Outline of Courses at UBC Med

[Flow Cytometry]

Hi there,

 

I just finished my 2nd yr at UBC med, and saw some questions in the other postings about what courses to expect for the med school. I may be able to give you some heads up.

 

1st Year 1st term:

 

Principles of Human Biology: This course basically covers everything in the first term. You start with learning (or relearning) about embryology, genetics, biochemistry, electrolytes, basic biology of heart/kidney, nervous system, basic pharmacology, and immunology. This course has lab component with Anatomy and Histology.

 

A few words of hints: anatomy is pretty intense in the first year first term because there is a lab every friday afternoon. Since this is the first exposure of anatomy for many people, make sure you make anatomy lab your home. i.e. go to anatomy to review stuff when you have time. It is quite intense for many of us when we first started.

 

Histology: It is also quite busy, but since you can review the slides at home with a software, it makes studying better.

 

PBL: Sometimes, PBL stuff reinforces the lecture stuff, sometimes it isn't. If it isn't, make sure u study PBL stuff as it is examinable.

 

Special thing about first term of 1st yr is that there is a midterm, which does not exist in any other term. Dont get stressed out by midterm, but use it as a reminder to yourself that med school material will be huge for the final.

 

DPAS 410: This class is about society and ethics. It kinds of feels like social studies in high school, except this is for med school. There is a plenary every Weds afternoon, followed by a tutorial... No final exams, but assignments such as essays and presentation to group exist.

 

INDE 410: This is the first introductory clinical skills course. It basically trains students how to interview patients. It does not involve too much work, but it is a useful course. You get videotaped and are observed by the class during your interview with an actor patient. It is a tutorial-small grp based setting.

 

FMPR 401: a few weeks (1 afternoon per week) of learning experience in the clinic for first time. Some people start to learn how to take blood pressure, vitals, and even injections. Some wont, depending on your preceptor. But no matter what, u will learn all these by the second year.

 

1st Year 2nd term:

It is the start of the FMED series. FMED = Foundation of Medicine. You start with HDI (Host Defense Immunity) for 5 weeks. You basically learn all the bugs that are common in clinical settings. It does require a lot of memorization , and even now, i still am not good in memorizing all the antibiotics. Stuff are useful.. but there may be a way to learn the stuff better... you have to figure out how.

 

Cardiology: another 5 weeks of heart. Taught well, but i find the material pretty difficult also. Make sure u learn well about heart sounds S1,2,3,4. and learn well about ECG, as you wont have a chance to learn these until 3rd year clerkship after this.

 

Pulmonary: 5 weekks again. The most challenging part is actually the basic physiology of breathing for me. For some reason, I find the pathology/clinical stuff easier to understand than the basic physiology. I must be crazy...

 

Renal: 5 weeks. It is ok, but again, make sure u learn the material well as renal science is important for electrolyte, metabolism in many aspects of medicine.

 

You also have PBL, histology, anatomy, DPAS, INDE. INDE teaches u about heart exam, lung exam, and sex med.... FMPR 402 has a lot more exposure than first term, and u learn a lot more in a family practice setting.

 

Let me know if you guys want to know which book is good to buy... Can give you some of my 2 cents too...

[Poolboy]

Thanks for the heads up on all that! I was wondering what the days are usually like - are you at school from 8-4, or are the classes spread out and you are at school in the evenings? Ultimately I would love to go home at night to study, but I guess you'd need the lab for studying anatomy.

 

And books - I've heard there are a lot of unnecessary books, or you can photocopy certain sections, and get by without buying the whole book -

 

which books do you recommend for first year?

[wanttobedoc]

I also would like to know more about the time schedule. I know PBL starts at 8 am everyday but, are 1st and 2nd years usually out by 4pm? I'm needing to know so I can plan my chidcare sched.

also with books, when we had our orientation the 1st year student told us that most reading material is available on-line.

If anyone has any insights to the "must by" books versus ones that you don't really need that would be great. I still have many of my anatomy books and neuro from when I did OT...however, one of them the prof (she is now retired) wrote, and I don't find it very good. Thanks......

[horlicks]

8-4!? are you serious!? oh man...no sleeping-ins

________

Sa

[dr nomis]

The Registration Package (compiled by the Faculty), which you'll receive in July, has a list of required textbooks. The Purple Book (compiled by the students), which comes with it, has individual and poll-based recommendations. Don't worry about buying textbooks until the end of the summer; when it comes time, you can either use a website, go to the used book sale, or check out the bookstore. In fact, the bookstore has an event each year where they bring all the required textbooks to the LSC and you can flip through them and see which ones you like.

