My thoughts, frustrations, run-on sentences, and poor grammar while I document my journey through medical school at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. For all newcomers, please read the post titled "Epiphany" first to understand how I got to where I am now. You can find it below above my head. Lol! Name is pronounced Bih-Tee-Nah. Welcome friends! :)
New To My Blog? Read This Post Called "Epiphany" First!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! So finally I can say that I MATCHED INTO RESIDENCY!!!! I'M GOING TO BE A DOCTOR! So on Monday, March 14th, I found out IF I matched. That following Friday, the 18th, I found out WHERE I matched! And I am pleased to say that I matched into my number one choice, Broward Medical Center/Salah Foundation Children's Hospital *starts praise dancing* Ain't God good ya'll? Ain't He?
Listen, on Sunday night I could not sleep. I mean I stayed up the whole night with my wandering thoughts. After I found out the news on Monday, I thought my nerves would calm down but no sis/bruh. I was on my way to a pet store and tell me how I had a whole panic attack while driving. I'm happy my friend was in the car with me because she was there to calm me down and guide me to drive my car into a gas station. I guess I was nervous about finding out where I would match. I mean I loved Broward Health when I did my rotations there, not only because of the close proximity to home and the fact that I'll be able to make an impact in my community but also because of the people and the wonderful treatment I received from the residents and the Attendings there. I mean, they were really wonderful people. I'm literally over the moon you guys. After all these years of schooling and hard work, I'm going to start my dream job as a PEDIATRIC RESIDENT in my dream residency program! I mean God, wow!
Well y'all, I think this is it. I've shared my whole med school journey with you guys. The whole reason I started this blog was to share my med school journey and now that it's over, this blog journey is too. End of one chapter but beginning of a new one.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this blog and follow my journey. I hope I brought some honesty, clarity and most importantly some inspiration to you guys not only about medical school but also about LIFE!! As always, feel free to reach out to me via this blog or my social media accounts. Enjoy some match day pics below. I love you all!
Hey you guys. I want to talk about Step 2 on this post. Actually, I'm going to be revealing my step scores, boffum lol. In the beginning, I really did not know why I started this blog and until now I still don't know why I'm typing up these words for you. I don't know who's actually reading. I don't know who's actually benefitting from the words I type but if there's one thing I know, it's that medical school was not easy. A lot of people make it seem like it is and good for them because it might actually be for them but for me? For me that shit was hard. It was hard not only because of medical school itself but also because of all the extra stuff in my life. I had extra responsibilities, I had to take care of my mother like she was my child and that was no easy feat. But I made it.
Anyway, the theme throughout this whole blog was how much I struggled lol, I made that very clear. But I also made very clear how I overcame through hard work and by the grace of God. I take pride in knowing that I put in work day in and day out to get to where to where I am today. But i'm also humbled by the mistakes I made and my failures which is why I am not afraid to share them with you all so you know that it's okay to make mistakes. Just make sure you don't let those mistakes define you. You make sure to get back up and try try again. Keep trying until you get it. But only take this advice if you REALLY WANT what you're going after.
Blah blah blah, girl go on with it so your step scores, what are they?? lol Okay so for Step 1....I had a 204. OMG 👀 a what? Yes hunny. You read correctly. I can make tons of excuses why a 204 is not what I was expecting and not what I wanted but at this point I'm over it. I'M OVER IT lol. I'm a whole pediatric resident so who gonna check me now? I was devastated. I hated myself and I cried days oh gosh I cried for weeks actually. But eventually I had to learn to trust God instead of that test score.
For Step 2 CK...I had a 231. It's funny because I prayed and asked for a 230. God said 'BET!! I'LL GIVE YOU A 231' 😂 *Can we take a few seconds for a praise break* 💃 AMEN! I mean after the mess I went through with Comp right? lol I put in a lot of work for Step 2 so👀👀 I felt I was more confident to tackle Step 2 than I was with Step 1. I manifested a score of 230 since 2021 started because I knew that if I wanted to match I had to make a significant improvement in my step scores. God is good!
Long time no write!! It's been a busy year for your girl. So I'm a doctor you guys!! I'm going to write a series of blog posts to update you on the sequence of events over the last year. I can't do it in one blog post because it's way too much to type. I'm going to focus this post on my comp journey.
Remember when I was in 5th semester on Sint Maarten? It was my last semester on the island and I had a huge comprehensive exam my school required us to take and pass before we were cleared to sit for the USMLE Step 1 exam. Well yea, I failed that exam. Remember that post? lolllll. That comprehensive exam was basically testing everything we learned in our basic sciences in all of our 4 semesters on the island.
Fast forward to the end of my third year as a clinical student, before I sit for the USMLE Step 2 CK exam, my school again required us to take and pass another comprehensive exam or else we can't take Step 2. Well I failed it again, TWICE! Talk about Deja vu lol. Honestly you guys my whole medical school career has been difficult and sometimes I sit here and wonder how I made it through but I did it. I'm about to be resident doctor and if I can do it, so can you. Anyway, what happened and how did I fail twice? Well the first time I was not ready. Plus I ran out of time in each block. I'm talking about I had 7-8 questions I didn't even get a chance to look at in each block. There are 4 blocks. The second try at the exam, my internet gave out at least TWICE. I was freaking out too much to count. I was flustered and anxious af and again I kept running out of time. I knew my ish because I did well in my practice exams and I was averaging well on Uworld too so damn it what was the problem!!!!??
The third time I took it, it was at a prometric center. THANK GOD! That time was my last chance to pass that exam. My step 2 exam was scheduled for two weeks later and I HAD TO PASS THIS COMP EXAM if I wanted to take step 2 and get my scores back so I can submit my residency applications on time. I took my comp exam and guys the scores took a whole week to be released. IT WAS THE LONGEST WEEK OF MY LIFE. I mean I was losing my mind. I was absolutely miserable. I stayed off social media that week. I prayed, I cried, I fasted, I continued studying and I blogged lol. As a matter of fact, I actually wrote this post during that week. 👀 I like to call it, SPEAKING THINGS INTO EXISTENCE. The tongue is powerful and well I guess the fingers are too since i'm technically typing this lol. Today is Saturday, August 21st and it's 2:48am. I am typing this and saving it in my drafts to post after Match in March (or later lol). Anyway, I PASSED! I passed comp on the third try and all I can say is God is good! (Again this was all me manifesting my scores that night).
So I actually received my actual comp scores on August 24 at 2:39pm and I did indeed pass lol. I don't know why God made me go through it three times but I won't ask questions.
I understand why AUC has us taking comp before Step 2 but man this was nerve-wracking. I did everything right. I finished cores on time. I planned my comp early, planned everything early but still had to rearrange everything at the end. I guess it's true what they say...your plans are not always God's plans lol. It's okay though, I rather go with His plans any day :)
Hey y'all! Some people asked me why I haven't updated my blog....as a matter of fact, one person specifically said "Bettyna you've been slacking on your blog posts" lol. See the thing is, I'm in a season of uncertainty. I mean life in general is uncertain but at least sometimes I know what comes next, but currently I feel blinded and uncertain about my future. Don't get me wrong, I am confident that things will work out for me but I still don't know how they will work out and because of that I just didn't have anything to share with you all until after the fact. I hope that makes sense.
