#mainly bogged down with my master's program and work | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

caribmdguy · 6 years ago

Text

Looking back I’m super grateful that I had some time to adapt to things before term 1 med-I’ve met a group of amazing people, I stayed with 1 of the same roommates from term 1 MPH, and had a feel for how SGU operates. Term 1 was exciting, but also a grind. I think the best way to go about reflecting on this is to think about the different sections of the curriculum, and go from there, since your life does kind of revolve around that here, haha.

In the very beginning we had our white coat ceremony, which to be honest I rationalized at first as being silly. I thought to myself “why is SGU giving us long coats, we need short coats for our rotations so we can’t use these!” And “isn’t all this congratulatory stuff a little early? We just got here!” The feeling was amplified when a group of us went to the beach to take photos in our white coats and a nice local woman saw us with our stethoscopes and asked us if we could check her blood pressure. “We…don’t know anything yet. I’m really sorry..”

What the fuck is this

I felt pretty bad about that because here I am in the getup but no idea how to do anything. But the point was to ease us into what would become our life more or less. And an important message of the ceremony was to promote humanism-to treat the person, not the disease. To always remember that what you’re learning is important, but making that connection with your future patients is equally important. I came back to this thought a lot when my motivation faltered. So I put my skepticism aside and celebrated a little before the real work began!

I think I bit off more than I could chew this semester, and learned the hard way. I started an online MBA program just prior to starting, took up a treasurer position for the Public Health Student Association, and maintained running my business, which unexpectedly got a lot of press this semester. It started with a story in the New York Times, which has many errors in their depiction of what was actually happening. I had a lot of consecutive interviews for various news networks between class, and even did a “webcam” interview for a local cable station in my scrubs right out anatomy lab because hey, might as well I guess. It was incredibly frustrating to be painted the way I was, but I think the truth is out there now. In either case that’s a story for another day!

How things worked

To start out, we registered and collected our books and Physical Diagnosis (PD) kit. Altogether this cost just shy of $2,000, and is non-negotiable. Everyone gets these same set of books, printed notes to the FTM module and the same things in your PD kit. I’ve since found out that the stethoscope they get you is actually pretty nice so thats a plus. If you’re curious it’s a ProCardial C3 Titanium Stethoscope – Critical Cardiac Care Edition, which runs around $170. So not bad at all, although I have tried friends Littmann’s and they’re significantly lighter and more comfortable in my opinion. The one SGU gives you is really good, but it’s also pretty thick/heavy. Besides that small complaint, I’ve used it for everything we’ve needed to do here and have gotten pretty used to it, if anything it’s probably even overkill. The only other thing I gripe about is that many of these books I still haven’t used or barely used through the first year, and that we have no choice in that 2k upfront cost. And the most important book to have in my opinion, First Aid, was not in attendance sadly.

Lots of books….With printed notes for the FTM module on top

The PD kit they gave us

For us, I thought the format was pretty straightforward. 4 one hour lectures a day with multiple choice questions in the lecture you respond to on a “clicker.” These were used to check attendance-needing 80% to pass, with this rule applying to other things like small group and multiple choice questions. There were 2-4 small group sessions a week which were pretty varied, from histology (discussing slides), to wet lab (cadavers), biochemistry/physiology (discussion), imaging labs with ultrasound and discussion of radiographs, to patient encounters. There were two SIM lab encounters during the CPR module, which were really fun in my opinion. These were done in mock hospital rooms lined up where we as a group see a robo-patient. It can be pretty realistic-the patient is controlled and you can hear realistic heart sounds and feel pulses among other things, and they set it up for us to mimic some cardiac problems. To do these you have to be basic life support certified, which you usually do at the beginning of the term.

There were 5 major tests, each 3 hours long with 131 questions (except the first exam which is shorter, but all with 82 seconds/question), along with 2 anatomy lab exams. We had weekly multiple choice question sessions (where you need at least 50% right to get the point) and weekly 20 question/30 minute quizzes (again need at least 50% right). There was also an objective structured clinical exam at the end. The latter 4 exams all have cumulative stuff too.

