STRESS AND MEDICAL SCHOOL: PART I

I was privileged to be invited by THE FORUM, alongside one of my teachers, Dr Achiaka Irabor, to have an interactive session with Clinical Medical Students of the Alexander Brown Hall of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, yesterday, 25th March 2017. I was to address specifically, how to cope with stress in Medical School, while Dr Irabor spoke about looking after their physical health and well-being. My talk was in two parts: What are the causes of stress in medical school (Pre-clinicals and then Clinicals), and then how best can we cope with the situation? Happy reading.

Every year, several young, fresh, overly eager and brilliant minds gain admission into the available medical schools in the country. Each and every one of them, confident and self-assured, and about to commence the biggest journey of their life…. towards becoming a world-famous physician/surgeon who would revolutionize the world. After all, he/she (the male pronoun is used subsequently, but applies to either gender really) is already a celebrity in his family and his secondary school. His SSCE results and JAMB scores were out of this world. All the sleepless nights and hard work laboring tediously over past questions and struggling to solve all the exercises in 3 different physics and chemistry textbooks have paid off. He is here now, and it is official: He is now a medical/Dental student of the University of Ibadan.

During the orientation and registration process, he is eager to show off and ensure that his other classmates recognize him/her as a true superstar. So, he brags to the quiet guy in front of him on the queue that he scored 72 in Chemistry, which was very tough in that year’s JAMB. But the guy smiles and informs him that he scored 78. What? Someone actually performed better than he did? Is that even possible? After all, he is the most brilliant student ever to have passed through his school….his Cowbell and JET Competition laurels attest to his brilliance. Anyway, slightly ruffled but still eager to establish his superiority, he then enquires about his new friend’s score in the other subjects and then realizes with a sinking feeling that he performed consistently below this quiet, unassuming guy. His confidence takes a hit. After a week of trying to compare stripes with a couple of other medical students, he is truly humbled and his ego and self-esteem takes a major hit.

Afterwards, lectures start and quite a number of lecturers seem to derive sadistic pleasure from reminding the class that even though their admission letters bear Medicine and Surgery/Dental Surgery, their names are still written in pencil as far as the University is concerned. This is because, they are required to pass the requisite 100L courses in order to successfully gain promotion into 200L where they begin to take actual medical courses (Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology). “Some of you will have your names erased after 100L and you will have to look for other courses and complete change of course forms, thus ending your dreams of becoming a doctor. Therefore, don’t jubilate yet, you have not yet arrived.” So, for the entire first year in the University, the confident self-assured youngsters scurry around to ensure they excel in the pre-requisite courses and have their names written in ink, rather than being erased. As predicted by the lecturers, some students drop off at this stage.

After successfully scaling this hurdle, you proceed into 200L and 300L. Here, you are bombarded with the precise details of the origin and insertion of various muscles, innervation (nerve roots and branches), embryology, and histology. Histology is particularly tough, as you agonize over the microscopes and struggle to make out features that appear so distinct in your Wheaters textbook but appear blurred on the slide. Until you become experienced at memorizing the images or your eyes ‘open’ under guidance from the tutorial instructors. You struggle mightily with the Kreb and TCA cycles as well as the intricacies of the physiology of all the systems. And you are constantly reminded that only half of your class will eventually succeed in passing the almighty first MB exams that will qualify you to cross over as a Clinical Medical Student. This comes with the ‘perks’ of relocating to the University College Hospital, wearing ward coats and carrying a stethoscope around. While the fantasies of life in UCH are dangled before your eyes, the first Anatomy test is suddenly upon you. Traditionally, this takes place on the 31st December – perhaps an ingenuous way of making nonsense of the Christmas break and an opportunity to visit family (and to replenish your self-esteem with adulations from family).

You were all surprised at the intricate details you were expected to master and came out shaken from the Hall. The results come out within 72 hours and the results are staggering. The highest score was 41. Your score was 23. And then the whispering starts. Maybe it was marked over 50, instead of 100. And then it dawns on all of you that it is clearly written on top of the results that it is out of a possible score of 100. So, the entire class failed the test. Everyone goes into mourning and the rat race to pass the first MB and ensure you make it to the promised land (UCH) starts.

