Monash Medicine blog - medstudentsonline.com

…that are probably reeeeeeeeeally drunk right now.

That’s right, I’m talking about the people who are currently having much more fun than me (hopefully) at the AMSA convention. I’ve been asked by a fair few people why I didn’t decide to go. Unfortunately, the only reason I have is that I just didn’t have enough money to pay for the week and also get there. Plus then there’s the cost of making ridiculously awesome costumes for each of the nights of drinking and adulterous behaviour… you get what I’m talking about. It’s really way less fun to be a poor uni student than I thought…

Well, a while back I said that I’d eventually do a blog about PFEs and stuff like that, so I figured that I might as well write something here about all of the different types of social events that go on here at Monash (and also events that aren’t organised by Monash)

PFE - PFE stands for Pleasant Friday Evening, and it’s basically a MUMUS funded event where either first years, pre-clinicals or all med students head out to a designated venue and enjoy a night of drinking, dancing and heaps of fun. These don’t happen all that often, so when they do there’s usually a fairly large turn out (even sometimes with people from different years rocking up to first year events)

Tuesday nights - Generally speaking, Tuesdays and Thursdays are a big night for uni-goers. Simply put, it means cheap drinks at lots of bars and pubs, which is always a good thing. Usually, a whole heap of people from the course (and also others from different courses and unis) rock up and have a good time socialising and relaxing.

MUMUS organised events - Things such as the Med Ball and Med Camp come into this category. They’re can sometimes be pretty much like PFEs but on different days.

Non-MUMUS organised events - These kinda things can be stuff organised by groups like Wildfire or Ignite, or student organised and run events such as the Melbourne vs Monash Soccer competition. Like most social events, these can have varying levels of success and enjoyability, but are generally well liked (from what I’ve heard).

Non-Med events - These can be things organised by other clubs at uni or by the MSA (Monash Student Association) and can range from nights of Latin Dancing with the Spanish Club or a Booze Cruise with the Greek Club to an indoor soccer tournament organised by the Italian Club, and much more.

That’s about as far as my memory can go in terms of social events at uni. I presume there’s a hell of a lot more than that, but I just can’t really remember any of it.

The next post I do will probably be in about twoish weeks and be talking about the upcoming Melbourne vs Monash Med Soccer game. The first game was much more successful than I would’ve imagined and the second game should be just as much fun to watch/play.

Anyways, once again I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting much/at all recently. These things happen and I’m also very good at procrastination (even thought I figured that this was a form of procrastination for me).

Adios,

- Lachlan

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The Monash Medicine blog is in no way affiliated with Monash University or the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the views held by this blogger are not shared at all by the aforementioned faculty or Monash University.

Rural placement this year was from the 3th of April to 11th of May, so it was quite a while ago! Anyway, this is a little bit on my experiences this year, hope it’s helpful, and paints a bit of a picture as to what rural placement is all about. To all the first years, your placement will most probably be no way near as clinically oriented as second year placement, but you’ll hopefully find it useful and enjoyable nonetheless! 

These are extracts from a journal we were all told to maintain during our stay. This is very rough…and a very long entry!  

Monday 30^th April 2007  

It was an absolutely glorious day as we arrived at Bairnsdale Station. We first went shopping for a week’s worth of groceries and then we were chaperoned to the Rural School of Health. After a brief rundown of what was to be expected, our lovely tutor drove us to our accommodation. I must say, the accommodation assigned to us was pretty impressive- fairly new (and pretty luxurious) riverside apartments. Our first day on site was pretty much allocated to settling into our apartments.     

Tuesday 1^st May 2007- Community Project, Pharmacy Tutorial, Ambulance Placement    

Community Project- Our community project involved making a visit to

Nagal College, a local high school, to participate in a lamb heart dissection with the Year 11 Biology students. It was as educational as it was enjoyable, and I believe both the medical students and biology students learnt a great deal from each other.     

