medistatic - Tumblr blog

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A GUIDE TO MAKING EFFECTIVE SLIDES aka how to create presentation slides that actually improve your presentation

By Eintsein

(apologies for the variation in image quality. idk what went wrong with tumblr)

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HPV Vaccine Masterpost

aivarobinson  asked:  What’s your opinion on the HPV vaccine, especially for those not sexually active? I’ve heard so many conflicting things and I was curious about your take on it.

Let me start by saying that my opinion shouldn’t matter.

What really matters is that vaccines save lives. It has been proven time and time again. (Sources at the bottom).

So let’s talk about HPV:

It causes cervical cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, anal cancer, vulvar/vaginal cancer, penile cancer, genital warts, and laryngeal papillomas. Risk factors for being infected are age less than 25, sexual activity prior to age 16, and multiple partners or a partner who has had multiple partners. Millions of Americans are infected and millions more will become infected every year.

The Gardasil-9 vaccine (the only HPV vaccine available in the US right now) protects against 9 high risk strains of HPV which are responsible for causing 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts. 

The original Gardasil vaccine was studied in 29,000 patients and Gardasil-9 was studied in an additional 15,000 and continues to be studied now. The only significant adverse event was an increase in syncope (passing out) immediately after being given the shot, which is why it’s recommended to be observed for 15 minutes after getting the shot. 

Keep reading

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A poem by Lydia Boyette at School of Osteopathic Medicine.

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Day 21

If you don’t regret your choice of doing medicine, everyday, you’re doing something wrong.

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How to Deal with Study Burnout

As students in this day and age, it’s quite common for us to juggle rigorous academic responsibilities and overwhelming extracurricular activities. As a result, we might feel burnt out. But what exactly is burnout? 

Burnout is when you feel physically and mentally exhausted as a result of constantly lacking the energy required to fulfill the demands of your studying.

Burnout can be broken down into three parts:

Exhaustion is what causes you to feel tired all the time and unable to concentrate. You could also get sick or have trouble sleeping.

Cynicism or depersonalization is when you feel disconnected from those around you, e.g. your friends and family.

Inefficacy is a decrease in productivity, efficiency, or quality of your work.

How do you know if you have burnout?

Symptoms may vary, but they include:

Being unable to absorb new information

Intellectual exhaustion

Decreasing academic performance and productivity

Feeling like you need to prove yourself

Making yourself work even more, even though you’re exhausted or being unwilling to study further

Neglecting your needs

Long term fatigue

Showing disinterest in things you normally enjoy, e.g. hobbies or friends

Denying that something’s wrong with you (may manifest in the form of aggression)

Avoiding social interaction

Feeling empty and depressed

What can I do to fix it?

Here are some short term solutions for dealing with burnout.

1. Take a power nap Power naps are life changing. They help you recharge your energy and get you ready to start working again. They also improve learning, memory, creativity, alertness, and mood. I would recommend napping for 30 minutes at most, because anything more will lead to a longer sleep session.

Optional: drink coffee before your nap - something that takes a short while to consume like a shot of espresso - so that you’ll feel alert and revitalized afterwards!

2. Take a shower A cold one will wake you up, but a warm one will calm you down. I suggest starting with warm water, then ending with cold water.

3. Exercise Whether it’s playing soccer or doing yoga, the important thing is to get moving! Exercise releases endorphins or happy hormones that help you combat stress.

4. Run a quick errand This will help take your mind off things while also getting something done! You’ll also end up walking, which is technically a form of exercise.

5. Call or visit a friend Sometimes what we’re lacking is social interaction, and hanging out with a friend definitely helps. Whether it’s providing you with a distraction or giving emotional support, your friends are always there to help you. Plus, science has shown that being with friends reduces your cortisol (stress hormone) levels.

6. Eat a snack Preferably a healthy one. Eat something with proteins, vitamins, and fibers to boost your mood. Here’s a list of mood boosting foods.

7. Surf the web This requires A TON of discipline, but it’s definitely a game changer. Surfing the web is one of the most relaxing things you could do. I personally look for a good laugh during my study breaks, so I’d watch a comedy or scroll through memes to get those happy hormones up and running.