Serious discussion groups spring into life, and most students begin to explore how to reduce sleep to no more than 3 hours on a daily basis. Many discover the joys of coffee and bitter cola while some others are even more adventurous. Pervading the renewed vigour to study and remember hard facts across three major courses (Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry) is an overwhelming fear of failure and anxiety: Am I truly good enough? Is it possible to really commit all these details to memory and recall them when needed? A crisis of self-confidence ensues, and is not helped by the show-offs who would have spent the entire night memorizing a particularly difficult topic and will come to class in the morning to bamboozle everybody else with their off-hand delivery of all the things they had studied overnight. Yet failure is NOT an option. Your parents and family friends have started calling you doctor from the day your admission letter arrived. How would you go back home to face everyone and admit you were not good enough? You remember the pride in your mother’s face as she beamed with joy at your matriculation and the smug smile of satisfaction on your father’s face. You imagine their crestfallen faces and their disappointment, and you resolve to give it all it takes.

Your plight is further worsened by the realization that you are in essence, required to cover essentially the same material and in great detail, over 3 semesters, what other students require 3 years to master in order to gain a BSc in Physiology, Biochemistry or Anatomy. Thus, the pressure stems not only from the difficulty of the material, but the sheer volume you are required to cover in seemingly no time. Not everyone is suited to high octane pressure that is unrelenting. Poor coping mechanisms begin to surface. A few more students begin to crack under the pressure. From mild problems, such as anxiety and worry, to more serious issues such as depression or psychotic break downs. Others suffer silently and experience emotional turmoil and pain but maintain a façade of normalcy. They are the ones who are learning fast about how to succeed in medical school: bottle your emotions, your worries and personal problems; focus on the task and perform – no matter the cost. Of course, some students again drop off at this juncture and never make it to UCH.

STORY PAUSED: Does this mean that everyone who gained admission to study medicine and surgery and subsequently withdrew voluntarily or could not cope are failures? Absolutely not. I know quite a few who have gone on to make an outstanding success of their lives in other areas of human endeavor. It may be due to several factors: a). They should never have come into medicine in the first place but parental and societal pressure as well as poor career guidance and counselling combined to put them in this situation. Their strengths lie elsewhere and they can be super brilliant and exceptional given the right situation. Or b). They are very brilliant and truly wanted to study medicine but simply could not cope with the pressure. Without the pressure, they would have done very well and excelled.

Therefore, two questions come to my mind here:

1. Can we do something about providing adequate career guidance early in secondary school?

Indeed, this is actually not all about Medicine. My personal story was an ill-fated misadventure into Engineering, due to poor counselling and peer influence. I was in the secondary school class designated for the best science students and we were the only ones offering Further Mathematics. And all my best friends were determined to study Engineering and our Further Mathematics teacher actively encouraged and fueled this interest. I joined the bandwagon and ended up as an Engineering student of FUT Minna (1993/94 Session). But I had enough self-awareness to immediately realize I had made a mistake. I was not as thrilled by the prospects of Engineering Maths and solving problems using calculations for the rest of my life; as compared with the opportunity of exploring the workings of the human body. Additionally, I have always loved studying human behavior and so the prospect of interacting with individual human beings – all of whom will be unique in their own ways was a strong attraction for me. So, I quietly sat for JAMB again, without telling my folks at home and chose Medicine and Surgery in UI. I gained admission and resumed in 1995. And I am happier for it now, while my folks and childhood friends from Okene who continued with Engineering are also happy, breaking grounds and doing excellently well. They include: Ahmad Sadiq, Lasisi Salami Lawal, Kovo Abdulsalami. Ahmad is a serious Entrepreneur, CEO and software Engineer while Lasisi and Kovo both have PhDs in Engineering from top UK schools. So, the key is finding what gets you so excited that you are happy to be up and about every morning that you wake up. They understood their calling while I foolishly tagged along.

