*Merry Christmas*

Merry Christmas!!!

Here is a summary of all the changes we have encountered this year. Some of you may be confused that you didn't receive a card from Fort Worth. Well, that is because there was a quick change of plans and we moved about 2 weeks before school started. I think, so far, that was the most stressful time of my life. Everything was last minute, moving twice in 1 month, and we didn't know what to expect  (and well that's just not my style). But some amazing people chipped in and made the move possible for us and we will forever be grateful. We feel at home in our new city and have been making lots of friends. It's comforting to know that we trusted God, even though we were too scared to leap, and are where we are supposed to be for the next four years of our lives.

The BIGGEST change this year was the husband starting medical school, which made the headline on our christmas cards. He has done sooo well in school and I am so proud of him! At first it was hard for us to adjust to this small town as well as the medical lifestyle (we've had some funny stories). Now the terminology is becoming a norm for us and he has to be careful about what he talks about in public. It took some time to get used to the schedule of a medical student, which changes weekly for him. It is crazy what you become accustomed to. I am thankful that in all this mess, my husband notices and appreciates the sacrifices we are having to make as a family. But it hasn't been all that bad - I planned for the worst and its not as bad as I expected. I got a new job! I am doing Faculty Development for the Health Science Center. It was definitely God's timing and I'm happy to begin my career in professional development and look forward to the opportunities in the future. I have also started a group that will begin the first week of the new year for all the spouses in medical school. I look forward to getting to know some new girls who are going through the same ups and downs that we are.

For thanksgiving, we headed to Santa Fe and spent the long weekend with my parents and brother and sister-in-law. This time with them was long overdue and our first time to see their new place! My parents absolutely love it there and are having a blast. We look forward to many more vacations there. StuDocs have 2 weeks off after they finish their NBME exam and I have a whole week off! Woohoo! I am so excited to get things done (get organized and caught up on laundry). There is a 'honey-to-do-list' that's been building up the past few months too. I got us some Nutcracker tickets for this week and we will be having Christmas at his parents. We are looking forward to the family time and the downtime to be a normal couple until "Infectious Diseases" starts next semester.

I hope that the holidays treat you and your loved ones well! Count your blessings, count them one by one. Count your blessings, and see what God has done!

Merry Christmas and see you in the New Year!

Love,

C&W

Christmas Parties

Our schedules have been packed! We have had every night scheduled (except for 1 or 2 nights during the week) for the past 3 weeks. If I have to wear another tacky sweater or buy/receive another white elephant gift I might die - Just kidding! It's been so much fun being surrounded by friends, making new ones, and enjoying the holidays.

At my old job, the girls were sweet enough to still include me in their secret santa exchange. So I have been waking up at 7:30 on Mondays to go and drop my gift off each week so they hopefully won't notice it's the one girl that doesn't work there anymore! We have that dinner next week for the big reveal and gift card exchange.

Our Couples Community at church planned a big night where we ordered Fazolis and did a 30 person or so white elephant gift exchange. We brought some ice trays in the shape of Texas and a digital coin counter. Both which were stolen! We came home with some beautiful mugs and 2 books. Woops! Some funny gifts exchanged were: a bug zapper, a gnome statue that was mooning, a stuffed animal dog that barked and farted, toilet paper, boxers, ...

Our Small Group within our Couples Community had a smaller get together. We did a fondue party (2 cheeses and dark chocolate and white chocolate). It was a great idea; everyone hovering around a pot of cheese and talking. It was a tacky sweater party and another white elephant. This time we brought fuzzy socks (big enough to fit a guy) and 2 hand towels with santa's buttons and belt on them. We left with a large coffee santa mug and a paper dart board. Again, we did pretty good!




A group of girls that are students who we have been getting to know were kind enough to invite me to a 'girls night in' scarf exchange. I am definitely stealing this idea for the future! Who doesn't like scarves and one size fits all! Another white elephant gift exchange. I left with one of the new infinity scarves (the ones that are a big loop and you double it up). It was fun to just hang out with the girls.

The med school class of 2015 hosted a little christmas party the other night. It was on a Friday after a test and these students were ready to let loose! It was fun for everyone to hang out. I did worry beforehand about the awkwardness of being a staff member and partying with the students. But I feel it went ok.

Me, Hubby, Ian, and Lindsey at the Christmas Party

At work, the Dean of the College of Medicine and another Doctor invited a hundred people to have lunch with them one Friday. We went to the nicest resteraunt in town. We were served a 3 course meal, including wine (and they kept filling them too!) Can you say expensive??? There were some people who had 1 too many glasses of wine and had to go back to work for the rest of the day. ha! Rule #1 - know your limit and don't get drunk at work events (especially when you have to go back to work!). I was embarrased for some of them. The food was amazing and we were very grateful. This was not hosted by the school and we are pretty sure these two doctors paid out of pocket for this event. Pretty generous!

