The 4 P's of My First Medical School Semester

Professionalism. Pace. Pressure. People.

"Roses are red. Violets are blue. The serratus anterior is innervated by the long thoracic nerve."

That was my favorite mnemonic from this semester. There is something about it—a rejection of the norm, in exasperated fashion—that was very appealing after weeks of memorization and brain bashing. In a way, the spirit of that mnemonic captures my semester. I started August with the intention to reject the notion of a sleep-deprived, stressed-out medical student. So, I focused on sleep and stress-management… still, at the end, I found myself completely ready for a break. The last few months were a lot of things—some fun, some tough, some surprising, exciting, and terrifying. Here are some of my biggest takeaways–my 4 P's–from a first semester at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Professionalism

One thing that struck me from the start was our school’s emphasis on professionalism. From our initial orientation in Athens to my final mock-patient encounter at our Dublin campus, I was fed this new brand of education. Medical school, I learned, is not just a time to gain medical knowledge. It is a professional school, and a time to also grow in one’s conduct, disposition, and judgment. As medical students, we now represent the trusted and respected profession of medicine, and contributing toward that is one of our responsibilities. So, we are expected to arrive early to class, uphold our dress code, and be self-aware of the lives we live. Our business casual dress code (only required at OU-Dublin and Cleveland, not Athens, because our campuses are connected to clinical sites) was an adjustment at first, but I’ve come to appreciate it. Look good, feel good, sort of thing. Patient encounter activities require business professional attire. Did you know that white soles are a no business professional? Ah, the things you learn in graduate school.

Pace

Medical school is different for students in that there’s more content, at a faster pace, than any schooling up to that point. It feels intense–like putting out a forest fire of information with a bucket or swimming across a sea of knowledge. You can only go so fast and your brain can only process so much at one point. Every medical school has its own curriculum and system of delivering knowledge expectations, but what they all have in common is the pace. At Ohio University, we are given a list of knowledge objectives each week, and through self-study and class, we learn these objectives. There were times this semester when I felt like one of our weeks covered a whole undergraduate semester course of content. For example, in our third week, we had an introduction to the nervous system, and we were expected to learn nervous system histology, ion channels properties, synapses, action potentials, ion distribution, equilibrium potential, mechanoreceptors, nerve fibers, neurotransmitters, and the basics of the autonomic nervous system. In my opinion, looking back to neuroscience classes I took in undergrad, this is not that much less than a 3-credit hour intro neuroscience class. In addition, that week we learned pectoral girdle anatomy, upper limb venous drainage, soft tissue & DMFR (osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) techniques), and strategies for resilience and self-reflection.

I came to accept that I wasn’t going to master all of the content every week. I tried to focus on high-yield knowledge and concepts, while at least exposing myself to everything else, knowing that as we go through our curriculum, things will come back. This strategy worked well enough. There is always something else to learn and study. Without any guidelines or structure, I found that it was very easy to get lost and overwhelmed. Once a week, second-year medical students hosted a tutoring session where they re-emphasize the week's content and the most relevant knowledge, and I found that helpful in organizing some of my studying.

Pressure

The type and degree of academic pressure in medical school so far has felt different from before. The biggest factor is the switch to a pass/fail curriculum. Rather than shooting for a good score to achieve or maintain a GPA, the focus has switched toward passing exams and building a repertoire of knowledge for eventual board exams. So far, this change has taken away some of the pressure I felt at college, and it has somewhat allowed me to focus more on the learning itself, rather than a grade.

At the same time, I have started to feel a new type of pressure—the type that is associated with managing the life and well-being of other people. The proximity to actual healthcare feels so much greater now than it did in college. Knowing that the content we engage with will affect the health of other people has both added more meaning to our classes, and also, this new pressure.

People

One of my favorite things about Ohio State was how big my world felt there. Every day I stepped outside and walked to class, the gym, or an extracurricular, I was immersed in a world of people—diverse, new, and random. It was exciting and interesting. On any given day, I did not know who I would encounter or what new situation I would find myself in.

These days, things are different. My world is smaller. I drive to school and greet my class there, which is relatively small (about 70 in total). Most of our class activities are divided into subgroups, so on a day-by-day basis, I was mostly only engaging with half of that total.

However, while I missed my expansive network (of known and unknown people) at Ohio State, I greatly enjoyed the tight-knit social bonding that occurred within my small group. A small group is a smaller subset of the subgroup. Small groups are the 7 other classmates that you sit, solve problems, dissect cadavers, and practice osteopathic manipulative medicine with for the duration of the semester. It was unlike any educational experience I had during undergrad. It was fifteen weeks of learning, growing, joking, laughing, and bonding with the same group every day. Complete strangers on a day in August became great new friends, supporters, and advocates by the end of the year. HCOM values culture and team-based learning, and I’m very grateful it does. My small group played a pivotal role this semester. They helped me learn content, and they helped me have fun. Learning, dissecting, and practicing were all fun with them. One of the things I miss most about high school were our teams—the soccer team and the tennis team. Small groups reminded me of these teams. Consistently together, growing a little bit every day, winning together some days, and taking the L on others.

Despite these memorable times, the new year brings change. Each semester you switch small groups. We are sad to be separated, of course. Still, I am also hopeful and excited. This month presents a new team to win and grow with.