Post Block 3 Slump!

Block 3 was a week ago yesterday and I still cannot get my brain back in gear to study for finals. I am not sure if it is that I have the Christmas spirit like Santa's Elves or maybe even Santa himself, or if it is my inner desire to be home with my children, but something has me preoccupied. I feel like I need a long vacation to get myself back in the mood to get back down to business and interested in medicine again.

I have done two hours of Goljan today and sprinkled in "house decorating" and "Christmas idea" blogs.

I know that I had things that I wanted to share with you guys about block exams and finals, but for the life of me all I want to tell you about are these neat little Christmas ornament and gift ideas I have found. So head over to my other blog to find out about those.

Ok, ok, I am ready to tell you about finals. The smart thing to do where finals are concerned is to start at the beginning of the semester. I have been in both the position where my final wasn't a big deal, and I have been in the position where I needed to rock the final. So I can attest to the fact that when you have already passed the class you will be much more relaxed during finals than if you need to really blow the final out of the water. Also, if you have done well on the previous blocks, chances are you know the material and you only have to learn the new material for the comprehensive final. This means much less work. But, what if you find yourself in the place where you need to really do well on a final?

If you are in the position where passing or failing depends on the final the first thing is DO NOT PANIC and drop the class right away. I really believe that there are some classes that you learn from taking the tests and once you have figured out what you don't understand you do better on the final. The way it works for me is just like that. I may make a C on a few blocks and I meet with the professor and find out what questions I missed and why and then I understand the material better. Which then brings me to another point which is to talk to your prof after the test to try to understand why you got questions wrong. You may have just misunderstood the wording or you could have been completely confused about a concept. The first is not a huge problem the latter could cause you more errors later on. So it is important to know why you missed what you did.

Back to final preparation. If you are taking a shelf examination I strongly encourage Board Review Series. I used it for Physio and it was priceless. I also used BRS for anatomy (not a shelf for me, but I used the BRS to study for my block exams). I am using Goljan for my pathology shelf, Ill let you know how that goes later. I try to cover all of the material and questions. I am not going to classes the last week b/c I can study at home (usually) better than being on campus. I am a social person and I tend to socialize when I am on campus. Let's face it only so many people have time to be messaging you on facebook and skype, so there is a limit to how many distractions you can come up with at home (for me anyway, I am not a huge fan of tv so that isn't even a problem.) You may find that you can study better in the library or on campus and that is fine. Find your study zone and go there every day, and plan to study for certain subjects based on the number of days/ hours you need and have to study.

I have five days of goljan to listen to, (kill me now) but I have six days to study, so I am going to do all the lectures every day and spend the last day with more questions, and reading. I find that doing questions after I finish a section helps to solidfy what I have read/ heard.

Basically that is it. The long and short of it is use your time wisely in the beginning, and if not use it wisely in the end. Study until your brains fall out and pick them up and study more!!

Until Next time,

Maybe med 2. studying for block 2 I think. 

Amy Jones

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Seasons of Change

        I am not sure what has happened to my blogging lately. I have a lot on my mind and have I guess taken a short hiatus from thinking about blogging. There are a few things that I sometimes think about at random moments. I guess, and perhaps I have blogged about this before, during this season I really begin to miss the seasons.
         I love the island weather, but I really love fall and this is the second fall that I am missing. I will have  more interesting things to blog about, but for all of you who are about to face the gripping cold of winter, I urge you to embrace the chilly kisses that the crisp winter air offers, for it is a blessing. Enjoy the crispy crunch of fall leaves beneath your feet as you walk in to your house. Take a moment to just stand and embrace the changes that come with the seasons. So as the seasons change we do also.
         It helps us to remember the past and look to the future. When there are no seasons it seems like life is stagnant-never moving forward and forgetting the past. I am more and more thankful for the seasons that keep me moving forward and ever reminding me of the past. Helping me to focus on how to do better next season, and what to keep the same. Reminding me that this time will soon move on and there will be another season. Reminding me to relish this season for all the changes that it will bring.
         They even keep me realizing what month it is, and what to expect later. For example, as the weather begins to cool and the leaves begin to change- my brain knows that halloween is coming and then thanksgiving, and as it is gets even colder, Christmas is on the way.
Without the change in the weather I forget about halloween, and thanksgiving, and other holidays that I generally look forward to.
           I know that this message isn't my usual, but hopefully for you who are about to embark on this journey, and for those of you who are already here, you will have time to really enjoy the seasons in your hometown.


