Fall v. Spring

I am one week into Spring semester and I can already tell this semester is going to be CRAZY different from last semester--not only the curriculum, but also with my experiences with patients, my schedule, and my free time. I will always remember the first day of medical school. The night before, I had all of my schoolwork prepared, backpack packed, clothes laid out. I went to bed early. Prepared a nice meal for the morning (including a big cup of coffee). I was crazy nervous, but very excited. I had a full day of classes and stayed up until 4 AM frantically studying. I'm sure none of the material I studied that night stuck in my head. I am also sure that I was incredibly inefficient in the way I went about studying, but hey, its all apart of getting adjusted to school, right?

Now, fast forward to last monday...the night before our first day of school, and where am I? At home, packing school supplies and getting ready for the upcoming day? Nope. I am at the bar with my classmates.  Now, don't get me wrong...I am not taking school less seriously or anything. I am very motivated and absolutely want to be as successful as I can be, I just realized now that my first week should not be as stressed about as I had done first semester. I also know the importance of balancing school with fun...and when we don't have a ton of work to do, why not have fun while I can?

Other differences I have noticed so far:

1) Afternoons are more free! Last semester, I had mornings filled with lectures and afternoons filled with labs/small groups...So, my time to study was crammed to the nighttimes. This semester I still have lectures in the monrnings, but I only have a few labs and small groups every week. So, I have many days where I have the whole afternoon free to study! Its very nice so far!

2) Way, way, wayyy more exams! So, everything I have talked about so far are definite positives of this semester, but I think this is the worst part. Instead of having an exam a week, we will have either 2 or 3 exams a week. We have one additional class this semester, so everything is taught just a little big quicker and we have a lot more exams! ...Hopefully the free time I have gained will be in good use studying for all of these tests.

3) More patient interaction: Last semester's clinical skills class taught us how to communicate and interview patients. We were given four opportunities to really practice these skills with model patients, but thats really the only big patient interaction we had. This semester, there is a TON more experiences that allow us to interact in a clinical setting. First, we do a Longitudinal-Patient Centered Experience, which I described in "Spring Semester". My first meeting with my patient is this Monday, so I am sure I will blog about that as soon as its done. Also, we do physician shadowing this semester, which I am starting on Friday (hopefully). Lastly, I am also volunteering with Friendship Clinic (see future blog!)

Well, thats all for now...Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!