Wednesday, November 11, 2015

WTH IS THIS BLOG ! WHY SHOULD I READ IT ? IS IT USEFUL ?


FOOD FOR THOUGHT . . .


How much new stuff (obviously I'm taking about medical stuff) do each of us learn every day? (both individually and everyone put together) - A LOT - ACTUALLY AN INSANE AMOUNT (Imagine close to 60 IM residents and 10 IM attendings - learning one new medical fact per person every day, in a hospital that offers an even broader spectrum of physio-pathology.

Do you ever discuss with your colleagues the new things you learnt today or over the last one week ?


Have you ever wondered - if every resident learnt one new medical fact every day, and you could get a peek into all of 'em on a daily basis - you would know close to 70 new medical facts by the end of the day - wouldn't you become extra smart pretty soon :)

Do you think you can focus for an entire hour reading a review article / listening to a lecture / morning report / conferences? How much of it do you retain?. No disrespect to structured reading, but I think it is more applicable to med school days where you had to get a sense of the entire playground. 

Residency ain't a perfect place to sit down and go through tons of pages and hours of lectures. When you are on the run all day, the only sensible thing for you to do is adapt to learn stuff on the run.
  • Read while on the move - You don't have to sit in a room with 30 other colleagues on a auspicious day / time to learn stuff. I want to learn stuff while I wait to pick up my Chinese (of course only if I feel like reading)!
  • Read in bits and pieces - Fragment the topic - No one told you to listen to a 2 hour long lecture on CHF and fall asleep while doing it. Instead learn on day one that there are 3 beta blockers that improve mortality (Metoprolol succinate, carvedilol, bisoprolol), on day 2 learn that adding a touch of thiazide to Lasix would augment the diuresis in a CHF exacerbation - and goes on to day 3,4 and ...)

These were all the thoughts and questions that made me feel that what ever we are currently learning on a daily basis is absolutely inadequate. We try our best to keep up with the day to day work commitments, attend morning reports, noon conferences, grand rounds, once in a while feel frustrated that I don't know s*** and try to eat through an entire book overnight and not retain most of it. Formal education via above mentioned methods is just not cutting the deal for us. We need something more easy, comfy, cozy and non-formal.

We all agree that there is ample amount of medical knowledge exposure among each of us - we just need a better platform to share this information in an effective, short, flexible and interesting way. I want to learn what my co-residents currently doing their Cardiology and GI rotations learnt today. I want to be able to do it when ever and where ever I want to, in 10-15 mins.

On your way home everyday after work, think of one thing you learnt that day / one interesting case scenario ---- that's it -- Now share it with UICOMP -- imagine how helpful this would be to every one and you as an author. Your colleagues get the luxury of absorbing the essence of your medical experiences - all credit to you.

Go on to www.chroniclesofmyresidency.com or uicompim.blogspot.com and write / contribute your 2 cents. Teach us and get taught. 

If you do not have access to write a post:

  • Email me at hmoole@uic.edu to gain author privileges. 
  • Also, excuse me for not sending an invite to you already ;)


Writer's / author's rules:

  1. HIPAA, HIPAA and HIPAA!!! NO patient information (name, MRN, room number, bed number, any other identifiers).
  2. Content should be as short and to the point as possible. I don't want people falling asleep reading the chronicles. We have enough resources to teach review articles / total topic revisions; so please - ONLY SPECIFIC FOCUSSED (END BRANCH) TOPIC CENTERED DISCUSSION. 
  3. Content should be related to patient care that has happened at OSF/SFMC or ongoing at OSF-SFMC/ UICOMP. I don't want to write here about a super-interesting case that someone has heard about at an other facility, I have Dr.Google for it. I want readers to get a feeling of personalization and belongingness when they write or read the chronicles.

Reader's rules:

  1. My favorite announcement in a Grey hound bus - "Please sit-back, relax and enjoy the ride" 
  2. If you fall asleep reading the chronicles - please stop reading it. This website is definitely not working for you. Please go back to reading Harrisons and good luck staying awake. 
  3. If you have any questions and additions to the topic you are reading - please mention so in the comments section of the post. 
  4. Don't read the chronicles while you drive. Staying alive is worth more than being educated (well, at least for me !!). 
  5. You agree or not, restroom is a perfect place to dedicate yourself some self-teaching time. All you need is a cell phone to open the chronicles. 
  6. If you think this website is helping you, get your friends hooked up to it.

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