
<p>Kristin, I’m sure my daughter is not going to care either regarding gender.</p>
<p>mcat2, could you explain why a cadavor with a large amount of fat would save them a lot of work? Or are you talking about saving the nursing students a lot of work?</p>
<p>Without a lot of fat. Not with a lot of fat. Let’s say a Magic Mike actor or me. It would take a lot more effort to get to the innards on me. ;)</p>
<p>GA2012MOM, This is what I heard from DS: When the cadavor is with a large amount of fat, no only it requires more time and efforts to cut it, but also it tends to get messy because of the fat and therefore requires more efforts to clean it up afterwards.</p>
<p>But the students do not have a choice, as the cadavor is randomly assigned to each group of students.</p>
<p>No, I was not talking about saving the nursing students work. The nursing students just came in to observe the cadavor after the med school students have done with it.</p>
<p>D1 had been an EMT so she had experience giving PEs to people of both genders. To her, no big deal. She’s just glad they didn’t have to practice prostate and pelvic exams on each other…(Anatomical dolls plus standardized [paid] patients for that.)</p>
<p>Otherwise it would have been getting to know your fellow students a bit too well…</p>
<p>Although I do have a friend who went to med school in the 70’s who recalls the instructors having all the students line up on day–men in one room, women in another and told them: “Today you’re going to learn to do a prostate exam. Eveyone drop your pants.”</p>
<p>Re: gender and physical exam class…at my med school, they actually required us to have a partner of the opposite gender. It was like pairing off for prom, except that my class had more guys than girls so you really had to pair off quickly. Despite the initial awkwardness, at least one couple, and maybe as many as 3 (tough to remember who was with who), who came to med school not knowing each other, actually ended up getting married by the end. This was not an uncommon occurrence apparently. Also played right in to the old cliche of “studying anatomy together”.</p>
<p>I’m starting my own new page next week as well. I can already say that the first day of fellowship is WAY less scary than the first day of residency, even if I am dealing with the most critically ill patients in the hospital.</p>
<p>Congrats, eadad! Well deserved by whole family as it is a family adventure fore sure!</p>
<p>D. has just finished MS1. It was extremely hard, but she has done well so far. She is currently abroad with the bunch of selected ones and some MDs. She is extremely excited, she is with different specialty every half-day, 2 specialties /day. It feels thru her messages that she is having a blast…she was talking about taking biopsies which sounded like a greatest adventure in a world. We praying for their safety for the remaining time there. This trip was the reason why she could not have any research this summer.
D. also said that experiencing medical care in very poor country is elevated her appreciation greatly for all that we have here and for great opportunities that she personally has even for opportunity to be tortured studying for exams at Med. School.</p>
<p>Dragging this back to the top to make a comment…</p>
<p>Today I archived an article that appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of Harvard Medicine. (It’s the alumni newsletter magazine. I got a courtesy copy because I had provided some research materials that were used in the article.)</p>
<p>It was a biographical article about a HMS alumni. Among the other things that were mentioned, the article discussed this individual’s training. He was a [thoracic] surgeon and his residency lasted a whole, whopping ONE YEAR back in the 1930’s. </p>
<p>First day as a “real” Doctor went well yesterday. He said it was a bit strange/overwhelming at first when on rounds he was introduced as “my colleague, Dr. X” and then later when giving written orders for labs, meds, etc not having someone check them as well as verbal orders and nurses responding…“ok”…</p>
<p>Sorry, posting from my iPad and hate this formatting as I am typing.</p>
<p>Today will be more interesting as he has his own patients now, is covering for someone else and also will be in surgery part of the day. As my Surgeon neighbor told him after he graduated…“get your rest now while you can, welcome to the NFL!”</p>
<p>He went home and napped for a while before calling us, said he was exhausted…guessing the anticipation and first day nerves played a big part in the exhaustion.</p>