Keep in mind that this is just my experience, they change curriculum a lot.

Foundations to medicine (FTM)

Our first block, the FTM module, was probably the easiest one the first year, which makes sense. But you do hit the ground running. It focused on foundation type concepts in biochemistry, the major genetic diseases and inheritance patterns, cell biology concepts like cell division and apoptosis, histology basics (going over various stains) and skin histology. While that’s the gist, there were broad concepts that touched on things from other disciplines we learn in more detail later on. We rote memorized autonomic nervous system drugs and some major anticancer and antibiotic drugs/actions for example. And learned some fluid dynamics things and about action potentials, that we don’t delve more into until renal/cardio. But looking back, genetics and biochemistry were probably the biggest topics (but fear not, no metabolism yet).

There were two tests in this section, and small group labs that were mainly histology and biochemistry. By lab I mean there are 8 of us and one facilitator, and in histology we spend two hours looking at slides of cells. We each take turns presenting to the group. There is no hands on in histology-you just need to be able to know what you’re looking at. The small groups were pretty useful I thought because it forced you to learn the material, and for histology especially if you spent around 3 hrs prepping slides you were pretty well set for the test.

I admit here that having a masters in biochemistry gave me a pretty good leg up in this section, so I might be a bit biased here. A lot of the lab test and biochemistry stuff was straightforward IMO and didn’t go into much detail. Most of my friends did pretty well in this section. I will say that the first two tests were probably the biggest filters. A lot of people dropped out after these two tests, and MSK (the next block). I did feel a bit cooped up here. It’s all 100% book work. At times I felt more like I was back in grad school than med school, but with no lab time, a little more tedious. But it gets more fun when you get through it, and these basic concepts are seen again and again.

Right off the bat this is where you’ll start learning how to learn. For me this was the most overwhelming part-everyone is throwing around so many resources with weird names. In the beginning you’ll hear things like “You HAVE to try [insert resource]”

First aid

Firecracker

Picmonics

Sketchy

Uworld

Boards and beyond

(Weird name like Brocephalon’s) Anki deck

Osmosis

Pathoma

USMLE rX

MANY, MANY tutoring group resources…there are so many of these unique to SGU with cool names like G’s get degrees and Kahn academy lite

And on… There were so many that people were throwing at me to try and it was difficult not to get bogged down with trying all the things. But I’m glad that I did a “taste test” so I could find a few that worked for me. Some are better than others, some work for various learning styles better. I will say that I’m a huge advocate for Osmosis, which I’ll talk about more at some point because it has some unique features that helped me organize my study time more efficiently, and for any new med students out there, First Aid is an unofficial requirement. The rest of the resources are somewhat similar with each having pros and negatives and covering a spectrum of learning styles, but they mostly link to First Aid in some way. I wish I would have known this going into term 1 or I’d have bought a hard copy then. But fear not! There were enough resources floating around. If you need something, someone would have a copy of it or the various tutoring groups would have some amazing resources to learn from that they compiled/made themselves, which were in a lot of ways much more useful since they are based on what we’re learning at the time and will most likely be tested on. Everything you need is there somewhere if you asked. Learning to navigate all of the resources and get comfortable with some of them is important thought. And If anything, there’s too much.

Ah, one point on books though. You won’t use them. I studied more or less entirely from the slides. Notable exceptions, in my opinion are First aid (your new bible), Netters, and Gray’s Anatomy Review. But even so, I know plenty of people that never use the books and just use electronic copies (which everyone will have anyway). The other books are fine to use electronically in my opinion because you can load it into noteability or onenote and do a search for what you’re looking for. Wheras for those 3 I mentioned, I think it’s just nicer to flip through and anotate as you go. To each their own!

