Another Pair Of Eyes

Impatience

September 9, 2009 on 5:33 pm | In Medicine, University | 8 Comments

We have a week of introductory lectures. All very well, but I think a week was too long – I for one am itching to get going and I am certainly not alone. Still, I suppose it does give the opportunity to meet everyone and go out meeting gorgeous barmaids etc so it’s all good. Certainly think that we should have progressed beyond basic life support courses though – CPR isn’t that easy to forget, so hmph for BLS classes.

I bought a psychiatry textbook today, and have been browsing through it* looking at some of the stuff I’ll be coming up against in the history taking – turns out, it’s going to be pretty hardcore. It’s vaguely similar to a normal medical history, except for a section entitled ‘Personal history’ which is described as aiming to:

“…trace the patient’s development and achievement from conception to the present.”

That is a phenomenal amount of information. From conception? You could be covering anything up to about 80 years of history in that one sweeping statement, and you have to really get your teeth into it as well. “Include gestation and delivery,” it says, “childhood milestones, family relationships, upbringing, peers, schooling, occupation, marital and sexual history….” and it goes on. No wonder they tend towards calling them interviews rather than histories!

In other news, I have applied to do Spanish evening classes this year as one of my SSUs (student selected units, dontchaknow) which should be good – it’s the only major European language I don’t speak AT ALL, and it is also one of the most useful what with being the most widely used language in the world.** It should be a bit refreshing although I’m sure the second I get my teeth into tenses I’ll regret ever have chosen it and rue the day speech developed at all.

Also, today was 09/09/09. At 09:09:09 this morning on 09/09/09 I was in a lecture on venesection and cannulation.** Where were you?

*and I quote: “For example the patient, on being handed a glass of wine, may then believe he is Jesus Christ.” I think this will be pretty eye-opening…

**Pedants; Chinese is the most spoken by population, but not the most widely used.

***Yup, we have to spend a portion of time this year stabbing random patients, rubber arms, and each other. This is terrifying, but it is also real medicine so it is exciting. Same goes for suturing.