Study Buddy

When Studoc has tests, I fortunately and unfortunately get to be his personal study buddy.


Fortunately:  

• I spend more time with him!
• I am involved with what he's learning in school and that part of his life.
• I feel warm fuzzy satisfaction knowing I'm able to help him succeed on his tests.
• I create fun study methods for memorization (which I miss since I've been out of school!)

Unfortunately:

• I have precious little interest in the intricacies of science. (I got a BA and not a BS for a reason dude!)
• Never have I seen such a prolific amount of material to know for tests...seeing all that is stressful.
• It takes a ton of time and energy to help study this stuff...the exhaustion can be hard when you still have to take care of a 1 year old and keep your lives at home running during "Before-Test-Med-Student-Checkout."

(I gotta hand it to med students with the burden of studying and the stress they constantly carry!)

Of course, overall I'm so happy to help Studoc study.  My most recent creation to help him memorize a ton of drugs and their categories and subcategories involves the use of cups. (I tried to come up something visual and tactile because Studoc--along with most people--is a visual and kinesthetic learner.)

We had a bunch of leftover plastic cups I used and labelled for the main categories for this drug set.

Each Main Category Red Cup has several Sub-category Clear Cups inside them.

Each Sub-category Clear Cup has many Colored Drug Sticks with drug names on them (and details on the backs of some).  We got the sticks on Amazon for super cheap.

We started out with Studoc placing the Sub-category Clear Cups into their correct Main Category Red Cup to at least get those straight.  The bulk of our time was spent with Studoc placing each Colored Drug Stick in the correct Sub-category Clear Cup and then telling any specifics about the drug.  Not only was this study method more fun than looking at words on pages, but it keeps your attention and is quickly effective because you're doing something.

Unfortunately, you can't do creative study aides like this with all the material...because there's simply too much information and nobody has that kind of time.  I mean, this drug set was just one part of one test!

Thankfully, Studoc has an amazing study buddy who is happy to prepare these supplies once in a while for the stuff he thinks he'll have the most trouble with. :)

Does anyone else have any good study ideas that we can steal utilize for test success?

Bad News and Big Toes

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This week Studoc is learning how to deliver bad news.

Thankfully, unlike the comic, he is practicing on standardized patients.  (Paid actors trained to simulate real patients with particular health situations.)

Yesterday, a few lucky med students got to practice delivering bad news to the "patients" while the rest of the med students watched and openly critiqued them...hmm, no pressure, right?

Naturally, Studoc was one of the lucky chosen, and he was issued the hardest scenario that nobody wanted to get.  One student had to tell their "patient" they had pancreatic cancer, another had to give sad news of a miscarriage, another had to tell the son of a patient that their father who was set to leave the hospital that day suddenly had a heart attack and died, and a few other scenarios that of course are difficult, but yet "easy" in this exercise because the "doctor" mainly explains and consoles.

Enter Studoc's scenario which I will only sum up (each situations has a ton of made up details to make it sufficiently complicated).  Studoc's male patient contracted gonorrhea (had to look up how to spell that by the way!) while his military wife was deployed  and just recently returned.  So Studoc had to explain to them that the husband has an STD which implied that the husband had an affair and the wife needed to be tested because she probably has an STD now. Crazy, right?

Stop and take a breather here, friends.  This situation, though plausible, is not real.  Let's insert a happy face emoticon here ----> :)

Suddenly, the situation back at the "doctor's office" started to get amusing.  The husband and wife began a dramatic argument in front of Studoc (they were great actors I'm told).  The fighting is funnier if you know the husband was an old guy wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses and speaking with a southern drawl.  I doubt I could keep a straight face watching this scene knowing it's a fake fight!

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I know from personal experience that Studoc will be compassionate while delivering bad news.  At the beginning of our dating courtship, he had to sit me down and tell me that one of my friends--one of my only friends in the new city I recently moved to--had just died.  He did a perfect job communicating it to me directly and sensitively.  

Shortly after, I reflected on what a difficult thing he had to do so early in our relationship and how well he did it, I was always impressed and said to myself, "Self, this is the kind of man you want to marry.  The kind that can help you through hard times extremely well like that."

So I married him.  (When did this post become my life story??)  Let's just conclude here with a random picture of our son sucking his big toe.

Doctor's Handwriting

Studoc told me the other day that his medical school professors encourage bad handwriting.

Surprised?  Confused?  Me too.

Apparently, one of Studoc's professors has repeatedly shared her story of when she was beginning her career as a doctor and she had pretty penmanship and a legible signature.  Then one day, a patient of hers forged her nice handwriting and signature to write himself a prescription for 2 pounds of cocaine.  He proceeded to the pharmacy with his prescription to obtain his 2 pounds of cocaine.  Obviously, this flagged suspicion at the pharmacy and he was caught.  (Shocker!)

First of all:  Cocaine???  Really???  Dude, at least write it out for Vicodin or something somewhat believable that they'd actually have at the pharmacy.  I guess I shouldn't expect much from someone wanting cocaine and willing to commit forgery.


Second of all:  2 pounds???  C'mon buddy.  I don't even know what to say.

Professor's moral of the story:  Bad handwriting is harder to forge.  And all this time I just figured doctors were in too much of a hurry to write neatly, or that they probably write so many prescriptions each day that the penmanship simply becomes sloppy.  I'm sure there's some of that in there, too.

This professor actually chastised a student in class for having too neat a signature and told him to change it, and he's not too happy about it.

