Tablespoon Thursday| A Day of Waffles

“That's usually how they start, the young ones. Meaningless waffle.” 
― Jonathan Stroud

I've recently found myself engaging in conversations with an extensive diverse population of  people over the past few weeks and realized that I have the tendency to waffle during conversation and decided to fix this little bad habit that developed in the shadows, by creating a space for me to share my thoughts and pieces of my life with you my readers. Something more than medicine, and a bit more entertaining...well hopefully you're already being entertained and staying informed but these posts will allow you to live vicariously through my life in Trinidad outside of medical school. 

Stay tuned!

A Matter of Life and Death

“We're all human, aren't we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

There have been a few times in life where I found myself asking "what is the value of life? how much is life actually worth?" and "to what lengths would I go to protect and keep a good quality of life?"

The more I study medicine and begin to mentally prepare myself for being on the wards and interacting with patients,  I can't help but to think how common these questions may or may not be to my future patients and ones that I may be asked when discussing the management and treatment of their condition(s).

During my holiday breaks, I tend to reconnect with the practical part of medicine by shadowing Physicians. Over the Christmas break, I was afforded the opportunity to shadow a very knowledgable and exemplary doctor and was granted the opportunity of seeing both the private and public advantages and disadvantages of medicine.

Overall, the main theme I noticed was what is the worth of a good healthy life. There were days during my shadowing opportunity where I sat across the table from ill patients, went on rounds and performed respiratory, cardiovascular and abdominal examinations and every patient asked the same question at the end of the examination "Doc! When will I be well enough to go home and how can I get better?"

It was hard not to realize that each patient, regardless of their personal diagnosis showed their determination to fight and to prove that life is worth fighting for and always sought to
ask ways in which they could improve their current prognosis. It was also encouraging to enter a room to have a patient exclaim how they were so proud because they were using the spirometer regularly (and the difference was heard in their lung sounds which was remarkable after completing Respiration course) and wanted us to watch as she demonstrated. It made me appreciate my health all the more, and gave me the sense of obligation to help these patients on their road to recovery although I was just shadowing.

As I prepared to begin this new semester in January, I made a few notes as to ways that I can improve my views on what things are worth, specifically life and how I can shape my thinking that will be beneficial for patients of the future.

WAYS TO VALUE LIFE TODAY

1. Spend Time Helping Others 

You may not agree with me, but there is a certain level of joy to be attained when you spend some time helping someone other than yourself or even a family member. 

Get involved in organizations at school, work or church that plan outreach events and functions where the community benefits. It will allow you to meet new people and be introduced to a new way of thinking and how you can serve others in small ways. 

When I help someone, I am usually reminded of the minute things I take for granted such as the opportunity of being educated in a foreign country and able to experience another culture. 

2. Take Time Doing Something That Makes You Happy

This is vital to mental health and balance. At times we all take on the "mommy role". You know where we tend to overwork ourselves and ensure that everyone is taken care of except ourselves. This can be damaging to one's psyche because we're not taking time to care for ourselves.

Make it a habit to take at least one day or an hour or two just to spend time with yourself doing something YOU enjoy.

Remember that song by Heather Headley- "Me Time?" (Don't worry go ahead and youtube it). Pencil that in your planner, and make it a habit to have a little me time regularly. Sure people may think you're crazy because you're kind of taking a day to date yourself, but who cares what they think, right?

Take time to read a new book, watch a movie, explore a new restaurant, take a day at the spa to be pampered, and the list goes on. Try it! The people you help will be thankful as well.

3. A.S.K. 

Taking a lesson from Matthew 7:7-8. Simply asking oneself and others what is life worth will give you an idea of how you and others view life.

By asking, we're opening the door to be educated and to allow ourselves to dig deeper in understanding how we can make our lives and that of others worth living. 

I encourage you to take a listen to the podcast entitled  "Worth" which got me to delve into the questions "what is the value of life?" and "how do we value the life of another?" and also read the following article that was published on KevinMd entitled  "Being a patient made me a better Doctor and Physician Leader" . They both highlight the concept of worth and how as humans and even more so future physicians we should aim to treat others with the thought center that all persons deserve equal and fair service and that all life is valuable despite the preconceived notions and prejudices we may be exposed to or possess. 

Share your thoughts on the podcast, the article and on the value/worth of life. 

Image found on Piccsy posted by Wonders of the younger.

Lessons from Spotter Exam

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” 
― Henry Ford

Most times, I'm usually well prepared for my "spotter" examinations, especially those at the end of the shorter blocks. For those of you reading who may not be familiar, a spotter examination is a laboratory based exam specifically over Anatomy and Physiology in the first 6 blocks of medical school and strictly Anatomy in the last semester of second year.

