Sunday, November 29, 2009
Brutal, Baby...
We’ve just finished the third of three difficult tests a week apart. This is supposed to be the hardest segment of the hardest year of med school. So, we seem to be done with this hard part. Hopefully, I passed. This last test was very challenging to say the least. Right now, I am studying. What else would I be doing? I am attempting to finish material for next week, read ahead. - Is this what the rest of school will be like? Probably not. I think this is just them placing us on a three-legged stool and kicking one leg out from under us, so we have to grab hold and become engaged in the process of 'active sitting'. The objective is to keep us in the game. They want us to have taut muscles, pumping hearts, thoughts and focus on the stool. They want us to tend to the important details of learning rather than being sidetracked by other people and events in our lives. We can always get up and leave, but we know that we must sit in order to learn and reach our final goal. We must stay the course.
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It sounds as if you think they WANT to keep students "off balance," when all they seem to stress to new students is the importance of maintaining balance in every aspect of life, especially with the "people" in their lives.
ReplyDeleteYep, I think different folks have very different definitions of what they call "balance". And, I think there are some folks who couldn't care less if we are "balanced" - they are far happier with the idea of us becoming incredibly well-versed doctors. I think their purposes would go something like this: they do it for the students sake (to be better prepared to understand and diagnose), for the school's sake (so we turn out higher scores and do the above better, i.e. improve our collective reputation), and for their own sake (so they are known to have conveyed the material better as we perform better on boards, etc.). The balance piece during orientation lasted about as long as it took most of us to start classes. Most of us likely returned to old habits and routines and had to learn hard lessons about how to manage our time as we go along here. Some of us will burn out before we establish a successful routine. Most will recover with assistance. But, make no mistake, every single "they" expects our education to take a front seat.
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