Until Next time,
Amy Jones, B.Sc.,
Future M.Sc., M.D.

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Professionalism in Social Networking

This blog is hard one to write, but I think it is necessary. I read a few blogs in my spare time . . ok well not really my "spare" time, but you get the point. One that I particularly like is Mothers in Medicine  for the most obvious reason--I am a mother and I am going to be in medicine. But I also like it because they write about issues that women face in the workforce as mothers. Topics such as taking maternity leave, dealing with the children while dealing with the ER patients, and other topics that are more about parenting than medicine. The mothers are all physicians but have different specialities so there are some topics that are specific to certain specialties, which I also like. Somewhere in reading that blog and diverging onto others from there I found my topic for today. Professionalism in Social Networking (as a physician in my case but for others too.)

YIKES!!! A medical student and social networking, and professionalism should not all be in the same sentence. I know. I am guilty too. But the truth is I am aware of the fact that future resident directors and colleagues will be seeing my facebook page and even though I have my security set high, I know that if someone wants to know something about you and it is on the internet it can be found. My sister is an attorney and I have learned that internet content, in many cases, is the secret weapon. Usually, the silver bullet.

The reasons for being careful are obvious. We know that the pictures we post on facebook don't represent our entire lives or our whole being. For instance, when I look at my facebook pictures I see that  in most of them I have been "prepared" for the photo. In other words they aren't of me when I am studying or when I am in class or hanging out at my house all day. No. Those pictures are boring and not attractive to say the least. I also post to my facebook wall frequently about my daily events and goings on , thoughts, and also a lot of scripture and references to my religion. Now, I am not ashamed of my religion or having children/ a family, but I might choose to not disclose this information to a residency director. While relgion and sex and having children are not supposed to factor into the equation, I fear that in some people's minds, whether they admit it or not, does creep into a decision. For instance, if you know that your resident has four children and is married, you might not think too much about it, but what if she was a single parent? Would you question whether she could handle the load? Would you think about what she would do when one of the four, or all of the four, had a virus? And how many sick days will she take vs the candidate without the children?

But it can be followed beyond your resident years, what about when you are physician? Your patients have access to your facebook postings via a friends, friends, sisters photos. The swear words, and half written words and your hatred for drive through wait times, are not what your patients want to know about you. Nor do they need to know if you have a great sex life or a terrible one.

I am guilty of all of these things.

Your patients that want to know that you have more than a good looking physique, and you know how to spell that, the and you. What if your facebook pictures and posts (in txt lingo) don't really say to them, "I am qualified to have your life in my hands"?

That is the point. I think as future physicians we must realize that our patients respect us as doctors and expect us to be "smart" and to know how to treat their illnesses. They have to first trust us in order for us to treat them. We rely heavily on their trust. We need for them to tell us what is going on with them. If we are blogging about X patient and speaking about patients or our job in a negative way on facebook that could negatively affect our practice, and moreover, how our patients view us. We need to command respect, honorability, and trustworthyiness.

Furthermore, when we enter the workforce there are going to be standards that the hospitals and offices we work in have set for us.

I understand this, and I know that my blog and my facebook and my twitter are all open to the public and I need to be reminded of this ever so often.

If you want to know what the American Medical Association's stance is then check it out here. 

So today I challenge my fellow classmates and colleagues to hold to a higher standard in social networking. May you be viewed as you are : Honorable, trustworthy, dependable, respectable with a brilliant, bright mind that has the ability to make the tough chioces when it comes to medicine. I commit to keeping my blogs, facebook, twitter, likdn (and what ever other social networking site that I join) an outward expression of my desire to help others and be deserving of my patients' trust.

