Showing posts with label Authors' diary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Authors' diary. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Introducing Cardiowesome

Hi everyone, 

As you already know I have started my Cardiology Fellowship this year. I'm going to post a lot of blogs on cardiovascular diseases that might of not be palatable for medical students. Only some of these posts maybe helpful (pharmacology related, EKG ones, and basic pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases). 

I understand that the majority of my posts will be limited to a specialized group of cardiologists, echocardiographers, emergency medicine physicians, critical care professionals, POCUS users, electrophysiologists, heart failure specialists, and interventional cardiologists.

This is why, I'm introducing a new label on the medicowesome blog called cardiowesome. These are advanced posts targeted for cardiology fellows and trainees.

I hope you enjoy reading them and learning with me. 

-IkaN (Nakeya Dewaswala Bhopalwala) 

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Sub-specialty WhatsApp groups

 Hi everyone!

I have decided to create sub-specialty groups on WhatsApp in addition to our regular study groups. If more than 5 people are interested in it, we will create a group.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Interview questions for practice

 Hi everyone! 

Here are some of the questions I was asked during my cardiology fellowship interviews. They can be useful to practice during medical school or residency interviews as well, which is why I am writing this post.

How do you answer these questions? Always attach a story (situation) to it. It only comes with practice - so please, practice a lot.

Monday, June 15, 2020

Plan your preparation

Hi Awesomites!

Let us begin with journey for upcoming NEET PG and AIIMS PG.
Today I will share with you the tips on "How to plan your preparation for NEET PG?"

"An hour of planning can save you from hours of doing nothing."

Essentials:-
1.Google calendar or Print out of calendar   -->Get printable calender here
2.Pen
3.Blank paper

I) Google calendar:-

I started my preparation in March. I had schedule of the rotations beforehand.
Lesson 1:- "Do you have 9 months for Jan NEET PG ?"
"No"
It seems so we have months for prep but we have only days .
So make realistic plan by counting out the days you will be busy with TND and grand tests.
To see how your whole year going to look like make a virtual plan.
I color coded each event I had for the entire year.

Purple-The posting in the given month
Green-The days I am free
Blue-The test and discussion day
Orange-The test and discussion I missed
Red-Grand test
II) Take out print or write on paper specifying 19 subjects :-



After every Grand test I list out the topics I am weak at.
Lesson 2:- You are not weak at subject, you are weak at topics in that subject.

III) Stick to one resource.

IV) Make separate and single notebook for test and discussion . Do not add everything in notes in one go.

V) Take breaks.

VI) Do passive studying when you are exhausted .
- I recorded the nerve injuries and certain ADR of drugs in my phone and used to listen it whenever I was unable to carry notes.

- I used to call my friends and discuss the topic after we are done with targets for the day.

VII) Don't be hard on yourself.Give some time to things you love.


Hope this will help.

-Upasana Y.


Thursday, April 9, 2020

Instructions for new authors: Images, plagiarism, and grammar

Hello awesome authors,

I thought of writing a small guide on things to be mindful when posting images or writing new blogs.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

How to cite articles

Hi everyone,

I wanted to write a quick post on how to cite references for Medicowesome Student Guest Authors (MSGAites!). Medicowesome is not a peer-reviewed journal, we are just a website where we post mnemonics, study material, and cool facts. Recently, we've been writing about COVID-19. Because there has been so much fake news and miscommunication about the characteristics of this disease, we decided that all posts related to COVID-19 would have journal articles in literature as references.

There are many styles in which you can format references. You can read more about it in this paper by Kambhampati & Maini, 2019. [1] It is preferred that you use a particular formatting style for all the references in your article. Simply adding links is not preferred because websites change their links all the time. The best way to ensure that your reader finds the article you're referencing is by using a proper reference format. A DOI is guaranteed never to change, so you can use it as a permanent link to any electronic article.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

COVID-19: From authors' diary for health care workers

I want to write this post and acknowledge that the pandemic is a very stressful time for healthcare workers. 

We are looking at the epidemiology that shows the increase in mortality related to the COVID-19 disease. Even though we see death everyday, addition of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 is heartbreaking. Thoughts about not having enough ventilators, not having proven medical therapies, or a vaccine in the near future are distressing. It is in our inherent nature as healthcare professionals to try and help, it's saddening when we can't. 

