Different way to study

Week 6

The care I provided to my patients this week is ordinary works: give IV, SQ and oral medications, assessments, educations etc. There is not something really can make me think that any interventions could be different. But I do have some thought about the way we study since our instructor mentioned about the two exams this term.
The formal way to study would be follow the objectives, do the required readings, attend classes and labs, attend clinical experiences. In fact, with the short amount time and the intensive training, the required reading sometimes can be difficult to be done. So there are module groups, people getting together and divided all the objectives and type them done and share with others. I think that is a great idea to do so and I totally support it!
But sometimes only studying the modules done by other students could narrow our sight of the course. It could be confusing sometimes because you are not the one actually did the module. And with the time limit, we cannot write done all the modules by ourselves.
There are alternated ways to study. One is useful for me. I do not write done any answers of the objectives, but I read the book against them. The difference is I read more then the objective asked for so that I can have a better understanding of the topics. I think I did even more than the required readings. And I don’t try to memorize everything, but really try to understand them. I guess my point here is trying to learn the topics lively.
I am a slow reader, especially English is my second language; I have to use my dictionary a lot when I am reading. But just read through against the module’s objectives but write done them spend less time. I write done some simple notes on my module and sometimes just the page of the book just incase I need to go back to read. I am not an “A” student, but I am getting fair grades. It works for me. I am sure there are other alternatives to learn too, one just needs to find a one to work for them.
For me, the goal of learning is to put the knowledge to practice. So when we think about this, we could feel a little ease when we are leaning. Not just for examination, not just for a good grades.

The clinical path and the disease process

Week 5
The clinical path and the disease process

This week, we only have one day clinical. It is nice that our instructor let us to come to the clinical site without prep. It reduced our paper work but challenged our time management skill and the ability to face the real patient care situation. We also discussed the clinical path and the disease process which made us realized the difference with theory and facts.

In theory, diseases have certain path to go, either better or worse, it is kink of black and white compared with the reality life with disease process. That is where the clinical path came from. It is other people’s experiences, other practitioner’s conclusion. Patients who have the same disease and treatment would most likely to go that way. But there always are some exceptions.

We discussed my patient this week which is a relatively young guy who went through a coronary bypass surgery. He was in post op day two, and already ambulating. His chest tubing drainage was only 40ml at my shift, which met the protocol to disconnect. He is pretty much following the clinical path. But on the other patient my classmate care of was a different story. He is much older in his 80s. I think he was post op of CABG week two and still there with lots of complications. As the ordinary clinical path, open heart patients should be discharged in a week. But this one was staying for another week at least. That is an example of exception.

Medicine is called “practice” because there are not always black and white answers. Same disease, same procedure with different patient can have different outcomes. It based on the individual’s health status, life style, and genetic variation and … as a student, it is very important for us to know there are differences, so we can be really careful with assessments, treatments and assistance. I appreciate our instructor leaded us for the discussion. Thanks.