No? lol okay I guess I should be a little more clear. Last time I posted was in April and I think I was in my psych rotation then. From that time, I finished psych, started and finished my surgery rotation, passed and failed some exams, applied to residency and celebrated my BORNDAY. I mean it was probably one of the hardest summers of my life. During that time, I learned who was really there for me and who was not. Some people are there just to suck the life out of you but are never there when you need them. I def learned a lot of this summer, better late than never right? I learned to love some people from a distance. I still love you and care for you but i'm just not gonna give you my all anymore, simple. I'll give more details about my hard-ass summer after the Match lol.
Anywhooo, I am currently a 4th year med student and doing my elective rotations. I am in my PICU rotation right now and mannn I'm learning sooo much, I LOVE IT! The only downside is the fact that I have to be up at 4:40 every morning. That def takes some getting used to lol. I am also interviewing for my dream job and hoping that I get a match made in heaven when the third week of March rolls around.
I think I explained it before so you guys should know how this whole dream job process works right? In a nutshell, a med student submits a bunch of applications to a bunch of residency programs. US med students can send about 15-20 apps and they'll be fine cuz they might receive 10-12 interviews (minus some outliers :)) International med students like myself? well, we have to send about 100 or more applications to receive the same amount of interviews. It's just the way life is folks and if you would like to come to a Caribbean school this is one of the things you have to come to terms with, K? cool cool. Anyway after you send your apps to these programs, they review your application and if they deem you worthy, they'll grant you an interview. That usually runs from October to January. In February, you start ranking those programs you interviewed at from 1 to whatever number, with number 1 being your top choice and then 2 your next choice, then 3 etc etc. The programs also rank the applicants they interviewed. Now programs and applicants send in their rank lists, then this computer algorithm put these lists onegether and tries to MATCH an applicant's preferred top choice with a residency program's top choice. Hopefully that wasn't too confusing lol. If it was, watch THIS. We find out where we MATCH the third week of March. And this is the uncertainty I was referring to in the first paragraph of this post.
I HATE BEING UNCERTAIN OF MY FUTURE. But I'm choosing to trust my unknown future to a known God so that's also why I said above that I'm confident that it will all work out for me. Wherever I end up, I know it will be for the best!
I probably won't be updating this until after Match week so until then feel free to send me any questions or concerns you may have.
Hey ya'll! I'm sorry for the lack of posts these last few weeks. It's time to get serious so you're not going to hear from me as often this year. But I promise I will check in when I can and I will try to update you guys throughout the year. I finished my obgyn rotation and I passed that shelf exam about 4 and half weeks ish ago. I am now about two weeks away from being done with my psychiatry rotation. I am trying to focus on all the exams I have to take this year in addition to my rotations and shelves. These include the Kaplan CSPE that my school requires us to take as a graduation requirement so they can attest to our clinical skills, the comprehensive exam which we have to pass before our school clears us to take the Step 2 exam, the actual Step 2 CK exam and last but not least, the OET medicine exam that IMG's have to take to be eligible for the ECFMG certification which is required to match into residency. LOL, issa lot y'all. I promise i'll go into more details later on but right now yo girl has gots to focus!!
The main reason I'm writing this post though is to update y'all on the ERAS 2022 match timeline! They posted it on Thursday last week if I remember correctly. Residency applications are usually due on September 15th of every year but because of Covid 19, last year they postponed it to October 21st. This year, we were hoping that they would also extend the due date to October but they didn't. They did however give us 14 extra days and instead of applications being due on the 15th, they're due on September 29th this year!! So I'm still grateful!! You can see the timeline if you click HERE
I'll be done with my psych rotation next week then i'll be starting 12 whole weeks of surgery lol. That should be interesting. Pray for me. But the good news is it will be my last core rotation then ill be a 4th year med student and I can start my electives woot wooot!! HOW EXCITING !!!!
Time is literally flying but it's not over yet, there is still so much work to do and although I have been working HARD, I've also been freaking out DAILY. But the God that has brought be to where I am today will get me to where I need to be next March. I believe it wholeheartedly.
Today is the first day of Match Week and I want to wish everyone participating, including my closest friends, much luck and sending y'all lots of prayers. This match season has been hella tough and confusing for you guys due to pandemic so I applaud your resilience and steadfastness. I can't wait to be in your spots around this time next year, God-willing.
Just a few more details on match day for those who don't know. Match week occurs on the third week of March. Today at around 11am (Monday), 4th year med students who applied for the 2021 match find out IF they matched at a residency program. On Friday that same week, they'll find out WHERE they matched. In between is the SOAP (Supplemental Offer and Acceptance program), which is a mini match process where students who didn't match can quickly apply to unfilled residency programs in a matter of hours. It's all overwhelming really. If you want more details visit here .
Good luck to all this week, I'm rooting for all of you.
*UPDATE*
Congratulations to everyone who matched this week!!! All my friends matched y'all and I couldn't be more proud of them. I love them and I'm sooooo freaking happy for them! I've seen their journey and getting closure by seeing their match results is just indescribable!
I wanted to update you all because I wanted to share the results of this year's match at AUC. They posted it last night. If you want to see what hospitals and specialties AUC students matched in this year, click here
I've been meaning to update you all with this announcement but I umm...forgot lol
Basically there's no more USMLE Step 2 CS. For those that are confused we are still required to take Step 1 and Step 2 CK. CS is the clinical skills portion of the exam where we see "patients" and do an interview and a physical exam on them. Afterwards we have to basically try to figure out what's wrong with them by coming up with diagnoses. To use better English, I took the following directly from the USMLE website loll "Step 2 CS uses standardized patients to test medical students and graduates on their ability to gather information from patients, perform physical examinations, and communicate their findings to patients and colleagues."
Unfortunately for Caribbean students like me, we have to do other things to meet graduation requirements. Just because CS is gone doesn't mean we're "off the hook." We still have to prove that we speak English basically :) Yes, I know I'm a US Citizen but the fact that I go to a Caribbean medical school means I have to do extra ish like this. So basically there are several pathways we can choose from to meet those requirements. More information on that in a later post. But in addition to choosing one of those pathways, the ECFMG says....and I quote "Consistent with the requirements for the existing pathways, IMGs who pursue one of the six pathways for the 2022 Match will be required to pass the Occupational English Test (OET) Medicine to satisfy pathway requirements. OET Medicine is designed specifically for physicians, in consultation with physicians. The test assesses the health care-specific English language competency of physicians. It emphasizes the type of language physicians will need to communicate effectively in a clinical setting with peers and patients, including the ability to show empathy and to break down complex medical terminology and procedures into simpler language."
Sounds pretty easy right? Wrong! I've heard that a lot of people has failed the OET on their first try.
So you see? It's bittersweet. We said goodbye to CS but there are still extra steps we as Caribbean grads need to face to graduate. Am I freaking out? Always! But it's not by my will that I've made it this far. God has brought me to where I am today and I'm trusting him to continue pushing me to where He's destined me to be.
Y'all I finished twelve lonnnnnnnnggg weeks of internal medicine. I passed the shelf and now I'm in my third rotation.....Obstetrics & Gynecology.
