The idea is that, when it comes to actually practicing medicine, instead of thinking in terms of classes and subjects, doctors (and med students!) have an easier time thinking in terms of the systems of the body. So, with a systems-based curriculum, instead of having to integrate info from lots of classes on the spot when diagnosing a patient, it's pre-integrated for you (Sounds like an late-night infomercial. "Pre-integrated medical knowledge for your convenience!"). So, that's how school works for me.
Ever since we got back from Christmas break, we've been in the Musculoskeletal-Integument System. Spoiler alert: I love it. It's definitely been my favorite system so far. Along with starting cadaver dissection (and memorizing the endless lists of nerves and arteries and veins and origins and insertions and innervations and actions that goes with dissection), this week we started learning how to do a physical exam. At the beginning of the week, I knew next to nothing about doing a physical exam. One week in....well....I still know next to nothing. haha I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. Eventually. Hopefully.
On Thursday, my clinical group (A group of six students and two mentors that help us with... you guessed it!.... our clinical skillz) and I headed to the clinical skills development practice center place thing (I don't think that's the official name) to learn how to do our very first lower extremity physical exam. The clinical skills center (or whatever it's called) is a place where people from the community come in and volunteer (or are paid) to be our pseudo patients. This way, we get to practice with people who are not real patients before we make an attempt on real patients. As anyone with a brain would attest, this is very, very good idea.
Once we found our patient's room, we went though the exam with the help of step by step instructions. All the while, we asked our mentors a million questions such as "What is that?" "Where is that?" and "How do I do that?" Between the fact that A) we were reading step-by-step instructions and B) we were totally confused, our patient probably felt like a trampoline that was being assembled by Four-year-olds. It was quite the experience. Even though I currently feel like this:
I think I'll get the hang of it soon enough. I mean, that's what med schools for, right? Well, that about does it for the post. I have to get ready for church. I'll end with a few other things that happened this week.
The Weekly Rounds
- Instead of studying for my quiz on muscle actions last week, I played this for an hour instead. 7.9 meters. Oh yeah. Beat it. http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html
- It snowed this week! It's been a little chilly this week (Or warm, if you ask my Russian classmates. Or colder than the dead of space, if you ask my Floridian classmates.) Either way, the snow was really pretty. Here's a picture of my house:
- My anatomy text book listed a stab wound to the lateral chest as one of the likely causes of injury to the long thoracic nerve. Good to know. Next time I'm in a knife fight, I'll be sure to ever-so-slightly medially rotate my torso if I'm stabbed in order to avoid that. Thank you, anatomy text book.
- For all you Dr. Pepper fans out there, Dr. Pepper was a real physician who went to UVa Med back in the 19 century. Cool, huh? (Oh and p.s. despite false rumors to the contrary, Mormons can drink caffeinated drinks. If you're curious, here's what we do and don't do: http://www.lds.org/topics/word-of-wisdom?lang=eng)
- Study song of the week: "Bleeding Out" by Imagine Dragons. Several of the band members are Mormon and I actually saw them while I was at BYU. Very talented.
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