Becoming A Physician

Today, my phone said goodbye, sort of. Before I started examining a patient's abdomen (who had an interesting case of gangrenous foot), I checked something on one of my medical apps (which I will definitely review in the future) just to make sure I was going to do the right thing. When I was done checking, I put my phone on my R back pocket. After my examination, I sat down to organize my findings. As if on cue, I heard a faint cracking sound. Behold, it was my phone, and the screen was cracked. I was in shock for a few minutes, but I had to compose myself since I had to finish my part. My group still has to report our findings to the consultant preceptor. I only had time to mourn the loss of my phone after we finished. Actually, I'm not sure I've quite accepted the outcome. See, there were only a few cracks on the screen. However, it's no longer responsive to touch, so I could only be helpless as I watched new notifications and messages appear. Luckily, I enab...

Hey, guys!  This will be the first of my reviews. Please bear with me as I haven't really ironed out the criteria for judging. I just wanted to put up something light.  Today, my black Uniball Signo Micro 207 ran out of ink as I was writing down my physical examination findings on the chart, so after being dismissed, I went to National Book Store (For those of you wondering, it's the country's most famous store for office and school supplies. No, it's not a public or state-owned company) to buy a new pen. Well, they were out of stock for the Micro 207, so I checked if they had the Micro 307. Unfortunately, they still don't have it. (As a side note, I would really like to point out how the National Book Store branch in Robinsons Place Manila (a shopping mall near my school) seems to be always lacking. It's a bit frustrating.)  So, I chose new pens. I have some kind of affinity for Uni pens, having the Uni pin 0.2 mm as my first Uni writing instrument. ...

In the early parts of medical school, we were focused on basic sciences which include anatomy, physiology etc. However, the whole thing's organized by organ systems, making it some weird hybrid of problem-based learning and the traditional approach. We're told the system's unique to my school, at least in the Philippines. But this is actually a topic for another time. What I'm here to discuss is something else entirely. During the first two years of medical school, the only learning we had in terms of clinical skills was through the conduct of demo-return demo sessions (wherein a consultant first demonstrates the skills followed by students trying (sometimes miserably) to replicate them), eventually culminating into OSCEs (will discuss these in the future). We also had to do several patient interviews during small group discussions (SGDs). Many first years would consider the ward works in Neurology midway through the 2nd semester to be highlights of the freshman ye...

Hello, everyone! I'm a 21/M, right-handed, single, 3rd year medical student and currently an Integrated Clinical Clerk in the largest tertiary referral hospital in the Philippines,  coming in for  here to chronicle my journey to becoming a physician. As such, I will talk about my experiences in medical school; however, taking into account and respecting  PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY  will always be one of the cornerstones of this blog.  I will also be doing reviews of goods, services and other things which will be a part of my journey. I do keep other, strictly speaking, non-medical interests (a lot of them actually), and I would actually like to write about them from time to time.