 

In case you're really antsy, here's a brief bare-bones synopsis:

 

For first semester I bought:

-- Gray's anatomy for Students, written by one of our profs. It doesn't have photos but has outstanding computer drawings (an atlas, comprised of drawings or photos of cadavers, such as Netter's, is recommended but I got by without it - went to the lab instead)

--Histology text by Junquiera. The histology prof threatened everybody into buying one by saying the lab T.A.s wouldn't answer our questions in lab if we didn't have a book. That only lasted about two labs, and I regretted buying it because I never used it. Our lab manual (provided) has everything you need to know, and all slides are online.

-- Most people bought the Boron physiology book and found it very useful for PRIN. I didn't buy any texts for PRIN though and simply used the ones online ie. MD Consult. I kindof wish I'd had a copy of Boron to refer to, though; the people who had it seemed really well-prepared for PBL.

-- I was given a photocopy of The Medical Interview, which is discussed in small group so you might want to at least have access to a copy.

 

For second semester:

-- Buy a copy of Lilly for cardio. Do not ask questions, do not stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200 (I don't think it costs that much anyways). An outstanding textbook written by great cardiologists and medical students. Explains the concepts in depth and yet very easy to understand. If there is one textbook that I would buy, it would be this one.

-- Medical Microbiology made ridiculously simple. Surprisingly easy-to-read, very conversational, full of silly and easy-to-remember drawings, and really all you need to read through before the HDI final (plus the notes from the HIV week) in order to do well.

-- Lange Review for pulmonary is a good review text. I read this and it made the lecture notes make sense.

-- Kidney at a Glance is a great, well-structured text for FERGU. This and the Lange are available to borrow at the SMERC at the Diamond Centre (room 2115) or at the library. I didn't buy either, but I did find them both extremely helpful and referred to them often.

 

Of course, it's not the textbooks you buy but how you use them... you will hear this advice over and over: make sure you keep up with the material. If you are really adventurous, you can probably slack off for the first 2 months of PRIN and the first 1-2 months of FMED, but after that... you'll regret taking too much time off when finals show up.

[dr nomis]

8-4!? are you serious!? oh man...no sleeping-ins

 

No, no sleeping ins, except Thursday (and Tuesday if you want to skip). Attendance at PBL 8am Monday/Wednesday/Friday is mandatory.

 

Most days are 8-4, though some start later and some go longer. You also get an afternoon off per week in first semester, and an afternoon+morning off second semester.

 

Be aware that it doesn't always end at 4, though. Second semester you need to schedule off Clinical Skills days until 5:30 as sometimes (rarely) you will be busy 8-5:30.

 

Typical week in second semester:

 

Monday

8-10 PBL,

10-12 Lectures,

Afternoon Off

 

Tuesday

Morning (sometimes 8, sometimes 9, sometimes 10) Lab or lecture or online module,

Afternoon half the class has Clinical Skills/half has Family Practice.

Clinical skills is scheduled from 1:00 to 5:30 though it varies week to week: some weeks you will get it for an hour, sometimes the entire afternoon. Family Practice is 3 hours + commuting time - some people are in Langley for this.

 

Wednesday

8-10 PBL,

10-12 Lectures,

1-2:15 Doctor/Patient/Society

2:30-4 Tutorial group for Doctor/patient/society, complete with mandatory journals. Yes, journals. You are allowed to start hating this course already.

 

Thursday

Morning Off,

Afternoon Clinskills or Family Practice (see Tuesday's description)

 

Friday

8-10 PBL,

10-12 Lectures,

1-2 Pathology or other lecture,

2-4:30 Pathology lab most weeks

 

Saturday and Sunday

Various mandatory lectures from 7:30 am until 8:00 pm ............Just kidding.

[Poolboy]

Thanks Dr. Nomis - that helps a lot - like wanttobeadoctor said- it's always good to know what coming up to schedule things with kids and life.

[wanttobedoc]

thx Dr. Nomis...that is so helpful. OMG, my heart skipped when I first read the Sat-Sun schedule! then I realized you were kidding....I was like, I'm NEVER going to see my family! The schedule sounds ok. It will probably suck for me commuting over the LG Bridge to N Van. Anyone else commuting from N Van? I guess I should be fine in the mornings...as we start early enough. I'm going to have to start practising and retraining my bio time clock to be a "morning person"...b/c right now i'm a vampire. I love to stay up late....

I've even trained my kiddies to not wake me until 8! yikes.