IM was way too long. The first 6 weeks I was at an outpatient clinic. In the clinic I was in, 98 percent of the patients were Haitian and like 80 percent ONLY spoke Creole lol. It wasn't a problem for me because of course, I'm Haitian and well I speak Creole lol. Sooo basically, it was me and 3 other students from AUC. We would go to the front to ask the sweet medical assistants for the next patients on the list. We then went into the lobby and called on our patient, brought them to the back in a room and take their weight, height, and vital signs. We then started a note on their charts in the computer. Basically we did an H&P (history and physical). We asked them what brought them in and did a physical exam. If they're new patients, we would get a full history on them, including past medical history, family history, social history, medications they take etc. I also learned how to do EKGs and a whole lot about medication management and diabetes and hypertension. I also learned how difficult it is for patients to manage their health when they're living in poverty, especially my Haitian people. I can't wait to become an established physician to be able to give back to my community.
The next few weeks I was in inpatient. I did half of that at Jackson Memorial Hospital and the other half at Broward Health. 2 completely different experiences!
At Jackson, I was with two different Attending Physicians. Each week you're with a different attending unless you request to stay with the same one. The first week I doing the night shift lol. It was from 10pm to like 4am if i remember correctly. It honestly wasn't all that bad until my car got towed :) It was me and 4 other students, we basically went to admit patients who came into the ER, we would get a history from them if we could (i say if we could because it's the ER the patients are not able to give histories sometimes)then examine them. Afterwards we would go back to the computers as a group and work on a patient note, the main part of that is the Assessment and Plan portion. Basically list everything that's wrong with the patient one by one and then write supporting details under each complaint and what lab tests, procedures and consults that patient might need for each complaint. The doctor would then go over the note with us, mostly the A&P like I said before.
The other weeks I was in the day shift and I worked with a wonderful Attending. Y'all I loved him!! He was enthusiastic and full of energy. He absolutely loved his patients. We walked into a patient's room who was admitted because of a stroke so he lost control of half of his body so it was difficult for him to eat. Y'all, this doctor walked in to the patient's room and fed the patient himself. Fed him his food and gave him his juice then cleaned his mouth afterwards. He wasn't afraid to touch his patients. He really cared and I loved that. He's also a great teacher. In one day, I learned tons from him. We got there in the mornings and he would give us his patient list and we would divide the patients up among ourselves. We go chart review then go see the patient, do a history and physical exam. After about 2 hours, the attending would meet us on the floor and we would round together and present our patients to him from beginning to end. Then he would spend about an hour or two teaching us on a topic or going over some questions.
Then, I went to Broward. The experience was a lot different. I was exhausted. Exhausted was me. First of all the drive was hella long. At Jackson, the students worked directly with the attendings. At Broward however, we were working under Residents. I mostly saw the attendings when we rounded on our patients. But basically I would get there at 7am sometimes 6:30am depending on when we would round that day. Look up my patients' charts, go talk to their nurse and telemetry about any overnight events then go see the patient and examine them. Afterwards, the med students, the residents and attending would round on the patients. We would present either to the resident or to the attending depending on the day. After rounds, we stayed with the residents. They usually give us a topic to look up and do a presentation on later on. We also do other miscellaneous things like go educate this patient on smoking or alcohol cessation, go explain to this patient how she should take her home meds, go talk to case management about this etc. So unlike Jackson we didn't leave immediately after rounds. So hours would be 6:30/7am-3pm. But every 5 days are call days, meaning our team is on call and whatever patients come into the ER we have to go down and admit them. The hours for call days were 7am-7pm. Those were fun lol (insert sarcasm) but I did learn a whole lot. All in all, it was an exhausting three weeks. I was too tired to study. By the time I got home, I would take a nap and when I wake up i would only have a few hours to study then its back to sleep because I have to be up at 5:30am the next day. I did learn a lot though, I admit. AND Glory to God, I passed my shelf. I used online med ed of course, my faithful buddy Uworld and Dr. High Yield on Youtube. So now I'm done with IM and moving on to ObGyn, woot woot!
I want to end this post with 4 things I learned after my IM rotation....
1) I used to always complain about IM Physicians not spending enough time with their patients. But tbh I realize now that they do a lot of shit. I mean like I have a new appreciation for them. Yes I agree, most of the time spent is not with the patient but that just means that the time they do spend with the patient is very crucial. Most of the time, physicians are in the background, critical thinking and using their knowledge and training to figure out what could be wrong with the patient, what labs and imaging to order and most importantly what meds or treatment options to give the patient NOW while we figure out their mystery. I mean it's amazing. It gave me a whole different outlook on medicine. Like physicians are some smart ass people y'all lmao. I mean you have take the patient's history, their labs and their imaging results and rely on the knowledge that you've gained throughout your training to make sure that another human being doesn't die. That's a lot of pressure man and time is of the essence. The last 6 weeks of IM made me realize how important medicine is, especially hospitalists because people be coming into the ER with some crazy shit y'all lol.
2) Another thing I learned. Imposter syndrome will creep on you now slowly but surely. The last 6 weeks of IM has definitely showed me how much I don't know. I mean it was only my second rotation but still I kept thinking how much I didn't know and how much my peers knew. I kept asking myself wth I was doing in medical school. Who do I think I am? lol. What made it worse was that I was told that I lacked medical knowledge. I mean that shit hurt and I felt like complete shit. But I had some wonderful friends speak life into me. It was only my second rotation, I have room to grow. Even doctors are still learning. I was put here for a reason and i've made it so damn far, that's definitely not by accident. God doesn't make mistakes now does He? I might not be the smartest med student out there but I am def one of the hardest working students out there and I guarantee you, I won't give up now. Gotta lot of work to do but I knew that coming in. Nothing changed.
3) Assessment & Plan is like the most difficult part of a patient note for me. I thought the HPI was the most important so I always worked on perfecting it and i'd like to think that I did (haha right) but working in Inpatient I realize how much of an emphasis the attendings and residents put on the assessment and plan portion and tbh it's the hardest part of the note for me. It requires critical thinking, shit ton of knowledge ad some experience definitely helps. My critical thinking abilities are subpar, my knowledge is lacking I was told and well....I don't have much experience so you can imagine how much I struggle with A&Ps. I explained what it was above. basically its a list of what might be wrong with the patient and what was already wrong with the patient and under each complaint you gotta write a bunch of stuff to support the diagnosis by using labs, symptoms, etc. HARD but one day friends, one day.
4) Finally, residents work a whole lot DAMN IT!!! Like what have I done? What have I signed up for? They only get one day off a week and its like a random day. So I'll be working 6 days a week. I have to say bye bye to weekends and bye to two days off. Y'all might be like duhhhhhh but I legit never knew this until now.
Anyway enjoy this pic of me just existing on my last day of IM lol....
Hey youuu, guess what!? I just finished my first rotation in medical school! I know it's only one rotation but I couldn't be more excited. So last time I posted, I told y'all that I completed two weeks of inpatient pediatrics and that I was starting outpatient pediatrics that following Monday. Welp now I'm done with 4 weeks of outpatient pediatrics. I took my pediatrics shelf exam yesterday and I just found out today that I passed. So grateful!! I'll delve into more details....
So, I did my outpatient Peds at a Pediatric clinic in Aventura. I live really close so it was great for me! So there are two Pediatricians who own the clinic and they are brothers. We also worked with two Nurse Practitioners, one more than the other.
