Internal Med

My group has been in the internal medicine wards the last few weeks. We spend around a week in each ward, just enough time to barely cover a subject before we're whisked off again and start something else. Most of the doctors are really great and know their stuff but one week is NOT enough time to cover half the stuff you need to know.

We don't get to see many patients either which is kind of annoying, nor do we get to do actual procedures. I've yet to do a full physical exam, start and IV, learn how to do stitches or anything of the sort- you know stuff medical students are supposed to be learning. On the up side, the theoretical side is being taught much better than it ever was in our general science classes, and these doctors/teachers can actually speak English very well!

So far we've gone through cardiology, oncology/hematology, GI, and we've just started endocrinology. For the most part it's been as boring as all get out, but sometimes the doctors spark an interest in us.

When we were in oncology my classmates and I noticed something odd about the hospital set up. The oncology ward overlooks the cemetery. When I asked about this the doctor simply said, "It's a beautiful graveyard." And I'm sure it is- so long as you're not fighting to stay out of it! I personally don't think I'd be able to deal with fighting for my life when my only view of the outside world is a graveyard! But, to each his own!





The hematology department also let us do blood smears on ourselves which meant pricking our fellow classmates- we're 2 weeks out and I still have the mark! The nurse in a bid to show us what not to do grabbed ahold of my friends finger and caused a fountain of blood to spray across the room directly at me. I guess it's a do as I say, not as I do sort of scenario.


In GI we got to see a few colonoscopy's and endoscopy's which for the most part are kind of uninteresting. But, at least we got to see an actual procedure! I didn't know this but apparently they don't knock you out for endoscopy's here- I'm not sure if they do in the states, but either way having a person awake is kind of brutal. There was this one woman who was not having it! The doctor in charge was so frustrated he was swearing and carrying on like a five year old until a bunch of nurses literally pinned the patient down and he rammed the tube down her throat. All of the other patients went a tad bit more smoothly than that!

This past weekend my friends and I finally had a "free weekend" to hang out and have dinner. Most of them are in another group and are in surgery right now. Apparently it's even more boring than internal med ("yippie!"). I'm really looking foreword to trauma surgery though, it's the closest thing they have here to an ER rotation and I think that's the sort of field I'm leaning towards, then again there's still so many rotations to go, you never know I might change my mind!!!