Until next time,

Amy Jones, B. Sc.

Future MD.

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My Advice: an oxymoron

So as this semester comes to a close I have been thinking about how I could have studied harder, better, more, and made better grades. I think about what I have learned and worry a little about how close I am to taking Step 1. In my examination of myself I have realized that I rely too heavily on others advice and opinions of certain classes with respect to their level of difficulty and what books to buy and how to study for them. The fact is that I am not those people that I am asking. While I greatly respect their opinions it is all too often not my experience.

So this is the part where my post is an oxymoron. I am about to give you advice to not take others advice. Do with it what you may.

You must know yourself first. Then use what others tell you to your benefit. For instance, I am an auditory learner. If someone will explain a concept to me and I can understand the concept and tell it back to them I will never forget it. I can read the same concept and it is never internalized, and pictures are worse. But if I ask a visual learner what book to buy or use, they will probably recommend a book with great illustrations and less words. That book will be not only difficult for me to read, but it will be very frustrating for me to study. I learned that this semester.

When you are researching which books to buy, thing about how you learn best. If you are asking an upperclassman which books to buy then you should know how they learn best and if you learn the same way. Otherwise their opinion is, for all intensive purposes, useless to you. I have learned this the hard way.

What works for others may not work for you and you have to know yourself well enough to know what you need to make the material "stick" for you.

Many students have very useful advice on what to buy and how to study. I am not saying don't listen to them at all, I am saying use it to your advantage and not to your detriment. If you find that a text book recommendation is not working for you, move on, find something else.

If you need to rewrite your notes for them to make sense then do, I would advice you to use your time understanding the material and reading it rather than writing a bunch of stuff. If notecards work for you then make them, they generally only work for me if I am looking at the notecard.

I love highlighting text. I love going back and reading what I have highlighted to see why I highlighted it. I understand it better that way, but that doesn't mean that it is the best way for you to study for medical school.

My gibberish is getting old, now and I hope that I have driven home the point. KNOW YOURSELF! Know what works for you. DO IT!!!

Best of luck to all the new students arriving at UMHS!

Until next time,

Amy Jones

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Contest at Janaes Blog

So there were some great ladies that had husbands here at UMHS. They have moved on back to the US but I just found out that one of them is having a contest and the other has decided to start writing her blog again. There is yet another great woman who still lives on the island and her husband is currently in my class at UMHS. So this my attempt to WIN. I know it really isn't about winning it is more about being able to say that I won. So hop on over to janaes blog and enter to win a great contest!

http://vagabondmother.blogspot.com/2011/08/desperate-attempt-for-more.html?showComment=1312771384652#c7054975165408934710

Say you saw it here!

Thanks,

Until next time,
Amy

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Study Break

So when it is block time, I get so tired of studying. But, I am on an island and I can't really run to taco bell or the ice cream shop so I have to get creative. Today's study breaks. . .
    
     Facebook (ahh. . how many times can you say that life is grand or sucks or you're in the USA and have everything at the tip of your fingers? Rub it in a little.) I think next time I'll pass.

    Attempted to make a dessert with bare minimal ingredients (except that it made me not want to try another dessert with bare minimal ingredients); a failure

    Reading med student blogs (score!)

So, I'll share the funniest quotes from the blogs I have read tonight while trying to quiet my mind so that I can sleep-- I have been sitting on my butt since 9 am.

"A patient I admitted last night, broke her hospital window and jumped five stories plummeting to her death." Ok I know that doesn't sound very funny, but the point is the thoughts that came with it. "Why are the hospital windows breakable? Why were there no rails? Why didn't the other patient in the room call out for someone?"

And this one,
            Oncology
Be warned there is adult language. It is probably morbidly funny and if you have a loved one that has died from cancer then you might not find it funny at all.

I hope you laugh a little.