A typical day: I get there at 8:50am and we start at 9am. Some days we see sick patients in the morning and well visits in the afternoon. Other days, it's flipped so well visits in the morning, sick patients in afternoon. The clinic is realllllyy busy so you'll definitely have lots to do. So I would go into the patient's room after the MAs finish their vitals signs. But while the MAs are doing the vital signs, I go to the patient's chart just to review their past medical history, their discharge papers from the hospital if they were recently born and any previous notes and visits at the clinic. Just to get an idea of what kind of patient I'm dealing with and what to expect in terms of medical problems and what to ask for. Next, I go to the patient's room and get an H&P (history and physical). For sick visits, I only usually ask about the chief complaint and OLD CARTS (onset, location, duration, characteristics, associated/aggravating symptoms, relieving factors, timing and severity). But for Well Visits, I ask about ERRTHANG. If the patient is a baby, I ask about feedings, dirty diapers, wet diapers, sleep, meds, and all of the above. If an adolescent, we ask about school, exercise, drugs, smoking, alcohol and we screen for depression in addition to the rest. After the history, I do a physical exam. Then I go report to the physicians or to the nurse practitioners then we go into the room together. If I have questions, I ask the doctor or the NP afterwards. Sometime the physicians sit down and give us a lecture on a case they saw at their rounds in the hospital that morning or they do a lecture on a topic that we've asked them about. Sometimes they give us uptodate articles to read then we go over it together mostly after lunch. Okay so then we get lunch...sometimes an hour, sometimes 30 minutes. Then get back to the grind in the afternoon at 1:30pm and then we go home sometimes by 5:30pm sometimes 6:45pm lol, it really depends on the day.
Like I said, it was really fast paced so there wasn't any downtime. I actually ordered some compression stockings/socks on amazon because at the end of the day my feet were swollen and IN SO MUCH PAIN that I had to elevate them when I got home. Plus I run several times a week and that's usually a task because of how much my feet hurt. Since I bought the compression stockings, my feet hurt less at the end of the day. They hurt less but they still hurt lmbo! Overall, it was a great experience, I am still very much interested in pediatrics but we'll see after I complete all of my core rotations!
I also mentioned that I took my pediatrics shelf yesterday. It was 110 questions and 2 hours and 45 minutes long. I found out today that I passed. Y'all I was scared shitless! lmaooo I finished that exam and I was scaaaared. I ran out of time and had to guess on the last few questions and there was a lot of randoms in there I didn't know and I was legit scared but to God be the Glory. He always comes through for your girl!
How did I study for my shelf? I did all 400 and something pediatric questions on Uworld. I also did a good amount of Amboss questions in the beginning of the rotation. I think around 80 or so. I did the Zanki Peds deck on the Anki app. I took two NBME Practice exams. I watched all of the Online med ed videos. I watched Emma Holiday's peds review on youtube. I watched Divine intervention's Peds review on youtube, and finallly I watched Dr. High Yield's peds review on youtube. I think that's about it. I learned a lesson for next time...I should have ran through the uworld peds questions TWICE but I only had time to run through them once and that's because I started studying too late.
It was a struggle for me to study. By the time I came home I was soooo tired. I had to run, shower, eat, study then go to bed on time. There wasn't nearly enough time in the day for all of that. But I did it!! If I could make it through this first rotation, I know I can make it through the rest!
So now I'm done with the babies, now it's time for grownups! I start the outpatient part of my INTERNAL MEDICINE rotation on Monday! I'm doing 6 weeks of outpatient at a clinic near me! Again it's only like 15 min away from me. SO SO grateful!
Alright that's all folks. Enjoy these pics below. I had to blur out a part of the second pic because of patient information lol. That pic is one of all of the students rotating at clinic.
Like usual, email me if you have any questions. But it seems like y'all prefer messaging me on IG instead so feel free to do that too, whatever's clever!
So I started this post Friday night, it's currently 9:53pm and I just finished going over a block of questions on Amboss. In other words, I'm tired af so I'm definitely not finishing this post tonight lol.......
Okay, so I just finished my two weeks of inpatient pediatrics, I'm starting outpatient pediatrics on Monday at a clinic near where I live and I can't tell y'all how excited I am. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my first two weeks but the rotation was in Broward county and it was about an hour drive there and an hour and 10min drive back because of .....SOUTH FLORIDA TRAFFIC. I'll miss the rotation but I will not miss that drive and the gas money I had to spend annnnd the waking up at 6am parts lol. I'm just writing this post to give you guys a peak into a typical day I had in inpatient peds.
6AM: Okay so I wake up at 6am, not gonna lie, sometimes 6:15am and sometimes 6:25am. The times I wake up at 6a, I usually have enough time to sit down and drink my coffee and eat my breffus. I usually have a parfait for breffus or just plain yogurt and grapes.
I leave my house at 6:45am on a good day, 6:55am on a bad day lol (bad days being when I wake up at 6:25). I get to the hospital and I'm on the peds floor by 8am always, most of the time before 8. To be on time is to be tardy :)
8AM: My first week, I was with a Family Medicine Resident who was on his peds rotation and another AUC student, she's a 4th year doing her peds Sub-Internship. So she's there for 4 weeks while I was there for only 2. Anyway, the first week, the Resident assigned us each our patients to present to the attending during rounds. So we would log onto the system and look at how many patients are on the peds floor and we would separate accordingly. So for example I would get a new admit and two old patients. The new admits are of course more work and more tedious because you have to look at their chart on the computer then go into the room and interview the parents and sometimes the patient too if they're old enough, then I have to do a physical exam on them. That usually takes some time to get the history. So the history includes the History of Present Illness (HPI), the Emergency Department course/stay (basically what the ED did to the patient before they got admitted to the peds floor), the birth history of the patient, past medical history, meds and allergies, immunizations, family history, and social history. Then, the physical exam. Then finally the assessment and plan. That was a mouthful but I hope I made some sense.
This is for new admits....for patients who I've seen before I usually do a SOAP presentation,...Subjective info, objective info, Assessment and plan. I do that unless we have an attending that day that hasn't seen that patient at all yet. We usually have an hour and a half to do get ourselves ready before we started rounding.
9:30/10AM -> ROUNDS: All of the Attendings are different. One of them wanted us to present in the patients' rooms (nerve-wracking to say the least), two others had us present in the nursing station area, and one other had us present by the patient's door. So yea, in the two weeks I worked there, I worked with 4 different Attendings. I loved that because I got to experience the styles and teachings of different people. You guys I learned sooooo much from each of them because they each had different experiences to share. In my opinion, the hardest part of presenting patients to the Attendings is the Assessment & Plan part. This part requires you to think like an actual physician and figure out what your plans are for the patient and I always struggle with that part. I also have trouble with the medical terminology. Here's to hoping I get better with time.
2-3PM: After Rounds is lunch. After lunch, we each get an assigned topic to search on UpToDate, we then have to do a short presentation to the Attending whenever he or she is ready. Then sometimes we go Round on our patients again depending on the Attending. This doesn't take too long, this is just to update the parents and to see how our wittle patients are doing. By 4:45-5pm, its time to go hoooommme!
