...and its call Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine (FCM). Now, we have heard from upper classmen that this class would suck the life out of us.... and they were kind of right. I have not been able to update my blog for a few days now mainly because if I have free time, I spent it sleeping or finding new ways to study something. When we first started this class two weeks ago it didn't seem horrible because Dr. Crone was till lecturing the material. This was nice because we are familiar with his teaching style and learn well from him. But once we started to get the guest lecturers for the other topics we were scrambling to organize the objectives listed by our instructor. For about the first week and a half we were completely unorganized and studying random things that we thought we needed to know and missing things we actually needed to know. Finally, someone asked our instructor about what we were doing and if it was logical. At this time we learned that we were doing everything wrong and that's why it seemed like too much. Nevertheless, it is still a lot of information but now its workable, before.... it was impossible. Our patient instructor took time to help reorganize our study group and helped us fish out the details to be successful... hopefully. More updates and whining to come with this "FCM" business, don't you worry.
Our community outreach chair decided to sign our class up for a fundraiser for purchasing protective equipment and raise awareness about the spread of diseases in Liberia. Half of the proceeds went to benefit this cause to help prevent the spread of diseases like ebola in Africa. The other half of the proceeds went to benefit another cause that a classmate was very passionate about called The Giving Circle to help build a school for hundreds of children in Uganda. After donating time and baking bake goods for the sale we raised over $340. This means that we were able to donate over $170 to each cause! Our PA class may be small but its nice when we are able to give to causes like these with the time and money we have.
The Giving Circle is also hosting a fundraiser with the sport of Foot Golf! Some students from our class will be participating in the event to help raise even more money to help build the school in Uganda. The event is June 13th and teams are made up of groups of 5 to play Foot Golf in Glenmont. What is Foot-Golf? Click the link below to find out more! Everyone said that the summer portion of the didactic term was a living breathing monster.... but since its only the first week, I'm going to stay optimistic! Our Schedule looks kind of like this:
Mondays: Pathophysiology (9-11) Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine (FCM) (1-4) Tuesdays: Behavioral Aspects of Medicine (10:30-12:30) Diagnostic Methods II (2-4) Wednesdays: Pathophysiology (9-10) Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine (1-4) Thursdays: Clinical Competency Examination (variable class times and dates, no credit) Fridays: Diagnostic Methods II (8-10) Behavioral Aspects of Medicine (10-12) Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine (1-3) Oh and all of these classes vary times and dates so its almost like these times are completely irrelevant to what we are actually doing at that day and time. *Eventually I will update the "Courses" section with the details of what these classes entail* That schedule for the summertime is pretty rough because the weather is so nice out and we are trapped in a classroom all day... and if we aren't then we are studying out life away in the library still missing out on the sunshine. Nonetheless, the thing that gets me through so far is remembering that it's only one summer and next summer I'll be on rotations! (So fast, the time does fly!) Our heaviest and most challenging class this semester is probably FCM because we need to learn so much of our medical knowledge from this class. It's the ESSENTIAL FUNDAMENTAL building blocks that will get us through didactic term so that we can be competent PA's. As this first week is coming to a close I haven't felt the side effects of this course yet, but I am still studying every night on whatever lectures we learned just to keep up. Upperclassmen gave us this piece of advice: "Don't get behind" and that will be my motto till the end! Even if I don't know why I'm studying so early, eventually it will pay off and we will have some sort of test on this material in the near future. Just like last term, it takes a while to get myself organized and into the groove of studying for what exams and when. Because PA school is so fast paced, just when you think you got it down and mastered your studying technique...you haven't....you are thrown a curve ball and not only have to repeat the marathon of studying you did last term but then start a whole new term with all different expectations and examinations. |
**As many of you can tell, I graduated AMC's program in May of 2017. Current plan is to start a new blog related to my Fellowship after PA school. Stay tuned for the link and updates :)**
Lindsey the
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