Monday, September 03, 2007

FAQ

For the record, I am almost half way through medical school.. and will be done with my basic science education in december and will be starting my clinical education in the spring...
The rest of this info is cribbed from Wiki but accurate....

The standard U.S. medical school curriculum is four years long. The first two years are composed mainly of classroom education, while the last two years primarily include rotations in clinical settings where students learn patient care firsthand. Upon successful completion of medical school, students are granted the title of Doctor of Medicine (MD, if they graduate from an allopathic medical school) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO, if they attend an osteopathic medical school). Upon graduation, physicians who plan to independently care for patients must complete a residency which is a supervised training period of three to seven years. Physicians who sub-specialize or who desire more supervised experience may complete a fellowship, which is an additional two to three years of supervised training in their area of expertise.

A medical intern, in the context of medical education in the United States, is a historical term for a physician in training who has completed medical school, passed step two of the USMLE or COMLEX-USA, and is undergoing his or her first year of post-graduate training (PGY1). An intern in the medical field has an M.D. or D.O. degree, but does not have a full license to practice medicine unsupervised in the U.S. In other countries medical education generally ends with a period of practical training similar to internship, but the way the overall program of academic and practical medical training is structured differs in each case, as does the terminology used (see medical education and medical school for further details). Interns have a reputation of being hazed and mentally harassed by senior residents, veteran nurses, and attending physicians as part of their "trial by fire" training. This often may involve verbal and emotional abuse, sleep deprivation, overwork and excessive scut work and other forms of intimidation in the name of "medical training". There may also be unethical economic reasons for the overwork of interns and junior interns.

Residency is a stage of postgraduate medical training certification in a primary care or referral specialty. It is filled by a resident physician who has received a medical degree (M.D. or D.O.) and is composed almost entirely of the care of hospitalized or clinic patients, mostly with direct supervision by more senior physicians. A residency may follow the internship year or include the internship year as the first year of residency. The residency can also be followed by a fellowship, during which the physician is trained in a sub-specialty.
Whereas medical school gives doctors a broad range of medical knowledge, basic clinical skills, and limited experience practicing medicine, medical residency gives in-depth training within a specific branch of medicine, such as anesthesiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, pediatric medicine, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, radiology, radiation oncology, and general surgery. The field of surgery has several specialties such as neurosurgery, orthopaedics, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, and urology.
In North America it leads to eligibility for board certification.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Good-morning Felix, Watch out Curacao


I thought the weather last night was a little extra exciting. In my new place I can open my eyes and look south west over the ocean. There really is no place like the Grand View Inn for the Grand View....  Last night at about 4 I awoke to the sound of torrential rain and the sound of the sheet metal roof under duress. By 7 the power had gone off.. And seems to be out for all of Grande Anse and much of the area around the highway, although not in Lance Aux Epines. Seems a Tropical Storm formed over the island or damn to close to it. It is moving west now so at least I am not worried that we will be hit by it. And I am safely snuggled in the pathology lab with a cup of coffee happily streaming some lectures (lectures are now digitally recorded, and I can follow a web link, watch and listen to the lecturer on one half of the screen and view the power point presentation on the other half...  pause at any time to repeat or catch up.  Very cool.  Can't believe I ever went to college without the internet...) I need to review. It is air conditioned enough here that I can even pretend it is cold outside. Kind of neat to have a tropical storm form over my head and to be inconvenienced so little...

this from the Weather Channel:
"Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Felix became the sixth named storm of the 2007 Atlantic season early Saturday, forming over the Windward Islands in the eastern Caribbean. The storm was expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours, forecasters said.

At 5 a.m. EDT, the storm was centered about 30 miles northwest of Grenada, according to the National Hurricane Center. It had top sustained winds of 40 mph, just above the threshold to be a named storm, and was moving westward at about 18 mph.

Felix was expected to move away from the southern Windward Islands later Saturday morning and pass near Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao by evening or early Sunday, forecasters said. Tropical storm warnings were issued for the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao."