Otago HSFY chat - archive

[g.walker]

you do one module at a time?

 

[SASOL]

Yeah I think one module at a time. Plus there are case studies and other stuff, but can't really remember at the moment

 

[g.walker]

ahh mate, that sorta sucks to be honest, i would imagine that it makes you more prone to forgetting material that you've moved on from, coupled by the lack of horizontal integration of your subjects, but hey thats my opinion on it. I dont get why there isnt a paper on dermatology at auckland (guessing its the same in otago)

 

[greenglacier]

At Otago 2nd and 3rd year are integrated and together form one program called the ELM (early learning in medicine). In each year we take one paper (MICN201 then MICN301) which are graded overall as pass with distinction (very rare)/pass/fail. As there is only one paper per year this allows for integration thoughout the curriculum (and between modules). All summative assessment for each paper is in 5 end-of-year exams (2 written, 1 practical, 1 clinical, 1 multiple choice) covering everything learnt so far, though there are loads of things you have to do to be allowed to sit the exams first

There are 4 main components to the curriculum:

1 - Medical science (the largest component). This consists of block modules, mainly organised by body system. In 2nd year these are human interactions (behavioural medicine), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal (taught one at a time, in that order). There are also some (I think 12 or 13) vertical modules containing material that is relevant across medical science and so is taught throughout the ELM, such as blood, cancer, public health, ethics, infection and immunity...

2 - Case studies. A case study every 2 weeks with 4 hours of associated tutorials, integrating material taught across many modules and allowing the development of appropriate thinking (e.g. developing and resolving differential diagnoses)

3 - Clinical skills.

4 - Healthcare in the community. Stuff like clinical placements and the experience of illness.


Given that I haven't started yet, not sure how accurate the above is, but I think it is a reasonable basic summary of what we'll be studying in second year at Otago.

 

[SASOL]

Yeah I don't know if we do dermatology or eyes for that matter. Maybe we do, but I didn't notice when I read the info book. May do that in 3rd year, I don't know.

 

[greenglacier]

Yeah I don't now if we do dermatology or eyes for that matter. Maybe we do, but I didn't notice when I read the info book. May do that in 3rd year, I don't know.

An overarching objective for the nervous system block module (3rd year) is "Have an excellent understanding of the anatomical and physiological basis of vision, hearing and vestibular function."

We probably do some dermatology, but I don't know where.

 

[g.walker]

for us, I believe we do a paper called special senses in year 3, but i dont think we do anything on the integumentary system

 

[SASOL]

Ha well there ya go, obviously wasn't reading very attentively.

Wonder what the failure rate is for med 2

 

[greenglacier]

Wonder what the failure rate is for med 2

https://micn.otago.ac.nz/wp-content/uploads/micn/2009/03/elm_news_01_20092.pdf

The above document has the data for 2008. To pass 2nd year, you have to pass all 4 components of the final exams. If you fail the first time, you are allowed to sit a special exam.

Looks like everyone passed the OSPE (practical exam) and multiple choice exam first time, 2 failed the short answer exams (2 exams, but combined into one mark) and 1 of those failed the special, and 16 failed the OSCE (clinical exam) due to a poor performance in communication skills but of those only 3 failed the special exam.

This is out of a class size of approximately 245.

 

[SASOL]

Wow thats pretty good for 245 ish students. Thought it would have been more.

I guess they will do everything they can to help us pass though.
Hopefully we will get used to using clinical skills, it will be very new to most of us I suppose. And I have no idea really what it involves.

 

[skyglow1]

At Otago 2nd and 3rd year are integrated and together form one program called the ELM (early learning in medicine). In each year we take one paper (MICN201 then MICN301) which are graded overall as pass with distinction (very rare)/pass/fail. As there is only one paper per year this allows for integration thoughout the curriculum (and between modules). All summative assessment for each paper is in 5 end-of-year exams (2 written, 1 practical, 1 clinical, 1 multiple choice) covering everything learnt so far, though there are loads of things you have to do to be allowed to sit the exams first

There are 4 main components to the curriculum:

1 - Medical science (the largest component). This consists of block modules, mainly organised by body system. In 2nd year these are human interactions (behavioural medicine), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal (taught one at a time, in that order). There are also some (I think 12 or 13) vertical modules containing material that is relevant across medical science and so is taught throughout the ELM, such as blood, cancer, public health, ethics, infection and immunity...

