June 2008 Archives

On Tuesday 27th May the My Medical Career team enlightened the minds of Monash University undergraduate students to the huge range of career opportunities available to them. Amongst other speakers (an intern, a rural GP and an infectious diseases consultant) Dr Cosmin Florescu shared his experiences to a room of mainly first and second year students. He recounted his steep learning curve as an intern, sleepless night shifts as a resident (with illustrative supporting photographic evidence), and many hours studying for exams as a registrar. Cosmin also emphasised the importance of a balanced lifestyle and encouraged students to take up a hobby. He advised students to explore their options via the website as it is never too early to think of future career paths.

The speech was followed by finger food and drinks . The Monash University Medical Undergraduates' Society was supportive of the site's objectives and was open to future involvement with MMC- though me!  Overall a success and we anticipate many more similar events in the future.

I noticed a post recently suggesting a medical student community. Just to let everyone know, if you would like to create your own community to share topic focussed ideas or resources, just log in, click on "My Communities" (black bar at top of page), then "Create new community". You will then be able to modify the community settings, such as who can join and who can comment on community posts, and start inviting people to join.

Have fun!

Like most students who tell their family or friends that they are studying medicine, I get the typical “What do you want to be?” or “What would you like to specialize in?” questions and I have a prepared (abridged) spiel “I would like to be a blah”, or “I like …. area”. However, if I am honest and put forth that I don’t really know yet, I often get shot a look that makes me feel like I am unprepared or not serious about my career aspirations. I am.

After going though a science degree, tailoring it to be as close to “premed” as possible, and boosting my CV with research, tutoring and nursing experience - all hoping to be the best doctor I can be, as well as gain any competitive edge (I am in a med student tsunami after all!) - I am very serious. Yet, one and a half years in to med, I have less of an idea about the end destination than ever. Due to the self-directed nature of medical education and the vast amount of information, but relative time shortage, one of the skills you must learn early on in your studies is to identify what you don’t know. The further I go along, the more I realise how much I am yet to learn. Thus at this early stage – before I have really experienced what working in an area might be like – I’m uncertain about what area I would like to specialise in.

At the moment, I am leaning towards Critical/Intensive care and Anaesthetics. I love physiology and these disciplines are the few where you get to see dramatic and immediate changes in a patients vitals and chemistry; where accurate and rapid decisions can make a huge difference to the patients outcome; and where adrenaline is plenty! I also love the relationship dynamics between patients - when (and if) they are recovering - and their families (I appreciate the human side of it). Of the many strong memories from my elective in ICU/Anaesthetics last year, I have two that to me confirm my love for this sort of discipline. One evening I manually ventilated a post-surgical, sedated patient who had developed CO₂ narcosis while the RMO was periodically testing ABGs for the CO₂ to drop from about 80-90! She was ‘better’ in the wards a few days later (I am not sure if she was ever discharged though). The other experience was being part of a daily meeting with a patient’s family for a week until their uncle/brother/father passed on, helping them come to terms with this unexpected tragedy – the grief and facing their own mortality.

It will be interesting for me to see what direction I will think of heading in after (and throughout) my upcoming clinical years, and whether I ever end up in that specialty at all.

Hey everyone reading this!

Thought I'd introduce myself here, given that I'm still getting used to using this forum, and that the only button that I can find, which says "POST" is here!

I'm a second year postgraduate medical student from Griffith Uni, at the Gold Coast in QLD. My undergraduate degree was physiotherapy. I'm currently working casually as a physiotherapist in age care and neuro rehabilitation. My interests/hobbies include playing basketball, volleyball and squash, watching movies, dining out and sleeping!!! (I definitely need more of that!)

Although it's still very early years, the medical specialities that I'm interested in at the moment and why include:

- Orthopaedic surgery: I'm good with my hands (not my feet however!), I work frequently with Orthopods and I feel they do a great job with improving patient's functioning, and I like performing musculoskeletal assessments! :P

- Neurology: I currently work in age care and neuro rehabilitation and it's really interesting! You'd be surprised how elderly patients present so differently to younger patients with the same condition. It's a challenging area, but very rewarding when you see a stroke patient undergoing your management plan, and after 6-7 months, they start walking with progressively greater function!

- General Practice: You can be asked to see any possible case, from any field of medicine, and best of all, you basically try to diagnose them. I love solving puzzles, and as a GP I believe problem solving takes basically the whole consultation. You're involved with the continual process of managing the patient's condition, so you get the know the patient (and their family) really well. Plus it has the flexibility to get your family and lifestyle set up.

Thought I'd share those reasons with you all. Perhaps you thought about these specialties or other specialties, and was a bit confused about what you liked more or what would suit you me, feel free to comment here :)