study habits of medical students.

Anonymous asked: hi… i’m a firstie and all this studying is getting a little bit over my head, i don’t know whether i should study anat, or physio or bio-chem, how many hours would be enough or whether i would understand certain topics if i don’t know the topics related to it. i am soooo confused. what’s an ideal time table n good habits for medical students to follow?

Hi anonymous! 

The first year of med school is always the scariest. There’s so much to learn and it’s completely different to anything else and it all feels out of context. Unfortunately, there’s no secret formula for studying medicine. (I wish there was. My life would be so much easier if I could learn via diffusion.)

My tips:

• Aim to do a little bit of studying each day, even if it’s just revising notes from the afternoon’s lectures or reading some anatomy. Little things add up, and you’ll be surprised how much you learn. 
• Flashcards are great for rote learning. I swore by flashcards when I was learning sociology and key symptoms, and you can pull them out at any time. I was clearly the coolest kid in surgery last year, whipping out my flashcards between cases. 
• Use colours. Bright colours can make even the most boring of notes more exciting. (I currently take a subject regarding administration in health care. I can only make myself study it because I’m allowed to use pretty colours for the titles.)
• Diagrams and pictures! Anything that is conducive to being in a flow-chart or diagram should be. It forces you to think about the information, and makes a great revision tool come exam time. 
• If you are going to highlight, write notes in the margins to summarise, otherwise you’re going to have to read the text again. 
• Have a to-do list and set deadlines (realistic deadlines, of course). Nothing gives you a greater sense of achievement than crossing something off your to-do list. 
• Give yourself a break occasionally. Go watch Scrubs. It technically counts as studying, right? 
• Talk about what you learn. Teach your goldfish anatomy. Interpret blood films for your computer screen. Get your friends to test you and have debates over the ethical issues of medicine. 

Those would be my tips for studying medicine—also, these are the things I wish someone had told me in first year. I almost failed my first mid-semester exam in med school because I had no idea what to study or how to do it, so I really hope these help you! 

med student depression, part deux.

See the previous post here. 

Anonymous asked you: hi, it’s me again. maybe i don’t have depression. maybe i’m just.. deficient in coping with things. i’m not happy with how i’m handling problems- i’m a pro at running away and freaking out later. is a simple thing such as random tears, negative thoughts and inability to handle daily stresses a warning sign big enough for a visit to the doc? i keep thinking and worrying about flunking, about dropping medschool….

Dear anonymous (and to anyone else experiencing a similar situation),

The short answer is yes, you are completely justified in seeking help. I need both hands and both feet to count the number of times I’ve seen doctors and counsellors and psychologists because I wanted to drop out of med school, because I felt like I wasn’t coping, and damn it, everyone around me was doing so well. 

Let’s be honest—med school is hard. I remember sitting in a lecture in second year, watching all the other students around me, and they were in perfect control of med school. They sat through lectures without falling asleep and without panicking about exams in two months and without being afraid of being judged, they took notes studiously and went home to their friends and family and lovers and siblings and maintained healthy relationships and seemingly flawless grades. It felt like I was the only one in a hall of hundreds of students that didn’t know how to make it through med school.

I spent an entire semester avoiding lectures and other students and hiding in the library because I thought I was crazy.

There’s something no one ever tells us about med school, and it’s this: we’re all struggling. I was having coffee with a colleague the other day, and he started to explain to me his struggles with depression, his excessive alcohol intake at the start of med school—and this is someone I’d always looked up to. Someone who, in my opinion, checked all the boxes: intelligent, kind, funny, surrounded by family and friends. And yet, he was someone struggling through med school as well. Very few med students wear their hearts on their sleeves—that’s why I keep this blog somewhat anonymous, because I’m still learning to let myself be vulnerable.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that you’re not alone, and med school has the ability to make us our own worst enemies. But, at the same time, it doesn’t have to be the end of you. You don’t have to try and cope with these thoughts and feelings and fears alone. You, and every other medical student, every other health care student, every other person in general, are entitled to help and to have what’s going on validated. I can’t diagnose you with depression over the internet (or without a qualification of some sort), but whether you meet the criteria or not is irrelevant. You are allowed to seek help. You are allowed to talk to a professional and you are allowed to let them help you.

