Orientation Day 1: Ready, Steady, Go!

One of the perks of being a UVM medical student

If I’m going to blog about the entire med school experience, it only makes sense to blog about the med school orientation experience. And since classes haven’t started, it means I can write a detailed account of it. Since Orientation lasted five days, that means five blog posts. Here we go:

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Day 1: Monday, August 10, 2009

5:30 AM: Wake up and realize I have another half hour before I need to get up.

5:45: Wake up again. Is subconscious nervousness keeping me up? Oh, but my bed is so comfy…

6:00: My iPod alarm clock goes off. The obnoxious voices of Tom and Ray Magliozzi (those dopes from Car Talk) force me out of my super-comfy, memory foam-laden bed. Who says those two bozos aren’t good for anything?

7:00: After shower and breakfast, leave note and necessary papers for housemate who’s graciously going to meet movers who are shipping things into my room while I am at orientation. Realize yet again that my housemates are awesome.

7:01: Frantically search for my umbrella, since it looks like rain.

7:25: Discover umbrella was in my bag. Can’t believe I was intelligent enough to think of putting it there the night before. Head out to bus stop.

7:47: Bus arrives.

7:53: Arrive at UVM. Orientation day begins.

8:00-9:00: Registration and Continental Breakfast

Imagine nearly 100 newly arrived med students standing around in a lobby eating breakfast realizing they know each other. Now realize that the average med student will ask you the same three questions as soon as they meet you:  

1) Where are you from? [You will be asked this in the first five seconds]
2) Where did you go to college? [You will be asked this after Question 1]
3) What specialty are you considering? [This tends to be less common]

From there, they hope and pray that they can start a conversation. My personal advice: Don’t ask these questions. I don’t care if you ask about a penny you found on the ground. Just don’t ask those three. They’ll casually come up in conversation, I promise. (Also try and keep the ratio of talking to asking questions 50-50.)

I grab breakfast and sit down in an unoccupied spot. Cool med students come, and I eventually get interesting conversation out of one of them. I run into a REALLY cool dude who came up for an MD-PhD interview with me. So glad he’s here.

9:00 – 9:10: Welcome from the Dean

Fairly basic stuff, although Dean Morin is a really cool guy. He drops one bit of somewhat verbose advice: “If I could give you all one piece of advice, it would be this…understand where knowledge is, and how to access knowledge about diseases. Understand the pathology and physiology of diseases.”

I hope to talk with him later.

9:10 – 9:20: Vermont Integrated Curriculum (VIC) Overview

Dr. William Jeffries reviews the VIC with us. We use an integrated curriculum where, instead of studying subjects like biochemistry and anatomy separately, we take courses that focus on certain areas of the body, such as Neural Science and Nutrition, Metabolism and Gastrointestinal.  

The more unique aspect is that we take our board exams in February of our second year instead of August. So it’s earlier. On the plus side, we get that much more time for clinical rotations.

For MD-PhDs like me, we do the first two years of medical school (classes, boards and some clinical rotations), then three years for our PhD, and then the final two years of medical school. So seven years total. If you love it, then you won’t mind the time. I remember explaining how long I’d be in school to the dental assistant who cleaned my teeth. She patted me on the head and said, “Good luck!”

9:20 – 9:35: Welcome from the Office of Admissions

They tell us how we’re wonderful, how they really wanted us to come here, how they saw something special in us, etc. Then they put up the stats about our class. 114 students: 60 female, 54 male. 1/5 are “people of color”. We’ve got people from Canada, Palestine, Nigeria and Brazil. We learn we have a Film and Television major, and even a “smoke jumper, which I think means jumping into fires?” Dr. Gallant comments that med school may not seem as challenging for that guy/gal.

9:35 – 9:45: Welcome from the Office of Student Affairs

Only thing I remember is that there’s a tradition where the class list is handed off from the Admissions committee to the med school staff.

9:45 – 10:05: Setting the Tone for University of Vermont College of Medicine

“We’re going to give you your first med school assignment,” they tell us. “Don’t put a lot of thought into it.”

It’s a piece of paper with several questions, and you’re asked to circle your answer choice. Sample questions: “I am…single/partnered”, “I have a child/children/I do not have a child or children”, and “I have had the following type(s) of work experience: health care; teaching; volunteer; minimum wage; waiting tables; life guard; pet sitter; farmer; other.”

Then we turn our papers in.  Then they randomly hand us a paper from the pile. They then read each question and answer choice, and ask us to stand up if your answer is circled. So if they read “I have a child” and the answer choice for that on your paper is circled, you stand up.

