5 Things I’ve Learned Since Starting Medical School

At the end of two terms, I found myself mulling over all the things I’d noticed since starting in September. A lot of things were realisations about university life in general, but I had a few things specifically related to Medical school and the students; I thought I might as well share five of these realisations with you guys.

Medics Like to Party. HARD.

If there’s one thing everyone on campus knows about medics, is that they love to party. Work hard, play hard right? It’s like all the stress accumulated during the week suddenly bursts out in a concentrated mess of alcohol and cheesy music. There’s a local club that gives medics a discount and we even have our own bar to ourselves inside! And we definitely take advantage of these benefits. Most times, our schedules are too busy to go clubbing during the week (although there are some who make time for it during the week), so on Friday night, the streets are laced with medical students looking for a place to release all that accumulated stress.

 

There is ALWAYS More Work to be Done.

This is definitely a well-known fact not just in medicine, but in all courses in university. The sheer volume of work and information presented to you is so overwhelming, and can really bog you down because whenever you’re relaxing you suddenly realise “I could be doing some extra reading right now”. The sad thing is that there will always be more extra reading and notes to be done. I’ve found that sometimes, you just need to count your losses and pick the most important things to focus on. At least then you can keep your sanity. I try to stay as organised as I can with my bullet journal, which has saved my life so many times since starting medical school, but you learn quite quickly that you can’t do it all, and that’s ok.

 

Anatomy is Both Your Worst Enemy and Your Best Friend

Ah, the wonderful world of anatomy. I seem to have developed a love-hate relationship with it since the module began. Learning about all the different parts of the body in lectures and the dissection room have been amazing.

(I’ll be writing another post on what working in the dissection room is like soon)

But the sheer V O L U M E of things to learn are definitely the worst part. For each body part, you need to know the bones associated with it, including important landmarks on the bones, the names of all the muscles (they’re all very latin), the nerves and all the blood vessels that supply that area… it’s stressing me out just typing what I’m supposed to know.

Despite how overwhelming it can all become, it’s still my favourite module by far.

 

You Need to Make Time to ~De-stress~

This is a super important thing to learn before you implode in a ball of stress and self-pity. Medical school is known to be one of the more stressful courses and it demands a lot of your time, but it’s vital that you find something that helps you recentre and regain your sanity. You can pick anything: yoga, going to the gym, partying, light reading, adult colouring books, even just watching TV. Just anything to get your mind off the pile of work waiting for you tomorrow.

For me personally this year I’ve found going to the gym and watching a lot of Netflix to be the most helpful stress relievers because I don’t have to think a lot while doing those things.

 

You Get to Know Your Fellow Students Intimately

I have at least one clinical skills session in a week, where we spend a few hours learning some simple doctor-y procedures, such a taking blood pressure or listening to heart sounds with a stethoscope. The only way to practice these skills effectively is on an actual person. Since a lot of the procedures require the patient to undress, and the only people acting as patients are the students, you get to know each other a little more personally. It was definitely weird at first, but after a few sessions, it became a lot less awkward to take your clothes off in front of a friend.