We typically think of things like signatures as our own very personal marks.  But I guess when it's something critically important to your job and reputation it becomes more business than personal.   I was a bank teller for many years, and we all had to come up with very unique signatures and initials for the hundreds of money matters we approved and signed off on each day.  Having a unique signature and initials meant my job.

Thankfully, Studoc (love you honey!) already has very doctorish handwriting, and a signature that...well, let's just say.....it would be incredibly difficult to forge. :)

You Know You're a Med Wife When...

...you know a shocking amount of information about Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and the Plague.

Here's a pic of a happy sunflower instead of the plague.  You're welcome!

Studoc is swamped studying for his finals which are today, tomorrow, and Friday.  I have been quizzing him with flashcards on tons of drugs....their method of action, what they're used for, and their toxicities.  Many of them have names that look like a bunch of consonants strung together in random fashion.    

Another thing that helps Studoc study is when I let him talk at me.  As in, he stands up and talks at me about the material in teacher-student fashion because it helps him remember the material and sort it out.  I sit and try to appear interested (college made me super good at this) but really I'm just trying to keep my eyes open because I don't understand a word.  Little does he know the whole time I look intrigued I'm just thinking, "Wow, it's so amazing to have him home tonight.  Even if he's studying and saying all this gobble-di-gook at me...so great to have him home..."  Occasionally, he'll say something I understand, and I'll say "Hey!  I've heard of that!"  But that's about it.  Pretty rare, truth be told.


So, lately I've listened to a tidal wave of information about crazy diseases and viruses....which isn't good considering I'm pretty much a hypochondriac.

Studoc:  "These are the signs and symptoms of blibbidy-blob disease...."
Me:  "I feel tired a lot and get upset stomach and more stuff just like you said.  Do I have that disease?"
Studoc:  "No."
Me:  (reaching for laptop to confirm on all-knowing Wikipedia that I don't have said disease)
Studoc:  "Don't look it up!  It'll just freak you out more.  I promise you don't have blibbidy-blob disease."
Me:  (sigh)  "Oh, alright."

I guess for now I'll just have to trust that I don't have the Plague. :)  But dude, hearing about all this freaky stuff makes me want to scrub my whole apartment down with bleach, never touch any animals, and basically live in a bubble.

P.S.  I'm from So. Cal.  I'm allowed to say dude. :)

Specialty Aptitude Test

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I saw this medical school aptitude test on a couple of other med wife blogs, and thought I'd have my husband take the test.  Copying the blogs I read, I'm bolding the specialties Studoc finds interesting.  Once 3rd and 4th year rotations (test-driving many specialties for several weeks) come around, I'm sure he'll have a clearer picture of what he'd like to go into.

So just for fun, here are his result rankings (and sorry about it being super spaced out...it looked fine when I copied and pasted the scores from the website but it reformatted when I published this post and I'm too lazy to try to fix it...let's just say it's reeeeeeally easy to read now! :)

Rank	Specialty	Score
1	pediatrics	42
2	gastroenterology	42
3	dermatology	42
4	radiation oncology	42
5	anesthesiology	41
6	hematology	41
7	nephrology	41
8	radiology	41
9	thoracic surgery	40
10	aerospace med	40
11	nuclear med	40
12	med oncology	40
13	rheumatology	40
14	emergency med	40
15	ophthalmology	39
16	obstetrics/gynecology	39
17	urology	39
18	plastic surgery	38
19	occupational med	38
20	general internal med	38
21	pulmonology	38
22	infectious disease	37
23	neurosurgery	37
24	colon & rectal surgery	37
25	preventive med	37
26	general surgery	37
27	psychiatry	36
28	physical med & rehabilitation	36
29	orthopaedic surgery	36
30	endocrinology	35
31	cardiology	35
32	allergy & immunology	34
33	pathology	34
34	otolaryngology	34
35	neurology	34
36	family practice	33

I had to Google the specialties I was curious about, because I honestly don't know what half of these are!

And for even MORE fun, I took the test for him and answered the questions according to how I view his personality and where his talents lean.  Here are my/his results (again, with bolding what he's kind of interested in):

Rank	Specialty	Score
1	occupational med	45
2	ophthalmology	45
3	anesthesiology	45
4	dermatology	44
5	rheumatology	44
6	pediatrics	44
7	physical med & rehabilitation	43
8	nephrology	42
9	hematology	42
10	radiation oncology	42
11	colon & rectal surgery	41
12	thoracic surgery	41
13	radiology	41
14	general surgery	40
15	plastic surgery	40
16	otolaryngology	40
17	infectious disease	40
18	gastroenterology	40
19	emergency med	40
20	pathology	39
21	nuclear med	39
22	urology	39
23	obstetrics/gynecology	38
24	endocrinology	38
25	med oncology	38
26	pulmonology	38
27	general internal med	38
28	allergy & immunology	37
29	neurology	37
30	neurosurgery	37
31	aerospace med	37
32	psychiatry	36
33	preventive med	36
34	orthopaedic surgery	36
35	cardiology	34
36	family practice	30

Interesting, huh?  Like I said, we'll have a clearer picture once we're farther into this game, but it's pretty interesting to see how our test results vary.  Apparently, I view him differently than he views himself.  Or we are very different test-takers.  Or both.

Here's the link to the free test in case you want your med student to take it, or if you want to take it for someone for fun, or if you have nothing to do with the medicine world but would like to know what specialty you'd be best at in an alternate universe!

*Does anyone know anything good or bad about any of these specialties and want to share so I can be educated by more than Wikipedia? :)