medman2012 Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Hi everyone, I'm currently in first year medical school, and I'm feeling completely overwhelmed with the amount of information I've already learned and the amount that I will need to learn. I was sitting in a class today that was discussing topics from earlier in the year, and I found that I had forgotten most of the details about all these conditions. Any suggestions on how I can handle this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karma Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Someone told me that you learn medicine 3 times: the first time during the preclinical years, than you repeat it all during clerkship and you repeat it again during residency. After those 3 times, there's a chance that you'll actually remember things well enough to be able to treat a patient effectively. The other thing that I tell myself when I'm feeling overwhelmed, is to be A "Good enough" medical student. You don't have to know everything in great detail, you just have to be "good enough". Oh, almost everyone experiences that feeling of being overwhelmed in medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medman2012 Posted April 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 I'm just worried about knowing anything for clerkship. If I'm forgetting this stuff already, how will I know anything in clerkship? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellorie Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 I get really scared too at times. I think I get ahead of myself and get scared because I am worried I won't be a good doctor. At those times I tell myself that all I have to do right now is be a good first year medical student. That's it. I can do that and I bet you can too. The upper years say that it's okay - it will all come back and we will relearn what we need. I try to believe that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 In clerkship, read around the patients you encounter - the context will help the material stick that much better when you have a real-life person to apply it to, versus the lecture setting. Having studied the material previously will make it easier to fill in the gaps of forgotten material once in clerkship, as you will have built a framework of concepts and terminology that will allow you to recognize, say, the name of a disease and know where to look it up, versus never having heard it before and not even knowing how to spell it in order to look it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrogirl Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 I just think that almost all of us feel that way, so that means it's normal and it's going to be okay. We're not going to remember everything the first time we learn it, but once we start using it in real life, we'll remember the stuff that we're using all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Drinking from a fire hose. That's what medicine is at every stage of training. You'll get through it. Repeat exposure really helps. I am a resident now and I constantly feel overwhelmed. There is just so much volume. For example, in my specialty, the main reference book is 4000+ pages of tiny print. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerroger Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 It's normal to feel overwhelmed. Everyone feels this way. If they say they don't they are lying. You won't know much after 1st year. Clerkship things come together more, but only a tiny bit. Slowly, gradually, you know more and more after seeing it over and over. You sometimes start to feel confident with the volume of material near the end of med school. But it is only sometimes, I can't emphasize this enough. I am sure slowly and surely as you move through residency this confidence with the vastness of medicine becomes more and more common. A lot of medicine is uncertainty and being comfortable with this uncertainty. Learning medicine never really ends there is always another layer of complexity. Luckily for most cases an emense level of detail is not required in order to be safe. There is this concept of learning medicine with a "spiral curriculum". This means you are introduced to many concepts in first year. Then the next year you are introduced to the same stuff again with a tiny bit more detail. This process repeats in third year, then again the fourth year, and again as a PGY1 and then again... You get the idea. Right now I'm studying for the MCCQE which tests pretty much everything. It's still a crap load of stuff, but looking at TO notes (the main study guide for this exam) sitting on my desk does not look overly daunting after four years. I have probably seen the most important stuff in it several times now because of the "spiral curriculum" of medicine. It probably seems far off right now, but you will get there. We all do. You got into medicine, you got the grey matter to get through it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filter105 Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 what I'm scared is that by the time I get into medical school, I will be (my brain) too old to suck up all the knowledge like a sponge like all the early twenty something med students. (after 25=downhill..already feeling it!) Perhaps it is a smart idea to have young doctors... just like in Europe and some parts in Asia (highschool --> medical school). I know that in South Korea recently switched from post graduate med to after highschool med,,,their reasons were to make more competent doctors (while their learning ability is at maximum), but at the same time to get the smart people to become doctors (logic is that smart ppl will not normally invest extra years getting bachelor's that they won't need...they will go else where because they have so much potentials). ..sorry for being depressing!! just my 2cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Hm, I had classmates who were old enough to be my parents. They did fine - it depends on the person and their level of motivation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 what I'm scared is that by the time I get into medical school, I will be (my brain) too old to suck up all the knowledge like a sponge like all the early twenty something med students. (after 25=downhill..already feeling it!) Perhaps it is a smart idea to have young doctors... just like in Europe and some parts in Asia (highschool --> medical school). I know that in South Korea recently switched from post graduate med to after highschool med,,,their reasons were to make more competent doctors (while their learning ability is at maximum), but at the same time to get the smart people to become doctors (logic is that smart ppl will not normally invest extra years getting bachelor's that they won't need...they will go else where because they have so much potentials). ..sorry for being depressing!! just my 2cents Eat some blueberries http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/blueberries-reverse-aging.aspx Take your omega 3s to maintain the cellular membranes of your brain cells You'll be fine .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caliver Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 what I'm scared is that by the time I get into medical school, I will be (my brain) too old to suck up all the knowledge like a sponge like all the early twenty something med students. (after 25=downhill..already feeling it!) Perhaps it is a smart idea to have young doctors... just like in Europe and some parts in Asia (highschool --> medical school). I know that in South Korea recently switched from post graduate med to after highschool med,,,their reasons were to make more competent doctors (while their learning ability is at maximum), but at the same time to get the smart people to become doctors (logic is that smart ppl will not normally invest extra years getting bachelor's that they won't need...they will go else where because they have so much potentials). ..sorry for being depressing!! just my 2cents Off topic.. but South Korea never majorly had post-grad med programs. Its medical education has traditionallybeen centered around post-high school programs! So essentially, it's not "switching back" lol They attempted implementing post-grad med programs, in order to raise the number of clinician scientists (they thought having bachelor's degree in a different field would motivate those individuals to become clinician scientists). However, from what I understand, many of these individuals didn't stay to become clinician scientists, as support for clinician scientists is systematically weak in Korea. Also, apparently post-grad med programs have been deemed incompatible with the Korean culture (you have to be polite to older people). I never heard of the reason you mentioned! I don't think being young means you will become a great doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyboy Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Try to drink more beer... It will kill all those useless brain cells that slow down your thinking; survival of the fitness.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EngrGuy Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 I'm 28 and studying for MCATs; personally I feel like I understand all this stuff way better now then when I did my undergrad... maybe it's because I don't drink as much... who knows. But either way; don't worry about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostLamb Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Everyone thinks their experiences/emotions are unique...when in reality, we all share a lot of common experiencesemotions but just don't share them with others. We will get through this, or gotta get through this (isn't that a song lyric?) *e-hugs* LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.