March Blog

As of the 29th, I have volunteered 8 hours at UMC's Neuro ICU deparment. After the 31st, I will have served 10 volunteer hours this month. 
With this program coming to a close with just a handful of things left to do, I feel mostly relieved to see the better part of a year's worth of effort come into fruition. There is only one presentation, a few seminars, and the final MP exam left to take care of before it all comes to a close. Despite the biggest assignment on the horizon, I can't help but feel like it's the least of my concerns considering the amount of applications I need to submit and interviews I need to prepare for is increasing. So long as I can finish with a respectable grade, I think it would be more practical to focus on the non academic obligations that I have on my plate. 
With that being said, I would like to give some final thoughts on this program as a whole. Overall the lectures are perfectly fine in a vacuum, but some subjects such as MCP and CCM really needed a more physical aspect to hammer in the topics and provide a stronger understanding of everything we're studying. Personally, I think it would be more productive to just have a handful of classes just to have us, the students, become more familiar with the equipment, settings, and mechanisms that we were taught. For example, Dr. Mostany's lecture that involved Two Photon Microscopy showed pictures of the machine and the concept behind it, but seeing-possibly using it- and seeing how research data is generated would have been a lot more meaningful than some slides. Additionally, the seminar summary really just feels like busy work and a time sink at this point in the semester. I think having only 1 semester of it is an adequate amount to expose us to the environment of a scientific seminar. 
On the other hand, EP and NP are great classes that focus our attention to a different aspect of the health and life sciences. EP provided more agency and flexibility to our own specific interests, and NP required a more focused perspective on the preclinical side of medicine which I personally appreciate becoming more knowledgeable and comfortable with. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feburary Blog

This month I volunteered for 10 hours at UMC's Neuro ICU department. For Dr. Mostany's course, we have to participate and ask questions and add into the discussion. This expectation is pretty difficult for me since not every presentation or topic is of particular interest to me, and I personally have a hard time finding a good moment to comment on the current topic. He did mention this concern with me and I appreciate that effort. For Dr. Lindsey's class, I completed my presentation and I should be wrapping up the reading assignments by the end of this week. So I'll have the bulk of that class taken care of. While these two classes aren't necessarily dificult, the expectations do seem to be higher. Otherwise, the study and workload is fine, or maybe I'm now just used to the amount we're given. However, this upcoming month will have a heavy workload with all the presentations due for advances and neurology. And immediately after that, we'll have the shelf
Read more

1st Semester Reflection

 November Community Service Hours: 4 Total Fall Semester Community Service Hours: 13      The past few weeks have been fairly routine now that the fall semester is coming to a close. I will admit that the renal and pulmonary module is very lackluster and wasn't compeling compared to the previous blocks. Although the flexibility afforded to us when we're assigned a pre-recorded lecture is appreciated, it wasn't at all engaging. Because of this, I was dismissive of the pulmonary module in terms of interest in the field. I noticed that for Dr. Mageed's lectures, I had a hard time mastering the content. With all due respect, I just don't learn well with his lecture style unlike the other professors here. Luckily, I was able to find some outside resources to bolster my understanding of the topics he covered.       For Medical Pharmacology, I have a really good grasp on how to prepare for the test, but MCP and PR can still be a bit of a toss up. If this semester is just a
Read more

Januaray Blog Post

Volunteered 4 hours this month at UMC's Neuro ICU department Coming back from winter break, I'm feeling more ready than ever to wrap up this program. All the classes are routine at this point and studying for them poses no issue. As for the new classes, I've been enjoying the flexibility that the endocrine clas offers and the freedom to choose from any topic of interest for the respective presentation is appreciated. The neuro pharm class is also structured similarly, but I do feel as if there are one too many presentations that are expected of us this semester. Additionally, the lack of that environmental pharm class is also unfortunate because it sounded like I would have enjoyed it. Now, the only hurdle that is left standing in the way is that I may not be ready for the end of the semester shelf exam. I'm wondering if there is some resource that can be given to make the preparation process for that test easier.
Read more