Pharmacy Tutorial- In this tutorial we learnt about the importance of good communication between different health professionals in the hospital environment and especially, the importance of maintaining a clear and accurate drug chart. The pharmacist ran through common errors and mistakes seen in hospital drug charts such as illegible handwriting, double scripting the same drug under different brand names and not indicating the correct doses or units. We were then introduced to general terminology used in drug charts and discussed ways in which we could avoid the mistakes mentioned earlier. [Having spoken to students at other rural locations about this activity, I found that their pharmacy visit mainly revolved around the differences between running a pharmacy in rural and urban areas, etc.]     

Ambulance Placement- Today I tagged along with the paramedics for the first half of the night shift. While we didn’t get many cases, I was lucky enough to get an idea of what the paramedic’s life entailed and the types of cases which usually come up.   

The first case received by the ambulance was transferring an elderly man with subarachnoid haemorrhage from the local hospital to the airport, to be transported by fixed wing air ambulance to a metropolitan hospital.  

The second case involved a middle aged man with a suspected heart attack. He complained of a general tingling sensation and aches and pains for about a week and had pain local to his left chest, spreading to the scapula region and upper arm and occasionally extending to left side of mandible. The patient had a family history of heart disease. Pain was described as being ~ 2-3 out of 10, and felt like a piercing or skewering type of pain. He was given medication and a 3-lead ECG was performed while he was rushed by ambulance to the nearest medical clinic/hospital.   

This placement highlighted some of the differences between rural and metropolitan ambulance services, especially the types and numbers of cases received. Rural ambulances tend to receive (as I observed) less cases than metropolitan ones, probably because of the smaller population and they tend to more chest/respiratory related illnesses than trauma.    

Wednesday 2^nd May 2007- Community Health Visit (District Nursing Service)   

Today I was paired up with a nurse from the District Nursing Service (DNS) in Gippsland and I was introduced the role of the DNS in the community. It was an eye opening service as I had no idea services such as this existed, and in some respects, I was oblivious to the growing needs of the aging (and disabled) population who need these support services.   

Our first home visit was to a widowed elderly female who despite needing assistance to carry out daily activities wished to remain at home and manage on her own. The nurse assisted her with things that her reduced mobility prevented her from doing such as taking as taking a bath, making her breakfast and tea, and she also gave her correct morning medication. The nurse advised me later that her client would later be visited by other personal care staff to help her throughout the remainder of the day.    

Our later visits were pretty similar, carrying out health assessments, cleaning ulcers and redressing wounds.    

This visit really made me appreciate the importance the nurses in the community and particularly, the role they played in a rural community where nursing home facilities are scarce and patients are encouraged where possible to remain at home.  

Thursday 3^rd May 2007- GP Visit   

Even at 8:30am when I arrived at the Bairnsdale Medical Group, the clinic was already up and running and the waiting room occupied. I was given a quick tour of the clinic and then taken to the staff room where I did private study until my GP was ready to take me in.  

At around 9:30am, when my GP was about to attend to his first patient of the day, he invited me in to quickly discuss his role in the clinic, what my objectives were for the day and what he expected to be doing throughout the day. My GP, who was also held a Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, then mentioned that he was expecting to deliver a baby that day and asked me if I wanted to come and observe, to which I agreed without hesitation.   

We were only a few minutes into the first consultation when the GP’s phone rang, alerting him to the fact that the mother was well into labour. The GP kindly apologised to his current patient and hurriedly attended to her prescription, before wrapping up the consult.  We then sped over to the nearby hospital where the GP prepped to deliver. It was a successful, uncomplicated delivery, and no sooner had the GP attended to the paperwork related to the birth, we were back at the medical clinic for more consults.                         

After lunch, I was assigned to a different GP, who allowed me conduct my own histories and examinations as he supervised and gave me guidance. I completed about an hour with this GP and then joined the nurses, who were conducting influenza vaccinations. As the nurses supervised, I performed the vaccinations [yay, first time on a real person!], and this was incredibly useful in developing confidence in my clinical skills.    

