In answer to your question...

I wanted to answer some of the questions a recent commenter posed, in part to thank them for taking the time to comment (thanks! it's nice to know when a reader enjoys my writing) and also to demystify the idea that I am by any means "coping with medical school stress".

I try, but it's definitely tough. I'm always eating on the run and thus I have cultivated the not-so-dainty habit of eating as fast as I can (with my consumption rate directly proportional to the efficiency of my fork shoveling technique). I try to eat as few Michelina's and instant noodle cups as I can, but sometimes nothing beats a meal that cooks under 5 minutes.

Everyday I am faced with a barrage of information and just when I think I know it and understand it, I'll find that a couple days down the road the knowledge is just gone because it's been replaced by something else.

I find that medical school is also not just about studying books but also studying human interactions. Learning how to communicate with patients and (even other physicians!) is always interesting and challenging.

On top of that, we are always taught to encourage healthy living in our patients but it's so hard to do it yourself! I have a hard time finding the time to be as physically active as I want to be.

Lastly, I'm sure some of my dearest friends feel like I've dropped off the face of the Earth. I hardly have the time for MSN Messenger anymore and our get-togethers are sporadic, depending on when I'm back home. Nevertheless I hope they know I am always thinking of them - and hence why this whole blog started, so that my friends could log in and find out what's happening with me.

As for the second question, "how do I study for exams?", I'll have to qualify my answer first with a disclaimer: I am by no means at the top of my class but hopefully my advice will still hold some merit. I highly recommend going through old exams and mock questions that you can find in various textbooks and medical review books. For me, this was the key to MCAT success. I also take some of my reading to bed, to cram in as much as studying as I can in a day and also to facilitate falling asleep of course. In medical school there are also clinical exams called "Objective Structured Clinical Examinations" (OSCEs) where there are a set of stations with various instructions, like "Take a history of this 26-year-old female with shortness of breath" or "Perform an abdominal exam". The key to this is practice, practice, practice (a.k.a find weird physical findings in your loved ones!)

So in all this craziness it's no wonder that after medical school, residency can range anywhere from two to seven years. That's when the information will be consolidated and one will learn what they really need to know. At least I hope that's the case!

Good luck to everyone seeking their career path!


Kenya Update
March 6, 2006

I am very excited because today I received a formalized volunteer job description for Kenya. While I'm at the clinic, my responsibilities will fall under 4 main categories: Curative, Preventive, Promotive, and Rehabilitative. Here's a taste:

Curative

• Outpatient: History taking, physical examination, impression (differential diagnosis), appropriate laboratory request, interpretation of results, appropriate decision making, prescription, referral, admission, further investigations


• Pharmacy: Drug inventory management, dispensing, drug storage as specified by manufacturer, dosages, patient instruction on medication at home


• Laboratory (what I'm really excited about, because once I'm a clerk I would never be expected to do much of this): basic microscopic skills and laboratory procedures, be able to identify microbes under a microscope.


• Inpatient: Patient observation in the ward, bed side care, drug administration, health education.

Preventive

• Family planning services, antenatal care, pre-natal care, postnatal care, child health and growth monitoring, immunization, health education

Promotive

• Home Visits: Health education on nutrition, sanitation, water treatment, malaria prevention, food security, environmental health, child spacing and family size

Rehabilitative

• Identify individuals with various types of disability and design ways of assisting to cope with the illness (e.g. for poliomyelitis, blindness, mental disability)

There will also be special programmes involving HIV/AIDS and malaria. I am very much looking forward to the experience and hope I will make a contribution!