8. Do an activity you find interesting, e.g. a hobby We all need happiness in our lives, and our hobbies are perhaps the best way to find that joy. You could sit down with a page turning adventure, or go outside and shoot hoops, or listen to a podcast, or even bullet journal, as long as you’re having a good time.

9. Listen to music Music is one of the ways we gain energy, so I always make time for it during the day. However, you should choose the right music, because not all the music you love is going to make you feel energized. For me, it’s pop punk with hard hitting beats, thundering guitars, and really upbeat, enthusiastic vocals. Some of you might be energized by mellow music with dreamy vocals that make you feel like you’re floating in the clouds. If you choose the wrong music, you might just end up feeling sluggish and drained.

10. Get some fresh air Your brain needs 20% of the oxygen in your body. Fresh air brings more oxygen to your brain so that you can think more clearly, feel less tired, and concentrate more easily.

How do I make sure I don’t get it in the future?

Avoiding study burnout in the long term has a lot to do with our study habits - as well as our daily habits. We need to make sure that our bodies and minds receive the things they need, and that we aren’t overworking them.

1. Study a little at a time Break up your notes into smaller, more easily digestible pieces and learn a little at a time. This way, you’re not overwhelming your brain, and you have time to let that new knowledge settle in.

2. Time management Having a good study schedule is crucial in preventing burnout. You don’t want to force yourself to work at your slow hours. Aside from that, you definitely shouldn’t leave things until the last minute, and sticking to a schdule will help you pace yourself. Here’s a post I wrote on How to Make an Efficient Revision Schedule and How to Beat Procrastination.

3. Get enough rest I cannot stress enough that sleep is so important for you. It improves your cognitive functioning and also enhances your mood, making it less likely that you’ll get burnt out. Make sure to take power naps, too, if you feel like you need them. 

You also really shouldn’t pull all-nighters. Sleep is also involved in cementing memories in your brain, so if you study a little before you sleep, you’re bound to remember more than if you studied a chapter during an all nighter.

Having trouble sleeping? Here’s a post I made about my night routine and how to get better sleep.

4. Cycle your study environments Your body and mind are bound to get tired from being in the same location for prolonged periods of time. The best way to fix that is to study in different places: at your desk, your backyard, the dining table, a cafe, a friend’s house, the library, etc.You should find a frequency that works for you. I like to switch it up every 2-3 days; some people change locations every week.

5. Eat well As I’ve mentioned before, healthy foods with protein, vitamins, and fiber greatly improve your mood and your physical health. Proper nutrition will give your brain the power it needs to push through. Also make sure not to skip meals; honestly you’ll just end up feeling terrible afterwards.

6. Take frequent breaks Let’s face it, we’re human, we’re bound to get tired from studying for a long time. Taking breaks enables our brains to digest the information we just learned in a pace that works for it. Breaks also help us focus on something other than studying, so that when we do get back to it, we’ll be ready to digest even more information.

7. Set realistic study goals You’re gonna memorize all 500 pages of your biology textbook in one day? Good luck with that. Some of you might be compulsive studiers, but this kind of habit isn’t very good for your brain or your physical health. Studies have shown that excess studying can lead to lower productivity, fatigue, and - you guessed it - burnout. In the end, this will result in lower academic performance, perhaps even in the long run. So instead of trying to study so much in one sitting or one day, break up your material into chunks.

8. Maintain your social life Wherever you lie on the introvert-extrovert spectrum, everyone needs social interaction once in a while. It keeps you sane and healthy. Go out with your friends, have a sleepover, or maybe even a study date.

9. Start the day right What we do in the morning can significantly affect our mood for the rest of the day. Sometimes we don’t even feel like getting up in the morning, or doing anything that day. One thing you should do is create a morning routine you enjoy to jumpstart your day. Here are 8 Morning Habits for Productivity.