When rarer cases were being consulted or the theatre was in use, I would poke my head in to observe, and I learnt a great deal about the variety of cases GPs come across in their practice.  

All in all, I found the experience one of the best so far in this rural placement. Not only did I learn a great deal about the role of the general practitioner in a rural community, but I was also given the opportunity to reinforce a number of clinical skills in a real-life setting.   

Practicing in a rural area, where people have closer ties to each other within the community, allows doctors to develop a more personal understanding of patients’ lives and thus their medical conditions. This enables them to treat the patient in a more specialised fashion and increases the likelihood that there will be a consistency in treatment (if the GP remains the same throughout for instance). However, rural medicine does have its challenges. Many patients presenting to the clinic with chronic conditions were concerned about the lack of availability of specialist care and the distance they were required to travel to access it. Also, certain facilities such as MRI, X-rays and blood tests that are available 24hrs/day in metropolitan hospitals and clinics, are not so readily available in rural clinics, and this presents a significant disadvantage when managing patients who present later in the evening, on certain days.    

Tuesday 8^th May 2007- Indigenous Health Visit   

Today’s Indigenous health visit was really eye-opening. We learnt a great deal about Aboriginal culture, heritage and attitudes towards health. I was hoping to learn more about types of illnesses and risk factors prevalent in Indigenous people, but it wasn’t covered in much detail.   

 Some of the challenges experienced by GPs in Indigenous health care (that we discussed) include overcoming the cultural and language differences when communicating with patients and finding ways of altering the vicious cycle of social risk factors such as racism, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse that impact on Indigenous health.   

Wednesday 9^th May 2007- Hospital Visit  

Today’s visit to the Surgical ward of the local hospital proved to be an amazing experience as we were able to both practice our clinical skills as well as learn about the role of nurses in a hospital setting.  In the morning I tagged behind a nurse as she tended to the medications of her patients, made beds and carried out observations and in the afternoon, a friend of mine and I took medical histories, practiced taking observations and watched an MRI being carried out in the mobile MRI van.    

The nurses have a very intimate role in the patient’s health and I was surprised at the amount of clinical skills they carry out (including giving all the medications, giving injections, etc) and at the vast amount of knowledge they had about their patient’s medical condition. Whilst the doctors are usually incredibly busy, and are hardly seen conversing with patients, the nurses spend most of their time with patients and thus get to know them quite well.  In some situations, where the patients have no visitors, the nurses would keep them company and comfort them, which is something I believe would go a long way in aiding their recovery. Nurses play a hugely important role in hospitals and definitely deserve more respect and acknowledgement than they receive.     

 

The days I have skipped we had other activities, but I didn’t write down exactly what we did (oops). Throughout the placement, we were also taught cannulation, how to deal with suspected head and neck injuries (placing a collar), revised first aid, and learnt about OHS on farms (during a farm visit).  

Hope that was useful :)! 

 

Cya,   

complicated

Surgery is so much less fun when you’re not doing the cutting…

As some of you might know, I went into surgery yesterday to have my 3 wisdom teeth taken out (yeah, I only had three… how weird). Maybe it’s the burden of knowledge or something, but I was kinda shitting myself the day before the operation.  And I’m not really a guy who shits himself that often.

I’m not sure, maybe it was that there was a minor chance of a complication that would lead to permanent numbness in my lower lip, tongue and jaw, but I really wasn’t looking forward to getting cut up at all. Even being told by other people who’ve had the operation how simple it is (and how awesome eating heaps of sorbet and jelly is afterwards) didn’t really quell my fears.

When I finally got into the hospital, though, I was able to deal with it a lot more easily. One thing that I did notice while in hospital was the difference in the quality of care from when they saw me as a normal patient and when they saw me as a medical student. I swear that the doctors and nurses were a lot nicer and spent a lot more time on me when they found out that I was studying medicine.