The second week was about the same as the first week...except it was just me and the 4th year student, the Resident had to move on to the next part of his training and left us :( The 4th year student helped me soooo much though. TBH if she wasn't there, Idk what I would do. I learned a lot from her.
THAT'S ALL FOLKS. That's a typical day in inpatient peds. Here are 2 pics just cuz.....
Yes you guys, another first day. Man I'm tired of firsts lol although I have a lot of more first days to go. First day of my many other rotations, first day of residency, first day of a legit job as a physician, It will never end.
Okay okay, y'all are probably thinking...."look at this girl coming up in here with no apology like she hasn't been MIA from this blog for MONTHS, talking about first days, GET OUT HERE SIS!"
I'M SORRY! This year has been hectic for everybody, including your girl. I had no updates because Covid ruined my graduation timeline. I was a May student, so I was supposed to take Step 1 in March and start my clinical rotations in May. But instead I didn't take Step 1 until May 18th and I started clinicals TEWWDAY! So now I'm a whole semester behind and to graduate on time I'm basically on a time crunch. But isokay isokay, I ain't worried, God got me and I'm ready to do whatever it takes to graduate in May 2022.
The elephant in the room....Step. Did you or did you not pass sis? For the ones who follow me on social media, y'all know the answer to that. For the ones who only read this blog, yes I did pass!!! Or else I wouldn't be in my peds rotation right now lol. The passing score for Step 1 is a 194. But to be competitive you should get as high of as a score as possible. Especially as Caribbean students, we need to get even higher than our US Medical school colleagues to even be considered for residency. Maybe after all of this med school business I'll tell y'all my score but for now just know that I did well enough! I didn't get the score I wanted but I'm choosing to trust God instead of that test score cuz I will get to my destination, OKURRR.
I'm trying to not make my posts too long, because I have a history of writing y'all to death so we'll just talk about my first day and I'll end this post, promise.
So as you should know, after two years of basic sciences, I had to take Step. After Step is two more years of clinical sciences. Every med student has to do the same "core rotations." Those include Surgery, Internal medicine, Ob/gyn, Pediatrics, Psychiatry. Although Family Medicine is not a core rotation it is recommended that every student take it so I personally put it under the "core" category. After the core rotations, we have the freedom to do electives clerkships. Elective clerkships are subspecialties of those core rotations and this is our "free" pass to do electives in specialities that we are interested in. Part of those electives should include some type of neurology, emergency medicine, those are recommended from what I've read. As for me since, I'm interested in pediatrics, when it comes to choosing my electives, I will choose some subspecialties in pediatrics like pediatric neurology, pediatric neonatology, etc.
So as of now, I'm scheduled for 3 cores...Pediatrics, Internal medicine then Ob/gyn. *UPDATE: I am now scheduled for the remainder of my cores, Psych and Surgery* All are scheduled in the Miami/South Florida area (also y'all don't know the mess I went through to try to get my rotations in Miami, AUC was trying to send me to Michigan, then New York cuz Covid ruined everything, but that was near darn impossible for me so yeaaa). I'm grateful that I was able to stay down here! More than grateful!
So 1st day of pediatrics....started ROUGH. The hospital I'm rotating at is about 40-45 minutes away from me, and that's without traffic lol. My call time was 8am, cool. I woke up at 6am showered, got dressed, took some pictures, drank some coffee and ate some oatmeal. While I'm chilling and eating my oatmeal, it starts POURING rain. I started to panic cuz I hate driving on the highway in the rain. But I had no choice. At 6:50am I left my house and started driving. All was well until I got on I-95. I couldn't see clearly at all. I got on the express lanes (I got a Sunpass transponder so I got it like that 👀😜😬😹) so I can get to my destination faster. I'm going 70 mph since its raining I don't wanna go too fast now. Y'all in front of me I see a car spinning in circles ðŸ˜. *update: apparently the word is "hydroplanning"* The express lane is only two lanes and my dawg's car is spinning like crazy in both lanes. I was going too fast to stop in time so I'm thinking "okay so this is how I die" but by the time I reached him he stopped spinning and landed on its side or its back in the corner giving me space to pass. I don't even know how it happened, all I know is that I almost died, BUT GOD! I BARELY missed the car. I had tears in my eyes and I texted my dad and my friend telling them how scared I was to continue the drive lol. By that time I was still like a whole 35 min away. As for the man in that car, I pray he's okay. Some cars slowed down to help so I really really pray he was okay. The impact didn't look too intense so I'm hoping he turned out okay.
I continued and of course about a mile later, three lanes were blocked because there was another accident, surrounded by cops and fire trucks and ambulances. FLORIDA RAIN IS DANGEROUS AF. I'm just happy to make out safe and sound man.
So I'm scheduled for two weeks of inpatient and 4 weeks of outpatient pediatrics. So I'm in the inpatient one now. Today was a hectic day but I've already learned sooo much you guys. I even translated a bit for a Haitian patient's mom. I wish I could share more information with you all but you know..confidentiality and HIPPA and stuff lol. I'm happy with how the day ended. I got cleared to leave at about 4:45pm and made it home by 6pm...TRAFFIC.
Wow, I guess I ended up writing too much gibberish anyway, Damn. Either way, if you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading until the end. I appreciate you.
I told y'all I had a mini photoshoot this morning so here are some of the pics I took lol.
Just came by real quick to upload AUC's match list along with a spreadsheet that the students at our school has for people who matched to post their step scores and where they matched. The link's are below but I while looking at these lists I decided to do some calculations. As an IMG, I have to apply to over 10 times more residency programs than the med students in the states. Yes I said 10x. Consider all else equal, a student in the states can apply to just 10 residency programs and they might get interview invitations for all 10 spots. A Caribbean med student like myself has to apply to over 100 just to get those same 10 interview invitations. I did the math and to apply for 130 residency programs the costs came out to over $3,000. Mind you, this is not including other app fees and traveling/flying/hotel costs. WHAT DID I SIGN UP FOR!?
Anyway here are the links for your viewing pleasure, just click on them.
Hello friends, long time no write. Unfortunately for you, I've come here to complain lol. Y'all know when things are upside down with school this is the place I come to release my frustrations and boy oh boy am I FRUSTRATED!
First of all, I hope you guys are honoring the social distancing rule and not taking it for a joke. This is really sad what's going with our world and every single time I hear of the deaths this virus has caused, my heart aches. We are not prepared for this, our hospitals weren't prepared for this. My mom currently lives with me and she has tons of health issues so I am trying to keep her from this virus as best as I could and I showed her how to disinfect the house and of course how to properly wash her hands. Stay safe out there friends.
