Term 1 in Med School!

Wow!!! It has been a while since I wrote anything on the blog. So, I figured that I would try to start writing again because now I feel a lot more comfortable in what medical school looks like.

As with most things, despite all the descriptions and comments you are given, actually experiencing medical school is completely different from anything else you have experienced. I’ll try and communicate it but I’m sure I’ll never do it justice. It is exciting, and stressful at times. It makes your brain hurt as you are trying to absorb information in massive amounts, and you sleep as little as possible sometimes, no, a lot of the time. But I would not change it for the world!

If I had to try and illustrate a typical day of the information you are given in medical school it would be something like this:

You are given a kiddy pool full of oatmeal and asked to eat it all that day. You can eat it any way you want, but you must eat all of it to prepare you for the upcoming day when you are presented with another kiddy pool of oatmeal info to eat. This occurs five days a week. I don’t think I would necessarily have an existential crisis eating oatmeal but you are literally dealing with existential matters day in and day out in medical school. But enough with oatmeal illustrations.

One of the most awesome things about Trinity School of Medicine is the Clinical experience. As a Caribbean Medical School, there are various advantages to being here and this is one of them. I have been told that due to liability, the amount of in clinical experience that you are allowed in US mainland medical schools is very limited for the first two years of study. However, we can be in the hospital throughout the entirety of our time here in the Caribbean! Last term I started doing clinical rotations and I must admit that they and anatomy lab were the two highlights of my week!

Because I and my classmates were first termers we only could take histories. In medicine, a history is an interview with a patient where you get to know them and their past and present medical histories as much as possible. I know that sounds like something that would make even a stone gargoyle yawn with how boring it must be. But for me, it’s exciting! You are getting to be a detective. You have to build a rapport with your patient, talking with them, learning about them, and empathizing with them as you construct who this person is, why they are in the hospital, and how to best help them.

The other aspect of clinical rotations that I truly enjoyed were the interactions that I had with the supervising doctors, or “preceptors,” after the interview. At this point you would sit down with the preceptor and give them the history of the patient. Not only were you critiqued on how you conducted your interview and what questions you asked (such as: Always ask about ultrasounds in OB-GYN!), but you were allowed to have a small group discussion. During that discussion, the professor instructs and allows you to apply what you are learning in theory in the classroom.

So, then the question becomes: When do you truly realize that you have “made it” and that you are in medical school? I have to say for me was when my dreams consisted of nothing but the Kreb’s Cycle, the anatomy of the leg, and attempting to recite the enzymes of ATP synthesis.

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for us! We are truly grateful!

Blessings!