Med school down under the first week
Three weeks have passed since school actually started and I have just been slacking about writing, there are lots of mediocre reasons, but mostly it has been laziness. So the first week of classes was a whirlwind. We had orientations, introductions, and social events. At all of these I was constantly meeting other students, and inevitably the sequence of questions would start, in medical format:
1. Presenting Symptom: So why are you studying medicine?
2. History of Presenting Illness: Why University of Sydney? How long have you wanted to go in to medicine?
3. Past History: What did you study before, where at?
4. Social History: Where you from? Where is that?
The first week was stuffed full with a cursory explanation of all the options we had while going to school and how the classes would run and hundreds of other bits of information that I had forgotten before I left the building. Jargon was thrown around that brought up vague memories of stuff I had read. PBL (a biggie, problem based learning), BCS (also pretty big, basic and clinical science), Pt-Dr. (Patient and Doctor theme), C-Dr. (Community and Doctor theme), PPD (Personal and professional development.) All but PBL are the general themes of what we are going to be taught/learn. PBL is huge here at the University of Sydney and it goes hand in hand with self directed learning, also a big advance in medical learning. Problem Based Learning, is where every week we are given a “patient case” and from there we use it as a means to direct our studying, along with the lectures that go along with the case. Additionally, while this is going on we will be spending one day a week at our allocated hospitals actually seeing patients, at this point I didn’t know what we were going to do with them though, since we really didn’t know much. It was all very exciting to hear that we were partaking in such a revolutionary method of learning.
So along with all of this orientation, I was busy working on moving in to a new place which I lucked out on. I am living with 3 other first year medical students, a Canadian, another American, and a guy from Taiwan who did his undergrad in the states. The house is brand new and beautiful. Oh yeah it was also completely empty. So my priorities were food and sleep. The refrigerator was the first thing to be delivered to the house. Second was my bed and that made it livable. Now after 3 weeks we have gotten a kitchen table, a washing machine, and a sofa is going to be delivered next week. During all this I have learned a few things: I really don’t like IKEA, price wise it is not all that cheap but quality wise it is cheap crap, a bike is a great way to get around, but is not good for taking home furniture (already pretty much knew that though), some people are just cheap and if so they will never offer to pay for anything extra.
1. Presenting Symptom: So why are you studying medicine?
2. History of Presenting Illness: Why University of Sydney? How long have you wanted to go in to medicine?
3. Past History: What did you study before, where at?
4. Social History: Where you from? Where is that?
The first week was stuffed full with a cursory explanation of all the options we had while going to school and how the classes would run and hundreds of other bits of information that I had forgotten before I left the building. Jargon was thrown around that brought up vague memories of stuff I had read. PBL (a biggie, problem based learning), BCS (also pretty big, basic and clinical science), Pt-Dr. (Patient and Doctor theme), C-Dr. (Community and Doctor theme), PPD (Personal and professional development.) All but PBL are the general themes of what we are going to be taught/learn. PBL is huge here at the University of Sydney and it goes hand in hand with self directed learning, also a big advance in medical learning. Problem Based Learning, is where every week we are given a “patient case” and from there we use it as a means to direct our studying, along with the lectures that go along with the case. Additionally, while this is going on we will be spending one day a week at our allocated hospitals actually seeing patients, at this point I didn’t know what we were going to do with them though, since we really didn’t know much. It was all very exciting to hear that we were partaking in such a revolutionary method of learning.
So along with all of this orientation, I was busy working on moving in to a new place which I lucked out on. I am living with 3 other first year medical students, a Canadian, another American, and a guy from Taiwan who did his undergrad in the states. The house is brand new and beautiful. Oh yeah it was also completely empty. So my priorities were food and sleep. The refrigerator was the first thing to be delivered to the house. Second was my bed and that made it livable. Now after 3 weeks we have gotten a kitchen table, a washing machine, and a sofa is going to be delivered next week. During all this I have learned a few things: I really don’t like IKEA, price wise it is not all that cheap but quality wise it is cheap crap, a bike is a great way to get around, but is not good for taking home furniture (already pretty much knew that though), some people are just cheap and if so they will never offer to pay for anything extra.
posted by Trained Monkey at 9:47 PM
2 Comments:
So, What? Did you tell your room mates about your Blog, is that why you can't tell us more about them? C'mon man, give us the dirt. They're your new room mates for crying out loud. This is the meat of the story, the characters, not the med school lingo.
-Ryan
PS- I love IKEA dude. Sometimes I like to put in headphones and cruise IKEA with the volume up. Every Monday and Saturday night, here in Seattle, they have actors come in and act out domestic drama sketches in the "rooms" that Ikea has set up all around their warehouse... so you can walk around like a voyeur watching what crazy scenearios are playing out in each place.
...and their prices aren't that expensive, 'cmon.
"You don't have to be rich, just smart"
You are too young to be this cynical. Ryan is right, it is about the people. I instantly wanted to know about all of them. Who, what, where, when, why and how? Take some pics of them and post em' on your blog so we can all share in your experience.
Didn't you live in a laundry room? Seems like IKEA would be a step up. Embrace the flat box.
If it is thrifty you are after build your own stuff. Shit you should have seen my place during the first two years of school. I was too cheap to even buy IKEA. I went to Home Depot and bought raw lumber, screws and glue. You would be amazed what you can build with a cordless drill. And, when you are done you can burn it!
Glad to hear all is well. Doing internal med at Maricopa Co. this month.
peaceout treehugger
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