Musculoskeletal system (MSK)

This next block I started to feel more like I was in med school. We were introduced to the anatomy lab, and had our first patient interactions which included learning ultrasound. Coming off of FTM, being stuck in the books for so long memorizing weird words, this was a blessing in disguise. But it was hard, and a pretty drastic change in material, in the sense that whatever you did to learn in FTM will probably not work in this block. Welcome to all the anatomy. So. Much. Anatomy.

I thought I’d be alright with this because I aced anatomy and physiology in college. Boy was I fucking wrong. Med school anatomy is a different beast. Couple of reasons for this. One-knowing the names of muscles is great. But the questions are going to ask something to the extent of like “a man was stabbed near his shoulder and can’t move his arm. Which nerve is affected?” In a nutshell yes you need to know the anatomy but knowing the nerve routes, blood supply and injuries to all the things and how they would present clinically (buzz words like “winged scapula” or “claw hand” to tip you off). Secondly, I’ve heard that med schools have been slowly trimming anatomy. It used to be a pretty major part of the curriculum. But to make room for new things, they’ve had to cram this into less time. At my school, you’ll have just 4 weeks to learn the bones, muscles, nerves, blood supplies, ligaments, histology/physiology, injuries, and what in the hell you’re looking for on radiographs.

But man, it gets real in anatomy lab. It all looks like..meat at first. Is this “noodle” a nerve, vein or artery? IDK! Nothing is nicely colored or labeled in real life, so you have to find some sort of easy to find landmark to know where you are. I’d been used to the smell of formaldehyde after doing dissections on cats in college (couldn’t afford cadavers). But we started learning hands, and…that’s when it hit me I think, that this was a human, with a story, a life, a family….I almost threw up. To make matters worse the facilitator jokingly said “here, let me give you a hand” and gave me a dissected, amputated hand to hold, while proceeding to whip out his tools to point out some nerves on said hand. I wasn’t prepared for that, but hey. It was a good pun. Ultimatly I didn’t actually puke, and we had no idea what we were supposed to be looking for anyway. So…win win I guess?

Complete anatomy pic-actually from the Neuro module (term 2), but found out how to get some clearer images to label things I wanted to point out by then.

View from Complete Anatomy app on Ipad, has a ton of great features! basically labels everything you need to know for the MSK module. I relied on this and Netter’s primarily to figure things out.

Some notes on anatomy lab and what I did to study. First off, there’s no dissections-everything is pre-dissected, and I think this is overall a good thing. We can find what we’re looking for faster. The lab had a series of “loops” set up with say 5ish stations in each loop that has a different area dissected. If we were focusing on upper arm for example, one station may be a whole cadaver with the auxilia/clavicle exposed so you can see brachial plexus, one may be bones of the arm and hand, one may be various dissections to follow nerves to the hand, you get the idea. We’d typically have about 10 minutes per station with a list of important structures to find. In each station I’d say there were usually 4 of us, which I think is a good number without feeling too crowded and gave everyone space to contribute or take turns leading. There were plenty of professors wandering around for help as well, and aside from this the lab had pretty flexible hours. A good amount of people took advantage of this, I didn’t though, but I did come in once for a professor guided run-down of structures. The professor guided one was very useful, we got 2 (optional) of hese per block, and a group signs up for a professors time-slot. I didn’t go to open lab mainly because I eventually found a way to study that translated pretty well to finding structures on a cadaver, which I prepped before lab and then tested myself on he real cadaver during wet lab, and even in the MSK module (the most anatomy heavy by far), anatomy exams are not worth many points at all here.

One of my favorite parts of this was that we saw standardized patients to try the basics of physical exam, like reflexes and various maneuvers to look for injuries to the knee for example. We also learned how to use ultrasound here too, which was more focused on showing us the basics of how to work it and what different kinds of tissue look like. A good setup for the cardio section, where we spent more time learning how to view important heart and lung structures.

