Formative Formation If there's anything currently trending in our batch's mind it would be "formative quiz", which we took our last one yesterday. These are 10-20 point quizzes that are designed to help us with our studying. So we had daily quizzes since the start of MSK pretty much. Though know that ASMPH can be lenient when the whole batch asks for an extension. The big difficulty perhaps one would find in ASMPH's MSK module would be the spine– lots to know for one formative quiz (incidentally it was our very last one before we'd just get summatives: more on that next week). Nevertheless, all the more intriguing to learn. For example, we had academic coaching last tuesday and so the formative quiz for that lecture was moved to wednesday. Two quizzes in a day, but honestly sometimes one just needs to take a little break and reflect with our mentors. I was one of the people who strongly disagreed with it since I wanted to get the quiz out of the way but ulti...

  Medicine without works is dead  One of the big transitions for a first year medical student is to maintain momentum. After a final exam ends a module, immediately (and I mean either the day of or the morning after), we start blazing with an orientation for the next module.  The way to cope with this seems to be to sell your soul and try to set up reward circuits to maintain sanity, deferring hope until finally the degree is at hand and you can finally look back and say “I made it”. This short term strategy applied long term will produce chronic problems, which may be part of it, I don’t know.  What I do know is that I came into medicine for its formation. ASMPH’s MD/MBA program boasts a bold promise to make dynamic leaders, outstanding clinicians and social catalysts– all these in one doctor rooted in Ignatian spirituality. I think it’s hard for us to reflect on this when it feels like we’re drowning in the trenches of MD mmemonics and MBA Busy-ness. But being a me...

  What does it mean to be a medical student? Really, what does it mean to be a medical student? Can the question even be meaningfully answered without the usual "grind" or bringing in one's own story? Though each answer is different, there may be new ways to frame the question and what assumptions or considerations can be taken. I will make an argument for "mystery". All to glean an insight, and if it is achieved, then it is one step closer to attaining wisdom. This takes a little bit of playing with concepts; a little bit of philosophy.  It is a unique thing that the term doctor is usually the colloquial substitution for physician. In my medical school we usually say "doc" to refer to our professors. In a way, it means "teach" since doctor in latin means to teach. There's a sense of authority as well even when the word is perverted to mean forging a document. "To make it look legit". In this sense, aren't us medical student...

  YL5 Week 7 and 8: From Hema/Immuno To MSK Hello everybody. I was unable to write a post last week due to personal reasons. I decided to combine weeks 7 and 8 today in order to give a perspective more on ASMPH's program in a less involved way (because, in a way, I was indeed less involved). A reflective essay will likely be postponed to next week when I get to catch up to things though I'll offer a few short words before we begin. One thing to note about morality is that when one realizes the interconnectedness of one's actions with society as a whole, it offers a different perspective when one fails or succeeds. It has been a flaw to myself to keep struggling with a personal vice thinking I'm the only one affected. Bearing the burden on one's own is perhaps an antithesis to the covenant and partnership that medicine places as the prime medium of action– shared decision making and shared responsibility (albeit with different roles– one as patient and other as docto...

  YL5 Week 6: In the face of Change Just a quick update this week, so less of my philosophizing or spiritualizing and more on reflections of the program thus far. We finished Cell last Wednesday. The day before that we had an exam on cell physiology. I admit that my mood got a bit more boosted because the last topic was on the basics of neurophysiology. I have always found neuro fascinating. It's one of the reasons I keep neuro on my mind (though no longer neurosurgery). Cell was quite an experience. I felt like I never really had given my all yet (except in the first exam). It might be trying to anticipate preventing burnout. For that, I didn't really study after the tuesday exam. Pro tip: if you do want to study don't calculate how much you need to pass for the final. I even mistook the time the final exam was to start. I thought it was at 3 but a flurry of calls from my transition group confirmed it at 1:00. After the exam occurred, I typed out what I could from the feed...

  YL5 Week 5 part 2: Reflections on Fides et Ratio "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth - in a word, to know himself - so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves,"  - Preface to St. Pope John Paul II's Fides et Ratio I think I found myself today committing that mind-body dualism error that was mentioned in week 1's Principles & Perspectives module. I had separated the spiritual aspect of medicine from its corporal content.  Last Thursday was a tough module for me because I'm really terrible at genetics and always have been. I tried to hunker down and study it a different way than I had before, and on the way I think I burned myself out slightly. I felt unmotivated to study and thought that I should just replace this with time for spiritual faith. I mean people said this mo...