Blocks are over and I have less than a month until I go home. It’s so close I can taste it. This block went very well being that I
learned about the upper and lower limbs anatomy and other helpful topics. I didn’t attend the Wale concert like I
wanted but I got some ice cream. I have
learned over the past few weeks that closed mouth never gets fed so I can’t
blame anyone for my shortcomings but myself.
I have also learned more effective study habits for the course
that I am currently taking which should be effective for the rest of my
coursework. Making study sheets as
advised from Andrea Tooley on YouTube which I highly recommend checking out
before you start any medical school was very helpful. I will say to make sure that you organize
them properly and I haven’t made it to the question sheets as of yet but it
will happen one day.
As you can read, I have no main topic today because I
believe that I have given all the back story of what to expect when someone is
to get here. Well, I guess I can
actually talk about the classes now.
Anatomy is anatomy.
The teachers we have are very knowledgeable and you will be shocked at
the amount of knowledge that they expect you to know. Between the muscles and bones, you are
expected to know by the end of the block the arteries and veins and their anastomoses. I would say that people who have taken the
class previously did have an advantage but then again I would also say they don’t. They on one hand know a lot of information
already but learning on top of what you already know makes it slightly
difficult to grasp the information at times.
Also, this course just teaches what and how but not why. For some people, it makes this class a lot
harder than it should be. But according
to one of our teachers, anatomy is the easiest course we will take in medical
school. I beg to differ.
Histology. I will be
honest and say that I had no idea what that word meant until I took this
course. It is basically anatomy at a
cellular level. So remember when you had
to use the light microscope to look at slides in biology class? You do it again here in lab. I didn’t think the lab portion was useful
however I see the purpose as a teaching mechanism for teaching what you should
see on each slide and points to note.
Sadly, I didn’t realize this until around the end of block two. It is not very difficult in my opinion but
the synonyms to learn and some of the concepts are difficult to grasp.
Embryology is the story of life. I think you get that from the word
embryology. It is actually a very
interesting course where you learn from conception to birth how a life is
created and all the little parts that contribute to how individuals are
made. The most interesting part thus far
has been the heart. It’s difficult to
explain without seeing. Also this course
has allowed us to learn to fake it until we become it said by our teacher in
reference to a TED talk. By doing this,
we should remember that we know a lot which can help us fake being a doctor
until we are actually one. Superman pose
and GO!
Medical Ethics is more of a conversation course. The conversation is that of determining the
right and wrong of how you would treat the patient in various situations. Whether to kill a patient or let them live. Needless to say, with all the scenarios that
could happen, I find it difficult to determine whether to kill the patient or
let them stay on the ventilator. Maybe
other people see what I see differently but this course depends on the person.
CCBS or clinical correlation of basic sciences. This course is the application of what we are
learning in all of our other courses and how they appear in the clinical setting. This class is by far the most interesting
however you only have two chances to showcase your knowledge of the information
learned in this course. The other courses
are tested each block where this one is tested as a midterm and final. This class you must pay attention because
there is not enough information on the slide.
Plus being that this course is only once a week, you can’t skip it
because that could prevent you from being allowed to take the exams. If you have a background in reading
radiographs, this class will be your strong suit being that that is what is the
main thing taught.
I hope this brief synopsis of the courses is helpful to some
however it is to help from coming in blind sighted. If you would like a little more information,
I advise looking up the SGA website at www.sjsmsga.com. You will always have a person in your class
that asks a lot of questions. I hope
that the one in your class is one that asks relevant questions about what you’re
going over in class. But everyone has
that one!
Just for some interesting information to give I would tell
you that the cost of water is not like it is at home partly because you can
drink water from the tap there. Here,
that is not an option because everywhere has water in a cistern. I once ruined my filtered water bottle by
doing this so it’s really not a good idea.
Also to prevent the need for buying water very often, students often use
old water bottles to fill up at the water fountain in the student lounge but I
didn’t tell you to do so. But it is
there.
Also, there are two restaurants/food spots walking distance
or on campus. There is Jivanni’s Café and
the food truck behind the white building.
They both offer tasty food choices that sometimes aren’t the healthiest
but they satisfy you. They both offer
coffee for $1 and accept Visa and MasterCard.
Well that is it for this time. I would also ask if you would like input from
other students in my class as a blogpost to write it below in the
comments. And for the scripture this
post I will leave you with this:
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the
sea driven with the wind and tossed. For
let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man [is] unstable in all his
ways.
-James 1:6-8