2. Can we reduce the pressures of medical school and make it more humane and user-friendly?

Starting from better orientation and support systems from pre-clinical school and through clinicals. I will say YES, most certainly.

To be continued.

STRESS AND MEDICAL SCHOOL. PART II

As the stress of preclinical school builds up to a crescendo, different coping styles are deployed. Everyone studies as hard as they can, but many more turn to religion and become even more devout. Hopefully, their righteousness may earn them favour with God and Divine Grace may just be the tonic to help them overcome the examinations. Discussion groups in the mosque (CPMSS), chapel (NCCMDS) and the Catholic Group (FECAMDS) witness an upsurge in attendance, as well as dutiful religious observations. Others turn to drugs and start smoking or drinking alcohol. Eventually the exam comes and goes. Written papers: check. Practicals and steeple chase: check. Orals: check. Phew. Now the interminable wait for the results that will determine whether or not you are UCH bound (passed all three courses) or you will have to write a resit (passed two and needs to re-write one in 6 weeks’ time) or you failed and have to repeat the year (failed 2 or all three courses). The tension is palpable and eventually, D-Day arrives and the results are posted on a board at NISER park. The entire University community will soon become aware. Commotion, chaos, celebrations for the lucky ones, while for the not so lucky chaps, they simply disappear from their rooms in the hostel and go into hiding. And in my time, there was no mobile phone to contact people.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is where the story begins to get interesting. What if you failed and now have to join a class below you and repeat a year? Or you have a Resit to write? This is particularly stressful because of the reaction of former classmates – some of whom will stop talking to you and put on airs, or outrightly mock you to your face. You may also be getting ‘attitude’ from your previous juniors who are now classmates. Most people struggle to fit in and cope and very few resilient folks achieve successful assimilation. Why is this stressful? Challenges in life would be much easier if it were not for the fact that most people would feel free to run a commentary and to rub it in. Snide comments, sniggers, looks, ‘attitude’ there are many ways of making you feel inferior and bad. But again, that is if you allow them get under your skin. So, do not hide, hold your head up and go about your business. If it becomes clear that you are unperturbed and focused on your studies and on enjoying your life, people will leave you alone.

CLINICAL TRAINING
Finally, you have passed the MB examinations and you arrive in UCH with your shining white ward coats, ties and with a stethoscope dangling over your shoulders. You have arrived in the hospital, finally. Doctor in the house. Where are all the patients, so you can display your expertise in Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology? You start Clinical rotations in small units and you are attached to your consultants and their teams. On Day 1, you are asked to grade finger clubbing and provide 20 differentials. And you are completely befuddled. The word ‘Differentials’ will soon become a particularly dreaded one at ward rounds, and no matter how hard you study, you always seem to end up getting questions about the areas you did not read. Hardly any ward round ends without you feeling like a completely ignorant fool.

Some of the Consultants and Teachers were super amazing. Wonderful and inspiring teachers. Some Senior Registrars also stamped their authority and left their imprints firmly on our memories. I would’nt want to mention Consultants who were nice and those who were not, but I can mention the Senior Registrars (at that time oo, now distinguished and very senior colleagues all around the world) who were outstanding in their cool, down to earth but stuffy manner. Notable mention: Dr Olubowale (don’t think I ever knew his first name, but he was SR to Prof Adebamowo in Gen Surgery Unit III). Then there were Dr Yomi Salawu of Orthopaedic Surgery; The epitome of cool – Dr Ibrahim Imam of Neurology; Dr Chris Aimakhu (Obs & Gyn); Dr Femi Omololu (Obs & Gyn) and Dr Adamson of Paediatrics – to mention but a few. My classmates will relate very well. They simplified and truly helped you understand. They inspired and encouraged us. But a significant proportion of teachers also specialized in epic put-downs and humiliations – as they tell you every day that you will never make a good doctor, because you are not intelligent enough, unbelievably stupid and you are too clumsy.

