My advice to newcomers
This was initially posted as a blog, but was accidentally deleted in the forum upgrade. Many thanks to Eidetic recall for saving a copy of this post!
Been a while between drinks for this blog, but with all the chat about med school offers and whatnot, I thought I would use this platform to lay out some of my tips for med school. Some academic, some not so academic, some for first years, some for other years, but all things that I think were really important for my journey. These started to be in some sort of order of importance, but along the way I lost that order, so treat them all as equal importance.
Note: I do not claim to have been the best medical student, or even a half-decent medical student, so the most important thing is not living religiously by my advice, but keeping an open mind to see if you can incorporate these into your approach!
Do not get trapped in the medicine bubble
This is my biggest tip, and it is non-academic. Medicine is just like any other degree, it is not particularly special to anyone but you - remember that. Do not get trapped inside the world of medicine whereby you see medical people all day during every weekday, then you go to medical social and academic events after hours, then you see these same people again on weekends, you talk to them online in between all of this... It can all be a bit too much, even if you don't realise it until years later.
You need to keep some variety, keep your non-medical friends close and make some more via uni clubs, sports, and social events. They offer different and fresh perspectives, probably do not put much weight on the fact that you do medicine, and may be more interesting.
Seek help early
This is not advice I had to take myself, fortunately, but it is universally good advice nonetheless. Whether it be physical or mental or other issues, get on top of them early before they snowball into something bigger. Get yourself a GP and touch base with them regularly, talk to the Faculty if you think background issues are going to affect your course progression, and keep family and friends close.
If you are not sure whether you need to speak to someone - speak to someone anyway. No one is going to lambaste you if you are worried about something. And if they do, seek better help because you deserve better.
Do not forget about "me" time
Uni is a busy time, there is a lot going on. But everyone needs some time to themselves, to just chill and watch a movie, or read a book, or take a nap, or write a diary, or whatever else. Just some time to reflect on what has been, and plan for for what is next. "Me" time is important and often under-rated. I personally never did any study on a Friday night, and if I had something on that night then my "me" time was on another evening of that weekend. If you do not take such breaks, you might break.
Put your hand up
During tutes and on the wards, you get more out of it if you volunteer to do things. Put your hand up to do that shoulder exam, or to interview that mock patient, or to do that arterial blood gas, or to do that literature review. You will get more out of having an active role than a passive role, despite how nervous you might be. Remember: the worst that happens is that you do a bad job and learn how to do it better, is that really terrible? No, it is fine. So, put your hand up.
Have fun and travel
Obvious, but forgotten frequently. There is more to life than working hard, whether that be studying, or volunteering, or doing something else that only a good person would do. You need to let your hair down, get a bit loose, and have some safe fun. If you can afford to travel as part of this, I would advise it 1oo%. You only get to be 18-25 once, and those years should not be spent at a desk studying.
Fun people live longer, probably (maybe).
Make notes
Everyone has their own way of studying, but mine was making notes. I found it comforting to have a document of stuff that I could look at whenever I wanted to revise. I prefer typing notes because it is more flexible, but I often hand-wrote to consolidate knowledge as well. Really important to not get bogged down with notes - they are notes and not a textbook being prepared for publication. They do not need to be perfect in every way, they just need to do their job. Do not sacrifice being up-to-date and efficient with how glorious your notes look - no one cares.
You can find a few more details on how I structured my clinical notes here: pi's review of Monash Med units. Each to their own though, whatever works for you is the best method.
Focus on knowledge, not marks
My tact for study was to focus on knowledge rather than marks in exams. This probably goes against >90% medical students, and indeed, many would try to find a DSM-5 diagnosis for me just because I suggest it! I found that if I had a good knowledge base that I was confident with, that served me better than focusing on getting the best exam result. It was a different perspective and goal of study, not to get X% so to get Y WAM so to get into Z hospital for internship, but to know enough so that I was confident to back myself. I found this approach to be much less stressful than some of my peers, who got extremely pre-occupied with the numbers game of z-scores and so forth. Try it.
The first few weeks/months are to figure things out
Uni can be overwhelming to many - it is normal to feel this way. The pace is different, the freedom is new, and the content is more challenging. Take the first few weeks, or even months, to test things out. Test out different study techniques and note taking methods, test out study locations, test out group study, test out all the nearest pubs and bars - do as much as possible so that you find what works best for you. Best to figure this out in first year, than figure it out later down the track when it is too late. It is fine to do relatively poorly for the first few weeks, you will bounce back once you have found what works. Do not stress over it, it will be fine.
