5. While attaining high grades is commendable,
developing a competent grasp of
the material presented should be the prime goal.
This involves developing a pri-
ority system of study of the wide-ranging
subject matter and the various topics,
focusing on understanding concepts, and fitting
the details into the conceptual
framework so as to facilitate their
retention.
6. Development of an objective approach to
clinical problems should begin during
the first year. This involves beginning to
establish a flexible emotional balance
between excessive sympathy for patients and
exaggerated detachment.
7. It is important to avoid a feeling of
complete isolation in an endless sea of infor-
mation, some of which is esoteric and
apparently irrelevant to your specific
career activities. To avoid losing one's
perspective, it is useful to set aside some
free time for clinical observation, such as
attending rounds or conferences.
8. Although difficulties and setbacks may
occur, they need not necessarily lead to
failure. They should be placed in the context
of your many successes.
9. Emotional self-care, using such methods as
having planned breaks and regular
exercise, utilizing preventive stress
management techniques, and maintaining
personal relationships, as well as providing
oneself with rewards, is important.
10. Prompt help should be sought if signs of
trouble, in the form of depression, rela-
tionship problems, and increased use of alcohol
or drugs, become evident.
11. To offset the decrease in overall physical
activity due to the considerable time
spent in the classroom and laboratory, an
exercise schedule, even if at quite a
limited level, should be
maintained.
12. To help ensure good physical, mental, and
emotional health and stamina, proper
attention should be paid to nutrition, diet,
and getting enough sleep.
Finally, it should be kept in mind that, while
there frequently is an increase in stress
as the freshman year progresses, there is also
a tendency for the ability to cope effec-
tively to improve. Associated with this
improvement is a betterment in health and mood.
Along with these changes comes a heightened
enjoyment of medical school, with feel-
ings of greater competence and reduced
uncertainty about entering a medical career.
Second-year Guidelines
The second year marks a turning point on the
student's road to becoming a physician. The
focus is drastically altered, from what
heretofore has been almost exclusively the normal
state of the human body, to a consideration of
the disease process, its consequences, and
modes of therapy. While conceptual thinking
continues to be required, the volume and the
content of the information presented place a
heavy premium on memorization. This year
represents an equalization in potential between
premeds and nonscience majors.
For obvious reasons, pathology represents the
key transitional course from the nor-
mal to the diseased. It is usually taught by
means of formal lectures, exercises in the lab-
oratory, seminars in clinical problem solving,
and autopsy exposure. The interplay of
anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology with
pathology provides the intellectual chal-
lenge inherent in this subject. The linkage of
clinical observations with autopsy findings
as revealed in clinicopathologic conferences
(CPCs) provides dramatic insights into the
effects of the disease process.
Pharmacology complements pathology, since the
actions of individual drugs and
drug families can be learned in the context of
the diseases they treat. This course stimu-
lates a review of relevant basic science topics
and, while heavy on memorization, also
demands conceptual understanding.
A significant course of the upper sophomore
semester is physical diagnosis. This is
usually taught by formal lectures, at hospital
teaching rounds, and by individual hospital
assignments. This course provides an invaluable
base upon which to build for the com-
ing clinical medical school years and
postgraduate training.
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