You struggle to cope with the rotations. Just when you were becoming comfortable with Medicine I posting and getting to grips with the expectations, the end of posting test is upon you and then you are off to Surgery. And then Paediatrics, ENT, Psychiatry, on and on until you are dizzy. By now, you have completely forgotten about how semesters work, as Clinical studies do not include holidays or breaks - save for public holidays. You also begin to understand that you will be writing examinations (End of Posting Tests) every 8 weeks for the next 4 years of your life. Deal with it. And to compound the pressure, you also have to deal with death and patients that you can see irreversibly going down and the entire team is helpless – especially when they have terminal conditions. Or a woman with infertility challenges who finally attain pregnancy after 10 years but suffers a still birth at 35 weeks of gestation. You clerked and had become her friend and so she grabs your ward coat amidst tears, and demands answers from you: “But Dr why?” But you have no answers. You return to your hostel and struggle to hold back tears and to clear your mind but you are sad and helpless. You dread going back to the ward to witness any more of her devastation and misery. These are generic clinical experiences.

How about when you have other problems and challenges?
You may have financial worries, background family problems, emotional burnout, depression, or turn to substances to help you cope and no one will even notice that anything is amiss. If you stop coming to class, or turn to drugs, chances are that your fellow classmates who are obsessional and finicky about always doing the right things will start turning up their noses at you. You may see the look of scorn and condescension in some of their eyes: “look at this never-do-well who also wants to become a doctor. How did he/she even gain admission?” Very few, will offer you emotional support without judging you. These select few are the stand-out angels who appreciate early on what our collective humanity means. They will seek to understand and help you out. They exhibit a high emotional IQ and they go on to become brilliant and compassionate doctors – who go beyond understanding the pathology of the illness of their patients but also offer support to the human being you were (with a life and a story, hopes and aspirations e.t.c.) before the onset of the illness. The illness does not define who their patients are, so they know better than to focus exclusively on the illness. They would rather try to establish a rapport with the human being in front of them and build on that relationship in trying to organize treatment for the illness. But then I digress.

The last major stressor is having an emotional breakdown and having to receive treatment for depression, psychosis or substance use. Or suffering from a chronic condition such as sickle cell disease or epilepsy. Upon your return, back to school and the hostel, many students may be afraid and unsure about how to relate with you and so stay away…. especially if it was an emotional breakdown. This can be very painful, to experience stigma and discrimination from your own peers and those you hitherto called your friends. But the key to survival is again not to hide, and become reclusive – that only reinforces the stereotype. The best cure for stigma is social exposure and interaction. If they interact with you regularly for a week and there is no problem, they are more likely to drop their guards and become relaxed than if you hide away and avoid all contact with classmates. Of course, classmates can also play a role to help them re-integrate better. And this is what I would like to encourage us all to do: treat others, the way we would like to be treated if we were the affected ones.

Why is it so easy to fall through the cracks?
Because you don’t really belong in any particular department. Rather, up until you pass your Pathology and Pharmacology (Path & Pharm) Exams, you are still SHARED by two Faculties: Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences (FBMS) and the Faculty of Clinical Sciences (FCS). Once you scale Path & Pharm, you then become the sole responsibility of the FCS. However, you don’t stay in any Department for long enough to establish any roots per se. Eight weeks and then you are off to another unit. Thus, if you go missing in between postings, or your behavior changes, the new unit would assume you have always been like that. Thus, it takes the Class Rep following up and notifying the Sub Dean before anyone realizes that you are missing. The Department will probably flag your name only if you don’t appear at all for the posting and also fail to appear for the End of Posting Test.

Unfortunately, the vicious pressure circle only gets worse after graduation. Indeed, the higher you go, the greater the pressure and responsibilities on your shoulders. From your Housejob, through Clinical Practice as a GP or during Residency and Specialist practice. The consistent features are those of immense pressure, emotional stress, hard work, little sleep, and feelings of inadequacy. You will have no weekends or festivities sometimes, due to emergencies. But postgraduate clinical practice and its challenges is a story for another day.
Your family will become accustomed to your frequent absences. And yet, you will never be among the richest people in the community – even though you should get by. You are well-advised to jettison any fantasies of stupendous wealth from the practice of medicine.

