It is true. I am surviving final exams, but as is evident by my lack of blog correspondence, the weeks leading up to finals have swallowed me up into a see of studying and a whirlwind of academic intensity I have not yet experienced.
What has happened in the last few weeks? There are some highlights:
1) The student leaders of the Healer's Art course, along with the faculty leads, met for dinner at a faculty member's house (Dr. Feldstein, the director of the class). We ate yummy sushi and reflected on the course - what went well, what didn't, and what we would like to see in the course next fall. Most of our conversation ended up focusing on the role of Stanford Medical School in training us to be the leaders they claim they want us to become. There was a lot of discussion about how well the curriculum does or does not support the med school's mission and what could be done to change it. It was a lively evening, that's for sure!
2) The rest of that week revolved around studying for my Biochemistry exam which I took on 12/2 and I passed. Glad to have that over with, but boy oh boy, getting used to a pass/fail grading system at a place like Stanford is quite tricky. I still can't wrap my head around it.
3) After our Friday final, the med school encouraged us to celebrate by offering open-bar at a local Palo Alto hot spot - The Patio. I think approximately 75% of my class was there to join in the festivities and celebrate completing final #1 of 6. Wahoo.
4) Alex and I ventured out to Big Basin State Park (on the west side of the Santa Cruz Mountains, southwest from the Palo Alto area). We went on a 4 hour hike through big redwood forests and we learned why Big Basin is called Big Basin. It was beautiful and it gave me a nice chance to 'reset' before I dove into studying for finals.
5) On Wednesday (12/7), I had a final exam for the clinical skills portion of my Practice of Medicine course. I had 20 minutes to interview a standardized patient, with the goal being to take an entire history/complete the whole medical interview within that time. A thorough history was not necessary, but we were supposed to go through all of the motions.
I was apprehensive because I knew this encounter would be especially artificial. We were in the exam rooms in the simulation center, so it felt like a real clinic setting, but the characters the actors assumed for the encounter lacked a lot of depth. That lack of depth was purposeful, since the more the patient says "no" to your questions about health risk factors and the more benign their other answers are, the faster the interview is and the greater the likelihood that you can get through everything in 20 minutes. Problem is, that just is not my style.
Anyway, I had to come to terms with that and I did. I used all 20 minutes, but the interview felt pretty good. The patient, however, had a somewhat stiff demeanor throughout the interview which through me off. After my 20 minutes was up, I exited the room, took an online survey to reflect on my experience, and then met with my E4C (Dr. Basaviah) in a different room to debrief.
She told me that I was "outstanding." She said that they rate us on a Likert Scale from 1-8 for a series of categories based on clinical competencies. At our young/newbie stage, they want to see us scoring between 4 and 6 for each competency and they count that as satisfactory. Anything above 6 is considered to be exceeding expectations and would not be seen often in young students since we have not learned many of the skills necessary to warrant those scores. Each section also has specific items that they want us to do in an interview and they check them off if we complete them.
Now, for my performance....First off, Dr. Basaviah checked each box for me and I scored in the 7-8 range for every competency (exceeds expectations for all). Wahoo! She was so proud and she reassured me that she is a hard grader. She had recommendations for things I could start doing in future interviews, but she stated that most of her suggestions reflected more advanced clinical skills that I will learn in a structured fashion in spring quarter and during second year.
Anyway, it was a very, very positive experience and I feel re-energized!
6) The rest of my time has been spent studying. I have never studied this much in my life! And, by the time Thursday at 12:30 rolls around I will be so so relieved to have all of these exams behind me. I have spent most of my time with my friend Nicole who has become my faithful study-buddy. We have gone into anatomy lab almost every day since our "dead week" started last Monday and we study throughout the day, with one exception...we run the campus loop once each day to shake of the staleness of studying. It has been a good system, although still very exhausting. Nicole came over on Saturday for a study party and Alex cooked for us (a rare event indeed). He made scrumptious turkey meatballs (homemade) and I was oh so proud!
That's where I am. I took my developmental biology exam today and I have my practice of medicine exam tomorrow (includes psychiatry, nutrition, population health, quantitative medicine, etc.). 4 days from now I will be in Oregon...hip hip hooray!!!