10. Think positive When we’re feeling burnt out, it’s hard to not think negatively about everything. In reality, that just makes our condition worse. So think positively! Start small, like congratulating yourself for getting out of bed today, and then work your way up to bigger accomplishments, like finishing 2 chapters of your textbook.

11. Keep a stress diary This is kind of a new concept for me, but it’s really great. How it works is that each day, you would write down all the things that made you stressed and how they made you stressed. This will help you identify the things you’re doing that’s causing your burnout, e.g.

Too long study hours? take regular breaks

Too much time in the same place? cycle your study environment

Not eating properly? set aside time to eat healthy meals at least 2 times a day

Not doing the things you love? schedule in time for that, e.g. during your long breaks

Not getting enough human interaction? make a study group

Too much negative thinking? adopt a positive mindset (you can always start small)

Not getting enough sleep? fix your sleep schedule

And that’s all I have for you guys this time. Hope these tips will help you manage your stress and study burnout whenever you have them. And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop an ask!

P.S. if any of you want to see the images in this post in better quality, click here (link to google drive)

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Just a reminder that Medblr isn't as nice as they seem because of lack of inclusivity to gunner culture, so please think twice before joining

This is a hilarious joke….. amiriteguyz

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Tips for the new ‘terns...

Rule #1: Don’t lose yourself in the system.

This is important. Intern year was, by far, the most difficult thing I’ve had to do. This includes cancer, grad school, and medical school. It’s really fucking hard. The hours are long and, often times, inhumane. The patients can be incredibly mean and unappreciative of your time and care. The learning curve is near vertical. This is near impossible to handle alone. Rely on your support system. Try to hold on to at least one non-medicine related activity. Regardless of what the medical education system seems to be saying, remember that you are a person, having a life outside of the hospital doesn’t make you a bad doctor, and you are allowed to put yourself first. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SACRIFICE YOUR HEALTH FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR PATIENTS. Seek out the support you need. Utilize Jeopardy as needed. This will be a hard year; take care of yourself and take care of your co-interns. Don’t let anyone around you drown, especially if that “anyone” is YOU.

Rule #2: Rely on your upper level residents.

Accept help when it is offered. Ask for help when you need it. This is harder to do than it seems. After four years of pain, you finally have that MD (or DO) behind your name. Your patients and assorted hospital staff are calling your doctor. You feel like you’re supposed to know what you’re doing… but you don’t. THIS IS OKAY. Medical school doesn’t prepare you for this. You are supposed to be stupid. If you came into intern year already knowing how to care for patients then residency would be a moot point. Absorb as much knowledge as possible from your upper levels. Ask all the questions. Quite literally there is no such thing as a stupid question during intern year. If you are drowning and feeling overwhelmed to the point of being unable to accomplish your work, SPEAK UP. No one is perfect, and your upper level may not recognize that you’re drowning. Remember, half of your upper levels were interns just a few hours/days ago. We are all still learning. Make your needs known, and accept our help when it’s offered. Especially early in the year.

Rule #3: Organization is the name of the game.

Your primary objective as an intern is to get shit done. Simple. You can’t do that if you’re disorganized. So, first things first, get yourself a system of organizing your patient-related tasks and stick with it. Write down everything. EVERYTHING. Afternoon urine output check on a heart failure patient? Write it down. Told a patient you’d drop back by his room to clarify some questions? Write it down. Need to remember to write your daily progress note? Write it down. Need to enter in daily labs for tomorrow? Write it down. You get the picture. I personally used the folded side of a printed patient list, but any organization system that prevents tasks from falling between the cracks is golden. Good interns aren’t the ones who know everything. Good interns are the ones who let as little as possible fall through the cracks. Book knowledge, knowing the next step in management? Overrated. That comes with time and repetition. This is how you get there.

Rule #4: Use your med students.

Let’s be honest here. By the time intern year starts, the third years are starting to get into a groove. They’ve been around for a couple of months at least, and, chances are, know way more about logistics of the hospital and the basics of the EMR than you do. The AIs are an even more seasoned source of info. Use these guys to your advantage. Given how useless you feel on any given day as a med student, I found it kind of nice to be able to help the new interns. 

