The Whatever--Random Medical School Stuff

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>I'll start....</p>

<p>D1 begins her Practical Immersion Experience (PIE) on Monday. She'll be working in a public ER about 2 hours away. She says she is both excited and scared s***less. She said her schedule willl go like this:</p>

<p>Day 1--meet your co-workers, find the the supplies locker, get the parking pass, learn your way around the hospital</p>

<p>Day 2 -sutures</p>

<p>Day 5 -- intubations, chest tubes, Foleys, high volume IV lines, arterial lines, interpreting EKGs, ER triage. </p>

<p>She'll be working both day and night 8-12 hour shifts for next 5 weeks.</p>

<p>At the end of PIE, she will have to take both a practical exam and a written exam. (The written exam is partially based on the questions used on the EM specialty exam.)</p>

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<p>DS will move into an “extra large” dorm room after it is cleaned. It means we may be able to send him a “care package” more frequently. (but not in such a hot summer.)</p>

<p>It appears he interacts mostly with his peer students rather than other students who live in the same dorm. My guess is that these med students are together for a LONG time almost every day. Just recently, several of them rented a Zipcar and went to a nearby beach (or is it just coast rather than a sandy beach?!) together. I hope he put on some sun screen. A couple of years ago, he went to somewhere in NH with his club members (I think it is during winter, and there might be even snow at that time) and forgot to put on sun screen and suffered a lot after that event.</p>

<p>Just curious, what kind of car does a med school student typically drive? When I was in a graduate school, graduate students often drove very cheap used cars. Is it the same for med school students or they tend to drive a better car? (after all, I heard that around 20 per cents of all med school students do not have any loans) However, it appears to me not many MS1 students at DS’s school have owned their own car yet.</p>

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<p>Here is my rant from the other thread, when I “thought” I was starting a new one.</p>

<p>Miscellaneous Stuff </p>

<hr>

<p>On the advice of our dear Curm, I have started this thread as not to hijack M2CK thread. </p>

<p>Well it seems like my daughter is the winner (loser) in the priciest cost of living in medschool. WOWM, daughters town doesn’t have any “major” grocer. We were told of the local farmers market, meat market etc, but the closest grocery store is down the interstate an exit or two. I stopped there when I was there in May to see what she what her options were, and the prices were at least 25% more than they should be. I think I am going to be shipping her alot of things through Amazon Prime, and she can go maybe once a month to the closest “real” grocery store which is more than 30 miles away. </p>

<p>WOWM, I guess the necessary car is more for schools in remote locations with underserved communities nearby. How far has your daughter had to travel for her clinicals? My daughter tells me she may need to go to rural areas even in an ajoining state. Ugh, the costs just keep coming!</p>

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<p>We are still looking, and we are in the $4,000 range, so yeah, pretty much a used beater.</p>

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<p>WOWMom, that sounds like a ton of fun! I think I’d be a little stressed if I were in her shoes though :)</p>

<p>mcat, my car is a Mazda3–I love it. At my school, most people have cars; they run the gamut from economy-sized sedan to hand-me-down SUV to pickup truck to luxury car (at least, that describes 4 of my friends…)</p>

<p>As for me, I finished M1 in mid-May. Had a fantastic time. Passed all my exams (one by the skin of my teeth, LOL). Made some great friends. Learned a ton, including what I think is practically a new language (especially when it comes to all the acronyms and abbreviations!). </p>

<p>M2 starts in early August. My summer has consisted of:</p>

<p>-Medical service trip to Veracruz, Mexico. Yes that’s where all the dangerous stuff is happening. Clearly we didn’t research our location well enough before going–LOL. Spent 2 weeks there hopping around to 9 different villages, averaging about 100 patients per village. It was…unforgettable, to say the least.</p>

<p>-Patient safety, quality improvement, leadership, and communication roundtable (small conference) in Colorado. It was fun to talk about aspects of health care I care about with 24 other med students (from a variety of schools and a variety of years). Looking forward to bringing some of the things I learned back to school with me.</p>

<p>-Clinical externship at an internal medicine clinic in my hometown. It’s great because it’s not at an academic center; it’s just me and the doc working together to see all his patients. I take histories and do focused physicals, present my findings to him, give him my thoughts on diagnosis and/or management, and then we go talk with and examine the patient together. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the variety of patients he sees, and there’s something warm and fuzzy about working with people (docs and patients) from my hometown!</p>

<p>Otherwise, I’m just taking it easy and doing absolutely nothing. Helping 2 kids apply to med school…wish me luck! (The one I helped last year was accepted and will be attending my school in July, so hey, looks like I’m 2/2!)</p>

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<p>Kristin, can you elaborate on your Mexico experience?</p>

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<p>I won’t be having a car for the first two years. My school is great and gives us a free public transportation pass, so I’ll be relying on buses for awhile. However, my roommate is bringing a car (I believe), and I’ll likely go grocery shopping and run errands with her. :smiley: We just found a new place on-campus with a W/D in our apartment, which is wonderful. The rent isn’t too bad but the place is small. After I finish with classes, I’ll probably move off-campus to somewhere with more space (and hopefully parking). </p>

