A Day in the Life of Dr. Aldrich

Sunday, December 2, 2012

So my brother, Jeff, is in his first year of med school at Jefferson University in downtown Philadelphia. It kind of seems like he's studying all the time, but I didn't have a good sense of what his "typical" day-- so I asked him to do a guest blog about it :) Here's what he had to say:

There really isn't such thing as a "typical" day because the schedule changes daily. However, we have class every day anywhere from 3-6 hours. The classes are segmented into "blocks" meaning we take one main science class at a time with an Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) class woven in throughout the entire year. The first class of the year was Anatomy (11 weeks long), and currently we are in a class called Molecular Basis of Medicine, MCBM, (cell biology/biochemistry/genetics). The spring will consist of a body-systems based physiology course and finally Neuroanatomy (6 weeks long) to finish out the year. ICM consists of various lectures on medical ethics, psychiatric disorders, human development, sexuality, health policy, etc. Between science blocks we will have a dedicated ICM week, for example after anatomy we had a dedicated "Behavior Week." ICM also consists of a small group of 10 people that meets once a week mostly to practice patient interviewing skills. In early December, we have our first video recorded interview of a "standardized patient" (an actor).

Moving from Anatomy to MCBM for class has been a big adjustment. Anatomy is all about spatial relationships of observable structures, whereas, MCBM is dedicated to the "invisible" reactions of the human body. Since there is no dissection in MCBM, they basically added more lecture time in the day. Anatomy consisted of 3 written exams and 3 practical exams. Practical exams consists of 50 questions in the laboratory. Most of the questions involved a red string looped around a structure on the cadaver. Others included X-Rays, or questions regarding a bone that is laying at the station (didn't like those). MCBM has 3 short (30 minutes) and 3 long (3 hours) exams. We had a long MCBM exam before the break and it felt like as much information as the Anatomy course final....

"Typical" Anatomy Day:

Lecture: 9am-12pm

Lunch: 12-1pm

Dissection: 1-3:30pm

Gym: 4-4:30pm

Study: 5-7pm

Dinner/TV: 7-8:30pm

"Study": 9-1am (quotes because I am often distracted by computer/phone during that time....)

Thanks for the blog post Jeff!

I'm thinking that "Life with Dr. Jeff" is going to become a regularly featured segment on the Huebel Hammock :)

Then: August 2007.