First Year: Survival

First year is like being an infant all over again.  You are tossed into a new environment with a set of instruments you have no idea how to use.  There is this whole new language of medical lingo you have to learn.  No matter how many times you practice saying those fancy words in front of the mirror, you still sound like a total idiot when you first try them out in public.   And, regardless of how much of a people-person you think you are, seeing your first patient somehow still ends up awkward.  First year is very much about survival, trying to make it through without forgetting why you went to medical school in the first place.  And, with the many hours dedicated to class work each day, it is pretty easy to say, “What was I thinking when I signed up for this?!”

White Coat Ceremony:

- This is the first time you really think, “I am going to be a doctor.” This is probably the pinnacle moment for most first-years.  Unfortunately, it comes at the beginning of the year. 

-Gathered with friends and family, you feel super important putting on your shiny new (short) coat for the first time.  However, within a few short days, reality sets in and you realize it is a LONG road between putting on a white coat and becoming a real doctor.

Orientation Week:

- With med school classes being pretty small, you really do get to know most of your classmates in just a few days.  Information does have a way of quickly getting around, even if it isn’t 100% accurate.  I remember a classmate sitting 2 rows behind me during orientation and exclaiming, “Did you know that there are these two students, Tony and Laura, who already got ENGAGED?!”  I guess she didn’t know we actually knew each other before med school… and had been engaged for a year.

- People really do remember first impressions. It can be alarming how much of orientation stays with you over time. 

-I must have heard 100x that week that “all of you were the top students at your colleges, but not everyone can be in the top at med school.  Most of you will be in the middle, and that is ok.” I remember thinking that week even if I didn’t say it out loud, “bah I know I can be at the top.”  Then real classes started. The middle didn’t look so bad after all.

Clinic:

- At my school, we each are assigned a clinic to work at once every other week during the first year.  This is the first opportunity to really work with a “preceptor” (a physician).  After many hours studying and going to class, clinic days helped to keep me in touch with the whole goal of medical school. 

-There is a huge difference between a 4^th and 1^st year med student.  Watching the 4^th years in the office, I was absolutely in awe.  I thought I would never get to that level.  Then I became a 4^th year.

- It is incredible how much patients can teach you.  You can spend hours studying medical conditions, but nothing matches the power of hearing a patient’s story.  I still remember learning about Paget’s Disease, Steven Johnson’s Syndrome, and Celiac Disease from some of my first patients. 

- You make lots of mistakes, but generally patients are pretty kind about pointing them out to you.  I remember the first time I used my otoscope (meant to be used to look in the EARS) it didn’t go so well. After nearly blinding and poking out the eye of my patient, she laughed and suggested I try “that other one there on the wall” --- the ophthalmoscope.

Class work:

-In the first year, most of your time is spent in the classroom. You spend so much time in one room that the smell of the lecture hall becomes engrained in your nostrils.  That memory is so strong, I still feel transported back to first year when I enter it again.

-Even though there isn’t any assigned seating, pretty much everyone sits in the same spot everyday.  It is humorous to see that when changing rooms between first and second year, people continued to still sit in the same general spots they established first year.

- You have to master speed-learning.  An entire semester's worth of material is crammed into 2 weeks.  There always is another test around the corner.  Until the end of the year, it really doesn’t let up.

-Books.  Lots of books. And notes.  And books (the picture on the right doesn't even touch the surface of the books that I have collected over the last 4 years).

- Bring snacks and coffee.  Lots of coffee.

Anatomy:

- This was by far the hardest but most interesting class I took during my first year.  Everything was completely new: it was the first time I had seen a dead body.  I really knew nothing about the human body other than “the leg bone is connected to the knee bone.” 

- I have so much respect for the people whom donate their bodies to medical schools.  It is a gift that has contributed tremendously to my education as a medical student

- On the first page of my anatomy dissector, it called the cadaver “the first patient.”  While true, I find it ironic my first patient already was dead.  Probably not a good precedent to set.  

- There is nothing worse than spending hours dissecting in search of a nerve, only to discover you already cut it about half an hour ago.

- It is NOT cool to wear your anatomy scrubs outside of the lab.  Not only are they the most unattractive color discovered by man (at least mine were), you really do smell worse than you think

- Don’t bring your anatomy books to the lab.  It is disgusting to see grease smears on pages while studying during dinner.

Outside of the classroom:

- One of greatest lessons I learned first year was the importance of having a life outside of medicine.  I realized that when you spend all of your time around other med students, you could easily get in the habit of always talking about medicine.  You have to keep things other than medicine in your life, and encourage friends to do the same.  Get some low-maintenance hobbies.  Watch some low-budget films.  Find some great restaurants.  I found I am much happier, and a better med student, when I find that balance.

- You need a place you can sleep.  Living in a ground-level apartment was a horrible decision.  The neighbor above us was awful, and I am pretty sure I could write a novel from the relationship problems I heard about through the ceiling at 3AM.  There was no greater relief than the nighttime silence that came when we moved into our house.

- Apartments offering only street parking in Buffalo, NY are a bad idea.

- You need a support system.  Family and friends kept me sane during this long road. 

- I never would have made it through without my husband.  For us, it was helpful that we both went through medical school together.  However, this is a situation other people may not feel so comfortable with.  For us, it just works.  We are always a team, helping each other along the way.  Decisions are made together, from careers to what to have for dinner.  We are each other’s greatest fans, and at the end of a hard day we can depend on one another.  Studying together, we always support one another and never make it about a competition.