<p>My current biggest issue is figuring out how to move in! I am notoriously an over-packer, so I am trying to cut down. Any suggestions on good futons to buy or where to get furniture? Right now I’m thinking Ikea since it’s cheap, but it’s a pain-in-the-behind to put together.</p>

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<p>During MS1, D1’s clinical locations were anywhere from 20 minutes to just over an hour away. (Big state–it’s tough to get beyond state boundaries in any direction in under 3-4 hours.)</p>

<p>Once she starts clinical training and rotations, she could be assigned to anywhere in the state (up to 6-7 hours away). </p>

<p>She does get a modest housing allowance when she’s assigned away from town. For PIE, it’s about $250/month. Enough to rent a furnished room–though she had been looking at maybe renting a small travel trailer. Or even tent camping with her backpacking tent in the nearby National Forest. (She said she’d shower in the physician’s locker room at work and cook over her camp stove.) </p>

<p>D1 has a car. She drives a Honda Civic with 75,000+ miles on it. Like kristin’s classmates, her classmates’ cars run the gamut from beaters to luxury cars. Plus a few motorcycles. </p>

<p>After PIE, D1’ll be going to Washington DC for a national conference on women’s health issues, then back home to start MS2 in August.</p>

<p>D1 just got back from a month in Spain. Broke a finger and toe climbing, fell off a limestone cliff into the ocean in Majorca, but otherwise had a fabulous trip and can now identify 6 different kinds of olives. Picked up some Castillian (much to the distress of her BF who is a native Mexican Spanish speaker) and will be taking conversational Spanish classes at CC this fall. D1 and her roomie will be hosting a Spanish med student doing an international rotation this fall.</p>

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<p>DS’s life in this summer is quite plain and simple: just research. We notice recently there was some money that was deposited into his account from his school and it has something to do with his summer research job. – Yes, we still “help” manage his bank’s checking and credit card accounts and both he and we do not mind. We will make sure the balance will always be above zero on his bursar account and his checking account.</p>

<p>After DS had decided to go the medicine route, he said at one time that he regretted he did not keep learning Spanish as he had been doing every year in high/middle school.</p>

<p>Regarding the car, one of the parents thinks it is fine for him to get our older family-size car – a Nissan Altima (on the ground that since it is large enough, it should be safe enough), but the other parent thinks he should get an AWD because “it is very challenging to drive a FWD car in the winter there.” We still have a plenty of time to decide.</p>

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<p>To GAMOM:</p>

<p>Do you mean clinical or political experience? I’ll give you both.</p>

<p>Clinical: we set up primary care clinics in 9 different villages. Because we didn’t want to treat chronic conditions (it would be hard to provide the necessary surveillance and follow up from thousands of miles away!), we treated primarily acute concerns–sore muscles, kids with parasites, infected wounds, etc. We gave everyone vitamins. There were some Mexican doctors with us, so if they could provide surveillance and follow up for chronic conditions, we did bring some meds for hypertension and diabetes that were occasionally distributed. Our patients ranged in age from 20 days to 96 years. We often saw families. Since there wasn’t a lot of privacy, our patients stayed fully clothed and our physical exams were pretty focused on the problem at hand. Our pharmacy was pretty well-stocked and distributed medicine free of charge. The Mexican docs we worked with charged a nominal fee (5 pesos, or about 35 cents) for each patient to attend clinic because they’ve found that paying a nominal fee allows patients to feel some sense of ownership over their care (I’ve seen this in the US too).</p>

<p>Political: It’s just a shady place overall. Instead of police cars, they have uniformed guards with AK47s riding in the beds of pickup trucks. There’s lots of corruption and bribery. Unbeknownst to us (for about the first week), we were essentially traveling on behalf of a political party–our fault, as we should have done way more research before we went. Was I ever threatened? No. Was anyone in our group mugged? No. Did anything get stolen? No. Did I ever feel really safe? No, and that was a big problem to me. I just don’t see the point of jeopardizing my safety in the name of global health, and I will definitely make sure my next trip is to a safer location!</p>

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<p>To GAMOM, regarding ideas for grocery shopping (you posted on m2ck’s “mcat score is in” thread):</p>

<p>When DS lived in an apartment off campus last year, there was no real grocery store within the walking distance (yet plenty of restaurants!) But he found some online grocery store from which he could order groceries (and it will be delivered to the door at the scheduled time.) The only nuisance was, as I remember, he needs to order a certain quantity of groceries each time. If he could find another person living in the same apartment complex (actually a 5-floor building whose tenants are all graduate students) who likes to cook as well, it would be perfect because they could pool together what they want and order it together. But he could not find such a person. It is much easier to find a person who is willing to go to a nearby restaurant together. DS thinks that the restaurant food is not only pricey but also not healthy. The online grocery is not cheap but it is healthy food. So the latter is a better choice (assuming that he has the time.) Actually, I heard he just ordered a larger pot a few weeks ago and plans to cook something for himself once a week during summer when he could have more time “to take care of his health.”</p>

