Last week I went to two interest group meetings. They were the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) and the Internal Medicine Interest Group (IMIG). Honestly, I went to these meetings because they were convenient for me. I had afternoon labs and both of these meetings offered free lunches for those who signed up. I wonder what kind of attendance can be expected for these on-campus meetings if free meals were not available.

The FMIG meeting was earlier in the week. It was surprisingly interesting. I had never thought about Family Medicine. Maybe the food was influencing me… I found out that the Family Medicine Residency at Loma Linda University is part of a program called P⁴. The description of the P⁴ program can be found at TransforMED.com. Here’s a snippet:

The P⁴ Residency Demonstration Initiative is a collaborative effort led by the P⁴ Steering Committee in collaboration with the Association of Family Medicine Residency Program Directors, the American Board of Family Medicine, and TransforMED, a practice redesign initiative of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The P⁴ initiative has the potential to inspire considerable changes in the content and structure of family medicine training.

Findings from the project are expected to guide future revisions in accreditation and content to ensure America’s future family doctors are proficient in using the most up-to-date tools and technologies to provide superior patient care.

There are 14 residency programs in the country that are a part of this program. If you’re interested you can see the list of programs here.

I walked away from the meeting thinking that Family Medicine might be something I’d be interested in. The scope of practice is fairly large and a family physician will see patients young and old. A phrase I heard that describes this was “from the womb to the tomb.” The presenter said that a family physician will be able to treat 90% of the problems and know when to refer to a specialist.

The aspect of family medicine that appealed to me most was the personal attention to the patient. It is one specialty in which a doctor can cultivate a relationship with patients because the patients usually stay with them for many years.

The only question I had that went unanswered was about the difference between Family Medicine and Med-Peds… but I suppose that will be a lesson for another day…

I was in anatomy lab today. We were dissecting the anterior and superior mediastina. We were fortunate to have a visiting doctor from Northern California. He flew his own plane down so that he could lecture on the thoracic region (he’s a thoracic surgeon).

So I’m working on the anterior wall of the thoracic region. We could clearly make out the internal thoracic artery underneath a thin layer of muscle (transversus thoracis). I attempted to dissect out the artery and its veins using forceps and scissors. And as I’m leaning over the cadaver, I think to myself, “Why is my stomach wet?”

After a moment I finally pulled away from the table and looked at my white coat. There was a circular wet spot. Lovely. My first instinct was to take off my coat. My first thought was that I should leave it on to keep to a minimum any further contacts with cadaver solution.

And that was my first day back after test week. Five weeks till Exam Week 2. Let the fun begin all over again….

Test week 1 is finally over! Our exams were scheduled over a 4 day period and so we had Friday off. I woke up around 11 AM. It felt really weird waking up and not knowing what to do. I kinda felt lost. All week I’d wake up and be worried about the 8:30 AM exam. I tried to review a little before the exam. Afterwards, I’d have lunch and then back to study.

They had a pretty quick turnaround for the exam scores. All the scores were emailed to us. Most of them were emailed to us within a couple hours after turning them in. It was pretty nice. I did contemplate not opening any of the emails until after test week. But I caved and started reading them as soon as I saw one in my mailbox.

Overall it was a good week. All passing scores. I’m just glad it’s all over. And now, I get to do it all over again ! 🙂

Earlier this month someone sent me an email about sleep deprivation. Here is a quote from the article (from About.com): “Poll results show that while many Americans enjoy the benefits of sufficient sleep, as many as 47 million adults may be putting themselves at risk for injury, health and behavior problems because they aren’t meeting their minimum sleep need in order to be fully alert the next day.”

Let’s face the facts. Medical students are not your average American. So while most Americans find that they have sufficient sleep (although I seriously doubt this… or maybe I just need to meet more “average” Americans), I’m sure that the percentage of medical students who received sufficient sleep is far less. This might be true for residents as well. Maybe I’ll write about that in 5 years….

I think my sleep cycle is messed up. During the first week of school there were two nights that I got to bed by 10 PM. I woke up at around 5:45, exercised, showered, ate breakfast and then got to class by 8:00. On those days I thought that I was much more alert and focused during the lectures. I think I really need to get back to that schedule instead of sitting at the computer after I finish studying till midnight.

Well here’s the update: I am no longer attending classes. Why not? Have I decided that I can learn better on my own than by listening to a lecture? Nope. Do I hate the teachers and profs? Nope. Do I have trouble getting along with the person sitting next to me in class? Nope. I am no longer attending classes because I have requested a leave of absence.

Last quarter was a challenge. I never got my “head into the game.” I could not get focused and struggled with motivating myself to study. It just was not working out. And so, two days ago I turned in my signed request for a leave of absence until this coming August when I will be joining the new incoming class.

I think it’ll work out fine. I now know what needs to be done. Well, I guess I now know how not to study.

In the meantime, I’m considering brushing up on some espanol to keep me occupied. It will give me an opportunity to re-energize and recharge for August.