vitum medicinus --- a life of medicine

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I've got blood in the back of my cab
2007-07-02 21:25:00
The other day while I was shadowing paramedics, we had just dropped off a patient and were sitting by the emergency department entrance, waiting for one other paramedic to finish up on a phone call before we left the hospital.A cabbie pulled up and rolled down his window, and shouted at us through a thick accent, “I’ve got blood in the back.” “Huh?” one of the paramedics replied.“Blood – I’ve got blood in the back of my cab,” he said again, using his thumb to point at the back seat.We looked at each other, not sure what to do, until one paramedic turned to the cabbie and said, “Here’s what you do – get some water, and some hydrogen peroxide, and you’ll be able to scrub it out real nice.” The cabbie mumbled something, and drove off.We started shaking our heads when he pulled up to the front door of the hospital.“What’s he doing?? Does he actually want a nurse to come out and clean the back of his cab for him?”He popped the trunk, got out of his cab, ...
More About: Back

Step Towards Interdisciplinarity: Blogging?
2007-06-30 10:04:00
"[Until I read blogs written by physicians], I had no idea what it was like to be a physician."Who would probably NOT say something like this:a) A blogger who is a pre-med student 2 years away from medical schoolb) A blogger who has been a nurse for 28 years c) A blogger who is a patient that has suffered from a chronic condition for 3 yearsd) A blogger who is an average, healthy 32-year-old female.......Did you choose B? I sure would have.So you can imagine my shock when I read that quote on the high-quality Emergiblog, authored by a nurse of 28 years. Of all the people in this world beside doctors themselves, wouldn't you assume that nurses would the ones who understand doctors the best??Sure, everyone knows that there is a varying level of disconnect between the two professions, but for being someone who has worked alongside doctors for nearly three decades you'd think she would understand what doctors are like.It's great to see, then, that maybe blogging could be a tool for b...
More About: Blogging , Step , Disc

Great quotes from class - First year
2007-06-29 10:02:00
"This is what an cardiac electrophysiologist looks like." Spoken by a lecturer, showing a photograph of a man in scrubs "Clean, neat appearance engenders trust." Somewhat important for patient care."Demonstrate an active interest in the patient."Even if they're REALLY boring?!"The physical exam begins the moment you enter the room. Note the following things: gender, ..."Spoken by a professor"Thank you for your attention and respect. Last year, a student threw a paper airplane at me during lecture."Spoken by a professor at the end of a lecture. He was serious, and he was not impressed when it happened. "Would you all SHUT UP?!" Spoken by a student, to the entire class, who apparently did not agree with the perspective of the above professor"The only way you could get kicked out of medical school is to bring a tommy gun to class"Spoken the dean of another Canadian medical school, recounted at two separate times by two separate people"We're paid to be scared." Lecturer talking about ...
More About: Great , Quotes , Class , Year , Quote

Even on my summer break...It's taking over my life.
2007-06-28 02:36:00
The thing about medicine is that once you're in it, it's pretty hard to get away from it.I started this blog over a year ago (and clearly forgot to celebrate its anniversary with fanfare of any sort), and evidently even at that tender naïve age I was aware of that fact. Enamored, actually, you could probably say. I knew that it would happen, and I was actually excited about living every moment enriched by my training in the medical sciences, making a difference in people's lives everywhere I went, breathing and living a life of medicine. I even used that phrase to name my blog.Boy, was I delusional.Okay, it's not that big a deal...yet. But it is happening. Here's a story to show how medicine has pretty much taken over my thoughts and day-to-day existence.On the plane on the way to a much-appreciated vacation last week, I got up to use the restr (those little rooms far too small to be called 'restrooms') and, wouldn't you know it, I ended up getting trapped by the beverage c...
More About: Life , Summer , My Life , Break , Taking

Jail vs. Medical School: An Objective Comparison
2007-06-21 08:51:00
Here's a little something I began writing in the midst of finals.Even though I love med school, and I'm glad that I'm a part of it, and I'm excited to become a doctor, and it's a dream come true... there is such a thing as "too much of a good thing."Just picture a dump truck full of your favourite ice cream pouring its load all over you.That's what med school is like when things get intense...you remember liking it way back when,you know you worked hard to get there,and yet you still feel like it's taking over you, drowning you, going to kill you.It's nice to be in my summer break and back to enjoying the dump truck load of ice cream from the sidelines, and not drowning in it.Jail : Several hours a day spent in a 9' x 9' cell with small windows, where you sleep as well.Medschool: Several hours a day spent in a 9' x 9' PBL room, where you sleep as well during naps and finals.Jail 1, Medschool 0.Jail: You get to leave early if you display good behaviour. If you misbehave, y...
More About: Medical , School , Comparison , Medical School

Interdisciplinary health care: a gold mine being ignored?
2007-06-17 02:28:00
...Continued from Preliminary Thoughts on Interdisciplinary Health For interdisciplinarity being the newfangled wave in health care, throughout my time in hospitals and med school, I sure haven't gotten the sentiment that it's put into action very much.After reading my previous post, my naturopath-student buddy asked if I'm for or against interdisciplinarity. I want to be clear: I'm not against it at all; I think that there's a lot to gain from it, if implemented properly ... i.e. not in the forced way described by the "Anonymous Therapist" commenter on my previous post. My point is simply, I haven't seen much interdisciplinarity in action or even in theory at this point in my medical training, despite its lauded usefulness.In fact, even though I'm only less than a quarter of the way in, to date I've felt the sentiment actually leans toward the opposite, almost against interdisciplinarity. I haven't felt much like we're being told to consider all those other professions as ...
More About: Health Care , Gold , Care , Mine

What doctors REALLY think... and preliminary thoughts on interdisciplinary
2007-06-15 09:51:00
"Research is a real problem. Doctors just make up the data. They don’t report negative side effects, no question about it."Someone at New York magazine had a brilliant idea a few weeks ago."If I ask a bunch of doctors a bunch of questions," they pondered, "but promise them anonymity, just think all the great dirt I'll be able to print! They'll be so straightforward and honest, I'll be one of the few people on earth to know what doctors really think."Someone at New York magazine seems to have forgotten about the medical blogosphere. Every day, countless doctors rant anonymously about the dirt that goes on in hospitals. They just happen to do so in the form of blogging.But someone at New York Magazine ended up doing the interview, writing the article, and hey, it got published. How Comrade found this article in the New York magazine online four full days ahead of print, I'll never know, but thank him, since you'll probably find it quite interesting. Selected highights, my smart...
More About: Thoughts , Disc , Ally , Mina