There is a lot of stuff in medicine to learn, no one will ever be able to learn everything. The Fuddled Medic has a reasonably big book ok objectives to get through, some are quite specific, such as "Assess a patient's level of consciousness using the GCS." Others are not - "Describe the pathology of Parkinsons Disease"
The second objective could be answered briefly in three or four lines, alternatively a 1000 word essay could be written. What I need to know is somewhere in the middle. Increasingly the Fuddled Medic is looking through books and thinking "Do I need to know this?" I hate it when I do this but sometimes you have to
As the FM goes through these objectives he hopes that he's finding the right place to stop and draw the line, but comes exams at the end of the term he may be in for a bit of a shock. I hope I have got the balance right.
I suppose my point is that medicine should not be like this, medicine is more then jumping through hoops. And I hate having to jump through a hoop but this is what I've got to do and accept.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels a bit like there is a lot of jumping through hoops involved in studying medicine. Although mine are veterinary medicine shaped hoops. I think with the sheer volume of material you have to study strategically.
ReplyDeleteI don't think as a doctor or vet you should necessarily know everything about everything. I think it's important we are clear on anatomy, physiology and basic concepts because these provide the foundations for us to do our job(s) effectively in the future.
There will always be multifactorial diseases such as metabolic disease for which the best information is the latest research. I guess our job in regard to developing pathologies is to ensure we can critically review research papers and put that information to our advantage.
Don't overdo it! I'm wading through endless objectives too (in between lambing).
H
(http://annulet.blogspot.com)
Nobody ever knows if they've got the balance 'right', but usually, we have, just about. I think the key thing is to just not worry and to trust yourself :)
ReplyDelete