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<p>As far as the groceries GAmom I would use amazon prime as much as possible, and the suscribe and save will give you an extra 15% discount, you can cancel at any time. Son buys his cereal and peanut butter that way, cheaper than Sam’s or Walmart. 30 minutes away is far.</p>

<p>Son drives my older 2003 subaru outback AWD in the bad weather as do I. Really grips the road in ice, snow, hail or rain. Knock on wood, still runs terrific. Is pretty good on gas mileage and the insurance is low.</p>

<p>As far as foreign language, son was proficient in spanish, had it in high school and then again in college. He was placed in the advanced medical spanish in med school and continued for the year. Might take something else he said for this coming year, MS2 starts the beginning of August.</p>

<p>His school assigns an off-site clinical rotation with the same physican, that carries through med school, for 2 weeks each semester. Son was assigned to a rural physican (think Doc Hogue in Doc Hollywood) who also happens to run the med center and trauma unit for all of western carolina. Son has seen all kinds of patients, and the stories to go with it. This particular doc also runs the program at the prison as well so son did some exams with several guards present after taking off all the handcuffs and leg shackles of some of his patients. </p>

<p>Son said he thought it was his heartbeat he heard through the stethoscope and not his patient! The school covers all the costs to the off-site locale, provides free room and board, gives them gas money…all up-front no need for reimbursement. And the doc and staff take good care of him while he is there. So he stays with the same practice all through med school. </p>

<p>I am sure I will think of something else later.</p>

<p>kat</p>

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<p>Gee. It’s nice in here. What’s the cover? I’ll be gone before the band starts. Promise. :wink: </p>

<p>Just a note. D is living the life. She’s on “short stay overnights” in peds. Had a conersation interrupted last night with a call from her intern from the week before. Her Peds ICU patient with the rare disease had taken a turn for the worse. Discharged to hospice to die at home. Gee. That was after being the person sitting with the family of the kid as the tests came back. He came in with bone pain that ended up being leukemia. </p>

<p>She says she’s handling her 13-14 hour days. Very taxing physically. She’s learning a whole lot. Feels good about it. But, as a parent, sheesh. Where did all these really sick people come from? </p>

<p>Again. Why do you people do this?</p>

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<p>@Kristin,
I suggest a medical service trip to the Texas Rio Grande valley right here in the USA. The need is every bit as great, the conditions are safer and you can still work on your Spanish. :slight_smile: (I love the way (northern)Mexicans “sing” the language vs. what you hear in Europe and elsewhere)</p>

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<p>^Thanks! We’re currently putting together suggestions on locations for next year’s trip, so I’ll be sure to bring that one up. I’ll let you know if we decide to go!</p>

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<p>Agreed! This field extracts a heavy toll on everyone who works in this field.</p>

<p>Since starting med school D1 has had a an ulcer (diagnosed by a blood test) and now has developed migraines (diagnosed by a neurologist). She never had either prior to med school.</p>

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<p>I don’t know what to make of it. It is times like this I am very happy this was all her idea.</p>

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<p>In the preclinical years, do MS1/MS2 students know their grades or test scores relative to their peers (especially when the grading system is a true P/F one)? (Brag alert here if it is true: according to DS, on the test (final?) of an important subject, he said he got the highest score in the class. How would he know it if the grades are officially not recorded by the school at all? Or, it is just a group of the students who get together and compare their grades by themselves unofficially?)</p>

<p>Although most MS1/MS2 students’ main targets are to do well enough on STEP-1, I wonder whether the students could make use of their school’s test scores (or final grades at the end of MS1) to gauge whether they are “behind” or “ahead” in their accumulated knowledge that will be needed before the final preparation for STEP-1 in the final month or two.</p>

<p>I sometimes heard from DS that some subjects (physiology or biochem or anatomy in MS1?) are more important than other subjects for STEP-1. Is this true? For an important test, I heard DS would insist on taking the test close book even though some students choose to take it open book (as the MS1/2 grades do not count at his school.) This is because he think he could have an extra practice for STEP-1 by taking the test in this way. Is he right?</p>

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<p>At my D’s school, I was told maybe 4 times about anonymous grade grids from which she could deduce her rank on the test. </p>

<p>And yup. There is some talking among friends, even at Montessori Med School.</p>

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<p>mcat,
“Just curious, what kind of car does a med school student typically drive?”
-D. has the same car that we bought her when she got her license few (which happened few days after her 16th B-day). She has been using it in HS, UG and currently at Med. School. It is Toyota Matrix. Nothing fancy, but she likes it. She travels a lot, she likes to visit her UG, visits us as much as she could. She will not have any more summers off. This one is the last one. Still very unclear about her specialty, except that she knows which ones she will definitely not do, there are many of them.</p>