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I started Med school. No, really. I really did. It WAS awesome. I knew it would be.

It's only O week, I know, albeit the special O week just for us medkids. Cos we're special. If you count the 2 days of bridging course last week (and you shouldn't) I'm 4 days in. And the content part hasn't arrived yet, so no comment on that. However, so far, I was right. About everything. I'm just saying.

Mostly about: It was amazing!

Which is a silly thing to say, ...

I am currently sitting in between piles of homework, most of it not very useful. I came home on Thursday from a great vacation. It was a much-needed break, because the next three months will probably consist of a lot of stress and a lot of work. That's OK, though. In three and a half months, I will have finished my exams and all that will be left is waiting for the results. I don't consider planning to be one of my strong suits. Three months is just short enough to make me realize that I do need ...

Yesterday I had a three-hour shift. It is one of my regular small shifts which are arranged when the nursing home cannot fill up the schedule. Except that it wasn't a regular shift.

I entered the nursing home, expecting an easy-going shift. Usually, all I have to do is watch my patients and help them get lunch. I like this type of shift as it leaves me time to spend much-needed individual time with patients. For these people, I also need the time, since two of them have been physically ...

I know medicine is just like the real world. I personally experience the staff shortages. I know that money is important in achieving anything. But when I read this, I was shocked. In some way, my unexperienced, optimistic self never considered it to be a possibility, not in a developed country.
Now I know I can't reasonably expect anyone to work for free. I am also aware of the fact that it probably takes a lot of educated people to produce any type of medicine, and that it costs a lot ...

So it's the middle of Otago's med school O-week. And I've noticed some stuff that I didn't really expect.

1) Everyone wants to be a surgeon.
So we went round our 'team' and were asked if we had any idea what area of medicine we thought we might be interested in. 9/12 said some form of surgery. I'm willing to bet at least 7 of those people have never been in an O/R ('cept maybe as a patient). It's odd how attractive surgery seems to pre-clinical students. Heck, not going to lie, ...