March 23, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged anatomy, study
so what am i currently avoiding? a supplementary assignment for the anatomy elective.
anatomy has never been my strong point, i managed to get by in nursing by grasping the bare minimum required and to be honest what was required of me was fairly little. i’ve learned more in the past month than i’d done in the past 5 years of study and work, which is slightly worrying to be honest.
but the best part of that statement is that i have learned these body parts and understood how they actually work. a month ago i couldn’t tell you where the duodenum was, let alone it’s four parts, arterial supply and relation to the pancreas and gall bladder. i reviewed a chest xray from an old mystery problem on my favourite journal site (the ever wonderful and entertaining NEJM) and could read the image more clearly. i can draw and outline on you with a texta/marker where your liver sits.
i knew the volume of knowledge i had to absorb was huge, but i still wasn’t entirely prepared for it. it has been drilled into us that this course is based around self-directed learning and we’re not being babied through it, but i’ve found that the weekly anatomy assignments and PBL presentations are exactly what i need to push me to keep up to date with my study which i am entirely thankful for. i’m sure i am in the minority when i say that (so far) i am loving PBL.
on friday we have PBL open then move straight into a very busy long weekend of anatomy dissection which i am feeling hopelessly under-prepared for. which is probably my cue to try and finish one of the drawings for this extra assignment.
March 10, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged life, study
as i sit and avoid putting the finishing touches on my pbl presentation for tomorrow i thought i’d give an account of the med o-camp over the weekend
apparently this was the first time in 7 or so years that an orientation camp for 1st year med kids has been held, and because now the programme is at 2 unis they held the camp at port macquarie which is roughly half-way between.
after friday pbl and lectures the 23 UNE kids piled onto a roomy bus and headed down south towards beaches and warmer weather, eventually meeting up with the Newcastle kids and being overwhelmed at the 70 or so that turned up. what we all thought was bizarre was that none of them really knew who was from their cohort, after a week or so we had all at least figured out who was in our year.
one of the more bizarre moments (other than the cabin i was in having a broken lock and none of us could get in until around midnight) was that in the random allocation of people to cabins i was put in with someone studying at Newcastle who was originally from Armidale and who knows in one way or another all the people i am friends with in town.
lots of ‘get to know you’ activities, lots of swishing around in the sunshine. there was an organised sports afternoon that nearly all the UNE kids ditched (including our 2nd year mentors) to go wander around town
even though going to o-camp meant i had 2 less days for study that i really needed, i’m still really glad i went. we had a great group and i felt like i was able to get to know people better. also it cemented for me that i like that we are a small cohort, even if we are miles from civilisation.
August 14, 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged critical care, podcasts, study
While I wait for the next 6 or so months to pass until I dive into my B.Med I’ve been doing extra reading to somewhat prepare me.
iTunes U was launched recently in Australia so I had a look what was available from both here and overseas and found Surgery ICU Rounds by Jeff Guy, an Associate Prof & Director of the Vanderbilt Regional Burn Centre in Tennessee.
The podcasts are great, particularly as I’m interested in critical care, and have a wide range of topics that are clearly explained. Guy is quite progressive in the way he looks at clinical procedures, questioning why we do things the way we do and putting forward ways to treat patients better.
In particular I really enjoyed his talks on Weaning (Liberating) from the Mechanical Ventilator and Antibiotic Considerations in the ICU, and the short talk on Intraosseous Vascular Access: Not Just for Kids Anymore is a great example of looking at existing equipment and procedures and applying them to new situations. I always assumed itraosseous access wasn’t used in adults simply because it didn’t work, but not only does it work, it works very well and very quickly so maybe this will be something we’ll see more of in adult emergency and critical care medicine.
