Hierarchy

I had my first day of out-patient (ambulatory) Internal Medicine today. Before I divulge into that, I wanted to relay to you my new status...at the bottom of the medical teaching hierarchy. Like a private in the army, I get to be the MS3 (Medical Student 3rd Year). The chain of command goes as such, in descending order.

Attending
Resident
Intern (1st year resident)
Sub-Intern (4th year)
MS4
MS3

Woo! The climb begins! The basic philosophy of training at this early stage is exposure, exposure, exposure, and do, do, do. Then do some more. We've taken our pre-clinical basic science courses and consolidated our "knowledge" in USMLE step 1. Now its time to see it all literally come to life. I'll just say for now that this is a very exciting time in training, and it is where you make leaps and bounds towards becoming an actual physician.

Oriented

Now I'm ready to begin. I guess.

Got my pager...my PDA is on the way in the mail. I have several "pocket guides" ready to stuff in my short white coat.

Today I heard that the nurses know full and well what our short, white coats mean. They mean that we're doctors in training. We are clinically very incompetent. I hope the nurses are respectful and kind to us...because I know we are to them. In a matter of a number of years, I look forward to the day when I really know what I am doing. Until then, it is in the bowels of medical education that I shall dwell, where I will, like every other physician, slowly and steadily climb my way up, day after day.

It begins!

I feel a lot of similarities between now and (almost) 2 years ago. I'm starting 3rd year now...I was starting 1st year then. I'd much rather be where I am now, mind you.

We got the emails just a day or two ago that we are now officially considered MS3s. We, the class of 2011. It is a seemingly small matter, but to me it means a whole lot.

Later today (it is 1AM), I have a sort of survival skills workshop at school for getting transitioned into 3rd year. Skills like writing "SOAP" notes, presenting patients, and integrating into the teaching-hospital hierarchy. It shall be awesome.

In other news. I'm upgrading my computer tomorrow...by tomorrow at this time, I should have 1.5 TB more hard-drive space, and a vastly superior video card! For now...more cleaning as I just moved back to my place.

I Return! ...as an MS3

Wow.

Well that was fun. I kind of fell out of blogging for awhile there as I realized the the first two years (plus boards) were a real bear to tackle.

So I did.

And now I'm finally, finally here, staring 3rd year in the face.

I absolutely love writing, regardless of how my writing is perceived. I was going to start a brand new blog, but I logged in here and noticed that this thing had been sitting here for years with all my old posts and writings in it. So I took the easy route and decided to simply pick up where I had left off. I will post about the glorious pre-clinical years and boards, as I must express my thoughts on them!