They do it this way so people aren’t embarrassed to stand up for their own entry, since they’re standing up for someone else’s. It gives you a sense of how many people in your class have certain characteristics.

Some stats: About half the class made less than $20,000 before coming to medical school. Most of us are out of school, so this is surprising. 1 PhD, 1 MBA, but no one with a JD. Also, one person in the class claims he or she doesn’t relax. Thank you, Mr. Jokester.

10:05 – 10:15: Break.

Most students beeline for one bathroom. I head for one in the library since no one’s going that direction. As I’m exiting, I rethink whether that was a good idea, since waiting in line for bathroom leads to conversation as you’re standing around.  

10:15 – 11:00: Student Financial Services. Navigating the Financial Road at UVM: Introduction to Financial Literacy and Debt Management

Basics about debt. Learn I should have received my refund (i.e. money for the semester) by now. Something must be holding up my account.

11:00 – 11:45: Medical Student Leadership Groups Course Orientation

Medical Student Leadership Groups, or MSLG, is one of our first classes in medical school, and we have it throughout the first year.

Dr. Watterman says something about “the ubiquitous bromide” that we’re taught about there being an art and a science of medicine, and says he thinks that’s incorrect since we can scientifically show that, for instance, better outcomes arise from better doctor-patient interactions, etc.

He then introduces Dr. Rosen, who comes up and awkwardly hints he might disagree with Dr. Watterman. He describes his class in terms of a parable from David Foster-Wallace, saying MSLG will help us “see the water”.  As for his technique, he’s a little nervous in his delivery. Perhaps it’s just first-meeting jitters.

They also go over an oath that introduces some aspects of professionalism. It’s called (I am not making this up) the Oath of Lasagna. Garfield? It is a Monday…

11:45 – 12:45: Little/Big Sib Lunch

Big sibs are people from the class above us who look out for us and give us advice about classes. They are also useful for “borrowing” books for classes from.

The administration takes us to the main lobby and ask us to stand in separate sections according to our last name. Slight problem: There aren’t enough tables. The big sibs show up and take us outside. At least until the cops tell us to move since we’re all sitting down on the curb, which is disturbing the traffic passing through.  

My big sib is the role model for all big sibs. The second-year assigned to me is also an MD-PhD, with a straight-shooter yet easily personable personality. We’re shooting the breeze in no time. He even makes sure to introduce me to other second years to chat.

1:00 -2:30: Your First Patient

They bring in a real patient and ask her to describe her condition. Needless to say, I won’t be commenting on this.

What I will say is that they let us ask her questions. I couldn’t think of any in time, so instead I took notes on the questions asked. A lot of people asked about how this patient’s condition impacted his/her work, home life, etc. They also ask the doctor a  bunch of clinical questions, such as how children with this condition fare vs. young adults and  if there are any potential cures,.

2:30 – 3:30: Laptop Distribution and Orientation

 You’ll see a photo of this above. They give us a Dell Latitude XT2 tablet computer, as well as a Segate 320 GB external hard drive.

We spend time signing paperwork and getting things set up. Half the class has problems connecting to the wireless, probably since we’re all doing this at once. I fly through everything quickly. Ah, how being a CS major helps.  My favorite tidbit: When we graduate, we can buy this machine for one buck. Since I’m an MD-PhD, I wonder if it’ll be worth that much when I graduate in seven years. J Just kidding.  

3:30 – 4:00: Composite Photos.

Get my photo taken. Contemplate that my first photo of med school will be of me bald. Awesome!

4:01: Realize I feel bushed. Need to escape. Head home.  Realize it didn’t rain at all and that it’s sunny outside. I think remembering to carry my umbrella wards off the clouds.

4:30: I arrive home. See my room stacked with boxes and bookshelf, dresser and nightstand.

4: 32: Begin unpacking.

6:00: Still unpacking. Dinner time! 

6:05: Begin digesting John’s wonderful falafel meal.

6:20: Discussion about college kids looking for apartment leads to story about how some college kids rented some desperate kid their closet. Apparently his feet stuck out when he slept. Housemate: “So how did he bring girls home?…Loser!” (flashes the L sign). We all die laughing.

6:45: Back to unpacking. Must do those readings soon.

9:00: Ok, that’s enough. And lots of space is cleared. Time to read. 

9:20: Finish reading. Decide to outline the more extensive reading of the two.

9:25: Realize my first assignment is due this Saturday. Before classes even start. Wow. I’m still excited!

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Moral of the Day: Don’t fret your first orientation day. Even if you don’t feel like you’re connecting, remember: how many of your college friends did you make on Orientation weekend?  We’re all awkward right now. It’ll work out.