Our next work party is next week (just through our department). We are getting with our other site (people that I have only met via video conferencing) and going out to lunch. Our director won't tell us the resteraunt, but she said it's the best in town. So I'm hoping it's the one that the Dean took us too! :) Videoconferencing definitely takes some getting used to - you have awkward parts where people talk over eachother, you can't really make eye contact because if you are staring at them then you aren't staring into the camera. It's also hard to join a company culture through videoconferencing. So I'm excited to meet these co-workers face to face and be able to talk to them other than that weeks agenda.

5 down and 2 to go!! I am exhausted and haven't done ANY christmas shopping yet! Yikes! We plan on having a date-day next weekend and spend the whole day shopping and maybe go to a movie and I'm sure hubby wants to stop in a Barnes and Nobles too. Can't wait!

I also got us some Nutcracker tickets! We are very excited. I got cheap ones in the way back (only $12 each) I figure if we are going to start a tradition than we should start in the back and slowly work our way up. That way it gets better each year!



Handmade Christmas Cards



I have also been busy doing our christmas cards. I had such high hopes at the beginning but these christmas parties have stalled them. I am making them myself to save money. But now I might regret it. No not really, it's a lot of work and I have more to do and it's nice to have a project at home. Hopefully, I can get those sent out this week! Hope you all enjoy!



Computer

Buying a laptop for medical school... The school will probably suggest the recommended laptop that will cost about about $1000 - $1500. Should you buy it or stick with the one you already have?
The reason the school suggests this particular laptop is because it prepares you for the one that you will have in residency, apparently (not sure if that is 100% true, since he isn't to residency yet). Because the school recommends a particular laptop, the IT department will fix it whenever you are having any issues, free of charge. A pretty sweet deal, huh? However, if you bring IT a laptop that is not the recommended they will not be able to fix it for you and you are stuck running around finding a place that will or buying a whole new computer. I can't tell you how many students I see freak out about computer issues (and I don't blame them). It's the week of a test and their computer no longer turns on, they have no access to their notes and can no longer study at home and have to study in front of a desktop at school, on top of that worrying about getting the laptop fixed. Can you say stressful and bad timing? I have seen that 3 times in the past 2 months and I'm sure there are more out there. If you have the recommended laptop, take it to IT and you can have their loaner laptop in the meantime. Pretty stress free.

There are only a handful of students who actually bought the recommended (my husband being one of them). And there are plenty of students who do just fine without it. But when a problem does arise, it's comforting to know that you are taken care of.

With that being said, students who have macs have one slight advantage over others. But not big enough to make a huge difference. Tests are given through a particular software that shuts down your computer when the test is downloaded. It essentially shuts it down and opens only the testing program so you do not have access to internet or any other documents while taking your exam. Mac users shutdown and restart in the blink of an eye. While others, go through the normal shut down process and are waiting. Like I said, not a huge difference because everyone finishes at a different time anyways, but Mac users are finished with a few questions before others even start.

Just some things to think about when weighing your options. $1500 is a lot of money for a med-student, but so is freaking out before a test and having to pay another couple hundred to get yours fixed.

Medical Terminology: Gunner

Gunner - (n.) a hyperactive medical student; an overachiever; a student who sits in the front row, answers every question, and is considered annoying to his/her classmates; doing whatever it takes to match for the residency you want

Sometimes it is not a good thing to be called a gunner by a classmate. But other times, students use it pretty losely - "are you gunnin' tonight?" "I was gunning it all weekend." "after dinner, I'm gunning hard til the test." Some students choose a specialty that doesn't require a high test grade, board exam, and so forth. Therefore, they may not need to "gun" as hard as the other students. Some study habits include slacking off and "gunning" right before a test. So when you are surrounded by medical students (or law students) and they say these phrases, do not be alarmed. It takes some getting used to.


PS: my husband is a gunner.

Bridging the gap

How is it going to feel after you have stuck your nose in books 24/7 for 2 years and then jump in to a hospital room and start diagnosing a patient?

As a breakdown, medical school is 4 years. The first 2 years are filled with lectures and textbook material. The last 2 years are rotations. Your 3^rd year is consisted of mandatory rotations: surgery, family medicine, medicine, psych, obgyn, and pediatrics. Your 4^th year is filled with elective rotations, audition rotations, and applying for residency.