2 - Case studies. A case study every 2 weeks with 4 hours of associated tutorials, integrating material taught across many modules and allowing the development of appropriate thinking (e.g. developing and resolving differential diagnoses)

3 - Clinical skills.

4 - Healthcare in the community. Stuff like clinical placements and the experience of illness.


Given that I haven't started yet, not sure how accurate the above is, but I think it is a reasonable basic summary of what we'll be studying in second year at Otago.

Yup that's a really good summary. Only 'inaccuracy' is that distinction is usually handed out to be about 10% of the students, so it isn't that rare, but still pretty difficult to get.

All the skin related stuff we had this year were things like skin histology, skin cancers, and skin infections, which all popped up at different points in the course.

Otago's course is so ridiculously easy to pass. You have to really be trying hard to fail in order to fail haha. The difficulty level of the final exams was often way easier than than what the course content itself was. You won't be failing anything by a long shot unless english isn't your first language, in which case you might have trouble with the communication skills part.

Otago's timetable is also extremely relaxed, to the point where its nearly laughable. It's got the least number of contact hours per week by far compared to the other professional courses like Dentistry, Pharmacy and Physio. On average it'll be about 20 hours per week, sometimes as low as 16 to 18, and the max is only like 24 hours per week. The lectures also don't have that much more material than the hardest health sci ones. The guys at Auckland have to learn about 3x as much material as the Otago students pretty much, because they go into so much detail for everything. If Otago students had to sit the Auckland exams nearly everyone would fail haha.

 

[SASOL]

Yay thank goodness for that!
I had visions of myself struggling. I'm kinda of shy so I hope the clinical skills part isn't too much trouble, all though I'm sure there will be others who are in the same boat. I guess we all will be to some extent

 

[SASOL]

Thats true, it would be a bit weird having one med schools students having more knowledge than the others. And poor aucklanders would have to study harder. Poor poor poor people.

 

[greenglacier]

So in terms of the low number of contact hours, does this mean that "independent/group learning" is really just study? Or do we get tasks to do that take a lot less than 16 hours per week to complete?

 

[SASOL]

So the anatomy learnt in Otagos med 2 isn't much harder than HUBS?
Yeah I wondered the same about the group/independent study, I just assumed it meant own personal study.

 

[skyglow1]

So in terms of the low number of contact hours, does this mean that "independent/group learning" is really just study? Or do we get tasks to do that take a lot less than 16 hours per week to complete?

Yes it pretty much is just free time that you can spend how you want, study or not. You will only have a few assignments throughout the year. Calling it "independent/group learning" is a bit stupid. Funnily enough, on the new system that will replace blackboard:

https://medschool.otago.ac.nz/

You can import the calendar that contains all the lectures and labs and everything into things like Outlook or google calendar which si super cool. Phil Blyth, the guy who manages the system (and was an anatomy lecturer at Auckland actually), asked if we wanted to get rid of the "independent/group learning" items from the calendar. They were annoying to get rid of when you imported to another calendar, so now they've been removed haha.

So the anatomy learnt in Otagos med 2 isn't much harder than HUBS?
Yeah I wondered the same about the group/independent study, I just assumed it meant own personal study.

Yeah it's not much of a step up. You won't really feel like you're drowning at any point if you just keep up with the labs. There's also quite a bit of repetition of the stuff. You'll see it more than once which makes it even easier to remember.

 

[SASOL]

Wow no blackboard for us, thats kinda weird. Is it just for med, or will all other things be moving away from blackboard?

 

[skyglow1]

Wow no blackboard for us, thats kinda weird. Is it just for med, or will all other things be moving away from blackboard?

I'm not sure, but I think it's just for med.

 

[SASOL]

Haha thanks g.walker, just something to do with my spare time. Not much on it at the moment but hopefully next year there will be

 

[SASOL]

I really hope we aren't disadvantaged when it comes to PGY1 or anything. Although I'm sure the people that run the course know what they're doing.

Anyone filled out the registration forms for OUMSA and that yet?