Rule #5: Don’t let anyone rush you into making a non-urgent decision!

This was really hard for me to grasp. I felt like a failure every time I’d get paged about a cross-cover situation that I couldn’t immediately handle. It’s fine, guys. Very few situations require an immediate answer. Take your time. Paged about a patient with hypotension? As long as they’re mentating appropriately, take a few minutes to see where the trend of their blood pressure over the day. Check to see if there’s a recent TTE to determine if they can handle a big IVF bolus. You have time. Don’t let anyone try to pressure you into making an immediate non-critical decision. It’s totally ok to admit that you need to look at the patient’s chart first and you’ll call them back in a few minutes. This isn’t a weakness. This is you practicing good medicine.

Rule #6: Play well with others.

Medicine is a team sport. Your part, while important, it only one piece of a larger whole. You’re going to have a bunch of different, though usually complementary, professions surrounding you in the hospital. Getting along in a team sport is all about appreciating everyone’s POV and contribution. Never, ever, ever dismiss someone’s input. If your nurse is telling you that she is concerned about a patient, ask her why. Try to understand. Don’t just blow her off as being paranoid. This sounds ridiculously basic but, trust me, that reaction is really tempting when you’ve got notes to write and seven other patients who also need your attention. Disagree with a nurse’s request for pain meds, anxiolytics, an ekg, x-ray, etc? Think out loud. Explain your reasoning. One of two things typically happen. One, she already knows everything you’re telling her and just had to pass along the request to get the patient denied from “the doctor”. Two, you teach her something. Beyond nursing, you’ll also be interacting with pharmacists, nutritionists, respiratory therapists, etc. Strike up a conversation with any of these guys and you’ll be AMAZED what all these professions can teach you. Trust me… it’s a lot.

Rule #7: Don’t let bad interactions taint your view of an entire profession.

You’re going to meet asshole nurses. You’re going to meet asshole doctors. You’re going to meet asshole patients. It happens. Difficult as it may be, don’t let one interaction taint your view of an entire population. 

Other Tips and Tricks:

My method of organization (https://tmblr.co/Zzhx1h2M0rPsM)

Paging etiquette (https://tmblr.co/Zzhx1h2N9W0Fn)

Teaching med studs (https://tmblr.co/Zzhx1h2NWra51)

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hey, thanks so much for your response & concern, i really appreciate it! (if not evident, im the person who sent you the disqus comment). i’d love to hear other peoples’ responses in the medblr community so if anyone out there has any info/insight on the matter please let me know! 

in all honesty i’m just seriously wondering if this is right for me because i am incredibly unhappy studying for the steps right now and being rejected consistently (due to visa issues/administrative barriers mainly) doesn’t help. im struggling to study every day and i know that caving under pressure isn’t going to help me perform, in fact i’m preparing myself to fail the steps as of right now. all of this just makes me wonder whether or not this is right for me, and if i’m already unhappy and not dealing with the stress, how am i going to handle residency? i just don’t want my degree to go to waste because thats exactly what it feels like (also the notion of ‘unemployed doctor’ is almost laughable in a world where supply v demand mismatch occurs in healthcare). 

Cranquis-Mail: What if I can’t match into residency?

daoko asked on Disqus:

hi dr cranquis! i’d have liked to have asked you this on tumblr, but because of time differences, i don’t think i could have caught you at a time where your ask box is open. i’m an IMG who is pretty landlocked in terms of internship/residency options (as in every door has been shut in my face right now), and am currently in the midst of steps hell. things arent…exactly looking up for me at the moment (in that im rapidly losing faith and it’s kind of making me seriously unhappy to the point where im barely functioning), and i was wondering whether you know of anyone who failed to match and what they did instead?

Hello, friend. I can only begin to imagine your frustration and the encroaching depression. First and foremost, I want you to know that if you are feeling like harming yourself, PLEASE DON’T. Please, seek help first. List of international depression, suicide, etc. hotlines here. I don’t want to lose a future colleague!!!!