One thing that has been brought to light by a lot of institutions is answering this question: Are student’s prepared for 3^rd year rotations? This is when students are required to put everything they have learned in 2 years in to practice (and that’s A LOT of information). Students will be required to answer all of the doctor’s questions quickly and correctly (constantly being tested on the spot). At the same time, they are to remain calm and collected enough to have good bed side manner towards the patient.

Funny story: my 16 year old sister-in-law was in ICU at a children’s hospital this past summer. This happened to be a teaching hospital, where she was bothered every hour, asked the same questions by rounds of medical students, residents, nurses, and doctors throughout the entire day. One medical student was asked to check the discoloration of her finger nails. The student politely asked to look at her hands, told her what he was looking for, and studies her finger nails for quite some time. Writes something down and then stares at them again. My sister-in-law looks up at her mom and they are in disbelief that this student cannot figure out that she has on fake nails! Whether he was extremely nervous or he never had a girlfriend with fake nails before (or any girlfriend for that matter – just kidding!), the family got a good laugh from it all.

Anyways, institutions are trying to better bridge the gap between 1^st and 2^nd year to 3^rd year. Some faculty/doctors have a hard time providing an accurate and consistent curriculum for the students for multiple reasons:

1.      Medicine isn’t a field where every day you see the same things. Students are only able to learn from whatever patients came in that day. It is possible that some students receive a variety of cases and can learn much more, where some might get bored with the routine cases.

2.      Every institution is different. A teaching hospital will get a variety of students from different colleges. With this being said, each college teaches their students differently. Some might have more/better clinical skills than others. Therefore, the doctor teaching might have to ‘dummy down’ to the basics and bring one student up to speed or choose to move on his or her own pace.

3.      Every doctor teaches differently. There is not necessarily a uniform curriculum (due to reasons 1 and 2) the doctor abides by. Some doctors allow their students to get more hands on experience than others. Whoever the student is assigned to can make or break the experience for them. This leaves those ‘Type A students’ upset and dissatisfied that someone else was able to do more than them.

On top of the curriculum, faculty feels that students are just not as prepared (or too timid and uncomfortable) when entering their 3^rd year. Here is an article that might better describe the gap: MedicalEducation as a Process Management Problem

This school notices this gap and has already implemented programs to build bridges and better prepare our students for their first career exposure in 3^rd year. This year was the first year that they introduced a program called “The White Coat Project.” This program gives 1^st years an opportunity to “job shadow” (a term for those business majors out there!) for a few hours about once every few weeks. It is an opportunity for them to basically shadow a doctor of a certain specialty without the stressful environment that 3^rd year brings. Students have been enjoying this program because it serves as a reminder as to why they are studying so hard, will give them a better glimpse of what to expect, and calm the nerves come 3^rd year.

Funny story: a student came in yesterday morning asking me to borrow a pen. I gave him one without a second thought. A few hours later after he was done studying, he generously gave my pen back. But when he handed it to me, he was only touching the ends of the pen with his fingertips and says “here, let me rub some hand-sanitizer on it because I have been sucking on it all day.” SUCKING ON IT??? First of all, who says that? Biting yes, sucking no! Second, I understand people bite on their pens, but don’t actually admit it when you are handing it back to me. In this case, ignorance would have been a bliss for me. Anyways, he holds the pen ever so gently, uses my hand-sanitizer on my desk, and douses it. Not one squirt, but two or three for just a small pen – seriously!? My pen (after being ‘sucked on’) is now dripping with hand-sanitizer. As he is doing this, I repeatedly tell him “No really, you can keep it!!” and he insists on giving it back to me. He notices I refuse to reach out and grab my wet pen so he walks over to the side of my desk (still carefully holding the ends of the pen with his fingertips) and lays it in my drawer on top of all my other pens. Thanks dude!! I ended up throwing my pen away.
One of the services my office offers, is mock interviews. I will definitely be emailing this kid and saying the he NEEDS to come in for a mock interview and work on his social skills. Rule number one on your interview for residency: do NOT borrow their pens! Ha!

New Job

I got a new job! I am doing Faculty Development for the COM. In undergrad, I actually worked in Career Services, Professional Development, and was always working closely with faculty and staff to help my peers (and myself, simultaneously) reach their full potential professionally. I am excited because this job is in the direction I want to go into and is a great starting point for this career. There are some amazing staff members who I will be able to learn from, let alone great networking opportunities. This is something I can also see myself doing when we move again for residency. We are quickly learning how tight knit this so called 'medicine family' actually is. And I am happy to have the opportunity to be a part of it professionally as well.

This blog might take a few quick turns and provide you with information on how medical educators are currently preparing our future doctors. I'll definitely have some articles to share and more insights, as well as our personal journey too!

This is just one more brick in our journey...