So, brace up and be prepared for a life and career that will take its toll on you and your family. But is it all doom and gloom? Do I regret for instance, my choice of becoming a medical doctor? Absolutely not. The joy and thrill of helping a human being in need, of making a correct diagnosis and helping them achieve a solution, the transforming power to be an agent of healing, the job fulfillment and satisfaction is huge. The humility of having other people confide in you and express their innermost fears, trust you implicitly by agreeing to strip and allow you conduct a physical examination, listen to you with rapt attention and knowing that your words and conclusion about what is wrong with them and the way forward are very weighty indeed. This responsibility and the thrills (when everything goes well…) is best experienced than imagined. But the converse is also true - no matter how much we keep a straight face, we become emotionally invested in the well-being and recovery of our patients. We suffer with them and their families when things don’t go well. (Credits for job satisfaction as a Dr: Dr Femi Omololu, who wrote something along these lines some time ago and it resonated very well with me).

The concluding part III covers what you can and should be doing to reduce stress and help you overcome and enjoy the journey through medical school.

CONCLUDING PART OF STRESS AND MEDICAL SCHOOL: PART III

THE WAY FORWARD

As medical students and future doctors, you have to learn how to survive and look after your emotional and psychological wellbeing. Stress is going to be your middle name. How can you possibly cope? What should be done?

Interventions have to be on two levels:

A) College-wide intervention efforts: Orientation for medical students, support in pre-clinical school including evolving the roles of Demonstrators in Anatomy for example, Seminars for Lecturers towards improving the study/work environment – and specifically eliminating emotional and verbal abuse e.t.c. The Dept of Psychiatry can also provide counselling and support mechanisms – including training and utilizing volunteer peer counsellors in every class. But this is outside your control so they remain recommendations for the College to consider and possibly implement. Professor Olayinka Banjo Omigbodun is the Head of the College Counselling Unit. Dr Adefemi Afolabi, Immediate Past CMAC has recently started co-ordinating a Mentor-Mentee training workshop for all teachers, residents and student representatives. These are positive steps in the right direction.

B) Individual efforts: I will focus more on this aspect, because these are practical things YOU CAN DO. My suggestions are by no means exhaustive, so feel free to comment and add to the list. What worked from my experience include:

1. Take control of your life and emotions: Your happiness and emotional wellbeing is in your hands. No one else owes you. It is not the responsibility of your classmates, roommates, family or teachers to make you happy and comfortable. They can lend you a helping hand, or make it easier (or more difficult as the case may be), but the onus ultimately is squarely on your shoulders. And no one else.

Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted as saying that “No one can make you feel inferior, without your permission”. Similarly, no one can make you unhappy without your permission.

You can’t control how others will treat you, but you CAN control how YOU REACT. And this is a lesson for life: In your family life, neighbourhood, work environment e.t.c.; you can only do your best but it may not be good enough. You will be unfairly criticized, humiliated or unappreciated. What will you do? Get angry, feel humiliated, stop trying, give up? Or shrug it off and keep trying to be a better you, every day of your life? Since the school environment is outside your control, the challenge is for you to keep your head above the water and make progress. How? By controlling how you react to adverse situations. Besides, tough times don’t last forever, good times will come around again. So enjoy the experience and the journey. Lament less, and learn to laugh at yourself.

2. Power of friendships: Cultivate friends who will always have your back, and invest heavily in your relationships. Enjoy every single day that you draw breath, appreciate your friends, roommates, family and so on. What helped some of us through medical school was a strong band of friends who became brothers and sisters over the years. We went through thick and thin together – marching on like soldiers. I believe in investing heavily in relationships, because you never know when you will be down and need to draw on that goodwill to help you. No one can go through life without ever needing to lean on another’s shoulder at one point or the other. The religious groupings and the former Arhema provided much needed camaraderie to many.
And when you graduate, and get married, treasure your family and invest your emotions and time on them. When your career is over, and you become a stranger on the corridors where you once held sway, you may have nothing to fall back on besides family.