Clinical years should be spent doing clinical things
Too often, more noticeable now as a doctor, do I see medical students "going for tutes" that result in them never coming back to the wards. Or "having tutes" conveniently during ward rounds. While some of these are legitimate tutes - which should be attended because senior clinicians are taking them - the fake ones are also highly prevalent. Whether these students go home, or go to brunch, or go to the library... It doesn't matter. They're not on the wards.
Clinical years are about being in hospital, learning from clinicians, allied health staff, and patients. None of those people are at home, at brunch, or in the library. You are wasting a huge opportunity by not showing up and being keen. Yes, there will be downtime occasionally, and the team will be too busy to give you one-on-one attention, but that's not an indication to go home, it's an indication to look beyond the team for things to do. For example, ask the reg if you can chat to a patient and present the case back to them at a less busy time - 99 times out of ioo they will say yes and you will learn heaps in the process.
My rules of internship, which I have adapted from others who have walked my path already, are the L's:
Make use of free online resources
Textbooks have their place in medical school, but I think that place has been traditionally over-stated a bit. Indeed, when many of your lecturers or tutors went through medical school, the internet was not yet a thing!
Certainly, some texts like Talley and O'Connor or a good anatomy atlas or a good physiology text are essentials to collect and devour along the journey, however I do not subscribe to the notion that one needs to own a library of medical textbooks that cost as much as a small car. Make use of free resources, some of which are truly FOAMed, others are those that are "free" to you from uni subscriptions.
My top free and "free" resources bookmarked:
This is stating the obvious, but have an online back-up of everything. Every assignment, all your notes, lecture materials -everything. Laptops have a tendency of going pear-shaped suspiciously close to when something important is due, and despite it being such an obvious thing, people always get caught out. So have a back-up that is updated daily.
Get yourself a professional Twitter account
No, not so you can send mad DMs to B-grade celebrities and participate in ridiculous hashtag trends, but Twitter is quite large in the medical sphere. I use Twitter to follow senior clinicians, journals, website accounts, and interest groups from around the world. Honestly, I have learnt quite useful and random facts from Twitter, and it has helped me to stay up-to-date in areas of interest. Many of these accounts cross-post onto Facebook (especially the journals), but the clinicians are not accessible on Facebook, so Twitter has a lot more depth. Personally, my approach to Twitter is rather passive, but feel free to become quite active and engaged if you want to as well, as long as you keep it professional.
Start your curriculum vitae now
Start your curriculum vitae when you start medical school. A curriculum vitae is a cumulative document, not something you haphazardly patch together at the last minute before you need to apply for something. Keep it ready and up-to-date at all times. You will never know when you will need it - for a job, for a scholarship, for a research opportunity... Will save you a lot of hassle and stress down the line.
Do not worry if your curriculum vitae is bare and empty once you start - that is part of the point. You can see where you need to start filling in the blanks for the next few years. It is as much an exercise in professional development as it is an exercise in being organised.
Where you intern does not dictate the rest of your life
Medicine is not as linear as it is often made out to be. There are many ways of getting to the same place, and you don't need to be at a top quarternary center from day 1 to launch yourself in the right direction. The only thing your internship dictates is where you spend your intern year, that is it. Enjoy the journey it takes to get to internship, rather than worrying about where you end up, regardless of where you go all options are still open. It will be fine - trust me.
It is perfectly ok to not know what you want to do
There is no rush in getting to the end. Some people know what they want to do right off the bat, others many years into working. They all get to the end eventually, and that is what matters. The more you experience, the more likely you are to find out what is for you. Be patient and it will all work out.
The going will get tough
This is my last point, and it is less of a tip and more of a truth. There are times when you will have a lot on your plate, you will have to make sacrifices, and you might even wonder why you are doing what you are doing. This may happen at the start, the middle somewhere, or the end. Either way, this is all normal, it is to be expected, and it is an unfortunate reality of higher learning. With every nadir, there comes a peak to follow - things do get better. Seek support, back yourself, and power through. Nearly everyone passes medicine - that should be a comfort and not a pressure.
I might update this with more if I think of anything else, but that is all for now. Good luck, and enjoy your journey.
This was initially posted as a blog, but was accidentally deleted in the forum upgrade. Many thanks to Eidetic recall for saving a copy of this post!