I presume that I’m not the first person that this has happened to, especially given that something similar happens to me whenever I visit a doctor or dentist and they find out I’m studying medicine. Maybe it’s the whole idea of us as a patient having something in common with them, and thus they open up more.

Anyways, the surgery went well, no complications and I’m recovering a fair bit quicker than expected (ie. less inflammation and swelling than it should’ve been, little pain, colour returned to my face and general anaesthetic wore off in a decently quick period of time).

Now it’s just up to me to rest a bit, let the body heal itself and enjoy eating all this lemon sorbet… mmm… lemon sorbet (I’m eating it as a type, just in case you didn’t pick up on that) So lemontastic…

So I did say that I’d write about PFEs this time, but I guess I figured that surgery was a bit more interesting than that.

Next time, I promise.

Adios amigos,

- Lachy

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The Monash Medicine blog is in no way affiliated with Monash University or the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the views held by this blogger are not shared at all by the aforementioned faculty or Monash University.

My god, we’re so close now…

Well, to our holidays at least. Everyone’s gotta look forward to something.

Well, the first semester of our med course is coming to a close, which means that we’re now about 10% through our medical school education. Kinda scary, isn’t it, how time can fly so quickly. I’ve heard a few second years say that it was just yesterday that they were studying (ahem…) sociology and being freshers themselves.

Soon enough we’ll be saving lives and making cancer look foolish.

To think that this time last year I was preparing (I mean, not preparing… because you obviously can’t prepare for the UMAT… at all…) to take the UMAT exam. Back then, that was a hurdle that I knew I could jump and be *that* much closer to getting into Medicine.

Now that I’m in, though, I think the way that I view medicine, the way people are treated and the whole underlying culture of the health profession has completely changed. Maybe it’s that when you have inside knowledge you can’t help but change your opinions accordingly, but I’ve been seriously assessing my priorities recently. Y’know, trying to work out the reasons why I wanted to get into Medicine in the first place, and I guess reigniting my love for dealing with people and helping others (as cliche’ as it sounds).

Chances are that the reinvention/assessment cycle will probably happen all throughout my career.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be a surgeon anymore, though. I’m still all for slicing and dicing.

Anyways, I think this post was a bit of procrastination for me. I should probably get back to working on my assignment that’s due in a short while… eep…

Anyways, I’ll post something again once the holidays have begun. Chances are it’ll be a bit about PFEs and their marvellous splendor.

Adios amigos,

- Lachlan

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The Monash Medicine blog is in no way affiliated with Monash University or the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the views held by this blogger are not shared at all by the aforementioned faculty or Monash University.

Hi,

I’m not planning anything exciting for my first entry or you’ll have nothing to look forward too (assuming I can actually write one with substance later, let’s hope so).

I’m also a Med Fresher who you’ll hear from…we’ll get a few more for you to liven up the mix.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them up.

Monash med has been rad so far except for the weekends you sometimes have to give up actually doing work (which I had a taste of on the weekend)…Otherwise, the degree, the parties & social functions are awesome…(Minus the rural allocations :P). They are very nice to first years…

Actually to sum it up, Med is like anything else; in that it is what you make it…You won’t excel if you don’t commit and you won’t enjoy it if you don’t create and find pleasure in what you’re doing. So far I’ve found the people amazing and then the degree content is equally as good (except for a subject we shall not name; if you’re from Monash you’ll know what it is )

Catchya soon,

Liv Div

I’ve gotta start some sort of a schedule for updating these things…

Well, a couple of things have happened within Med recently. One main thing has been my first ever visit to a hospital (as a non-patient). I went to the Alfred and was originally assigned to PSS (which is a surgery rotation), however I was later shifted to gastro. To be honest with you, I didn’t expect it to be all that great. While, yeah, it was patient interaction and it was being in a hospital, I would have much preferred to hang out with people in surgery than go into the gastro ward.

