Scutmonkey 101

What's it like to be a medical student? Interesting. Fatigue inducing. Exhilarating. Expensive....

Not sure how this experiment will work out, but hey, what harm can it do? At a minimum, it will be a place to record the highly strange and wonderful occurances of life on the wards. Maybe it will be of interest to somebody, or perhaps not. Whatever. Whether you are a fellow scutmonkey or an interested interloper, I would love to receive your feedback and comments.

I'll throw out one question here as a discussion starter, a question that I have been asking friends, family, and random strangers since I embarked on the mixed adventure of med school. That question is "What has been your best, and worst, experience with the healthcare system?" Maybe we can light a spark and solve some problems, maybe not.

Anyhow, right now it is October of 2005. I am in the middle of my third year of school, ten days into a psychiatry rotation at a well-regarded private hospital in an eastern metropolis. On the whole, I like third year a whole lot more than years one and two. That neccessary but stultifying break-in period required far too much of two things I am not very good at, which are (1) sitting still for hours at a time in a plastic seat inside a not-so-well-ventilated lecture hall, and (2) rote spitting back of information in multiple choice format.

Third year is actually more demanding in the respect that we are (somewhat) responsible for the welfare of real people, but a hell of a lot more interesting. Common sense and compassion have become at least as important, if not more so, than the third substrate of the Krebs Cycle. Thank God!

Anyhow, enough babble for today...