3. Get a life: Have friends outside medicine, and engage in extra-curricular activities to enrich your life and distract you from work related events. Sports, social clubs and the arts, are possible outlets for de-stressing. Ibadan Medical School is particularly blessed with a wide array of student organizations where you can acquire additional all-round skills. I particularly recommend THE FORUM, which is a student organization that is focused on the acquisition of leadership and management skills. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: I was a member of THE FORUM, and it contributed immensely to my all-round learning. DOKITA, PlayHouse, Sinfonia, Press Organizations are other alternatives.

Go to UI and watch entertaining shows by students of Theatre Arts Department. Join the University of Ibadan LOM of JayCees. Participate in inter-block or inter-group activities. Join the Debating Club. Follow current affairs. Learn history and all sorts of odds and bits from individuals who have a knack for them. If you are not particularly good at sports, you can be very good as a member of the supporters’ club. Have fun and celebrate life and being alive. It is a gift. Treasure the moments and memories.

4. Avoid taking drugs and substances: It is very easy and often very tempting to turn to drugs and take something that would make you forget the stress and just make you feel good. The dangers include addiction and negative health impact. Some people smoke cannabis, others take alcohol or smoke cigarettes. Cannabis is particularly risky as it may be helpful initially but may cause a chronic syndrome characterized by a lack of motivation (Amotivational syndrome). Believe me, this is the last thing you want to happen to you, as a medical student – to lack motivation. Even when highly motivated, it is a struggle to make progress. If you lose the motivation and no longer care about anything, it will be an uphill task to persevere and succeed.

5. Look at the big picture and stop taking yourself so seriously. Nothing in this world is worth your happiness. The things that appear so ‘huuuge and bigly’ now, will pale into insignificance in a few years’ time. So just give it time. If you feel so terrible because you failed an exam today, do some honest introspection after the inevitable pain and disappointment subsides. Subsequently, resolve to work harder instead of feeling sorry for yourself and feeling humiliated. If you then passed the following year, would it really matter in 10 or 20 years’ time? I can assure it would not. I ‘lost’ 2 years as an Engineering student before coming back to medical school, but if I did not tell you now, would you know? And in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter who graduated before the other? I can bet you that what truly matters is whether or not you are happy and fulfilled, regardless of when you graduated or what specialty you are in.

6. Lastly, if it’s not working for you, CHANGE it: It is never too late to change. Never be afraid of change. Pursue what makes you happy, I know doctors, graduates of COMUI, who graduated MBBS and then decided that what they have always wanted was to become a pilot and have gone to aviation school afterwards. Others have gone into Banking, Health Economics – including a classmate who is now a Health Economist at the World Bank, because of his outstanding brilliance in the field of Health Economics. Some others have completed Residency in one specialty only to change their minds and pursue another specialty. Some changed mid-way during Residency. Bottom-line: whatever makes you feel alive and gives you joy, pursue it. Don’t let the looks of ‘are you crazy’? How can you abandon residency? How can you change after passing Part I? You will be seen as a failure e.t.c. hold you back. Some have left Nigeria after Residency to start all over abroad. A few others have done the reverse journey - albeit, a much fewer sample.

In conclusion, I leave you with good wishes from Tai Solarin: may your road be rough. But I hasten to add: May you come out at the end, unscathed, smiling, wiser and stronger…..and none the worse for the journey. Hopefully rejuvenated, skilled yet humble and compassionate. Dedicated to the service of humanity. And God help us all.

Jibril Abdulmalik
Consultant Psychiatrist, UCH, Ibadan.