In the end, it was really awesome. We got to take a patient’s history for near an hour then read up on his/her charts and find out more about his/her condition, meds etc. I was really happy with what we’d been able to achieve… well, until I heard about what some of my mates got to do. One of them got to place an IV line and the other got to sit in on neurosurgery (tumour excision). I was the definition of envious at that moment.

I understand, of course, that I’ll probably place my fair share of IV lines in the future and maybe (if I’m lucky) even get to perform neurosurgery someday, but it certainly would’ve been a lot more fun to be able to do some practical procedures there.

There’s one other thing that I should probably talk about, and it’s an issue that will probably affect all of us at some point in time:

Medcest.

I know, it’s a sensitive subject, but it has to be talked about.

One thing that I’ve noticed about a lot of us meddies is that, because we’re all going to be in the same course hanging out together for a long period of time, a lot of people are either unwilling or very reluctant when it comes to hooking up with other people in the course. Personally, I think I’m one of these people. Believe me when I say that it’s not that I don’t feel attraction towards people in the course, it’s mostly because of the whole “morning after” thing, which ends up lasting for more than one morning.

I think I’m starting to come around a bit, and I know that some people who would originally have felt the same way as me would be more willing to put themselves out there amongst the cohort too.

So, to this week’s million dollar question: Have you ever hooked up with anyone in med? Did it turn into a relationship? How did it go? If you haven’t, is there a reason why not?

Adios amigos,

 - Lachlan

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The Monash Medicine blog is in no way affiliated with Monash University or the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the views held by this blogger are not shared at all by the aforementioned faculty or Monash University.

Shit I’m lazy…

Yeah, once again, a million apologies for the veeeeeeeeeeery late post. I guess things just kinda take over back in the real world and make the internet seem somewhat less important.

So the most important thing to talk about right now would probably be my “Alcohol Free Month”. Yeah, I finished it and was very successful (as opposed to normally successful at not doing something…) and since then I still haven’t had a drink (I will this Friday, though, before watching SPIDERMAN 3!!!!! :D)

This was something that I never quite thought that I’d be able to do. Remember that, in first year, you’re pretty much drinking every week (at least once a week)  so to give up for an entire month shook up my social life a fair bit. It’s also kinda annoying when people start offering you free drinks and you’re not a drinker…

Another piece of advice I can give to people, is that although Red Bull is awesome beyond belief (Jesus turned water into Red Bull, not wine), it can seriously screw you up. NEVER drink 6 cans in one day. I had a few abnormal heart palpitations in the days following that…

The ones that you love are always the ones that hurt you the most…

Anyways, my next brilliant (See: STUPID) idea is that over the 6 week break we get after exams (and after my surgery to have my abnormal wisdom teeth removed…) I’m going to begin what I’m referring to as “My Spartan Month”.

This has pretty much been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now (just in a less… brutal and horribly painful form). What I’m gunna do is go to the gym for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week and do heaps of cardio (ie. 1.5-2hrs of running etc) and some massive weights, simply so I can lose some weight I’ve been carrying for a while now, and put on a large amount of muscle mass. Thus, at the end of the month, my aim is to look like a Spartan (from the controversially awesome film 300).

I’ve been told that doing such intense work is possibly the dumbest thing that I could ever do to my body, but I did some high intensity training during the Jan-Feb hols this year, so I know that my body could take it.

I’m obviously gunna do some middle distance running (.5-1hr running) to prepare my body for it before I get to the mid year, though…

So does anyone else want to join in the stupidity that is me forcing myself to do dumb things?

For the record, Hurri can’t join because there’s no real reason for him to bulk up any further

Adios amigos,

- Lachlan

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The Monash Medicine blog is in no way affiliated with Monash University or the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the views held by this blogger are not shared at all by the aforementioned faculty or Monash University.