I prepped for 3-4 hours before each wet lab so I’d have an idea of what I was looking for starting with the dissection videos the school provided, which were (mostly) well done, but some were pretty old and pixilated or hard to understand. My learning strategy for this was a bit all over the place and I was really thrown to the wall with how to study the first week and slowly figured out what worked for me. I eventually figured that learning the pretty “cartoon” version of a structure and testing myself on cadaver picture atlases worked well. So to learn the leg muscles, I’d open up my trusty Netters atlas (good to know your way around so you can find things later!) and spent a lot of time looking at that. Then I’d mess around with it on Complete Anatomy, which is useful for getting a good 3D image of it in your head. It’s an EXCELLENT 3D anatomy app that does a ton of useful things like showing blood/nerve supply and actions of various muscles, among other things. I’d test myself using Grays dissection guide, and finally McMinn and Abraham’s clinical atlas. McMinns atlas was pretty overlooked by my classmates, but has tagged cadaver pictures with the answers off the image so you can cover the answers and test yourself in a similar way they tested us in the lab exam. That and Grays dissection also note common anatomical variations that are important to know. I basically have done some version of this to learn the rest of anatomy throughout MS1. But everyone learned this in so many different ways. A lot of people relied heavily on drawing things out and watching videos for example. With that said, I survived MSK but it wasn’t one of my better exams. Turns out I focused too much on learning the anatomy and not enough learning injuries, which was more high yield on our exam. I found this was an important lesson though….anything tied to an injury or disease is always going to be super important to know.

Cardio Pulmonary Renal (CPR)

The cardio part of this block was my favorite I think of this semester, while the renal part was probably my worst. From everyone I’ve talked to, you liked one and hated the other. To me the heart made a lot of intuitive sense. You could think through this one! If you knew the basics of how the “piping” goes, and imagine it as one big plumbing system flowing through the lungs, chambers and valves of the heart and to the body, you can imagine what would happen if there was say a kink in a pipe. And just thinking through what would happen saved me some time memorizing. I think some people that struggled with it got stuck on some of the details and memorizing everything. I will say some of the more difficult aspects of the cardio section was the ECG and understanding what’s going on. I can confidently say I was answering the questions mostly right on this because I followed an algorithm to figure it out that we learned. Could I explain why it’s like that or think through it? Hell no!

The small groups for this were pretty exciting I thought, we got to learn some basics of the physical exam like breath and heart sounds, checking blood pressure and various pulses, but my favorite was probably ultrasound. Although we didn’t get a ton of time with this, seeing a beating heart in real time on a real person was pretty amazing. We learned various views on this to look at valves, as well as what you’d see in serious problems like cardiac temponate-when fluid builds up in the pericardium, which “suffocates” the heart with less space to beat.

This was also when we did our SIM labs. I was super nervous the first time, because I didn’t know what to expect, and I think our patient had a form of congestive heart failure. But honestly it was fun and not super high stress at all. We got to apply what we learned in physical exam and hear/see things in an actual person with the disease that a standardized patient can’t replicate. The environment is very similar to a hospital room, and we learned what we should be looking for to assess a patient like this.

Lastly, we moved on the renal system, which is far more complex than I would have thought. While the cardio/pulmonary exam was one of my best tests this term, renal was my worst. The anatomy and embryology stuff was pretty simple, not a whole lot to the kidneys. But the physiology aspect was what got me. Renal physiology is pretty complex, with a lot of hormone and regulation type things going on. By now I was getting burned out too, and looking back I probably could have pushed a little bit harder. I was so ready for the flight home. I was literally counting the hours at this point to when I could fly home and see my wife again. And you know what? It was all good. Made it through.

I reviewed some of the renal things when I got back, but didn’t go too crazy because still had our summer MPH term that started immediately after the renal exam. I stayed on the island a bit longer and attended MPH classes in person for about a week because flights were super expensive right after classes were done. Thankfully, they switched to allowing us to take these classes online so I didn’t have to stay over the summer like I thought I might need to. Thank god for that!

Overlooking BBC beach after finishing up the last exam!

