It’s the final countdown! || Term 5 at SGU
Watermelon plant appreciation
Term 5 at SGU
COVID-19 is unfortunately still a huge and maybe growing problem. We had the option to decide if we’d like to remain remote or return to campus. I decided to finish out my preclinical years remotely. I’m sad that I won’t be able to personally say goodbye to the island. At the same time, I’m grateful for more time with my loved ones.
Honestly, I haven’t heard much about Term 5. I’ve heard that after the first test, it’s STEP Prep. Will required attendance leave me alone? Probably not.
Over the break
Our break between Term 4 and 5 was about 4 weeks. I blissfully checked out and restarted as many hobbies as possible. I read a book, listened to “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” (8.65/10!), gardening, landscaping, furniture flipping, starting Mass Effect…it was nice to be human.
It was mostly radio silence except the several emails to activate UWorld and start doing questions. I think I’m going to save UWorld for later because it’s been described to me as literal gold. Supposedly, we get USMLE-rx as well but no word on that.
I’m OL3 for lecture, but OL2 for SG, but also need to look for Group D.
Our schedule wasn’t released until a week or less before class started. On top of that, it reads to the maximum confusion. So grateful for one of our peers who highlighted and broke down the schedule for us.
Term 5 Structure & Content
This part, I’m writing after our first day of class. Many of the questions I had going into Term 5 have been answered (sort of). Starting our term, we’re enrolled in 2 courses: Principles of Clinical Medicine 2 (PCM 2) and Basic Sciences Foundation for Clinical Reasoning (BSFCR) which has fewer credits. Both have their own associated points/grades.
PCM 2 is the known beast. It will include Muscle/Nerve Infection (MNI) for the first 6 weeks which ends in a unit exam with an individual OCEX (remote students)/ OPCE (in-person students). This unit will finish out our “second pass of information”. The rest of the semester is mostly cumulative and geared towards transitioning to STEP Prep. It’s described as the “third pass”, they call it spiral and I’m reading that as “spiral of doom”. Starting with Cardiology Respiratory Renal Hematology (CPRH) which is 4 weeks ending with another exam and OCEX/OSCE. Then Gastroenterology Obesterics Endocrin Reproductive (GOER) for 4 weeks ending with an exam. Then lastly Dermatology, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Rheumatology (DNPR) for 3 weeks finishing off with the last PCM exam, OCEX/OSCE, and a BSFCR Exam.
BSFCR, even after orientation I’m not sure what it is. It sounds like a mini STEP or NBME. I’ll have to update y’all on this.
We also have around 10 hospital visits (but also includes Simlab?) on the schedule. Onsite students leave at 8:15 AM and leave the hospital at 11:30 AM. Online students will also have to attend this session for Telemedicine visits. Unfortunately, that’s 5:00 AM for me, but on the positive, I’m really interested in Telemedicine so this is right up my dreams. Apparently, there’s a group leader designated. That’s all they have said so far.
Question banks confirmed are UWorld, Rx Quizzes (which are graded?), and Pastest. And more iHuman for clinical things.
Initial MNI schedule for Term 5
Term 5 Schedule
Okay, this is what I’m starting off with. Basically, for my West Coast schedule, I have small groups at 10:30 AM - 12 PM and lecture 12:30 PM-2:30 PM. IMCQs are mostly scheduled during lecture times. Hospital times at 5:00 AM PST. STEP is going to take priority because I’m thinking about making an attempt at scored STEP which changes at the end of Jan 2022. So I’ll start my day off with exercise because if I don’t do it first, I’ll be sure to sacrifice it later. Then if I have time Anki > USMLE-Rx Questions > STEP prep based on Fries & Redbull schedule. Then small group to lunch. In the afternoon, I’ll work on post-reads which will be watching outside resources and annotating past students’ notes/charts. I don’t plan on watching lectures because I’m just not the best at that. Then top it off with prep for the next day. Is it realistic? We’ll see.
Extracirriculars
I’m signed up to co-facilitate for Peer Learning Groups with my main partner (love her). Then I’m in the Internal Medicine Club. Still holding out to create that Nutrition Medicine Club. Otherwise, I’m also doing a Health Coach program from Chris Kresser. I’ve really felt like my medical education lacked so much in what I’ll actually be talking to my patients about (or at least what I’d hope to be talking to them about) AKA nutrition and fitness.
Well, I’ll see you in 6 weeks!