July Newsletter

July brought an end to my trip to VA to see my friend Stephen. I enjoyed spending time with him, seeing the attractions in the area and just seeing what his life is like there. I realized on the trip that our ACLS (reviving people from heart attacks and such) course would be more intense than I had expected. By that, I mean it was completely an independent study with a series of online tests and an almost perfunctory skills test at the end. I got through it all right, but don't come running to me if your heart stops. Before the skills test for our ACLS certification, we had started our Capstone course, which I thought was going to be a crash course on life in the clinical settings in which we would be rotating. It ended up being more of the same type of lectures we have been receiving for two years. We got through it and I started my first rotation, Family Medicine, at the beginning of August.

I almost forgot the most important news: I'm officially a third-year! I passed both of the board tests I mentioned earlier, so I was allowed to progress to where I'm at now in my third year.
Anyway, I have enjoyed the last four days immensely. At least, I've enjoyed finally being in the real world of medicine and dealing with real patients, which is exciting, because I don't even want to do anything primary care-related. I can't wait to get into the hospital and see more specialized medicine, but I'm in no hurry to leave where I'm at now. I am disheartened by my lack of efficiency in studying. The doc I'm with gives me a simple topic to research each night, and I can barely read and retain enough to carry out a brief conversation about it the next day. This concerns me that I may not be able to keep up with the study load when I have to do in-depth studying on multiple patients' multiple maladies when I'm in the hospital. But for now, I've fairly well fallen into a groove.
Consider this my attempt to get back on track with monthly updates. More to come in a month.
Scott