Packed and ready to head back home

Near where we did our MPH classes, overlooking the airport. Was so ready to leave.

Finally got a little beach time before heading home

Term 1 med, looking back Looking back I’m super grateful that I had some time to adapt to things before term 1 med-I’ve met a group of amazing people, I stayed with 1 of the same roommates from term 1 MPH, and had a feel for how SGU operates.

#Medical School #Medicine #MS1 #SGU #Term 1 Med #Year One

0 notes

valeriebielbooks · 7 years ago

Text

Interview with author Liz Czukas (aka Ellie Cahill)

I absolutely loved I Temporarily Do by Ellie Cahill (the not-so-secret pen name of author Liz Czukas). It all starts with a marriage of convenience between two wonderfully written and believable characters who don't mean to fall in love. They really don't! And I'm not giving away anything here--this is a romance novel after all. Of course, they fall in love. But what happens next is what makes the story so delicious. I just love a story that makes me laugh out loud. I was so glad to learn there that this is the first book in Cahill's Cordially Invited duo. Can't wait for the next installment.

About the book: A little white lie. A little white wedding. A pair of roommates in over their heads.

Days before she's set to move across the country and start a prestigious graduate program, a con artist leaves Emmy with no where to live and less than zero dollars in her bank account. But her day doesn't seem quite so bad compared to Beckett's--his fiancée called off their wedding just days before they tie the knot. Now he's single and ineligible for his place in married student housing.

So what are a girl without a home and a guy without a wife supposed to do? A quickie wedding in Vegas will solve both their problems. It's a business arrangement, and no one even needs to know. They'll just get an annulment in a few months. What could go wrong? Only Beckett forgot to mention his new apartment is a one-bedroom. And neither of them counted on their new friends at Middlesex University thinking they're a great couple. The platonic newlywed game might be harder to play than Emmy thought. Especially when it starts to feel less than platonic.

To Purchase: Kindle Paperback

I'm so glad Liz agreed to let me pepper her with questions here today, because she's really busy writinggreat stories for us!

Can you tell us about the different jobs you’ve had other than writing? I always like to ask authors this, mainly because authors always seem to have had so many different careers and often an interesting job history.

Before I was published, I was a Labor & Delivery nurse for 9 years! I have a master's degree in Nurse-Midwifery as well, although I never practiced as a midwife. But I only went to nursing school after I realized that my undergrad degree in History and Anthropology wasn't exactly a hot commodity on the job market! Writing is by far my favorite job.

How long have you been writing and how long ago did you publish your first book?

I've been writing as long as I can remember. Terrible stories as a kid, novels, short stories, non-fiction for a health information website, fan fiction...you name it. I wrote it. My first book didn't come out until 2014, but it definitely wasn't the first book I wrote!

If there’s anything that you could go back and tell your ‘unpublished’ self, what would that be?

Patience is a virtue. It can feel very "do or die" in publishing, but the truth is, humans have been making and reading books since we figured out how to communicate. Stories aren't going anywhere, so it's okay to take your time, and it's okay if publishers don't like your first offering.

Is there anyone/anything you would consider the most inspirational or influential in your success as a writer and why?

My senior year English teacher told me that I was a good writer. In fact, he told me he'd give me my money back if I didn't get a 5 on the AP English test. I got the 5 so he got to keep his money. But the things he taught me about reading and writing stuck with me. I dedicated to my first book to him (and my other high school English teachers, actually, because they all had an influence on me in one way or another.)

As you can see from my review above, that I loved “I Temporarily Do”, which you wrote as Ellie Cahill. I know that you also write books under your real name—Liz Czukas. Can you tell us a little bit about how your pen name came to be and how the books you author as Liz Czukas differ from each other?