Hearing the news is also very depressing. Some don't believe it. Some aren't serious enough... Yet. But when you hear the stories instead of looking at the numbers, it becomes real. How strange must it be, to be in quarantine and see your old grandparent go to the hospital alone? How sad must it be to think that it may be the last time that you see them? 

There are concerns about our safety as healthcare workers. We are being exposed on a daily basis and there are concerns about having not enough personal protective equipment such as masks in the future. Even worse, there are concerns about our families safety. We expose them every time we come home. 

I just want to tell you that all your anxieties and concerns are valid. You're not the only one thinking about these things. As we fight this pandemic together, our mental health is important. I'm proud of you for being concerned. I'm proud of you for continuing to fight everyday. 

If you are a health care provider and are distressed by this like I was and want to talk about it, email me at medicowesome@gmail.com. We also have a well being group on Whatsapp to help each other stay strong! 

I was recently talking to a colleague about how we have chosen this profession because this is what we always wanted to do - treat patients. We spoke about the retired physician in Italy who came back to work for his patients. It's noble. It's humbling. If we don't take care of the sick, who will?

-IkaN

Friday, January 31, 2020

Advice to young doctors

It is okay to disagree with another physician and acknowledge differences in the style of practicing medicine. Medicine is not black and white. Develop your own preferences based on evidence and experience.

A truly experienced physician understands the intricacies of medicine and will not criticize another physician for a decision they made under a different clinical circumstance with the information they had available.

A physician who second guesses themselves and critically analyzes their decisions retrospectively and prospectively are better than those who are over-confident about their diagnosis and management. Think about the decisions you make.

If you ever come across a bad patient outcome, yourself or your colleagues, do not jump to conclusions. There may be other factors, that you do not have knowledge of, which may have played a role.

When feedback is given, don't take it personally. Learn from the experience objectively and detach yourself from it. This way, you will learn more instead of getting offended and defensive about it.

To not get emotionally involved takes time. Give yourself time. Change the voice of the conversation in your head.

I am still learning.

Sincerely,
A young doctor.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Authors' diary: Mercy

Today, when I walked into a patients room to talk to him, he said, "Mercy."

I wasn't sure if this 90 year old male with dementia said what he said.

I asked him, "Did you just say mercy?"

He said yes and nodded. It broke my heart. 

It's sad that aggressive treatments have come to this. When families want "Everything done" they don't see what we actually do.

There comes a point in life when it is okay to refuse treatments, not because you're negligient and ignorant about your health, but because it is the right thing to do.

With all our technological advancements in medicine, we can keep a body alive. We can have a ventilator with tracheostomy breathe for the patient, we can feed through a PEG tube, we can replace the kidney with dialysis, we can keep the blood pressure up with pressors. Sometimes, we can even bypass the heart and lungs through extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). But just because we can do it, doesn't mean we should do it. What about quality of life? 

Medicine can only do so much. There comes a point in the natural course of human life when the body can't heal anymore. That's when it's okay to say, "No more." It's time for comfort care and hospice. 

Fortunately, for my patient, the physician explained about end of life to the decision makers and the family understood the goals of care. The patient was discharged to hospice. 

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Authors' diary: Battling jealousy

Hi!

I read comment on YouTube recently, "There are people who don't even share their notes and there are people like you who help others with their work..."

I know that feeling. It stems from a number of negative emotions. One of them is jealousy or envy - The intolerance in seeing someone else succeed more than you.

Friday, July 19, 2019

What it takes to be a compassionate physician

Hello everyone!

I participated in the Daniels Family Foundation Scholarship in honor of an honorable physician at my program.  The requirement to participate was to submit a brief (500 words or less) essay that describes how you have demonstrated what it takes to be a compassionate physician dedicated to the practice of general internal medicine.

If possible, I want you to write an essay too. Please email them to me (medicowesome@gmail.com). I would love to hear your experiences (and maybe even publish them on Medicowesome if you'd like)

Let me go first and share my essay with you:

Authors diary: Are you ready for solo practice?

"Are you ready for solo practice?"

My father read out the topic from a WhatsApp forward he had received.

I was drinking tea, with all the absent-mindedness of a resident who barely has the luxury to sit down and have said cup of tea.

