Day 2422: Psychological Trauma

Okay team. I probably got a high pass/B in Psych. Why, you ask? Because I bombed the Psych Shelf exam.

I don't remember if I have explained this to any of you, but a Shelf is an NBME exam. An NBME exam is the same company/people that wrote my USMLE Step 1/my first (of three) boards I have to take to get my MD.

Okay, definitions out of the way. After getting the lowest possible pass ever on that exam, I panicked. I emailed the rotation coordinator right away and asked her a) did I even pass the exam? b) if they could regrade the exam, because there is no way I could have done that badly. Well, the coordinator was very helpful and assuaged my fears, even if she didn't regrade my exam. The coordinator emailed me a few days later telling me she received my clinical grade and it was an honors/A. Go me. Unfortunately, because I got the lowest possible pass on that exam, my A will probably fall to a B. Poop.

Oh well. This just goes to show you that I really am an awful test-taker. And this isn't a Jess-trying-to-be-humble statement. It's more of matter-of-fact statement.

It also doesn't help that everyone (except me) says that the Psych Shelf is one of the most difficult Shelf exams. Mainly because what we're supposed to know for the exam (i.e., what drugs do you treat someone with generalized anxiety disorder?) are not how things are done clinically. So, even though my classmate told me outright to study all the drugs, I was all questioned out (I did between 400-500 questions in the span of 10 days) and thought I was prepared for the exam. Well. I should have reviewed all the drugs.

Oh well. Now I know. It's pretty clear sailing from here. No more Shelf exams until next semester. I am on RPM (resuscitative and perioperative medicine), which is an anesthesiology, trauma and emergency medicine rotation. I just had my oral trauma exam this morning and it seemed to go okay. ABCDE! Airway! Breathing! Circulation! Disability! Exposure!

Okay, enough shouting. Talk to you all soon. I have a very exciting October ahead, filled with lots of friends and family visits! Yahoo! :D

Day 2370: With clinical learning comes less blog posts...

...apparently.

Okay, so this is going to be short and sweet. My Ob/Gyn rotation ended on Saturday, with my final 24-hour-call shift. It was nice to end it with the second-year resident I did my first call with.

Let's see...I have my Shelf exam (basically a test given by the same company/organization that created my Step 1/boards exam) tomorrow morning. Then, my classmates and I (whom I love and adore; I realize now how lucky we seven were to really like each other and get along!) are heading out to Lake Michigan to hang out on one of our classmate's dad's 30-foot fishing boat!

Memories from Ob/Gyn:

• I delivered a heroin baby in late July. The mother used heroin and cocaine throughout the pregnancy and her beautiful baby girl was delivered in our hospital. (Un?)Fortunately, the mother left her baby in the hospital and our hospital social workers got involved to get that sweet baby girl the home she deserves.
• My first c-section was for twins! At 26 weeks! (14 weeks before term, eep!) The mom was super sweet and those babies are slowly but surely getting bigger and better every day.
• I actually really enjoyed working with most of the Ob/Gyn residents. You hear the horror stories about these residents being b!tches and it was nice to see that that is just a fallacy. Or at least wasn't true on my rotation.
• I think surgery really bores me. I don't feel the desperate need to cut as other more surgery-friendly people do. I really enjoy procedures -- suturing, etc -- and maybe I like laparoscopy but I haven't seen enough laparoscopic procedures to know. I think this lack of love for surgery may slowly, but surely, close my urology door. We'll see though.

So, Shelf tomorrow then Neuro/Psych rotation on Wednesday. The learning never ends!