With finals this close, every minute outside of classes is being taken over by studying, and I'm surrounded by stressed-out med students.
While I was studying last week, I thought of something that might interest my study partner.
"I had a patient with severe aortic stenosis that I saw in clinic last week - this week at family practise the doc I work with told me she decompensated over the weekend," I mentioned.
"He said she was in the ICU and wasn't doing that great. I really would've liked to go visit her."
My friend looked up from his notes, somewhat frustrated that I had interrupted his studying.
"Why bother? You won't get marks for it, it won't be on the final exam, and you can't bill for it."
He's got a point.
The black humour of The House of God is turning into my life.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
He's got a point...
Monday, May 14, 2007
Addicted to learning?
I just watched that movie 28 weeks later, on the advice of a friend who told me the first one was really good.
Too bad this one wasn't.
Not only did it have a storyline so flimsy it wouldn't hold a flake of caterpillar dandruff, but I couldn't stop thinking, as the bloody grunting zombies chased the non-infected at a full sprint...
"Man, finals are comin' up on me just like this."
It's pretty overwhelming. We've got 10 exams coming up that we have to write in a single week, and it doesn't seem like there's enough time to learn everything. Best of all, I just spent the whole weekend at a conference that was probably really relevant to my future career but I didn't get a whole lot of studying done.
The thing is though, yes I'm overwhelmed, yes, a lot of people around me are more stressed out than they've ever been, and yes, finals are coming up behind me like a pack of rabid zombies, but I can't say I'm hating it.
In fact, I'll be sad when school is over. I enjoy going to class on Monday mornings and finally being able to attend lectures that are almost all directly relevant to what my future holds, unlike my undergrad experience. I love the amazing stories and experiences that I've been able to be a part of already and the countless ones inevitably coming up ahead.
I'm a little sad we have to stop classes for the summer. I can't wait for the fall.
But most of all, I've really enjoyed the people I've gotten to know since August. I've really had a lot of fun getting to know my friends in my class (both medical and dental students!). It's a good thing my class is full of quality people, seeing as how I have hardly seen anybody outside of class for a while and I am starting to really miss my friends and family outside of med school.
This weekend some doctors were telling me that medicine can be addicting. I heard about an old doctor who is in his eighties and goes to the coffee shop every morning and chat with his friends...and take all their blood pressures. One of them told me that a patient came in because that old doc had sent her in. "He took my blood pressure at the golf course, and told me I should come see you." The doctor asked her, "Was he roaming the golf course with a sphygmomanometer?" She replied, "No, he was in his car in the parking lot; he told me to come over so he could check my blood pressure." Damn, that guy's addicted.
It's almost funny how hard I worked to be able to work this hard all over again - MCAT, applications, scraping for percents in my undergrad courses, the interview process - and now it's all about finals, studying, sleepless nights, looming evaluation.
It gets better. About a year and a half from now when I start clerkship, it will be like being thrown to the wolves, wandering the wards with a seemingly inverse relationship between my knowledge level and the amount of responsibility I have.
Call me crazy, but I can't wait.
I guess I'm addicted.
See you on the golf course in 60 years.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
You thought the pharmaceutical industry was slimy before reading this post?
You're a drug rep selling psych meds (hey, had to make the post fit this week's Grand Rounds somehow!), and you have to meet your quota. The family doc whose office you're walking up to right now, though, is 100% hardass.
You can bet that you won't even get the chance to have any face time with him - even though his secretary always cleans out your briefcase full of samples (this doc's one of the "sample-grabbers" you heard about in training), this doc will only see you if it's by accident, and even then, pretend you don't exist.
Which of the following best describes your attitude?
a) Scared stiff.
There's no way you can up sales if you can't even see the doctor.
b) Pretty nervous.
What if he's behind the counter when you come in and he yells at you?
c) Pissed off.
This is going to be a waste of an appointment.
d) Thrilled.
You know you can accomplish your objectives - probably even better - even if you only talk to the secretary.
If you answered D, you're a slimy lizard, and you'll make an ideal drug rep.
In fact, you'd make an even better one if you believe that there's a "d) thrilled" answer for every single type of doctor - from those who prefer competing drugs, to the skeptical, to the high-prescribers, to the friendly and outgoing, to the ones who won't even meet with drug reps.
That is, after all, how the drug companies train their reps to think.
Thanks to a new journal article out called "Following the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Infl uence Doctors," available to anyone here at the PLoS online peer-reviewed journal, you can get an eye-opening glimpse into the mind of a pharmaceutical drug rep.
The article concludes, "Physicians must rely on information on drugs from unconflicted sources, and seek friends among those who are not paid to be friends."
I'll admit, reading this made me a heck of a lot more wary. Even just a few months into medical school, I've already seen drug reps in action at the family practice clinic I go to for class an afternoon a week. I've seen everything including pens, patient chart notes, and Kleenex boxes supplied by drug companies, with their logo stamped thereupon (though I honestly can't remember any of those sponsoring companies...then again I haven't been prescribing very much yet). I've also gotten a couple free meals thanks to drug companies, and there are students in my class (who instill much jealousy within me) that have clinic at a group family practice office and a different drug rep each week brings lunch for all the docs and staff there.
I strongly encourage you to take a look at the article, even if it's just to browse the fascinating table explaining how a drug rep approaches each of the doctor types listed above. If, like me, you had little to no idea what's going on - or, if you're routinely visited by these reps - you need to at least give this article a glimpse.
By the way, I proceeded to write about this again - link to Version 2, here.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Cancer Survivor, Children's Book Author, and only 14 years old
"I have Hope, Faith and Courage on my side
and Love standing guard at my back.
No Dragon in the world is a match for all that."
Somebody told me about Matthew Epp in an e-mail to our class, and I was incredibly touched by the story and had to share it with you.
When Matthew was only two years old, he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as Wilm's tumor. With three recurrences throughout this life, nobody expected Matthew to survive, let alone be a thriving, energetic and inspirational 14 year old. Matthew has overcome overwhelming adversity with the help of Hope, Faith, Courage and Love, and he has also done some incredible things in his life. He has been selected as the child representative for the Canadian Cancer Society, Saskatchewan's Children's Health and Hospital Foundation 2004 Champion Child, has met the Prime Minister, worked with the Chldren's Miracle Network telethon.
Now, he has written a children's book offering a touching story of a young boy who must undergo surgery who dreams of a magical land, and pictures himself in a fight against a viscious dragon, representing cancer.
You don't have to buy the book to be touched by the story. If you do choose to, however, and I highly recommend it, regardless of your age I can assure that you will benefit from the breathtaking story that this young man has to offer. A portion of sales goes to help fund cancer research.
