It's about time that I reviewed my Year 3, Semester 1, classes! This is part 1 (five classes today, five classes tomorrow). Here we go:
Botanical Medicine 3 - Same old, same old. We're learning about 250 herbs this semester (yikes!) in the same we we've always learned about herbs (by reading monographs). It's pretty boring. On Wednesdays, however (we have the class twice a week), we do cases and come up with herbal formulas. I quite like the cases because they seem so REAL. In less than a year I'll be coming up with herbal formulas for a whole variety of health concerns, so these case exercises seem really practical. (Oh, but I will soon HATE Bot Med 3 because apparently the midterm is brutal...).
Primary Care - Also known as, 'let's play doctor' class! I find this class fascinating. We take turns being doctor, by interviewing a patient, and then performing the relevant physical exams. Then as a group we have to diagnose the patient, do research on the diagnosis and treatment options, then write-up a full treatment plan. It's a lot of work, but fun work! This, like the Bot Med cases, is also very practical.
Men's and Women's Health - I may never meet a patient in my life who has a Chronic Bronchitis or who has Generalized Anxiety Disorder (i.e. specific conditions), but I most definitely WILL meet a male and a female patient :P The point I am trying to make: this class is very applicable! Everyone in the class will benefit at least from 50% of the class teachings in regards to their own personal health. We have to do a research paper in this class too and my topic is a good one, so it's been enjoyable to work on.
Health Psychology 3 - We got shafted in our first and second year psychology classes. Seriously: I want my money back! What a joke... Anywho, I am finally learning this year! We have new-to-the-school professors and we're learning about relevant stuff, like how to assess someone with a mental disorder and the diagnostic criteria for all kinds of mental disturbances (e.g. Major Depression, Panic Attacks, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, etc).
Practice Management - Also known as business class. Lots of number crunching and market discussions. We have a lot of guest speakers in this class too, which keeps things interesting. We have a big group project in this class that requires us to create a full business plan, which is excellent practice for when we have to make a real business plan in a very short period of time!
Third year is shaping up to be very, very different from my second-year experience. Second-year was very depressing (pathology, microbiology, disease, etc, etc) as we learned how to diagnose, but this year is so-far quite uplifting as we learn how to treat! We're finally learning how to make people feel better and that is a wonderful feeling. As of right now, I'm loving school again, including all of the silly assignments and group work that comes with third-year, because it's all making me very feel very excited for the real world which is just around the corner! Day-after-day, and little-by-little, I'm feeling more like a doctor-to-be :)
:)
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