And a little inspiration . . .

propelling me to study and think about where I could be in a few years time.

ANZAPT is a support forum for Australian and New Zealand Psychiatrists in Training. I love it as it gives outsiders an insight as to what it is like to train as a psychiatrist, and includes the bad as well as the good.

It is definitely worth a read if you are considering going into this field.

My brain is running on half-power . . .

and I suspect my cat ate one of the mice that runs the wheel that supplies the power. Anyway, as a strange result, I'm feeling philosophical. It is a little bit like being drunk, but I am more co-ordinated and am legally allowed to drive.

One of the things that always surprises me in life is when you try something you never thought you could do, and you succeed. For me, the whole process of medical school has been a lot like that. I never expected to do as well as I did on the entrance exam. Sure, I worked hard for it. I never expected to get in, and didn't expect to do well in the first few rounds of assessment that I have done. But I did.

Perhaps we should all be more willing to challenge ourselves and do the things that we always wanted to do, especially if the only reason for not attempting them is fear of failure.

I feel both admiration and jealousy for people who seem to wander through life without a hint of self-doubt or fear of failure. But then again, I think I would rather have a well-developed sense of my own fallibility than fly along feeling bulletproof.

I guess there is a happy medium somewhere that we all need to find. Perhaps I need to push my level of confidence from "I don't know if I can but I am going to work at it so it happens" to "I know I'll be able to do it and I'm working hard to get there." Life would be a lot less stressful.

Oh, the shame!

Although the medical students at our university have been back at lectures for ages, we are still only a couple of weeks into second semester for the regular undergrads. However, it is SECOND semester (unless, of course, you started your degree halfway through the year) and so you would expect them to be on top of things and used to being independent uni students.

Not always.

This afternoon, I was treated to the sight of a young man being dragged through the university bookstore by his mother. Seriously.

Could he not be trusted to buy the books himself, even if he had to be given the money by his parents? Is his mother such an expert in the areas he is studying that she is aiding him in his textbook selection? (Given that most courses have set textbooks, this is unlikely.) Can she not let go? Is he hoping that he won't be seen by anybody he knows? Does he realise that the amount of time he spends on campus with his mother is inversely proportional (in an exponential manner) to his chances of hooking up with a nice girl, or even (especially) a not-so-nice girl??

I don't mind going out for a meal or seeing my parents socially. I love them. But even as an 18 year-old I didn't need them with me to show me the ropes at university. Considering that neither of them had been to university or had studied the courses I studied, it would have been ludicrous. And boring for them. And they would have let me know, and whinged about when I was going to actually grow up and do things for myself.

Seriously, as somebody whose parents encouraged her independence, I can hardly imagine how painful the process must be for this young man, and for his mother. I can only hope that he is a first-year. And will move out soon. For his sake.

I think my husband's mother came to uni with him a couple of times in his first week. Thankfully, I hadn't met him yet. So there is hope, yet, young man! You may yet grow up to be normal, well-adjusted (if slightly mad) and independent! Break free!! ;)

The joy of Clinical Medicine

I just thought that I would add that I am in love - with Kumar & Clarke's Clinical Medicine.

Sadly, I come from a clinical background rather than a scientific one, so I actually learn much faster and understand better when I see things presented from a clinical viewpoint. Thus, any books that present things from a clinical view make me fall in love with them, buy them and bring them home to live with all of their brothers and sisters.

I frequently feel stupid when I talk to people with strong scientific backgrounds in various areas, but I am quite used to feeling like I don't know much at all so it is nothing new. Good to get used to it now, BEFORE I am an intern, I guess. :)

Some days I am so happy to be learning more about medicine, but other days I am just terrified at the amount that I don't know, and worse still, the amount that seems to flow out of my brain when I am not looking. Some times all I can do is scratch my head and wonder about how I am going to deal with it when I am actually out there and working as a doctor. Time will tell.

The myth of the balanced life

Yes, the idea of the medical student who works, exercises, eats well and studies everything they are meant to is a complete myth. However, there are some things that I have found that I absolutely have to do to feel well.

1) Exercise. Watch the TV or movies that you love. If you do both at the same time, it counts as productive time rather than pure relaxation or procrastination. ;)

2) Eat healthy food. Avoid takeaway. Find a few nice FAST meals (or some good healthy frozen ones). Nothing will get you down faster than putting on weight and feeling like crap.

3) Actually stop procrastinating and get in and do the study quickly! Find effective ways of study that work for you. I learn by answering questions. Others learn my re-writing information. Others retain things by reading. We are all different.