Wow......such a nice piece on medicine and turmoil experience....

am also a newly admitted student to study medicine ....Pls wat ur advise for me.....

because of ppl are scaring me oooo..

hellohgy:
Wow......such a nice piece on medicine and turmoil experience....

am also a newly admitted student to study medicine ....Pls wat ur advise for me.....

because of ppl are scaring me oooo..

It is normal for you to get scared by what people say but the onus lies in you not to allow what they say get to your head.

You need to be determined, self motivated and discipline.. You can still go through the piece I put up there again , it was copied from a genius, experienced Dr Abdulmalik..

The following are some of the reasons to consider our educational facility for your career training in LaORT College.
Have a look:
https://www.laort.edu/about/why-ort/
Do us a google search for more!

lalasticlala Ishilove Seun Come and see o. This is informative and encouraging.

aye kpon goooonnn

Ok

The time wey I go use read this epistle, I go use make plenty money.

The post is voluminous can we get a synopsis? To graduate as a doctor you need to be hardworking, focused, dedicated, intelligent and finally you look up to God

Can relate

[URL=http://www.mrolumide.com] So all these happened in this country?? click here to read[/URL]

very much is xptd of a doctor!



So less is given much is xptd.




90% of doctors are frustratd during clinics

Chop knuckle joor

merahki:
I dunno if it is moral/ ethical to say what I would do? (I actually did it?)
I love lounging, I love reading books, I am very very lazy and found my way into medical school because of my "outstanding, unheard of brilliance"

I would not, could not, did not let medical school get the better of me....well, apart from the inevitable dealing with that must occur on a cellular level )
So for 2ndMB, I chose to read Biochem and Physio....passed them, and had Anatomy resit (I actually became a Biochem and Anatomy god as a result

For 3rdMB, I chose to read and pass the dreaded and crazily voluminous Pathology....at the expense of Pharmacology (it was so glaring that that was what I did-why, during Pharm viva, my 3 questions were-...1, what happened? 2, did you read Pharm at all!? (Eyes roll), and 3, okay name one agonist, just one (I could not! Jeez,lol)
Again, after reading for the resit, I became a Pharm royalty. I still actually know a biiiig load of Pharm

Well, for finals I buckled up the one time, read like others and passed all three, graduating with my class (but of course)...with no one being the wiser!
But, this is a very wrong thing to tell people to do, except if you were a pleasure lover like me, no holds barred kind, this pleasure can just mean sitting down for hours and just being, just doing absolutely nothing....dear Lawd, I am terrible

But, I live by my own rules and define my reality...and can be one hell of a good and dedicated doctor (in another life though, I would choose the arts, and be a painter, or a writer....I can actually be all these too, but I am LAZY
You know what? I will write, and paint, and doctor, and live, and soar...promise to self)
Cheers
Nice piece!
(We need Psychiatrists and Psychologists like no man's business in these climes...sadly, people live like animals in the cruel and harsh reality of life here.....)

Hmm

Who go read all this thing?

Too long

hellohgy:
Wow......such a nice piece on medicine and turmoil experience....

am also a newly admitted student to study medicine ....Pls wat ur advise for me.....

because of ppl are scaring me oooo..

Just know that you have to reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddd like maaaaaaaaaaad.

Dazol.

Summary, get your​ MBBS, write USMLE and PLAB, then get out of this country for good.

Lhhjj

this medicine hard pass street hustle oh.

this is wonderful....med med med.... not easy atall

One thing is certain: only medical students, aspiring medical students, medical doctors or extremely bored individuals will read through that extremely long post.

Amazing piece. Thank you sir.

I don't think gigantic success has such ugly face called perpetual stress. I pity medical students.

Benekruku:




Would have graduated with a 3rd class in the university if I could read this long epistle.

Can someone please summarize for me in three sentences?

Very true

As said said the above writeup if you are properly positioned in the right course that utilised all you abilities everything becomes easy!
I also finished from UCH and I can tell you confidently that the three clinical years were not easiest academic years of m life!
my brother was In electrical engineering and and same time an that course was war!!