First of all, thank you so much! I'm glad you loved it. I was first published as Liz Czukas. All my books under that name are YA, intended for teen readers. When I got an offer on my first adult-oriented book "When Joss Met Matt", my publisher wanted me to have a separate identity so readers would know what they were getting. Thus, Ellie Cahill was born. It's handy having a name like Elizabeth, because there are so many good nicknames to use for author personas. And as for Cahill, I wanted something people could actually pronounce!! (Incidentally, Czukas is pronounced CHEW-kiss, or two fun things to do with your mouth.) Although I have a lot of cross-over readers, there are definitely people who prefer one type of book over the other. If you are someone who reads multiple genres, I think it's safe to say that if you like one of my books, you'll like the rest. I'm all about the fun, romantic-comedy feeling in both YA and adult.

Can you please explain the difference between the Young Adult (YA) and New Adult (NA) genres? (I still find people who don’t know that the new adult genre exists.)

New Adult is basically a fancy title for books about people who aren't teenagers, but aren't living the responsible lives of "grown-ups" yet. It can be about college students, or people in the military, or athletes...anyone who is still kind of figuring out who they want to be as adults.

Can you tell us a little bit about how your ideas develop as a writer? Do you have a clear vision of the main characters from the beginning? Do you outline?

Every project is a little different for me. Sometimes the idea for a character comes first. Sometimes just the spark of an idea. Some ideas start as sparks, but can't go anywhere until I combine them with other ideas or characters. I'm not a full outliner. I am a planner, though. I write out a 1-3 page synopsis that gives me a rough plan for where I want to go with my story.

As a writer of middle-grade/young-adult stories, I often get asked why I write stories for this age group. What appeals to you about writing for the young adult and new adult age groups.

I like writing for these age groups because the characters still have so much to learn. They haven't become set in their ways, or bogged down by the drudgery of adulting, like paying mortgages and grocery shopping. Instead, they still have the chance to learn about new things, and who they want to be. They're open to new ideas and possibility. Plus, the intensity of relationships is so strong at these ages. First love, first kisses, first heartbreaks. So much more juicy than later in life.

Of all the books you’ve written (and there have been quite a few) do you have a favorite or is that rather like asking a parent which child is their favorite?

Ha! Definitely like asking my favorite child. I like them all for different reasons. Some, like Ask Again Later, were so much fun to write because of the structure. Others have characters that I practically feel like old friends, like "When Joss Met Matt". Some have favorite scenes or lines of dialogue. That's the joy of writing a lot--there's always something new and unique.

I am always curious about other author’s writing environments . . . so where do bring all your wonderful characters to life?

Nowhere special! I don't have an office at my house. So I'm usually working on my couch on kitchen table. I also meet up with other local writer friends and do some writing at coffee shops, or libraries. If I'm lucky, I get to go on multi-day writing retreats with other fabulous writers and get to immerse myself in nothing but making the words appear on the screen for days and days.

Can we look forward to another book from you soon?

Yes! I have another romantic comedy coming out as Ellie Cahill in November. It's called "The Designated +1", and it features a character who made a very brief appearance in "I Temporarily Do". Don't worry though, it's a complete stand-alone. You can read it without reading any of my other books. It's up for preorder at Amazon, Kobo, and iBooks.

Before we move on to the Fast Five list, is there anything else you want to tell readers about yourself or your books?

Just that I can almost guarantee you a laugh if you read my books. When you need a pick-me-up read, keep me in mind!

Fast Five:

Fav Pizza Topping – mushrooms

Book You’re Reading Now – Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes

Coffee, Tea, or Both – both, but especially latte

Fav TV Show as a Child – Tiny Toon Adventures

Best Place You’ve Vacationed – Rome

How can readers discover more about you and you work?

Website: http://lizczukas.com Facebook: Liz Czukas OR Ellie Cahill Twitter: @LizCzukas OR @Ellie_Cahill

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizczukas/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lizczukas/ Amazon Author Page: Liz-Czukas OR Ellie-Cahill Goodreads: Liz_Czukas OR Ellie_Cahill

Thanks, Liz, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with me today!

#ellie cahill #liz czukas #romantic comedy #new adult #young adult lit #new adult lit #new book release #book review #mustread

0 notes