Please don’t struggle alone. Med school has no right to make you feel this way.

Take care of yourself and I hope you seek some help—talk to your family doctor or to your university health department.

My Life As A Med Student.

med school and relationships.

med student depression.

Anonymous asked:

i’d like to ask, how would you advice a fellow medschool student to approach medstudent depression? i don’t know where else to ask. no one around me cared enough, parents are not reachable, and when i went to the psych dept, the head consultant had me take blood tests and declared my issues as a ‘transient’ thing. doesn’t change the fact that i’m struggling to cope, even if it feels like a complete journey to hell anyway.

Hi anonymous! Firstly, my apologies for not answering this sooner, and I do hope that things are better for you now. I don’t think there is a perfect way to approach med student depression—I have depression, and I’m still finding the means to navigate med school with it. However, let me share with you things I do to make it work (as much as possible). 

why i’ll keep studying medicine.

I want to write and read and stare out windows and document the world around me. 

I want to run away to book towns and hear the world speak and infuse ideas and inspiration into my soul. 

I want to do a million things that won’t make me a better doctor, but will make me a better person. 

I can write essays. I can write patient notes and ring pathology and talk to doctors. 

But the best thing about paediatrics? Blowing bubbles at little kids. Talking to parents and distracting them from their seizing child and the uncertainty. Watching parents cry as their child takes their first breath, watching a baby open it’s eyes for the first time. Cuddles with a struggling infant as the smile and giggle in their sleep. Teasing the doctors and sharing tales of life outside medicine, of movies watched and books read. 

That is why I don’t run away and give this all up. 

absence.

Hey everyone, 

I’m sorry for disappearing for the last few months. Unfortunately, medicine and I have had a bit of a rough patch, but never fear, I am back and I have stories of little kids and bubble blowing and what I have learnt from six-year-olds! 

Love, mylifeasamedstudent

The second in a two part series entitled why they never should have let me pass pre-clinical years. This is also why I’m a medical student and not an artist.

Occasionally, my mind can’t take being serious and writing copious amounts of text, so instead I leave you with the first in a two part series of why they should never have let me pass pre-clinical years.

(Yes, this is what I tried to pass off as studying. Yes, I did almost fail that exam.)

an open letter to med school.

Dear med school, 

There are a lot of things I’ve sacrificed for you. I’ve given up sleep in favour of seven-thirty ward rounds and the excitement of having fifteen doctors ignore me every morning. I’ve said goodbye to normal relationships, finally acknowledging that not only do these need time, but most intelligent people recoil at tales of surgery gone wrong and how you scored your first PR exam. I’ve learnt to eat irregularly and infrequently, scheduling surgary snacks between studies and surgeons. I’ve discovered that caffeine is a food group and that one can survive for days on nothing but black coffee.

But I’ve also watched myself and my colleagues fall into your trap and be consumed by you. Sucked into your vortex so strongly that help seeking becomes an impossibility. Found my reason to wake up and take notes on ward rounds slipping from me, a descent matched only by my grades. I’ve been alone at night, numb and exhausted. Meetings with the faculty in failed attempts to make everything okay.

Dear med school, remember this: I will not give up. I will become a doctor, and I will become a good doctor. I will change this world, despite the obstacles you challenge me with. I will grow up and grow strong and dedicate my life to make sure that no one has to feel this low.

Once upon a time, med school was thought to sort the weak from the strong—I don’t believe this for a minute. Med school isn’t designed to set us up for failure, and nor should it. Call me naive for thinking I can change the system, but I will never stop believing.

Love, me.

(Source: bbeautifuloccupation)