MBBS Year 4, Semester 1 (Sutures, Yays and Nays )

Okay yes.

Hi... and....Hello. 

I have been procrastinating on writing this blog post and what better way to do so than just 2 days before the new semester begins! 

As always, I will be witty and start off this post with a few relatable phrases which may have been said or overheard during class:

        "Pass me the scissors looking thing".   (Surgery)

                                            - PS: Most surgery equipments do look like scissor-looking thing-

For Context: 

    "That was the patient's HUSBAND?"  (Communicable Med)

For Context: Sometimes, appearance may be deceiving. 

    

   "Person-centred care,PeRsOn-CeNtrEd CaRe,PERSON-CENTRED CARE" (Community Med)

For Context: Every PPT and every lecturer says this at least once. Best bet it ingrains in your mind.

 " I choose medicine to avoid Maths *sobs in Trauma*" (Epidemiology)

For (trauma) Context: IYKYK

"What is the definition of Health by WHO?" (Preventive)

For context: (you will see this more than once in a ppt)

"OMG its an essay final? And there is an online class view option? Peace Out" (Social Med)

For just the LOLs: 

" Okay stand here, and 1,2, 3 action" (Medical Chinese)

For context: We had to film/ audio record dialogues of scenarios. Particularly our group had a full production team and a skillful videographer🩷

Memes aside and all, allow me to elaborate on the pros and cons for each of the classes I had this semester. 

Course: Surgery

Pros ✅: Able to finally differentiate all the "scissor-looking" things and we learnt 11 types of different sutures. (PS: Definitely invest in a good suture practice kit cause you would be expected to do 100 surgical knots for the lab final in under a minute!).

Finally feeling accomplished as a medical student when learning how to gown up and gown down + maintaining a sterile field. (Now we all know not to break sterility when we have observerships😛)

Photo credits: sarasmedlife💗

Cons ❌: Those 8am lab times on a cold winter morning. You just contemplate life and how warm your bed is (but also considered if you should skip lab or be extra late for lab). 

The unrealistic 100 surgical knot that was expected from us for the lab exam. (In reality, no surgeon has needed this skill)

Course: Communicable Medicine

Pros ✅:  More patient interaction sessions. We were told to attend 'lab sessions' at the hospital where we were divided into groups. Here, we were able to take patient history, learn about the lab values, treatments used and deduce a diagnosis with your allocated groups. This would be followed up by a presentation on the patient we were assigned to the following week. I would say, it was very theory-application based. 

Cons ❌:  The pre-reading materials were sometimes more than 10 pages, with the AIDS pre-lecture material being 300pages. 

Course: Community Medicine

Pros ✅: Occasionally you get freebies in classes when you answer a question correctly in class. (Which i think, is a good incentive to attend mandatory lectures😝). Some classes also have live demonstrations, where the professor himself, brings his tools out that he uses for traditional chinese medicine, and he himself has fun poking the students with his acupuncture needles.

We had a fairly interesting hospital session, where we had to enact an emergency situation, and had to role-play all the steps.

Cons ❌:  The lectures were long and tedious to attend if there wasn't any "incentive" tbh. And most of the lectures were pretty much logical and the biggest gaslight you will tell yourself and others around you, is ✨it is common sense✨ (until comes the exam, where you have to memorise everything in the ppt, word for word😅)

Course: Epidemiology

Pros ✅: The finals were OPEN BOOK, and you could bring ALL the lecture notes and formula sheet needed 😌

Cons ❌:  The course had a 3-4 hour lecture session that was mandatory, the slides were long and tedious, there was maths involved (lets put EMPHASIS on this), and you had occasionally in-class quizzes (if you are underprepared, look to thy neighbours😏).

Course: Preventive Medicine

Pros ✅: Some lecturers made an effort to engage to classroom by incorporating participation in a style of role-play, q and a's and asking us for our opinion. There was one particular lecturer that had a very dominating-style in the classroom, that ensured those who attended the class, were engaged.

Cons ❌:  The labs were time-consuming and the lectures were long (some lecturers do make it hard to be engaged for the whole duration when it is just slide reading for 2 hours). The 70% contribution as the final made the final much harder than it actually was. The exam involved lots of definition and 'short answer' style format, so start memorising the lecture content early. 

Course: Social Medicine and Ethics

Pros ✅:  Having the "unofficial" option of Online-lectures, showcased in Dingtalk. 

Bonus: No final examinations, instead.... a Final ESSAY. 

Cons ❌:  (no complaints from me, for this one😝)

Course: Medical Chinese 3

Pros ✅:   More points being allocate for attendance, participation in class and the filmography/audio sessions we did for homework with our groups. This means, the final exam contribution was a mere 40%. 

Cons ❌:   The classes were held after 6pm and ended at 9pm. Sometimes the filmography homework coincides with all the other homework and assignments at once, that it made it tedious to do. 

Well, That is all for this time. 

Good luck in also juggling Preclinicals! 

Lots of Love,

-D