With that said, let's talk about why I really came on here. I know this thing is affecting the whole world and others are being affected way worst, I mean people are literally dying, but I have to vent. I was scheduled to take my Step 1 exam next week. Now I cannot because all of the Prometric testing centers have closed for a whole month, until April 16th (maybe later who even knows at this point). If y'all know me y'all know how detailed I am with my life. I know I'm not God and I don't know what the future holds but I still try to plan it out as best as I can. The plan was to take Step 1 next week, MURDER THAT MONSTER, get my wonderful scores back in 3-4 weeks and start my hospital rotations by May or mid-May. Now I don't know when I'm even taking this exam. Most people in my class were able to reschedule their exams for immediately after April 16th but friends guess what? Bettyna can't even reschedule right now. It took me literally a month to register for this exam and as part of the process I was to register for an "eligibility period." Me not being God and of course not knowing that this helical positive sense single stranded RNA virus called Corona would come ruin my life, signed up for an "eligibility period" that ends on March 31st because the plan was to take this exam way before March 31st so why not? Now because my period ends March 31st I cannot sign up for any dates after March 31st until the USMLE board people extend my eligibility period. My classmates who probably foresaw this pandemic somehow (lol) have their eligibilities until end of April or so... so they're gucci. So now everyone else (mostly) has a date and I don't and who knows how long it will take until I'm able to register. By that time, I might have to fly out of Florida to take it. Whoosah.
And to be honest I'm mostly worried about finances. I am a student who is not at all rich (yet 😉) so I live entirely on loans. This means that if I don't start rotations in May like planned, I don't get loans like planned and if I don't get loans, I cannot pay rent or you know.....eat. I cried a little on Tuesday but I stopped crying when I realized that there's literally nothing I can do but to wait, study, and pray. I keep telling myself that maybe this is for the best, maybe I needed this extra time to study. I just hope I don't forget everything I've learned by the time the exam comes around.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading my venting session. I actually started this blog post this morning around 4am before I went to bed because of how annoyed I was but i'm just now finishing it lol. However don't get it twisted, I am extremely grateful for the health of myself and my loved ones. We are truly blessed for being alive and healthy in a time like this because we are not more important or more worthy than the others who have been affected by this. I pray that God covers each and everyone of you reading this post along with your loved ones. Read Psalms 91 every night before bed if you can. If you're not a believer, read it anyway, it doesn't hurt you either way :)
Now I'm going back to my best buddy Uworld so we can finish the rest of this day together.
Please stay safe friends, don't joke around with your lives or the lives of the elderly and immunocompromised, just stay inside unless you have to go out. Feel free to email me as usual with any questions or concerns, you know I got y'all! 💜
SN: Watch this short video below....this "not so super high yield" virus has come to ruin our lives, little did we know 🌚
Happy New year you guys! Just passing by to upload two videos I forgot to upload last week. The first one is a little slideshow of pictures and videos I created with the memories in Sint Maarten. The second one is my attempt at a tour of AUC courtyard. I wanted to tour the whole campus but I was running short of time. Enjoy y'all!
I start studying for my Step exam next week, I've been having way too much fun with friends and sleep this past week because I know that starting next week I'm going back into study prison lol. I will be studying up until March so If I have any updates during that time I will make sure to update you. If not you probably wont hear from me either after I take Step or after I get my results back. in the meantime, please feel free to use the "Contact Bettyna" form on the right side of my blog page to send me an email with any questions, concerns or comments you may have about AUC, Step studying, etc.
This is going to be a long post so take a cup of tea or some ice cream and read on. Also, I apologize for the spelling and grammar mistakes. My brain is on vacay after the semester I've had here.
It's been a while but I had no time whatsoever to even breathe, let alone update my precious blog. I barely made it through this semester. No amount of "smart" can get you through 5th semester if you're not strong-willed lol. I'm not trying to scare anyone but every one who knows me and who's been reading this blog knows that I like to tell it like it this. I don't sugar coat anything and I especially don't like to pretend that med school is easy for me. I LOVE to complain on here because I always end up feeling better afterwards... sooo, bad for you, yay for me lol.
I know you're dying for me to get to the title of this post lol. Yes, I failed comp. I'm embarrassed to say it but yea, I failed Comp 1. I'm not one to make excuses but some students who had to come back to the island to take comp 4 said that this comp was the hardest one they've taken. I mean half of the things on that exam I didn't recognize. But I shouldn't use that as an excuse because I think about 46 percent of my class passed it, so if a handful of people passed then the problem had to be me right?
My friends from the semesters ahead of me told me what to do, they told me to do AT LEAST one block of questions (40 Q's) on Uworld every day but I didn't listen. Instead, I felt like I had to do content review because I felt like I didn't know shit. So that's what I did. I purchased Cramfighter and made a schedule. I reviewed, I did First Aid, I watched Boards and Beyond, I read Pathoma etc. And I only did a block of questions when I had a time ----> MISTAKE NUMBER 1,2,3, 4, and 5 lol. That's where I effed up. During the Comp exam, I ran out of time in every single section y'all except for the 3rd section. This whole semester was a joke simply because I didn't study well. I will continue this topic but even though I think I explained what comp was on last few posts I'll explain again for the ones who do not know.....
So we have 5 semesters here, our first semester we take anatomy, anatomy lab, embryology, histology and Molecular and Cell Biology 1 (MCB 1). Our second semester we take, physiology 1, MCB 2, and Immunology. Our third semester we take Pathology 1, Physiology 2, and Microbiology. Our fourth semester we take Pathology 2, Pharmacology and Neuroscience. In addition, throughout all of these semesters we are also taking Intro to Clinical Medicine (ICM). So first semester we take ICM 1, second semester we take ICM 2, so on and so forth. Everyone in semesters 1-4 take block exams together mostly. So most of the time our schedules are the same for exams. Our fifth semester is a tad bit different however. We are in a whole different world. We take Behavioral Science, Medical Ethics, ICM 5 and ICM 6. ICM 5 is like our normal ICM classes where we are pretend-doctors and we do and learn doctor thangs but ICM 6 is where we learn and do everything COMP.
Personally I feel like the school fails us in the scheduling and the way they go about that last semester. I feel like we're just thrown into a pack of wolves to try to fend for ourselves and make it out alive at the end and it actually really sucks oranges. From semesters 1-4 we focus on and memorize STUPID LITTLE DETAILS so we can pass the professors exams and then we change our learning styles at the end of each course so we can take the NBME customized finals for each class. Yet, for our 5th semester we're supposed to completely change the way we learned and also throw away the small details we had to learn for the professors exams so we can pass Comp. I feel like the school should make all of our midterms exam from semesters 1-4 NBME exams so we can be prepared to take and kill comp during our 5th semester. Do I sound salty? well, yes, cuz I am. I love AUC so so so much, you guys know this but this is something that needs to be looked at.