There are jars, radiographs, histology slides, micrographs, models, laboratory instruments, wet specimens and plastinated specimens that are all fair game for the examination. Questions range from simple identification of a pinned or labeled structure and give a feature or function of it, to naming the innervation of and vasculature of the pinned or labeled structure. Seems easy enough right? Well try doing that in a minute knowing that at any second a loud clock is going to sound, signaling time is up for that question and you need to move onto the next.

To date, how I prepare for these examinations have changed drastically from reviewing jars and writing out the function, innervation, vasculature of every pinned structure in every jar we covered in lab, to simply reading lecture notes, reading my textbooks and looking at the jars and the notes at the same time to familiarize myself with the anatomical layout of every organ covered in the five systems covered thus far. I must say, the more school progresses, and the more anatomy I learn, the easier it's becoming to see how each system is integrated with the next. I am now appreciating the curriculum's structure and embracing my education as simply adding more floors to the foundation which is these first two years of medical school.

For this spotter examination, I found myself waiting until the weekend before the exam to really concentrate on the fine details covered in lab and I must say I began to panic which didn't help my situation at all but made me waste a lot of time trying to motivate myself to study hard and effectively. This wasn't my best choice for preparation, but I was glad that I accomplished everything and had a thorough review (believe it or not) of all of the anatomy that was to be tested.

I would NEVER recommend last minute preparations for any examination, because the amount of pressure I felt had me on the fence contemplating throwing in the towel and just going to bed and studying hard for the final. Well you better believe I did no such thing, rather I had moments where I needed to take a break, regroup and sweep that overwhelming feeling aside and tough it out. After all I had no one else to blame but myself for my poor time management especially since during Carnival I had two days free where I could have just studied for Spotter.

Here are five things that worked for me during my last minute study sessions and what Spotter has taught me over the blocks on time management and effective studying.

1. Write It Down.

When you're faced with a lot of things that just must be done, it's vital to your sanity and overall productivity to write everything down that you must accomplish and then to rank them based on their priority. 

2.  Set A Timer.

Based on that priority list, set a timer to ensure you are making the most out of the short time you have to complete your list. There are all kinds of study apps out there to chose from such as Pomodoro timers for both iPhone and Android to Study Helper which allows you to set timers for your different tasks and to even schedule short bathroom breaks to lunch breaks and to create charts to gauge your most productive study days/weeks and months.

To prepare for my spotter a few weeks ago, out of the six lectures we had for the block, I missed one lecture, and so I reviewed all of the lectures I attended first. This worked for me because I was able to recall different points that were discussed in class and didn't have to spend a lot of time clarifying things I didn't understand as I had made notes post lecture. For the lecture and lab I didn't attend, it took me a little longer to get through the material because everything was new, and I had to reference my atlas and textbook as I read the lecturer's notes. By doing this I was able to cover all of the material from the lecture and from lab and then to spend a day just with slides and jared specimen while making the connection with the material I had read.

Whenever I study for spotter's now, I try my best to imitate the exam conditions by either testing myself and allotting a minute to answer or by reviewing the jars and coming up with my own questions based on spotter exams I've previously survived. 

3. Do NOT Multitask.

This relates to number 2, in that what you didn't get done during that timeframe will have to wait until you're finished with everything else.

For me this is a hard pill to swallow because if I don't accomplish what I had set out to do in a certain timeframe I find it very difficult to move onto the next task without thinking about what I did not complete. However, by moving on and tackling something else you are able to cover more ground. Crazy how that works right?

Whatever you do, do NOT  try and split up your time for one thing to work on two things at once. This can lead to confusion, false sense of accomplishment and understanding and it can very well be a waste of your limited time.

Focus on one thing in a certain timeframe and move on to the next when the time is up. 

4. Unplug From The World.

I learned this the hard way.

Whenever I sit down to study, like seriously study, I have to turn off my wireless connection on my phone, computer and iPad to avoid distractions. Then the door sign goes up, to ensure NO ONE disturbs me during my focus time.

I have found that being unplugged from the world and social media allows me to be more efficient and to get through my list of things to do in a timely manner and limits my multitasking. 

5. Keep It Real, And Plan.

I tend to set unrealistic goals and have high expectations whenever I find myself in a procrastination pickle, trying to do a mountain of work in a short time. This contributes to panic and my initial poor execution of tasks. So, I have to keep it real with myself and plan what will be done over the span of time I have. I literally have to allot the various tasks to specific timeframes, and pencil in what textbooks or notes I will need to get through the task, especially if I won't be studying at home (I tend to overpack and have to tug a bag full of books that I don't use whenever I don't do this). Once I set realistic goals I am able to focus on one task at a time and find it easier to check things off of my list. 

Time management is one thing you will learn from the inception of year 1 is vital to success in medical school. 

Try to work on it during your holidays, learn to rise early and to be effective during the morning hours. You will find that this will pay off during the semesters and you will be amazed at how much you can get accomplished during less hours and reduce the amount of time spent procrastinating. 

Let me know how you make your studying effective after long bouts of procrastination.