Thanks for that lovely introduction Lachy

As you guys might already know, I’m known as ‘complicated’ on MSO, and I am indeed a second year Monash meddie. Well, in following in Lachy’s footsteps I will now tell you a few interesting facts about myself.

 

*Thinks*

*Sounds of crickets in the background*

Random facts: I too have attended 5 different schools, in two separate countries. When I was in year 2 I wanted to be a ballet teacher, and then by highschool a neurosurgeon…and now it’s pathology that really makes me tick (not the dealing with cadavers part, the dealing with bloods part :D). When I am heading off to bed after a late night studying/perusing-through-MSO (like tonight), I use the light on my mobile phone to see in the dark (O.o).

I’ll be posting random blog entries on interesting experiences in the course, and hopefully *crossed fingers* be giving you guys a bit of insight into the course we have here at Monash (aka the best uni in the world).

Keep smiling,

Complicated

Ten bucks doesn’t go to the first person to guess what movie I love at the moment.

So the last two weeks have been fairly slow (what with the Easter break and all) and, thus, I haven’t posted as regularly as I said I would. Pity I can’t blame that on being continuously drunk anymore… I will blame it on a chocolate overdose, though. That stuff can kill you…

So on another note of me giving up things, I haven’t had a Red Bull since Sunday night. Aren’t you proud? That’s a whole… 4 days! I didn’t really go into withdrawl symptoms or anything either.

By the way, Easter - Cadbury Creme Eggs = Sad. Well, I mean it was killing me until I saw the editor of Maxim try to eat 50 Cadbury Creme Eggs in one hour (a la Cool Hand Luke). Stupid, stupid idea… It has also made me not want to eat them for a long time… well, at least until they start selling them again next year.

Well, the main reason of me posting this (besides the whole lack of an entry for the past ten days) is because I would like to introduce… well, more announce the addition of two new bloggers to our “team”. I’m pretty sure you’d know them as they post heaps on MSO.

Give them a warm welcome, ladies and gentlemen, kevin and complicated! *waits for huge round of applause*

You guys done now? Cool.

Yeah, they’ll be posting their thoughts on things every now and then (just like Liv, but they might actually post stuff) and it’ll be cool to get the inner thoughts of a second year meddie (complicated has already suffered through everything we’re doing now) as opposed to us newbies.

Anyways, make them welcome, don’t bite too hard and all that jazz.

I promise to have something a bit more substantial next time.

Adios amigos,

 - Lachlan

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The Monash Medicine blog is in no way affiliated with Monash University or the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the views held by this blogger are not shared at all by the aforementioned faculty or Monash University.

I’ll tell you the one thing I’ve noticed most about being a meddie: our sense of humour.

How many people can say that they spent half a night laughing because they (along with some of their friends) have created and diagnosed someone with a completely new disease?

Just from a word written on my t-shirt (which was almost unreadable) and the actions of a mate of mine, we were able to create the disease name, what it means, some of the symptoms and what can happen if you have the disease. Yes, it’s somewhat immature, but I’m pretty sure that, last night, we were able to work out how to diagnose someone with anal cancer (and I’m hoping that’s not a real cancer, even though it probably is).

For the record, that wasn’t the disease we made, that was what can be caused by the disease.

So some of you may have read this on MSO, but I’ve decided to give up drinking alcohol for a month (March 23-April 23). Because of this, I’m challenging anyone who reads this to give up something (not something flimsy like meat if you’re a vego) for an entire month.

Alcohol probably is harder than most things (smoking could possibly suck too, but not many meddies smoke), especially in first year with all the socialising, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to last this month out no problems.

So go crazy, test the strength of your resolves and try something new!

Wow, that sounded massively like one of those motivational speeches…

Adios amigos,

- Lachlan

PS. No, I am not Mexican.

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The Monash Medicine blog is in no way affiliated with Monash University or the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the views held by this blogger are not shared at all by the aforementioned faculty or Monash University.