My second week of medical school is now complete!
A heavy week of lectures and information overload, it’s been nice to take the weekend to catch up on work without any more piling up on the to do pile. Fridays as always are definitely an adventure; the early morning 8am lecture is definitely not the favourite part of my week. But venturing into the surgical training center to look at the platinated models definitely made it worth my while.
For anyone who isn’t aware of what plastination of bodies for anatomical study is, go visit the Body Worlds website, and read a little into the technique and how useful it is. Even attend one of the exhibitions around the world.
My Friday afternoon was clinical skills, and though I have taken history’s before; learning a new method and replacing old information with new is definitely hard. I decided to combine my current knowledge with the knowledge required to create a happy medium, which will allow me to remember all the required points in taking a history and score all the right marks in my clinical exams.
This is the first formal week of learning and learning I have done. I have learnt plenty of information, a trickle of old and new information. The task is identifying what I need to relearn, or what is new information. There is also a large amount of personal learning about myself. I realized that the hardest thing for me when learning in these group works, is showing everyone that I have knowledge, and even admitting when I don’t. I think I fear being seen on the far ends of the spectrum of knowledge, being either the know it all or the dumb one. I also find myself unwilling to correct people because I worry that it will ruin working relationships / friendships.
Fear of speak up and speaking out needs to stop. This social phobia will only hold me back and prevent me from showing my competency to lectures. I find it hard to speak about my worries and fears to people; housemates, friends and family, and I know I need to get on top of this before I succumb to workload pressures and am unable to get help.
I did a lot of reading into social anxiety and overcoming these fears, and I am beginning to take some steps to get over this, including journaling, yoga and mixing up my routine. I’ve also looked into getting fit, which I’ve learnt is not a strength after cycling to uni. There is definitely a hope that these lifestyle changes will improve my mental wellbeing and help me be willing to get inclusive with people. I will write a blog post soon, detailing how well it has been going.
As the clock counts down to the beginning of week three at Warwick, I am putting steps into place to stay up to date with work and get a small amount of a social life. I’m intrigued to see how successful it will be.
abigailgrows 