Been a while between drinks for this blog, but with all the chat about med school offers and whatnot, I thought I would use this platform to lay out some of my tips for med school. Some academic, some not so academic, some for first years, some for other years, but all things that I think were really important for my journey. These started to be in some sort of order of importance, but along the way I lost that order, so treat them all as equal importance.
Note: I do not claim to have been the best medical student, or even a half-decent medical student, so the most important thing is not living religiously by my advice, but keeping an open mind to see if you can incorporate these into your approach!
Do not get trapped in the medicine bubble
This is my biggest tip, and it is non-academic. Medicine is just like any other degree, it is not particularly special to anyone but you - remember that. Do not get trapped inside the world of medicine whereby you see medical people all day during every weekday, then you go to medical social and academic events after hours, then you see these same people again on weekends, you talk to them online in between all of this... It can all be a bit too much, even if you don't realise it until years later.
You need to keep some variety, keep your non-medical friends close and make some more via uni clubs, sports, and social events. They offer different and fresh perspectives, probably do not put much weight on the fact that you do medicine, and may be more interesting.
Seek help early
This is not advice I had to take myself, fortunately, but it is universally good advice nonetheless. Whether it be physical or mental or other issues, get on top of them early before they snowball into something bigger. Get yourself a GP and touch base with them regularly, talk to the Faculty if you think background issues are going to affect your course progression, and keep family and friends close.
If you are not sure whether you need to speak to someone - speak to someone anyway. No one is going to lambaste you if you are worried about something. And if they do, seek better help because you deserve better.
Do not forget about "me" time
Uni is a busy time, there is a lot going on. But everyone needs some time to themselves, to just chill and watch a movie, or read a book, or take a nap, or write a diary, or whatever else. Just some time to reflect on what has been, and plan for for what is next. "Me" time is important and often under-rated. I personally never did any study on a Friday night, and if I had something on that night then my "me" time was on another evening of that weekend. If you do not take such breaks, you might break.
Put your hand up
During tutes and on the wards, you get more out of it if you volunteer to do things. Put your hand up to do that shoulder exam, or to interview that mock patient, or to do that arterial blood gas, or to do that literature review. You will get more out of having an active role than a passive role, despite how nervous you might be. Remember: the worst that happens is that you do a bad job and learn how to do it better, is that really terrible? No, it is fine. So, put your hand up.
Have fun and travel
Obvious, but forgotten frequently. There is more to life than working hard, whether that be studying, or volunteering, or doing something else that only a good person would do. You need to let your hair down, get a bit loose, and have some safe fun. If you can afford to travel as part of this, I would advise it 1oo%. You only get to be 18-25 once, and those years should not be spent at a desk studying.
Fun people live longer, probably (maybe).
Make notes
Everyone has their own way of studying, but mine was making notes. I found it comforting to have a document of stuff that I could look at whenever I wanted to revise. I prefer typing notes because it is more flexible, but I often hand-wrote to consolidate knowledge as well. Really important to not get bogged down with notes - they are notes and not a textbook being prepared for publication. They do not need to be perfect in every way, they just need to do their job. Do not sacrifice being up-to-date and efficient with how glorious your notes look - no one cares.
You can find a few more details on how I structured my clinical notes here: pi's review of Monash Med units. Each to their own though, whatever works for you is the best method.
Focus on knowledge, not marks
My tact for study was to focus on knowledge rather than marks in exams. This probably goes against >90% medical students, and indeed, many would try to find a DSM-5 diagnosis for me just because I suggest it! I found that if I had a good knowledge base that I was confident with, that served me better than focusing on getting the best exam result. It was a different perspective and goal of study, not to get X% so to get Y WAM so to get into Z hospital for internship, but to know enough so that I was confident to back myself. I found this approach to be much less stressful than some of my peers, who got extremely pre-occupied with the numbers game of z-scores and so forth. Try it.
The first few weeks/months are to figure things out
Uni can be overwhelming to many - it is normal to feel this way. The pace is different, the freedom is new, and the content is more challenging. Take the first few weeks, or even months, to test things out. Test out different study techniques and note taking methods, test out study locations, test out group study, test out all the nearest pubs and bars - do as much as possible so that you find what works best for you. Best to figure this out in first year, than figure it out later down the track when it is too late. It is fine to do relatively poorly for the first few weeks, you will bounce back once you have found what works. Do not stress over it, it will be fine.
