I just wanna go home

Can't wait for the exams to be over. It's not that I don't like medicine, and neither do I find it boring in any way (really...don't I sound convincing enough?), but I think I'm just not cut out for revision. Note that this does not bode well for my future career unless I do something about it ASAP :P

I have such a short attention span, most noticeable when I'm trying to revise now. I'll be reading a mere two pages before I feel like doing something else, be it checking my e-mail or going to get food or drinking some water. This must be the longest 2 weeks of exams that I've ever had, even though it's only 3 days of exams really. Only God knows if I'm ever going to make it through this period of time a sane person *groan*

We had our OSCEs yesterday. Just realised that I did not know what OSCE stood for (except something something Clinical Examinations, and I've already had what, 5 osces before this!), so as usual, I googled it and learnt something new and entirely useless for my next 2 papers - OSCE = Objective Structured Clinical Examination. Interesting...not! Anyway, as I was saying, we had 15 stations in our OSCEs, each station lasting 7 minutes. At each station, you either:

a) Take a history and summarise (which normally takes us an average of 20 minutes during our rotations, so trying to cram 20mins into 7mins and not forgetting anything important is uh, really not my forte)...

OR

b) Perform an examination on a real patient OR a normal person who doesn't read the instruction card beforehand that we are given to read so that when or where they are supposed to be having pain or double vision, they don't, leaving you confused and mortified that you either missed something or did something wrong...

OR

c) Give an explanation to a patient or a relative about something medical that they are concerned about, e.g. how to use your asthma inhalers (OR febrile convulsions...stoopid me, now why didn't I think of that..darn!) AND at the same time try to elicit their ICE/reassure/be polite/sound smooth, confident & smart without sounding smart-alecky! Gosh there's only so much my poor little brain can do simultaneously. Oh, and 'ICE' - that's short for Ideas, Concerns & Expectations. Probably a topic for another post another time...

OR

d) Perform a 'skill', normally on a dummy ( I meant mannequin lah, not real person!). We had CPR and spirometry, and I spent at least half of the 7 minutes allocated chatting to the examiners about non-exams stuff. Had some of my funniest moments here :D Not to say I didn't fumble at the stations. I did, mind you, over some of the simplest things which I should slap myself for. But nevertheless, these stations gave me some resemblance of a breather...

OR

e) Answer short-answer questions on paper at what we call the IMAGE stations. These included X-rays (I'm never gonna make it as a radiologist...) ECGs, videos or pictures. Hmmm, no comments on this one. You either know the answers or you don't. 50-50 for me :P

Well, that's that, and it's over for now (til I get my results, which I'm not looking forward to). 2 more papers, 2 more weeks, and I'm home...home sweet home!

First entry...

Wow... I've finally decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon, albeit later than everyone else, lagging behind, as usual. But nevertheless, better late than never, as is my moto in life for nearly everything else I do. (People who've received birthday cards and whatnots from me can testify to that, unfortunately!)

Why join now, not before, not later? Hmmm... I don't know really. I guess I kinda found it hard to express my feelings and thoughts in a written form before this I suppose. Not that I'm any good at it now, just that I'm taking one step forward (and probably 3 backwards) in dealing with the thousand and one thoughts going through my head at times. And I was probably just too lazy to find out how to create a blog before this. That's why!

Who am I, you ask? Well, I'm a 3rd year medical student, (soon-to-be 4th year hopefully after summer, fingers crossed!), and currently struggling to get through my exams. One part down today, 2 more papers to go next week! It's been a long looonnggg year with many ups and downs, and partially because of that I think I need an avenue to vent my frustrations as well as reflect on the weird and wonderful things around me :)

So then...this'll be my little place to ruminate and do some self-searching for the time being. Bear with me though, I'm still learning how to use this thing. (Yes, yes, slow I know...so what! :P )