As for my personal insight into people not matching to residency and what they did instead – I don’t have any stories to draw from about that. It’s been almost… 15 (?!) years since my own match, so I’m rusty in that whole department. 

But I wanted to put your situation/question out to the ever-supportive Medblr community, in the hopes that they can provide you with the ideas, encouragement, listening ears and tear-absorbent shoulders you need to get through this time. Who knows, perhaps in the process of helping you get through this awful time, others who share your conundrum may find hope and support too…

So, here’s a hug from me – and my prayers are with you at the moment that I post this.

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Shoulder + arm

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16.09.2016 // High school has ended, all my friends are going to college and i couldnt get the score for med school at my nationals. yeah, i failed. SO WHAT? Let me tell you what, i’ll be at home studying for the nationals again but this time with strong steps, straight voice & determination. Oh and no school! Yay!

Its hard. Its hard to stay for another year. Its hard to see everyones college photos. Its hard to disappoint everyone including myself. Its hard to fail. So i need my community’s support. Can you please send me some motivation?

I love you all 🐱

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180312 // Mental hygiene. Here are some tips to keep your mind cleand and positive that helped me a lot.

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15 April 2018 // kicking study-mode into high gear because finals are right around the corner 🙃

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Made notes on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy!

Do you prefer pen and paper or digital notes? I prefer both!

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finally bought a ryan bear 🐻 (ig - michellesonline)

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You have to be odd to be number one.

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Out of Context Medical School Quotes

Oh medical students. How our reputations supersede us. Lately, I’ve seen a ton of people romanticizing being in medical school or some variation thereof. We’ve been forgotten as the very human, often ridiculous people who are just trying to survive in a high stakes, high pressure world. 

I’ve written out quotes I that I still remember over the last 4 years mostly because they’re kinda funny but also because we’re just regular humans. This is all meant and good fun and if you have any, please feel to include them! 

“Hey, I’m done holding this placenta do you want it now?”

“Your hair looks really nice today so if you don’t want to flip the body you don’t have to.”

“Do you think the reason we get loopy at night in the study rooms is because of the whiteboard marker fumes?”

“Being detailed oriented becomes a lot more high stakes when it involves a colon.”

“Who gets to name the bugs? Who gets to use the word influenzae if it’s not the flu!”  

“Can I come over and pet your dog for a little while? I really need it.”

“I’ve never gone through so many highlighters in this short of a time.”

“I’m an adult and I can use pizza to cope if I want.”

“Hey, you want to see something gross? Too late! Here it is.”

“I liked being a vet tech, but my chances of being bit as a people doctor are somewhat lower.”

“You learn a lot about someone after watching them do a pelvic exam.”

“Sometimes it’s just better to stay in your self-induced cocaine coma.”

“I told him not to show up in the cow suit for this presentation!”

“You can’t sacrifice mealtimes with poptarts so you can study more.”

“Don’t eat bagels of the treatment tables!”

“Can you imagine? I’ve touched all of our classmates’ butts and it’s not even weird anymore.”

“It’s pimp or be pimped in this world.”

“He pushed an ICU nurse?! I’m surprised he didn’t end up in the ICU himself after that.”

“I’m stuck in on-call purgatory. I want to see cool stuff but I also want to sleep.”

“How many times in a day do you think I can eat lunch in the doctor’s lounge without getting caught?”

“In technical terms, he sounds crunchy as hell.”

“I guess if you’re gonna get tazed the ER is the place to do it.”

“I’m gonna need to know if there is a place I can dance around here.”

“You can’t just show up to a rotation with video games.”

“All skills are applicable in medicine. Especially stapling.”

“I had never really thought about liquids I have a problem with, but I know which ones they are now.”

“I can’t tell if I like doing this or I’ve just been stockholmed into liking it.”

“We’re going to use teamwork to help reduce our suffering.”

“How you mistake anything else for V tach?!”

“This ER looks like the hallway to hell.”

“I don’t know where the FM intern is, so congratulations, you’re the intern now.”

“As interview season goes on, I realized all I want is to be fed.”

“Match was so exciting, until I realized I actually have to go be a doctor.”