Clinical years should be spent doing clinical things
Too often, more noticeable now as a doctor, do I see medical students "going for tutes" that result in them never coming back to the wards. Or "having tutes" conveniently during ward rounds. While some of these are legitimate tutes - which should be attended because senior clinicians are taking them - the fake ones are also highly prevalent. Whether these students go home, or go to brunch, or go to the library... It doesn't matter. They're not on the wards.
Clinical years are about being in hospital, learning from clinicians, allied health staff, and patients. None of those people are at home, at brunch, or in the library. You are wasting a huge opportunity by not showing up and being keen. Yes, there will be downtime occasionally, and the team will be too busy to give you one-on-one attention, but that's not an indication to go home, it's an indication to look beyond the team for things to do. For example, ask the reg if you can chat to a patient and present the case back to them at a less busy time - 99 times out of ioo they will say yes and you will learn heaps in the process.
My rules of internship, which I have adapted from others who have walked my path already, are the L's:
- don't be lazy
- don't be late
- don't lie
- be willing to learn
Make use of free online resources
Textbooks have their place in medical school, but I think that place has been traditionally over-stated a bit. Indeed, when many of your lecturers or tutors went through medical school, the internet was not yet a thing!
Certainly, some texts like Talley and O'Connor or a good anatomy atlas or a good physiology text are essentials to collect and devour along the journey, however I do not subscribe to the notion that one needs to own a library of medical textbooks that cost as much as a small car. Make use of free resources, some of which are truly FOAMed, others are those that are "free" to you from uni subscriptions.
My top free and "free" resources bookmarked:
- Free
- Radiopaedia: Radiopaedia.org, the wiki-based collaborative Radiology resource
- Life in the fast lane: https://lifeinthefastlane.com/
- YouTube - numerous channels with excellent material
- Podcasts - numerous again
- "Free"
- UpToDate
- eTG
This is stating the obvious, but have an online back-up of everything. Every assignment, all your notes, lecture materials -everything. Laptops have a tendency of going pear-shaped suspiciously close to when something important is due, and despite it being such an obvious thing, people always get caught out. So have a back-up that is updated daily.
Get yourself a professional Twitter account
No, not so you can send mad DMs to B-grade celebrities and participate in ridiculous hashtag trends, but Twitter is quite large in the medical sphere. I use Twitter to follow senior clinicians, journals, website accounts, and interest groups from around the world. Honestly, I have learnt quite useful and random facts from Twitter, and it has helped me to stay up-to-date in areas of interest. Many of these accounts cross-post onto Facebook (especially the journals), but the clinicians are not accessible on Facebook, so Twitter has a lot more depth. Personally, my approach to Twitter is rather passive, but feel free to become quite active and engaged if you want to as well, as long as you keep it professional.
Start your curriculum vitae now
Start your curriculum vitae when you start medical school. A curriculum vitae is a cumulative document, not something you haphazardly patch together at the last minute before you need to apply for something. Keep it ready and up-to-date at all times. You will never know when you will need it - for a job, for a scholarship, for a research opportunity... Will save you a lot of hassle and stress down the line.
Do not worry if your curriculum vitae is bare and empty once you start - that is part of the point. You can see where you need to start filling in the blanks for the next few years. It is as much an exercise in professional development as it is an exercise in being organised.
Where you intern does not dictate the rest of your life
Medicine is not as linear as it is often made out to be. There are many ways of getting to the same place, and you don't need to be at a top quarternary center from day 1 to launch yourself in the right direction. The only thing your internship dictates is where you spend your intern year, that is it. Enjoy the journey it takes to get to internship, rather than worrying about where you end up, regardless of where you go all options are still open. It will be fine - trust me.
It is perfectly ok to not know what you want to do
There is no rush in getting to the end. Some people know what they want to do right off the bat, others many years into working. They all get to the end eventually, and that is what matters. The more you experience, the more likely you are to find out what is for you. Be patient and it will all work out.
The going will get tough
This is my last point, and it is less of a tip and more of a truth. There are times when you will have a lot on your plate, you will have to make sacrifices, and you might even wonder why you are doing what you are doing. This may happen at the start, the middle somewhere, or the end. Either way, this is all normal, it is to be expected, and it is an unfortunate reality of higher learning. With every nadir, there comes a peak to follow - things do get better. Seek support, back yourself, and power through. Nearly everyone passes medicine - that should be a comfort and not a pressure.
I might update this with more if I think of anything else, but that is all for now. Good luck, and enjoy your journey.
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