I recieved a nasty surprise two weeks ago when I realized that "Critical Issues in Health Care", the course I detested fall term was scheduled to continue after Christmas. Fortunately last week, we had to make up our snow day so we cancelled CIHC. This week is an exam week, so, in my opinion, a poor week to have a 2 hour loss in study time. My classmates, judging from their actions, agree. As I have already related, CIHC is composed of medical students, social work students, and nursing students. Since there were assigned seats, I had to sit in the third row where I normally would sit in any class save this one. Looking down the rows in front of me and next to me, every medical student was studying micro on the sly. Without exaggeration, every single one was studying. The social work and nursing students were far more attentive, hopefully providing much needed camouflage while we tried to cram.
CIHC is not a class that provides a lot of useful information. Given that we're expected to memorize over 400 slides for micro, let alone master genetics, how can we be expected to pay rapt attention to a 2 hour presentation on "Using the Inter-disciplinary Team Effectively"? I think that as 3rd years, we'll learn pretty fast that: nurses see the patients more than we do and can provide useful information, that social work is helpful, so is PT, and the pharmacy can help as well. I doubt very much that anything more substantial than that will stick in my mind, at least from this lecture. I realize that there is more to medicine than science and data. In the first two years however, trying to drink from the fire hydrant is pretty pre-occupying . My feeling is that if you're already a jerk or someone who can't communicate effectively, then a 2 hour lecture once a week as an MSI is not going to make a great deal of difference. Well, my friends Hemophilus, Bordetella and Legionella are calling. (bonus points to the reader who can tell me what organ system these guys infect.)
Questions for the readers who thought the first question was too easy:
1.Pt coughs up "red currant" sputum. After being disgusted, you make the presumptive diagnosis of ______?
2. Your burn patient has fruity smelling blue pus coming from his wound. Immediately you suspect _______?
3. Your Sri Lankan patient has loose, "rice-water" stools. Fasting has no effect on the flow, which is nearly constant. After resourcefully cutting a hole into the mattress to facilitate drainage, you tell the patient he has _______?
OK, so those were gross. I only realized this after I wrote the questions, which I guess proves how far i've fallen. Answers will be posted on the next post.
-Spiff
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