Another week is finished! At this point, I am counting down the days to Thanksgiving. We have class tomorrow and Tuesday until noon, and then it's home to family, friends, and food!
This week, we studied Pulmonology. To me, the material seemed pretty straight forward: pneumonias, lung cancer, COPD.. along with a few other smaller diseases. We also had a VERY busy week of extra things on our schedule. Monday, we had pathology lab. Tuesday, I spent the last afternoon at my preceptor's office, but luckily I left a little early. Wednesday, we had a practice history and physical exam. Thursday, we had a seminar on choosing a specialty. And Friday, we had our real history and physical exam (which we were told that our campus is the best the statewide standardized patients have seen)! Needless to say, it was hard to find time to fit in studying.
The seminar on choosing a specialty was actually interesting. Although it didn't help me to actually CHOOSE a specialty, it was more focused on how to prepare for a residency. With the way healthcare is currently going, residency spots are being lost. This means that there are doctors graduating medical school without a job available for them. I find this extremely sad, because we are already in an era of too few physicians. When the new healthcare law has health insurance for every almost every American, the doctor-patient ratio is going to worsen. We need to increase the number of physicians by growing interest and helping the students financially, in my opinion.
Choosing a specialty is one of the hardest decisions we as physicians have to make. The seminar speaker discussed how it is equivalent to the choice of who you are going to marry. Physicians end up regretting their choice, becoming unhappy, and being unable to switch their specialty because of lack of residency spots. At this point, being unsure of what I want to do, I have to do all I can to make sure I am able to get into the specialty I someday choose: this means killing my Step 1 USMLE board exam in May. Currently, I have interests in Neurology and Family Medicine/Internal Medicine. I am hopeful that my clinical rotations next year will help me to make my decision. Right now, however, I am simply trying to stay motivated and study; my motivation has been slightly down with the holidays around the corner.
I'd like to give a small list of things in no particular order that I'm thankful for to end this blog, with Thanksgiving being Thursday! There are many things that people take for granted, but God is blessing us every day.
1. Family.
2. My amazing boyfriend.
3. Friends.
4. Education.
5. Having enough food.
6. Hot showers.
7. A roof over my head.
8. My cat.
9. A working car.
10. Being healthy.
11. Living in the United States.
12. Owning clothes and shoes.
13. Reading a good novel.
14. Hugs.
15. My dogs and cat at my mom's.
16. CHRISTMAS.
17. Being able to see family during the holidays.
18. Sleep.
19. Heaven and prayer.
20. Good movies.
21. Laughter.
22. The beautiful world.
23. Caring people.
24. Having hope and trust.
25. Doctors.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and don't forget to give thanks EVERY day, not just one day of the year!
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