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Professionalism 101

November 29, 2007 by Leave a Comment

I was just browsing through Facebook and looking at a few of my classmates pages. Here’s an interesting post I found on Jane’s (not real name) page. She received an email that I’ve quoted below (with her permission, of course).

Jane,

We noticed on your most recent CSF Quiz that you just wrote down

Jane

While first name use does allow for larger letters and neater handwriting on the line provided, it is not considered very professional for a future physician. If you find that you must shorten your full name for space purposes, we would prefer this version:

J. Doe

Thank-you, in advance, for helping us out in this matter. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please feel free to contact us at anytime.

Sincerely,
Sharon and/or Rachel

hmm… i’ll have to write that down and file it away under “lessons of the first year”… its great that they teach us these things. i mean, when you’re paying $30,000+ per year, i wanna squeeze out every last bit of advice on how to be a better doctor one day. i would hate to sign only my first name on a prescription pad and have the DEA come after me or something…

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life Tagged With: , , ,
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I’ve got this sick feeling…

November 26, 2007 by Leave a Comment

First day back after Thanksgiving break. I’m kinda feeling sick… well its more like this sick feeling that I didn’t do enough over break. I think I should get used to this feeling.

It reminds me of the movie Schindler’s List where he regrets not doing more to save people at the end of the movie. Okay… maybe I don’t feel that bad… at least the tears are not streaming down my face…

Anyways, lecture is starting… gotta learn about MHC Molecules now!

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life
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Test Week 2 Over, Thanksgiving coming up

November 14, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Well we got through the second set of exams. Now we are working our way through the pulmonary system. Already I feel like I’m falling behind and we’ve only had one week and 2 days since the last set of exams. I’m hoping to be able to catch up over this coming weekend and Thanksgiving break. I can’t believe I actually want to study during Thanksgiving break… Well I don’t really want to study… I just want to catch up… So I suppose on some levels I do want to study…

I’m finding respiratory physiology to be tricky. Thankfully I find our textbook (Respiratory Physiology by West) very helpful. Although, it is pretty dense… The thing costs about $40 an is a small paperback book. I’d almost call it a booklet. But in all fairness, I think its 12 chapters long. Its also the same book used at UCSD School of Medicine. Dr. West, the author of the book, teaches there.

Cell Structure & Function is looking a little intimidating. We have a huge stack of notes for the Christmas exams. It will probably have close to 80 questions on it… by far the largest test of the year in the class. The class is very front-loaded. The majority of lectures will be given before Christmas Break.

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life
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MSNBC.com: Monkey Embryos Cloned

November 13, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Source: MSNBC.com: Monkey embryos cloned, scientists say

Humanity is one step closer to human cloning. Recently, some researches in that state of Oregon claim to have successfully cloned monkey embryos and extracted stem cells. This is supposed to pave the way for the procedure to be done in humans.

This still does not make the controversy go away. The debate has raged for years about whether or not it is ethical and moral to obtain stem cells from embryos. When stem cells are harvested from embryos, the embryo does not survive.

The situation would all go away we just started using adult stem cells. There is no controversy in this area because… well the human is destroyed in the process. And neither are embryos. The problem is that we, as a society, have put so much money into embryonic stem cell research. It isn’t cheap to suddenly switch over to harvest adult stem cells.

Well I think we should just deal with it. Let’s just assume the burden of the cost. The potential benefit to humanity is worth the money.

And where will this money come from? How about all that money Uncle Sam is putting to fight a war in Iraq that we probably should never have started? One article at MSNBC.com says that estimates of the total cost of this war could be up to $1 trillion US Dollars. One trillion dollars!!! That’s $1,000,000,000,000.

Maybe I should go into politics and run for office, huh?

Filed Under: News, Opinion Tagged With: , , , ,
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Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard and More Studying

October 29, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Leopard
There it is. After day 1 of exam week I went to the campus store and purchased myself a copy of Apple OS X Leopard for the student discount of $69. I would’ve gone to the campus store over the weekend but the did not receive the shipment until today. They said that since they are selling the software at a discount, Apple Inc’s priorities were shipping to all their retail stores first. No problem with me. At a discount of almost 50%, I can wait a couple days…

Anyways, I went home, threw it in the computer to upgrade and took a nap. Then spent the rest of the day prepping for day 2 tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m taking two exams. The first is for Cell Structure and Function and the second is for Evidence-Based Medicine.

Filed Under: Medical School, My Life
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Dead Week

October 22, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Well its now the week before our second set of exams. In undergrad we used to call this Dead Week. It was supposed to be a week when no major projects were due or anything that would be too stressful. The point was to give us time to concentrate on final/quarter exams. In theory it was good. In reality we always had projects due.

I wish we have dead week in medical school. Granted, our schedule does look easier this week. But its still a full load of classes with labs. Okay, they did give us friday off. So I guess I have a “dead day” this week…

A couple professors have scheduled review sessions for us. I think I’ll be going to those…

Filed Under: My Life
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MSNBC.com: Air passengers can sue over blood clots

October 17, 2007 by 1 Comment

Source: MSNBC.com – Judge: Air passengers can sue over blood clots

AirTravelApparently a judge has ruled that passengers can sue airlines over blood clots. The article writes that patients who developed a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) can sue the airline if they were not allowed to move to an empty seat with more leg room.

I realize that a DVT can be fatal. So its not something that should be taken lightly. But this whole thing seems like a bad idea to me. If this case goes in favor of the passengers, will the airlines resort to taking out a few rows and raising airfare to avoid a future lawsuit?

And what about people who love taking advantage of “the system.” I can imagine someone tired of sitting in economy asking the flight attendant if there are any empty seats in the first class cabin because they are at risk for a DVT. And what about if there are 2 at-risk passengers requesting a change of seat and only one seat available? Well, flight attendants are far from qualified to decide which passenger is at a greater risk for developing blood clots.

Theme parks post warnings to visitor who may have heart trouble. Some people just cannot ride roller coasters. I think it should be the same for the airline industry. There are some medical conditions where a physician needs to strongly advise against air travel. Maybe those at risk for a DVT should be advised not to fly. Airlines should do whatever they can to ensure safety for their passengers, but there has to be a limit.

Filed Under: News, Opinion Tagged With: , , ,