4) Schedule some time for social events. Don't turn into a hermit. But don't feel pressured into going to all the crazy parties if that isn't your style.

5) Find some excellent friends/tutors in higher years and organise tutorial sessions, and get their advice. This counts as effective study.

6) USE PAST EXAMS!!

7) Even if anatomy isn't particularly examined, learn a good grounding of the basics. I love anatomy (including histology), so I had to put this in. I hated learning it as an undergraduate, but I am so bloody happy that from now on it is mainly revision.

8) Take the time to do the things that you really want to do. Life has a way of forcing you to take time-out if you don't do it for yourself. Stay in control. Do it your way. :)

9) Keep an eye out for specials. Get that facial. Buy those pants. Find places on-line where you can buy the nice smelly fancy perfume/cosmetics/face care products that make everyday things much nicer.

10) Cuddle a cat. Or a dog. Or a friend. However, before you do this, just make sure that none of them bite or scratch first.

11) Reward yourself for the things that you HAVE done, rather than punishing yourself for the things that you haven't. Sure, I didn't manage to learn EVERYTHING in first semester that I wanted to. But I passed the exam and got a good mark, and I feel good about it!

Anyway, they are just a few thoughts I wanted to jot down. Hope you are all having a good day.

Contain your shock - I wrote another post!!

I just thought I would write a couple of thoughts about the graduate medicine experience that have been floating through my head lately.

We get lectures every week - usually around 7 or 8 of them. However, the content and order is completely variable, and we will often have weeks where it seems that we have covered the intricate detail of XYZ cellular process, and have not been "taught" one thing on the major pathological process of the week.

Frustrating? Yes. Confusing? Often.

One of the odd things that people who are not in the course don't seem to expect is that we don't have any real kind of continuity in our lecturers. We may have the same expert twice in the one week talking about the same topic, and then not see them again for another year or two. We certainly don't have regular lecturers who guide us through the concepts in a logical fashion week after week. In essence, you have to learn how to guide yourself.

We have two or three academics from the university who seem to come in semi-regularly to teach in their areas, which helps. However, they often seem to teach in areas about which they are not experts. This can be offputting, particularly when you recognise that something they are brushing over is not quite right. (This happens when you are already a qualified person in the area concerned and you recognise that they are teaching material that because obsolete 20 years ago, not because you read something different in a magazine somewhere!)

Thus, I have become a hoarder of textbooks. I look up to their authors as I used to idolise my lecturers in my undergraduate courses. Just joking!! But seriously, I am getting sentimental about my textbooks where I used to not particularly care about them. I have also noticed other people do this.

To do well in this course, you have to be HIGHLY self-motivated to the extent where you are able to work out your own study schedule and take an educated guess at the areas you are supposed to be covering. Past exams and the advice of students in higher years is invaluable.

When motivation starts to lag, the only person who is capable of pulling you back into line is . . . yourself.

I don't mind all of this. It is just different. I am still rapt to be studying medicine, even if it isn't all sunshine, fluffy white clouds and ponies. And why the goat? No particular reason. Perhaps if I were as stubborn as one, I would get more study done! Besides, I love the hair - that goat looks high-maintenance!!!

Welcome to August

Happy August!
I have been slack with the posting (along with many other things!), so sorry for the break.

Since I last posted:

1) I caught up with my friend and her baby and had a fantastic time. She is back to her old self again now that she is used to the sleep deprivation, and her baby is gorgeous. Thanks for the advice, everybody who posted.

2) We are even further into the second half of the year, which frightens me a fair bit, as we are so much closer to the end-of-year exams and I still have so much left to learn. But I am VERY excited about being a SECOND YEAR!!!

3) Motivation to study regularly has gone away for a long break. Perhaps it is the topics we are covering, or the sheer quality of what is on television, or the fact that I am actually exercising again. Sorry, cross out that middle one.

4) Being a first-year medical student is getting very frustrating and annoying. I love the medical study and learning about how things happen. However, the way universities run things still drives me insane. I doubt that I could do what they do with the budget that they have, however as a student it gets frustrating when you feel like you are falling between the cracks and nothing you can do is changing anything.

5) I read the final Harry Potter book the first day it was released, so that I didn't have to worry about overhearing the ending. I love the fact that most of the "spoilers" that had been released on the internet were just plain wrong. (I looked them up AFTERWARDS!) :D

6) Everything has been going swimmingly. Hope you're all having fun, too!