Anyway, back to comp....what is it? It's like a huge 200 question, 5-hour NBME comprehensive exam that we have to pass before we leave the Island for the school to clear us to go take the Step 1 exam in the States. It's the school's way of ensuring that we are ready for the board exam and that we won't embarrass them and fail Step 1. Basically, we have to take everything we learned from all of our semesters at AUC and apply them on that exam at the end of 5th semester. If we do not pass comp 1, we have a chance to take a 125-question physiology shelf exam AND a 125-question pathology shelf exam to satisfy the requirements of ICM6. You have to pass BOTH exams! If we don't pass both exams, our next chance is to take comp 2 on the island. If you do not pass comp 2, you're able to leave the island and go home but you have a semester to study then you have to take COMP 3 in a Prometric center in the states. If you then fail comp 3, you have to come back to the island and spend another semester here with the current 5th semester students and take comp 4, then the shelves or comp 5 if you don't pass. If you end up not passing any of them then I think that's the end of the line. But don't quote me on that. MIND you, we have to study for comp by ourselves during that last semester but that't not all that we have to do. We have to take the behavioral sciences course and pass all of the exams, take medical ethics and pass all of those exams and here's the worst part...ICM 5. We have to pretend-doctor and go to ICM small group almost every single morning from 9-11am, present cases, attend workshops, and pass our physical exam checkoffs and our OSCEs (I talked about what OSCEs are in a previous post if you're interested in learning more about it). Anyway, it's quite a lot and it makes me really sad how unprepared we were for this. Maybe the hella smart people were good, but me I was NOT good. I've never cried so much in my life :)
So yea I didn't follow my friends' advice to focus more on questions rather than on content review so I was at a disadvantage. I wasn't familiar with the questions on comp plus I wasn't good with timing (which is why I ran out of time in almost every section.) I took the exam on Monday, November 25th and found out that I failed on Tuesday. I was sad but I wasn't even bothered, I was like it's cool Imma get up and try again. JOKES. Tuesday I was fine, Wednesday I was fine but Thursday y'all, I had a meltdown in my room. I boohoo cried and I legit couldn't stop. I cried for hours, yes hours lol. It was so pitiful. I finally decided to contact a friend that evening and he made me feel a little less stupid. But this is what happens when you don't deal with your emotions. I didn't deal with the fact that I failed comp and it hit me a few days later. I just felt so bad you know? Like here I am doing well in my semesters here and making dean's list and the honor society but then I went and failed comp. I had people counting on me and looking up to me and the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint because I take that very seriously. So it just hit me that I disappointed not only myself but my father, friends, and you guys! But what can I say, I'm not perfect and I take pleasure in my imperfections because it's in my imperfections and weaknesses that God's glory shines through me the more. I strongly believe that God does everything for a reason. From the time I failed Comp1 to the time I took the pathology shelf, I learned soooooo much you guys. And all I did was questions. I feel like God was trying to prove a point. For the physiology shelf, I think I did over 500 questions to prepare for it. For my path shelf, I probably did a little under that simply because I was also reading some chapters in my Pathoma book. I honestly think I learned more during that two week or so period then i've learned this whole semester. QUESTIONS are literally life.
The good news is I ended up passing both the phys and the path NBME shelves so i'm cleared to sign up and take Step 1, thank God! This past Monday was Comp 2 for the people who still needed to pass, for the ones who passed everything we were required to take a Kaplan full length 8 hour simulation exam that's supposed to mimic the step 1 exam. We didn't have to pass but we had to take it. So yep, now I'm done done, just need to pack my stuff and leave Sint Maarten for good. Very bittersweet.
If I had any advice to give anyone for 5th semester, even though by the time you get to 5th semester everything might be different, I would say definitely do some content review if you can but please don't make the same mistake I made. DO QUESTIONS every. single. day. I can't stress that enough. A block of questions should suffice, if you want to do more that's cool but remember you have to go through all the right and wrong answers with a fine tooth comb after you take said block so quality is better than quantity. Also, find a support buddy that you can cry and vent to if you ever feel overwhelmed. The semester is not hard, med school isn't hard, it's honestly a mind game and the sooner you learn to play it the better. You have to work smart, not hard honey, okkkrruuurrr 💅
Finally, some small small tings...I performed at the BMSA talent show again this semester and they actually decided to have judges judge the talent show and GUESS WHAT!? Yo girl won! I performed two songs, "Never Enough" by Loren Alfred, and "You Say" by Lauren Daigle. When it was time to announce the winner the crowd and judges couldn't choose between me and a wonderful musician named Mirza, so we had to do a sing off. I only ended up winning because I chose to sing "Listen" by Beyonce. I love that song so much and the crowd did too so yea that's that. Mirza is still definitely super duper talented because the guy can SANNNNG, he can play the keyboard and the guitar. Who knows what else he can do? and me ...lol I just sing. But anyway, i'll take the win and run with it lol. I didn't get a chance to have my friends record the Beyonce song but I'll post the videos for the other two songs I performed below. Also I went hiking today with some friends, so I'll also post some nice videos of that below. The trail we went to was called Guana bay if anyone's interested. It was so beautiful!
Okay then, last post of 2019 and last post on the Island of Sint Maarten. Man, it's been a wild ride and I thank every single one of you who read this blog and listen to my complaints, wins, and failures. I'm so grateful. Aside from the construction noises at 8am in my apartment complex and the water and power turning off without any warning and how expensive this Island is I loved it here. It's a beautiful Island and the locals were so nice to me. I will definitely miss this little gem called Sint Maarten and the hikes, the water, and the people. I'm excited to move on to the next two years of medical school with you guys...which include step exams and clinical rotations! WOOT WOOT! Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! I guess I'll update you next year :)
Hey y'all! I don't have much to share I just wanted to come share pics of maself at the Celebration of Academic Excellence last week. You girl got inducted into the schools honor society, received a plaque for winning the Karl Stockhausen student of the semester award and got called up for making the dean's list. This was a nice way to end my last semester here on the Island. Here is a link with a little article about the night --> link
Also, yesterday I went with Dr. Chobanyan (an oncologist/professor at our school), the fellows, and a group of students to a clinic where we had a breast/health screening and education event. It's part of a breast cancer research Dr. Chobanyan is doing. I was invited to go only for Creole translation but we ended up not getting any Creole speakers yesterday so I ended up doing patient literacy and education with another student. It felt great teaching the Sint Maarten community how to self-check themselves for breast cancer and the things that do and do not cause breast cancer. They also got to check their cholesterol and glucose levels, BP, Ht, Weight etc. I will be going again on a Saturday in November so i'm looking forward to that. I'm also adding some pics of that.
Finally, the Black Medical Student Association on campus (BMSA) had a boat trip a few weekends and ago and I looked too cute so I had to share some of those pics too lmbo.
Comp is in about a month and I'm freaking out a little bit, I still have Cardio, respiratory, Renal and Endocrine systems to go through beforehand and I honestly don't think I have enough time to go through it all. So, I'm going to leave it in God's hands to do what only he can do...the impossible. Enjoy the pictures below and I pray that next time I post a blog update is after comp to tell you all how I passed! I'm speaking it out and I'm claiming it. So shall it be.
It took me two weeks to write this post because of how busy and behind I am in everything. But that's basically my whole life summed up...i'm always behind lol. I complete a little bit of the post then i start to feel guilty so I stop typing so I can go back to my studies lol. I'm also taking so long to write this post because so much has happened. I'm sure you're excited for me to tell you about 5th semester...my last semester on the island...the busy semester.