Until next time,
Amy

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New Study Room

Hey check out the new room in the library. Please do not leave your stuff if you are not coming back for hours. We all want to use the space equally so if you are going to eat off campus then do the right thing and leave your stuff in a cubby and let others use your space.

Thanks to President Ross and all others who were involved in getting this put together.

http://iuonlibrary.blogspot.com/2011/07/library-addition-is-now-open.html


Until Next time,
Amy Jones
Future MD, MBA, B.Sc.

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Congratulations! Board Scores are IN.

     One of the first terms you will hear in class, Cell Biology probably, is "high-yield". What the heck does high-yield mean? It means that it is usually tested on the Boards. Another term that is tossed out about two hundred times a day on campus. The Boards are the USMLE Step 1, 2, 3. First priority for medical students is to score very well on the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) because it determines your residency placement. It is a comprehensive computerized standardized exam to be taken after your second year in medical school. Basically it tests your knowledge of the basic sciences, and apparently current research knowledge. The latter isn't a large part of the test and you can do very well without reading research and medical journals daily.

    The scores for some of those students that took the examination from UMHS recently are back! Those that have told scores have said they did well. A 240 (99) is the "golden" score and some of those that have taken it from our University achieved above it. They did super! So, Congratulations Doctors! Success. Now kick butt in rotations and on the Step 2 CS, CK.

     This is a great indication of how our University prepares us. So Congratulations to UMHS profs and adminstrative staff!

      T-335 days until I take Step 1

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new design,

comment on the design,
thanks.

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Books: To Buy or not to buy. . .

I had a great question on one of posts and felt that the answer needed a post all of its own. The commenter asked, "Do you use all of the books on the booklist and are older version ok for some of them?".

The answer is never black and white, yes or no. So my advice is it depends. Do you really like to have a paper version of the book ? Do you need to read a textbook to understand the material? For some classes the powerpoints are enough and for some classes you might need some reference material. The cool thing about UMHS is that they have most all of the books from the booklist in library on reserve. So you can use them in the library if you need to. Some of the books you might want to have to study for the boards later, and make notes in them now.

What I see a lot of the students recommending to buy is:
Med 1-
-Anatomy Lab manual
-Anatomy atlas
-Histology book is a really good book and very comprehensive, I think I would like to own it and I haven't sold mine. An older version of this book is ok. (remember though that medicine is very dynamic so older would be the previous edition not ten years older)
-You should be fine with just the cell bio notes from class, I had the book and it is a good book but you will probably never read it and if you find that you want it after classes start you can always buy it.

Med 2-
-Physiology text book. Constanzo is good, I really liked the BRS. I feel like they leave a lot out of the cardio section so you might want to supplement in the library with Guyton and Hall.
-Biochemistry, Lippincott Reveiw. I have mine still and I think it will be a good resource for studying for the boards, so you can buy it now or later, but the notes you get in class are enough and if you need to fill in the blanks you can do that in library, plus there is an older version in library that may be available for borrowing.
-Genetics. notes are enough, you might want to read the blue sections from the one in the library, but I wouldn't buy it and in fact I sold mine.
-embryology, this is tricky, I think you can do with the notes that you get in class. But I would get some kind of review book like BRS for the boards. If you read it during the class it will probably make more sense when you are reviewing for the board exam.


Med 3- (my current semester)

- Neuroscience- most everyone likes the Haines anatomy, I find it difficult to get used to, I borrowed it from the library, and mostly the older version would be fine. I think that I will actually buy the lippincott review neuroscience for my board review book and if I could get it now I would.

another book that comes highly recommended is the High Yeild Neuroanatomy, it is ok in my opionion, but I think the BRS or Lippincott might be better.

-Microbiology- BRS, but you don't need anything for the class, the notes are sufficient.

-Pathology- Dr. J's notes are awesome and he is an incredible prof you don't need a text, but you will need the Robbins book the next semester, and the Robbins Review of Pathology that includes questions is very good, you should buy both of these.

-Behavioral- no book needed the notes are sufficient and you can supplement in the library if you need to, and if you want to buy a book later for study then you can. I don't think you will need to.

