It's our new semester and the seven new modules (Listed in last post), have already lost me. The membranes module on Monday was about "Flip Flop" (WTF?) and I learnt that lipids in a bilayer can flip flop, but proteins cannot (Please correct me if I am wrong). On Tuesday, I learnt that the chest has four pectoral muscles:
Pectoralis Major
Pectoralis Minor
Serratus Anterior
Subclavius
We have to learn the origins, insertions, blood supply, nerve supply and function for each one.
Today we have started on histology of the heart muscle and tomorrow we start reproduction (In the PowerPoint sense) On Friday we are doing something about disease mechanisms and today we went on to a ward for the first time and took a history off a patient.
That's the bugger you see - you learn so much in a week that remembering it all two weeks later is a massive problem. I am going to look for a memory textbook at the weekend to see if I can work out a strategy for learning all this stuff. I think there is a proven way of building long-term memory and I need some help. If any of you have some suggestions on how I can try to expand my brain power (Please don't suggest getting a bigger head) I would be very grateful.
I was thinking again today of why I really came into Medicine. Is it all about the Benjamin's? I have found that no one really speaks about coming into medicine for the money - it seems to be distasteful. I have to admit that, come graduation day, this is going to be me:
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!
Yeah right - a junior doctor here is not on big bucks ( See here for our UK salary scale) but they do qualify on more money than many of my experienced nursing mates are now earning. What does cheer me up is that GPs are earning brilliant salaries, but if the Daily Mail has their way, they will have taken massive pay cuts by the time I get there.
The one thing I totally agree with is that there are easier professions to enter if money is your only goal. Even three months into the course, I can see how horrendous it can get and just doing it for the money wouldn't get you through. I have to be completely honest though - future earning potential is a large part of why I am putting myself through this purgatory.
OK, OK I might annoy people saying that and get emails saying that I should want to be a doctor so I can care for sick people and make them well. My reply to this is that if this were my only goal, I would carry on being a nurse. I would also argue that my old nursing job allowed to me to care for my patients to a far, far higher standard than I will be able to do as a doctor in the NHS. I worked as an Occupational health manager for a multi national American company, looking after 800 employees and I was fortunate enough to have the budget and time to be able to ensure that whatever they needed, they received. My patients were ruined!
I do daydream about being rich someday - on the way to Uni, I walk past some amazing houses (Oadby has some of the best I have ever seen) and they often have "MollyMaid" (Cleaning company) cars outside. I want a house and a cleaner - so shoot me! I have been in the health game for ten years and know many consultants who live in AMAZING houses, but work such long hours that they never get to see them in the light. At least their wives feel the benefit though. My husband will be more than happy to live in the executive house (With my mother, father and ten dogs in the attic) Perhaps I will become the family cash cow. I can live with that!
As a nurse, salary wise the ceiling was low and I hit it at the age of 27. At least as a doctor, there is scope for higher earnings.... I am rambling now. My last word is that there are now many nurses and physios going into medicine, but have you ever heard of a doctor coming into nursing or physio? I haven't and I am 100% sure that money plays a part in this.
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10 comments:
Good Lord, and here I was thinking I had it bad. (Actually I still do, but you get 4 years of it instead of 5. Which prolly means you'll be a lot more sane than I will at the end of it all. Sigh.)
Still, I'd love to be in your shoes. Us 5-year slackers get to sit in lecture theatres getting useless stuff shovelled down our throats. Believe me, you've got the better deal.
Keep it up, I'll be back!
Hey anna g,
Thanks for the visit.
I too think a little more about my earning potential than I would care to admit. I can very confidently say that I am not in it for the money. I left a career that, had I stayed, I would be earning enough to buy a house and get a maid and a big plasma tv for my husband. But, having given up all of that to work really hard at something I think is important enough to work really hard at, I would like to know that I will be able to have it some day.
Oh Anna; there are a million ways to make loads more money that don't have anything to do with putting your fingers up peoples' bums or not sleeping for weeks on end.
I currently am wishing I had become an engineer because I would be finished and I could work for Doctors Without Borders and not have to worry about getting the residency I want.
I love surgery. I mean LUURVE it. But some days I wish I could just have a job that ended at five pm and I could wear swingy skirts and high-heeled shoes and watch TV and think the next most important thing in my life was getting that new handbag.
Yes, I am a wonderful combination of altruistic and shallow, but my POINT and I do have one, is that there are way better ways to make money.
zdpmph
I think it is fabulous what you're doing, and of course it is for the money - why else leave nursing?!
I will be following your progress as I would love to follow in your footsteps - eventually. Wishing you all the luck - sounds like you'll need it honey!
Hello Seasick
Thanks for coming to my blog!
There are about 64 graduate students in my intake and quite a few of us are ex-nurses. I think most of us are finding it a challenge but it is do-able with the right support and motivation.
Come and join us in Leicester - it's great!
Hey Angry medic
Am loving your blog!
We are with the five year students for all of our modules except for a few more that they have tagged on. We don't have the same holidays as them after the first year though so they can sqeeze everything in.
The younger students seem to be having an absolute ball - I get quite jealous really.
Do you share your modules with the Cambridge GEP?
Take care
Anna
xx
Hello Red Rabbit
Thanks very much for visiting! Good luck with your journey into surgery- Fantastic stuff.
I couldn't agree more with what you have said - as I wrote in my post, I know there are much easier ways to earn good money. I am just being honest in admitting that knowing I can expect a salary of £115000 as a GP, is a big motivator for me. I know now that the journey to get to this stage is graft but the personal satisfaction of getting through this course and qualifying as a doctor will hopefully pull me through.
Anna
xx
Hey, found your blog through That Med School Guy...
I was a bit surprised that even though you were a former nurse, it was news to you that there were 4 chest muscles? I know nurses take anatomy but I wasn't aware that it was perhaps less comprehensive than med student anatomy...
one other thing, a guy in my class told me that he mentioned in his interview that he was going into medicine for a number of reasons, not the least of which was 'to be able to provide a stable income for my family.' While that was (and is) obviously a reason for me I didn't dream of bringing that up in my interview.
Hello there Vitum
I have been reading your blog too - it's great and thanks for visitng.
I would have to admit that as a nurse I was never taught about chest mucsles in any detail and as I trained ten years ago, perhaps what I have been taught has been lost. We were taught to care for people with chest problems and basic A and P, but never specifics. I would go as far as to say that my nursing has not been any use whatsoever in the first five months of this course. This has really surprised me as I expected to have a headstart on the 18 year olds. I would say that they actually have a massive headstart on me so far, as they have covered much of the early stuff in their A levels.
I hope that my nursing will help in the clinical part of the course.
Hi Anna!
I came across your blog in researching my own transition from nurse to doctor!
Would love to hear more about your experiences throughout your transition!
Monica (swarken@hotmail.com)
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