If you don't want to read about God skip this post, respectfully :)
So much has happened since the last time I posted and I mean SOOOOO much. Most of the things I don't feel comfortable sharing so I'll spare you the details and just share the general things but I feel like a completely new person. I have renewed strength, renewed faith in the Lord, and renewed passion for medicine. I have always wondered why things were always a struggle for me. Y'all just don't know how much it took to get here and how much I'm still dealing with. This whole time I thought it was God punishing me. My childhood, my hurt, this difficult path to med school...all of it I blamed on God. However, I learned recently that generational curses are a thing. I learned that I was misdirecting my anger and frustration towards God when it should have been towards the devil. The devil was closing doors but the Lord had his hands in mine and was opening them for me. Sorry to make this post about religion and God but He's been too faithful for me not to share with the world how wonderful he's been to me, so no I'm actually not sorry. *shrugs*
DESPITE all the mess, I made it on the Dean's list again and I'm one of the 15 people in my class who made the school's Honor & Service Society this semester. The Celebration of Academic Excellence is Friday, October 18th and my name will be called up to the stage 3 times, once for Dean's list, once for the Honor Society and once for the Student of the Semester Award. Do you see why I'm grateful? because my journey here has been difficult and some days I couldn't study, some nights I cried myself to sleep, sometimes I was just too depressed to get up for class. M first semester, I was so depressed, I ignored 4 weeks worth of MCB and Anatomy class but somehow I still managed to pass the classes. I failed the final exams but I still ended up passing the classes because I did so well in the midterms. Another example...last semester things got so tough that I couldn't study for pharm during second block. AND DO Y'ALL KNOOWW HOW MANY DRUGS WE NEED TO REMEMBER FOR PHARM? A LOT. That Monday, I failed exam 2A with a 40 percent. That Tuesday, I drank Redbull, it gave me wings and I studied weeks and weeks of drugs in ONE DAY and ended up with a B on exam 2B that Wednesday. I then passed the final and made the dean's list. Do you see what I mean? God is faithful and for that I'm grateful. When people ask me how I do it and I answer "it's God," they laugh at me and think that I just refuse to to share my secrets. Ain't no secret lol. I grind and I mean I grind hella hard but most importantly I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
OKAY, I'm done lol. Let's talk about 5th semester. I'm taking ICM 5, ICM6, Behavioral Science and Ethics. Ethics was only two weeks, I took the final this past Tuesday. First behavioral exam is this upcoming week. Not excited for that one at all. So this is a typical day for us: We have ICM mostly every morning from 9am-11am where we get to act like doctors. Then we have behavioral from 12:30-2:20pm. Then Ethics from 2:30-4pm. Now that Ethics is over we're free at 2:20pm unless we have a double lecture day in behavioral . Sometimes we don't have ICM in the mornings because we have special workshops like venipuncture or focused interview etc.
Now this sounds all easy right? WRONG? We have to do these things all while self studying for our big COMP exam. The comprehensive exam is basically an exam we have to take that mimics the USMLE Step 1 exam. It includes everything we learned since we began classes on the Island. We have to take it during our 5th semesters and PASS it so we can be cleared to take the Step exam when we leave the Island. If you don't pass Comp 1, you're given a chance to pass a pathology shelf and a physiology shelf. You have to pass BOTH shelves to be cleared. Now if you still don't pass those, you're given another chance to pass by taking Comp 2. If you still don't pass you won't be cleared for step, you have to go back to the states and study for comp 3 given in the states. If you still don't pass I think they have you return to the island to study under supervision and take another comp with the current 5th semesters at the time. If you still don't pass after that, I'm not really sure what happens then. Sorry that's all the info i have on that because I'm planning on killing the first comp SOMEHOW. Lettuce pray lol. They had us take a diagnostic NBME exam so we can see where we are in our knowledge and what we need to study and let's just say I was at the bottom so your girl has got A LOT of work to do. I have gaps in my knowledge, especially when it comes to MCB, Anatomy and Pharm, the classes I struggled with most haha, go figure!
I find it really hard to make time to study. With ICM and behavioral and ethics and CPR classes in the weekends etc theres just no time left during the day. The days seem to be getting shorter and shorter and shorter. We also have to complete two preceptorships before the semester is over. I signed up to do mine after comp at the end of the semester. I signed up for an obgyn rotation and a pediatrics rotation at the Sint Maarten Medical center.
Finally, I'm using cramfighter to schedule my studies. I am 4 days behind on my schedule :) The school gives us UWORLD and Kaplan Qbanks so I try to do questions on them every day no matter If I get time to do content review or not. Questions are extremely important so even though I'm behind in content review I still try to do questions every day. I still have a lot left to do but let's get this bread or whatever lol.
Whew, I'm at the end FINALLY! I'm going to continue to study this here behavioral material now. I apologize for the long post. If you read the whole post, thank you so much!
PS: Every time I want to be reminded of how far I've made it, I look at this picture:
PROLOGUE: I wrote half of this post a few days before my exams and saved it as a draft to get back to it later after my exams. I'm a firm believer in speaking it into existence, or writing it in this case. Speak what you want out into the universe and it will come to pass. And it worked yet again. The only things I'm typing up RIGHT now is this prologue and the part of the post that starts with this ----> "But LET ME TELL Y'ALL ABOUT PHARMACOLOGY." and ends with this ----> "glad that's over lol." Read on....
Please accept my apology for this long hiatus. This semester has been A STRUGGLE Y'ALL. This semester definitely tested my steadfastness and my strength. Suffice to say, God definitely has his hands on me and I couldn't be more grateful. Here's what you missed in list form lol...
I was nominated for the AUC Student Judiciary Committee Dr. Karl Stockhausen's Student of the Semester award and y'all I wonnnnn! I'm your May 2019 Student of the semester! A friend of mine nominated me without letting me know smh and with all that was going on with me I wasn't going to do it but I had a chance to help someone else so how horrible of a person i would be if i didn't at least try. The winner of the award gets a 5,000 dollar scholarship to donate to an organization of their choice on the island. Remember the preschool I volunteered at last semester? I decided to donate it to them. They will be purchasing an interactive whiteboard to make it easier to teach the kiddies.
Also here's a screenshot of a friend and fellow student on SJC who made the announcement on AUC's student announcements Facebook page, and he used a BOMB picture of me too haha.
I passed all of my final exams you guysss. AND I THINK I might be qualified to enter the honor society here at AUC for my next and last semester. You need an 85 percent overall GPA throughout all of your semesters here to make the honor society so we shall see. AND yayy to Dean's list again? But LET ME TELL Y'ALL ABOUT PHARMACOLOGY. Y'all I don't know how I passed that class. I mean, I reaaallly dont know. My finals were yesterday. I took Path II first, then the Pharm exam, then the neuro exam. Path went okay, neuro went okay, Pharm...omg. It was 70 questions and i marked about 45 questions for review during the exam because I didn't know them. But I ended up getting right about average in the grades. The grades weren't released until midnight smh. I'm glad that's over lol.
Finallyyyyyy, the talent show! The BMSA Talent show was Aug 2nd. I performed two songs this time. It went more than wonderful, I enjoyed myself and got to share my feelings through song on stage. I even teared up a little bit on the last song...craazyy. I will insert some talent show pictures and also the recordings of my two songs at the end of this post if you guys want to watch. The first song is called "Say you love me" by Jessie Ware and the second one is called "You don't know" by Katelyn Tarver. I apologize in advance for the bad quality. Uploading it to youtube changed the quality.
4th semester...CHECK! I am now a 5th semester student y'all, my last semester on the island! Its going to be a challenging semester but your girl got this. Don't get me wrong i'm worried as hell, I have sooo so many issues with family and my personal life and I'm afraid that it will get in the way of my studies like it did this semester. But I've made it through this far so I'll keep pushing despite all the odds. Thank to everyone who's been reading and following me on this journey, I hope I make you proud and bring about some inspiration in your life. Little ole me is making it through medical school successfully so far and if I can do it, anyone can do it.