-Immunology- I haven't started that class but it has been recommended that I use the basic immunology text book. It is avaiable for check out in the library. I might buy it later, but probably not.

Med 4-
- Not there yet, but I think you will have your path book already and you should by the ICM book (not sure of the name right now). That is really all I know about med 4 thus far, I will update this post next semester.

Hope this answers any questions on what to buy and what not to buy.

Remember that everyone learns and studies differently so you have to do what works for you, definitely bring binders and highlighters pens pencils etc. All office supplies are OUTRAGEOUS here. Example, ten US dollars for a three ring binder!

Commenter, thanks for the question!

Until next time,
Amy Jones
Future MD, MBA, B. SC

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A generator??

       Electricity on the island is better than it was when I first arrived last year. It is rarely out and when it is they get it back on in a few hours. Last year they had experienced damage to one of there power generators and they had rolling blackouts every few days for different times around different parts of the island. I lived at the royal on the side with generators so it was a good thing. Since I have been in my apartment we have only had a few power outages and none of them have lasted more than a few hours. My apartment is on the ocean so if it is nice out I can get an ocean breeze. Generally we don’t use the AC all day everyday anyway. However, if you are going to live at the royal I would suggest that you get a room with a generator because for whatever reason they seem to have more outages than the island, also if you live in camps or mattingly or around the campus they also have more outages and they tend to last longer than those in Frigate Bay.

  Pictures of my apartment now. Along with the views from my balcony.

     For me, the outages that I have experienced haven’t been too inconvenient. With hurricane season on our heels you may want a generator just in case, but I wouldn’t make it a deal breaker on an apartment that is a great deal and awesome. 

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They dress like that in med school???

I haven't posted in a while and I hope to post more often. Medical School is a fulltime job and I love to skype my children when I have a spare moment (read in the morning before classes and at night when I am having a study break). But yesterday I decided that I needed to post more often because hopefully I will only have about six more months here and I feel like I have not chronicled anything. Mostly because I do the same thing everyday but I can share tidbits here and there. Other times it is because I feel like I have so much to do that I don't have time to update my blog. I am also taking an online MBA class (7 week classes) which takes up a ton of my time during the first part of the semester.

Alas, I am here and ready to tell you all that I am thinking about today. First, I have a friend that is in medical school in the states and I often wonder how our experiences are different. Today I put my socks on and hung my throw over the back of library chair to begin studying for my block exams and I thought "do they wear socks and sweatshirts in US medical schools or does everyone wear professional clothes?".  I am not sure but here most everyone is in casual clothing. Our classrooms are fully air conditioned and quite cool usually so we all bring sweaters and sweatshirts. The closer it gets to blocks the more bummy everyone seems to dress. Except for the Med 4s. They have Intro to Clinical Medicine and they have to dress professionally (or scrubs) a few times a week. So you can definitely tell the difference between the Med 4s and the rest of us. I am now a med 3.

 This is from my first semester when I was in ARP! In the ARP classroom.

I think this was taken either the first of this semester or the last part of last semester.

This is me today! 

I have been on the island for a year now! Unbelievable! I wish I had more time here and I am already dreading and anxiously anticipating being back in the states. Notice that most of these pictures are taken in the library or in a classroom, (the most current one is in the lib although you can't tell).

I have had an incredible time here on the island. I have met a lot of great people and friends that I will definitely stay in touch with over the years and some that I probably will never see again unless we end up in the same hospital. There are some things that take some getting used to but all in all it is a very pleasant experience and I hope to do some rotations in the UK. Maybe in London.

If you have the opportunity to study abroad then take it. Make the most of your time in college and graduate school. This is the only time in your life you can experience another country and not have to work there to make ends meet!

If you are planning to attend University of Medicine and Health Sciences at St. Kitts then please send me your questions and I'll answer them right here for everyone to read. I would love for people to be able to use my blog later for help with their transition into medical school.

Until next time 'mon!
Amy Jones
Future Amy Jones, MD, MBA, B. Sc.

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