Term 5: ICM

ICM is a continuation of CPD from term 4. It is the same department and the small group sessions are structured similarly. My overview of CPD can be read here. Each small group session will focus on one patient encounter. In contrast to CPD, ICM small groups place a heavy emphasis on teamwork during the patient encounter.

As a part of the ICM class, 5th term students go to the hospital rotations at St. George's General Hospital, a variety of private practices in the local Grenadian community, and the Mt. Gay Psychiatric Hospital. Although the hospital visits take up to 4 hours per week, it was the most enjoyable part of my week. My group consisted of 5 5th term students. Each week, we were assigned to a new preceptor/doctor and a new rotation/department so that we got exposure to a variety of fields. Some of my favorite rotations were pediatrics and emergency medicine.

During the pediatrics rotation, we we not only got to interact and examine babies that were a few hours old, but we also were lucky enough to see a delivery. The preceptor we had for the pediatrics rotation provided insight on his lifestyle, the most common emergencies, and gave each member of my team a chance to individually examine a newborn. I remember learning about the moro reflex and the positive Babinski sign that is seen in babies during the neuroscience class. However, after performing both test on two newborns, I will never forget how these two tests are performed. I am very grateful to have had the exposure to the pediatrics unit in Grenada.

During my group's emergency medicine rotation, we were able to interview and examine 2 different patients. Apart from seeing typical cases that come to the emergency room, the experience also showed me the high-paced activity that is part of an emergency room.

Some of the other rotations that we had the opportunity to rotate through were internal medicine, psychiatry, surgery, ICU, OB/GYN, and orthopedics. The SGU administration does a great job making sure that students get a diverse experience during their time at St. George's General Hospital. I'm grateful for all the helpful preceptors and cooperative patients we saw. These rotations are getting me excited to start clinical rotations soon in the United States!

In terms of grading, we had 2 SOAP notes based on 2 patient encounters that we had during our hospital visits, 1 team OSCE quiz, and 1 final individual OSCE similar to the one that we took in term 4. The nice thing about ICM is that it is a shorter course compared to the rest of the term 5 classes. So, the final OSCE is not taken during finals week. It is typically scheduled right before the second set of midterms. I thought this was a huge benefit because I was able to dedicate more time to pharmacology and preparing for BSCE/NBME after ICM ended.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)

~N

Term 5 Complete and Goodbye Grenada!

First, I just wanted to give a shout out to J who successfully completed term 4 a few days ago! J, I know you worked very hard this term and I am proud of you. Best of luck in term 5, my friend! 

Now, an update from N:

I just finished up 5th term (yay!!!), packed up all my things in Grenada, said one final goodbye to the island that I called home for the past 2 years, and moved back to US. I apologize for the lack of posts for the last few months as I worked my way through term 5. The semester consisted of 4 main classes, BSFCR, Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and ICM. I will try my best to get posts out on all these classes shortly. 

Term 5 was definitely not as busy as term 4. However, I found myself spending a lot of time reviewing old material and preparing for the USMLE/Step 1 exam. Compared to term 4 which consisted of one midterm and one final, term 5 has 2 sets of midterms before finals for all classes. For this reason, the term felt like it flew by. I was always studying for some sort of assessment. The last 4 weeks of the term consisted of at least 1 assessment per week because there are 2 standardized exams that all term 5 students must take. The first exam we took was BSCE2. This was a comprehensive, 8-hour exam. Term 5 students must pass this exam to register and take board exams. The second standardized exam we took was a practice 4-hour NBME exam. Our NBME score was incorporated into our grade for Pathophysiology and BSFCR. I would highly recommend future students to start preparing for these exams as early as possible. I found it very difficult to find time to learn all the drugs from pharmacology lectures, keep up with pathophysiology material, and dedicate time to review old material like biochemistry and anatomy from term 1. At this point, I am just grateful to have passed BSCE 2 and be able to take Step 1 in early 2017. 

Please visit our blog soon for future posts on specific term 5 classes! If you have any questions or recommendations, feel free to contact me at meyouandsgu@gmail.com or comment below! Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)

~N

Grenada Bound with a Few Hiccups Along the Way...

This is my fourth and hopefully my final trip back to Grenada to complete 5th term. After 1 canceled flight, 2 delayed flights, and 3 baggage ticket confirmation tags for 1 checked bag (yes, 3 tags), I am currently sitting in Miami International Airport about to board my flight to Grenada and praying that my checked bag follows my footsteps. The last 15 hours have been somewhat of a whirlwind of events.

Let me just start by saying that I know I have been pretty lucky. This is my fourth trip to Grenada since January 2015 and I have never had any issues with baggage or delayed flights on my way to Grenada until now. This time, the hiccup in my travel experience began when my direct flight to Miami was canceled for unknown reasons. I knew that I had to get myself to Miami to catch the Miami-Grenada flight. Otherwise, the next available seat on a plane to Grenada is 10 days from now. The entire school returns back to the island around the same weekend in January and August. So, it is difficult to find a last minute seat on a flight to Grenada at that time. After much persistence with the airline company, I was finally put on a flight to Miami with 1 stop in Atlanta. I am so thankful that all the flights today have not been delayed by more than an hour. So, I have been able to catch all connecting flights smoothly.

For any future students, majority of the time, students have no problem flying into Grenada. However, if you are stuck with canceled flights/delayed flights, do everything in your power to catch the flight to Grenada to avoid additional chaos. That is typically the trickiest flight to re-book. Also, I would highly recommend packing a few pairs of clothes and basic necessities in carry-on bags in case the checked bag(s) does not make it to Grenada right away.

Update 1: I safely landed in Grenada. However, my checked bag is either taking a mini-vacation at the beach in Miami or was accidentally put on a wrong flight and sent to see the Statue of Liberty in New York. I am just hoping that it arrives in Grenada within the next few days!

Update 2: Day 4: My bag finally found its way to Grenada with 4 tags! I'm just glad that everything is still intact! :)

Now, let's start Term 5! Hope you are having a great week!

~N