Trust Me, I'm A Doctor

Soo, I don't even have a reason why I disappeared in the last weeks, time just... passed by so quickly and suddenly it's already a new week with a new theme. Crazy. I have two weeks of Easter vacation now, so I'm flying to Poland on Wednesday, last time before the study mania begins! It snowed there yesterday while I was running around outside without jacket here; I'm not too psyched about that, I already have enough of winter.

Let's see what questions you had for me:

How much do you need mathematics in practice in your field, and is there a large quantity of mathematics in your studies?

As a doctor you will need mathematics, no matter what field you work in. The most important thing you need mathematics for is calculating doses of drugs. Sometimes you have to give 1mg/hour/kg body weight, and it doesn't just say on the package how much you need. If you give narcotics and you miscalculate and give 1mg instead of 1µg, the patient dies. So in theory, knowing mathematics would be really important. I'm saying would be, because we don't have any mathematics in our studies. Of course it's all basic mathematics, nothing really difficult, but I think it would still be important that we get at least some training, for example to calculate in your head, without calculator. That comes from a person who puts 2+2 in the calculator (I seriously checked everything in school so that I don't make any mistake, because I'm so sucky at calculating in my head).

What were some of the most difficult parts of your studies?

Of my studies: the exams. We have one big exam after one year (two semesters). It consists of 160 questions from all subjects and you need 60% questions correct in total and 50% in each block (there were six blocks in the first exam, like anatomy+histology, or physics+physiology). If you fail a block by one question, you have to repeat the whole exam. That's basically the story of my life and the reason, why I'm one year behind.

It's a lot of pressure to study and we are sitting for months, trying to learn as much as possible and if you are a procrastinator like me, you are in a lot of stress when the exam comes closer.

Of medicine in general: probably dealing with sick people, especially terminally ill people. There is really nothing easy about dying people and you somehow have to learn to cope with it. What I find difficult is to keep an emotional distance and be nice and supportive at the same time. It's especially hard to see young people struggling with diseases when you know that they don't really have a good prognosis. It's a bit like The Fault in our Stars, just in real life.

How much hands on experience do you currently get?

During the semester - not so much. In theory we have practical courses where we are supposed to learn things, but that only the theory. Can you imagine that my stethoscope never touched a patient so far? We had a course about auscultation (listening to the heart beat), but they didn't even let us try. That's sometime that really annoys me about our study plan, because I think those are important things to learn and I don't think it's really our responsibility as students to find a nice and patient doctor who would explain it to us later.

That's one side, the other is that we have to intern for 12 weeks before we finish university, and in those weeks (usually 2-4 weeks at a time, in your holidays) you get the full hands on experience. When I was interning in the hospital in Vienna last summer, I had to draw blood, put in i.v. lines, hang infusions... depending on the hospital or station you are working in, you also have to suture simple wounds and assist in the OR. That's really a good thing and I really love those weeks in the hospital. I also did learn much more then when I sit in a lecture, especially because I'm a person who remembers much more if somebody explains it to me and if I can see what they are talking about.

Those were all the questions in the doc, if you want to know more, just ask me in the comments! :)

DFTBA,

Sarah