Saturday, June 24, 2006
A day's break at last. 2 down, 1 to go. The prospect of freedom is exciting.
MCQ paper was hard. 120 questions in all to be answered in 3 hours which was a tiring process. Because I anticipated it, I tried to go to bed early the night before. But the irony is, whenever you plan to sleep early before an exam because you know full well you won't be able to function without it, the more effort you put into trying to fall asleep and the harder it is for sleep to befall you. I just lay there for hours on end, staring into the darkness, listening to the ticking of my alarm clock penetrating the silence, glancing at the luminescent hands of the clock as it made its way towards 7 o'clock. And interpersed between all that, willing my brain to go to sleep, tossing and turning, singing lullabies in my head. It was altogether an extremely frustrating and futile process because when I fnally did fall asleep 3 hours later, it was a fitful one that left me all tense and sore in my lat dorsi and trapezius muscles. Finally gave it up at 6 and went to take a long hot shower to ease the cramped muscles before making my way to the exam. Despite the frustration though, I thought it was quite an enlightening experience. Suddenly i begin to glean an understanding of what depressed patients go through, night after night. This struggle to fall asleep at night, the fighting to stay awake during the day is just one aspect of their problem. Add to that low moods, loss of interest in things that used to interest them, loss of appetite, it's no wonder they feel suicidal.
Perhaps that's the true purpose of med exams-- to induce a quasi-depressive state in the students in order to cultivate empathy for their depressed patients. Hmm...
As for the exams themselves, I guess I have mixed feelings towards them. I'm relieved they're over but getting increasingly anxious at the alarming number of MCQ questions I seem to have gotten wrong. I suppose it's good in a way that it points out clearly (too clearly, unfortunately) areas I'm deficient in (which is one too many). I obviously have no idea how to treat acne or differentiate between various red scaly lesions, or how to manage Osgood Schlatter's or various tendonitis. My treatment for all these conditions, unfortunately, funnels down to one option-- refer to specialist. Which is, as the exams have evidently pointed out, grossly inadequate. Though on the other hand, I do know how to treat pneumonias and heart failure and heart attacks and pericarditis and pleural effusions... but the examiners obviously thought these topics too easy or unimportant to examine on. Sigh...
OSCEs were a mish mash of experiences. Some good, some bad, but I think overall good. I really liked RMH. Thought it had a much calmer atmosphere than Vs. The outpatients at Vs has a sort of cold, sterile, no-nonsense feel about it. It is made up of this maze of tunnels with little rooms opening off it. there aren't any carpets and the flooring is made of this white plasticky material which is a similar shade to the white plaster walls that line both the corridors and the rooms and the only colour that you see is the pale green doors of the rooms and the blue metal plates that announce the room number. RMH, on the other hand, has a modern, abstract feel to it. When you walk in there is this contrast of red, blue, white, black, all tastefully done. And the examiners were nice, relaxed and friendly, so that when you went in, you weren't too nervous at all. One difference that really struck me was how much more people at RMH smiled compared to Vs. Don't get me wrong, there are ample nice doctors at Vs, but it exudes this "institution of higher learning" feel about it which compells you to go around looking (or in my case faking) professionalism which contributes to this severe paucity of smiles.
MCQ paper was hard. 120 questions in all to be answered in 3 hours which was a tiring process. Because I anticipated it, I tried to go to bed early the night before. But the irony is, whenever you plan to sleep early before an exam because you know full well you won't be able to function without it, the more effort you put into trying to fall asleep and the harder it is for sleep to befall you. I just lay there for hours on end, staring into the darkness, listening to the ticking of my alarm clock penetrating the silence, glancing at the luminescent hands of the clock as it made its way towards 7 o'clock. And interpersed between all that, willing my brain to go to sleep, tossing and turning, singing lullabies in my head. It was altogether an extremely frustrating and futile process because when I fnally did fall asleep 3 hours later, it was a fitful one that left me all tense and sore in my lat dorsi and trapezius muscles. Finally gave it up at 6 and went to take a long hot shower to ease the cramped muscles before making my way to the exam. Despite the frustration though, I thought it was quite an enlightening experience. Suddenly i begin to glean an understanding of what depressed patients go through, night after night. This struggle to fall asleep at night, the fighting to stay awake during the day is just one aspect of their problem. Add to that low moods, loss of interest in things that used to interest them, loss of appetite, it's no wonder they feel suicidal.
Perhaps that's the true purpose of med exams-- to induce a quasi-depressive state in the students in order to cultivate empathy for their depressed patients. Hmm...
As for the exams themselves, I guess I have mixed feelings towards them. I'm relieved they're over but getting increasingly anxious at the alarming number of MCQ questions I seem to have gotten wrong. I suppose it's good in a way that it points out clearly (too clearly, unfortunately) areas I'm deficient in (which is one too many). I obviously have no idea how to treat acne or differentiate between various red scaly lesions, or how to manage Osgood Schlatter's or various tendonitis. My treatment for all these conditions, unfortunately, funnels down to one option-- refer to specialist. Which is, as the exams have evidently pointed out, grossly inadequate. Though on the other hand, I do know how to treat pneumonias and heart failure and heart attacks and pericarditis and pleural effusions... but the examiners obviously thought these topics too easy or unimportant to examine on. Sigh...
OSCEs were a mish mash of experiences. Some good, some bad, but I think overall good. I really liked RMH. Thought it had a much calmer atmosphere than Vs. The outpatients at Vs has a sort of cold, sterile, no-nonsense feel about it. It is made up of this maze of tunnels with little rooms opening off it. there aren't any carpets and the flooring is made of this white plasticky material which is a similar shade to the white plaster walls that line both the corridors and the rooms and the only colour that you see is the pale green doors of the rooms and the blue metal plates that announce the room number. RMH, on the other hand, has a modern, abstract feel to it. When you walk in there is this contrast of red, blue, white, black, all tastefully done. And the examiners were nice, relaxed and friendly, so that when you went in, you weren't too nervous at all. One difference that really struck me was how much more people at RMH smiled compared to Vs. Don't get me wrong, there are ample nice doctors at Vs, but it exudes this "institution of higher learning" feel about it which compells you to go around looking (or in my case faking) professionalism which contributes to this severe paucity of smiles.
# posted by H : 1:14 AM