I stared at my father aghast, wondering where this daunting question sprung from, till he elaborated that it was the topic of an essay competition.

As I read through the message myself I corrected him, "That’s not what it says! It's asking whether you're adequately trained for solo practice in the future."

"Your future is just a couple of years away. Will you be ready by then?" he asked.

"I don’t know about ready, but I’m sure I’ll be adequately trained," I answered.

He nodded and after a beat, leaned in and asked,
"But have you really thought about it yet?" ((And what makes you so sure? Have you really thought about it yet?))

That got me thinking indeed.

As a year old paediatrician, the most important lesson I learnt was how much there was to learn. My days were spent working with any time off work spent catching up on missed sleep. I felt like I whizzed through my first year, barely retaining any of the knowledge I was expected to glean as an intern. Being a houseman had felt like operating at spinal level, for the lack of there being a synaptic level
any lower than that. Perhaps I wasn't ready at all.

My face seemed to betray my thoughts as my father interrupted them. "Instead of lamenting over what you haven’t learnt," he asked kindly, as if reading my thoughts, "Why don’t you try and think about how much you have?"

Convinced that I had learnt nothing of value anyway, I decided to humour him nevertheless. I spoke about  my housemanship month by month, about what each sick child and each hopeful parent had taught me. A resident doctor in a busy municipal hospital barely gets time for their own basic life needs like food, sleep, or even a bath (and needless to say, sleep always takes priority!). Most of what we learn is on the go. Nobody gets enough time to go back and read about the cases we've seen in the ward. Thankfully the vast number of cases and immense workload ensures that we at least know how to manage basic ailments that a child presents with.
However amidst putting orders, histories, and ensuring investigations for so many patients, we forget to learn about the little things - how to allay a parent's concerns about their child, how important the so called 'cosmetic' part of our practice is. Of course, all these concerns are still things that can be worked on if one can put their heart into it.
And yet, are we being adequately trained to do this for future solo practice? The answer, shockingly, is a resounding no.

Add to this, we're barely trained to make decisions by ourselves, especially when there are so many seniors waiting to teach us, guide us, and by extension, take responsibility for our actions. How is one supposed to adjust to suddenly being so independent?

In a tertiary care setting, we are used to sending out references left, right, and centre. We fail to learn the basics of anything that would result in us putting even one toe out of our own speciality and instead rely on the services of others, who are just a single written call away. It's very obvious that this is not going to be the case when one starts practising by oneself.

Another important thing that nobody teaches you in residency is how to ask for remuneration for our services. Being employees of the state or the corporation, we are used to working endlessly for a fixed salary being ddeposited in our accounts each month. As a result, we fail to realise our worth in monetary terms, there being a certain amount of guilt with each patient we charge. Maybe this is something we realise only after getting into private practice, where taking care of every patient is translated into putting food on our own plate. At this stage in life, while I hope I wouldn't underestimate and thus undercharge for my abilities, I really don't know what that would be like be like.

So, coming back to the question that started it all - no, I am not adequately trained for future solo practice. And no, I am not ready for it either. But two years down the line, I have hope for the former statement. And as for the latter? Well, I believe that at least that "I'm not ready." will transform into" I'm not ready...yet. But I'm willing to stick around till the day I am."

Written by Aditi

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Residency in India: Harassment, abuse and suicide

A few days ago, a resident committed suicide. One of us committed suicide.

In my opinion, it seems like the reason for the suicide was harassment, abuse, and excessive work load. If you ask any resident in any government hospital in Mumbai - they are all treated the same. The verbal abuse is probably different - They used casteist slurs for her. If you are privileged, they will call you different names.

How can we make sure this never happens again? Stop carrying forward the culture of abuse. It is high time. We have to fight the system. The past. The belief that it is okay just because it's residency. Don't look at how our seniors treated us but look at how we treat our juniors.

We need to treat each other better. Treat others how you would like to be treated yourself.

We need to help each other.

It is our fault that the life of an innocent was lost. It's because we didn't fight and we stayed silent when we saw abuse around us. We need to create awareness among medical students that will be joining residency. Let's talk about the abuse and how we can stop it. Residents should know who to report to without fear of negative consequences.

It will take time and it will probably not change in a day. But we are the future and we need to fight.