Our Fates have Been Determined

I looked at my calendar today and almost couldn't believe that I only have a little over a month before our White Coat Ceremony on December 4.  It is the end of October and my first year of grad school is coming to an end.  It's bittersweet, but I've learned so much this year in regards to the human body, disease pathology, and how we handle the specimens in the gross room and autopsy suite.  There is so much more learning to come in the next year.  We had the pleasure of getting our schedules this week for our clinical year and I'm excited and nervous all at the time same time.  My schedule is looking a little like this:

   

Rotation Date	Hospital Site	Location
January 4-February 12	LA Path MD Labs	Los Angeles, CA
February 15-March 25	Presbyterian Autopsy	Pittsburgh, PA
March 28-May 6	Shadyside	Pittsburgh, PA
May 9-May 27	Ruby Autopsy	Morgantown, WV
May 30-June 17	UPMC Childrens	Pittsburgh, PA
June 20-July 29	Ruby Surgical	Morgantown, WV
August 1-September 9	Butler	Butler, PA
September 12- October 21	Thomas Memorial	Charleston, WV
October 24-December 16	Conemaugh	Johnstown, PA

I'm beyond excited to begin my year in California just because I get to avoid some of the cold and dreary winter weather that West Virginia has in store.  It will also give me a chance to live in a part of the country I've never been to before while developing and improving my skills in the gross room.  Plus, I may just end up loving it out there and decide that is where I'd like to live once I graduate. Overall, I was pleased with the sites that had been chosen for clinical year and although I'm nervous about diving into the gross room everyday with a variety of specimens, I'm also excited about all the new experiences and places I get to go to.  The only part that isn't as appealing is having to move around so much, but it's only for a year.

Since you may or may not know how the clinical year works, I'll cover some of the high points.  Some of the rotation sites, such as LA Path MD Labs, Conemaugh, and Thomas Memorial provide housing on site so all you have to worry about is food, gas, and any other personal living expenses you may have.  The LA rotation will also pay for your roundtrip plane ticket.  As for the rotations in Pittsburgh and Morgantown, you'll have to pay for your housing expenses.  This is where your classmates will come in handy.  We have been working together to find an apartment in Pittsburgh and Morgantown that we can share and pay rent while we are in the area at that time.  All in all, about half the year is paid for when it comes living expenses, but you are still paying regular tuition through WVU.  With the clinical rotations, it's just like you are going to be working a full time job and the only days you get off is any holiday that is recognized by the lab.  In addition to rotations, we will take a test at the end of every month based on what we have learned all this year plus newer information from books that are recommended by ASCP for the board exam.  You won't only be working, but studying and keeping on top of everything we've learned so we can pass the board exam when we graduate. 

As for school, it has been busy as usual with tests here and there in all of our classes.  We had a test in Advanced Surgical and Autopsy Techniques that covered male and female reproductive tracts and the genitourinary system as well as a test in Med Lab Management.  The format of the tests were the same as they had been previously, so there haven't been any changes there.  We will continue with a test tomorrow in Physiology that covers the endocrine system and then a test on Monday in Microbiology that covers a variety of bacteria/viruses and the diseases they cause throughout the body.  As always, I have plenty of studying to do and I just can't control my excitement! 

Oh and since one of my favorite holidays is this weekend...Happy Halloween!

Fall Break is Here

We are about halfway through the fall semester and what a better time to have a nice long weekend to relax our minds and prepare for the latter half of the semester.  Over the past few weeks, we have been challenged with multiple tests each week in our classes.  We've had two tests since the last time I posted in Physiology that have covered the CNS and Skeletal, Heart, and Smooth Muscle.  The CNS test was composed of 44 questions and Muscle test was composed of 20 questions.  They were both the same format of multiple choice and true and false questions.  I didn't think either test was extremely difficult, there was just a lot of material for such few questions.  It's all a matter of picking out the material that the professors stress the most and making sure you understand the material and not just memorizing it.

Other than Physiology, we have had two tests in Microbiology as well.  As I've mentioned before, the tests for this class are 50 questions and we have 50 minutes to take it.  All of the questions are multiple choice.  The first exam covered Immunology and it can be a confusing subject, especially if you've never taken an immunology class before.  Luckily, we have covered immunology to some extent throughout the whole year, so when we got to Microbiology and were going into it in more depth, it was beneficial to have that foundation.  The second test covered a lot of subject areas to include bacterial structure, genetics, and identification to fungi and viruses.  This test was a little more difficult than the first mainly due to the fact that it covered a broad area of organisms.  We also had a lot of different lecturers for each section and it's hard to adapt to how and what type of questions they may ask when you've never had them before, but aside from that I didn't think it was terrible and the information was a lot more interesting than the first section.

We've also been going strong in Advanced Microanatomy and we've also had two tests in that class since the last time I've posted.  The first test covered normal microanatomy, skin pathology, and kidney and bladder pathology while the second test covered abnormal pathology of the lung, head and neck, heme, and lymphatic circulations.  The first test had 36 questions and the second had 24 questions, which were mostly multiple choice and some questions were aided with slides.  This class is all about finding a good balance between studying slides and knowing and understanding information about each disease or lesion in order to be able to know what to look for on a slide and the differences from one disease to another.  I must say I've enjoyed this advanced class better than the one we had in the spring because it is more interesting in that we are able to see and learn about more complex pathologies.

Finally, we had our first test in Medical Laboratory Management, which was 50 multiple choice questions and this class has been very straight forward and to the point. The content isn't difficult, but it is very useful for the future if one is to be in a managerial position.  We also had our first test in Advanced Surgical Pathology that covered non-complex specimens, lung, head and neck, bone and soft tissue, skin, and gross photography.  As with Anatomical Techniques in the spring, the test was composed of multiple choice, fill in the blank, and short answer questions.  This class in particular involves having a deeper understanding of how to stage specimens, what is important about each specimen, and what various types of lesions will look like.  This class represents exactly what we will be doing in the gross room once our clinical year begins.

As you can see, we have been quite busy over the last month and it's not about to end any time soon.  We still have a good two months left before the end of the semester and then we get a little bit of a break before we start our clinical rotations on January 4.  Hopefully, we will be getting our schedules soon and when I do, I will post it to give you an idea of what my second year will be looking like.  As for more important matters (in my mind they are), I'm a huge Chicago Cubs fan and it makes me extremely happy that they are in the postseason.  They're currently in a heated series with our rival, the St. Louis Cardinals which is tied up 1-1 and we play again tomorrow, October 12 at the historic Wrigley Field in Chicago.  My mood for the rest of October will be dependent on watching them play and hopefully seeing them go all the way....it's been long enough, so hopefully we won't have to go to 108 years without a World Series title. Go Cubs!!