Things have been a little strange in our corner of paradise lately. Our sponsored Utopia just seems a little shaky, people are getting nervous, short at each other, depressed, arguements are brought up for no real reason and everyone seems to be hibernating in their rooms.
Is this a case of collective PMS or are there deeper waters running?
It's really quite interesting living in a shared house situation with 7 other people who you see day-in-day-out. You wake up to their sunny faces every morning, go to class, clinic, ED with them, debate in tutes with them, cook dinner and share meals with them, watch tv with them and well, we haven't gotten to the "go to sleep with them" bit yet...(may it never happen). Little annoying habits can turn into major grievances, everything just seems amplified when perspective blurs in the insular world of Shep Med.
So this is what it means to "share life" with each other... if what we do can be defined as "life", because everything seems to revolve around MED.
Again, EVERYTHING seems to revolve around MED.
We are surrounded by it... eat and breathe it. Even over dinner, without fail, med talk will materialise. At the gym, talk veers off into muscle groups or cardiovascular risk factors. In the car on the way back to Melbourne, conversation naturally flows to lecturers, tutorial structures and attempting to analyse housemates.
How do people cope? There seems to be 3 schools of thought. Firstly is the stay-in-room, withdraw into self and become resentful of circumstances and what they have brought with them. Secondly, are people who try and bring as much of the non-med themselves into communal living... integrate non-med friends with med friends, play instruments at odd hours, paint, read works of fiction and flitter off to Melbourne as often as possible to shake off the med vibes and to catch glimpses of previous lifestyles. They are easily distracted away from the study of medicine into activities that pleasure. Thirdly are people who throw themselves into the study of medicine wholely. I mean 8am-5pm in the wards, followed by an entire night of study, with furtively snatched "breaks", feeling guilty all the way, but gaining their delights and joys in answered questions during ward rounds and the confidence gained in knowledge.
Most people entertain variations of the 3 phases, although each has his/her own preferred coping method which colours the way life is lived in Shep. Each method has it's pitfalls. No. 1 obviously created depression and anger in insularity, No. 2 people don't tend to do so well in med (attributed to decreased amounts of studying) and No. 3 people eventually tire and some burn out completely: emotionally or physically.
I personally am a No. 2-er, occasionally lapsing into a No.1, although I am now trying to study like a No. 3. I don't want to find my worth in solely Medicine, I want the relationships, activities and emotions that used to define the landscape of my life to at least still make casual appearances. However, what I have to continue realising is that the career path that I have chosen does require a pretty big chunk of my time, attention and energy, and I need to learn to invest more of that into med. Otherwise my skills as a doctor in the future will be inadequate and that will not be fair to patients who trust you.
I don't know if this is the same experience other med students who are attached to city hospitals are having. This whole Med = Life issue. It may be easier to have both in the city: a life outside Med and still be able to keep up with Med commitments. Because over here... the "life outside Med" bit is in short supply, and the toll it's taking on us is starting to show.
Cracks in the elevator designed to take us through the glass ceiling.
Is this a case of collective PMS or are there deeper waters running?
It's really quite interesting living in a shared house situation with 7 other people who you see day-in-day-out. You wake up to their sunny faces every morning, go to class, clinic, ED with them, debate in tutes with them, cook dinner and share meals with them, watch tv with them and well, we haven't gotten to the "go to sleep with them" bit yet...(may it never happen). Little annoying habits can turn into major grievances, everything just seems amplified when perspective blurs in the insular world of Shep Med.
So this is what it means to "share life" with each other... if what we do can be defined as "life", because everything seems to revolve around MED.
Again, EVERYTHING seems to revolve around MED.
We are surrounded by it... eat and breathe it. Even over dinner, without fail, med talk will materialise. At the gym, talk veers off into muscle groups or cardiovascular risk factors. In the car on the way back to Melbourne, conversation naturally flows to lecturers, tutorial structures and attempting to analyse housemates.
How do people cope? There seems to be 3 schools of thought. Firstly is the stay-in-room, withdraw into self and become resentful of circumstances and what they have brought with them. Secondly, are people who try and bring as much of the non-med themselves into communal living... integrate non-med friends with med friends, play instruments at odd hours, paint, read works of fiction and flitter off to Melbourne as often as possible to shake off the med vibes and to catch glimpses of previous lifestyles. They are easily distracted away from the study of medicine into activities that pleasure. Thirdly are people who throw themselves into the study of medicine wholely. I mean 8am-5pm in the wards, followed by an entire night of study, with furtively snatched "breaks", feeling guilty all the way, but gaining their delights and joys in answered questions during ward rounds and the confidence gained in knowledge.
Most people entertain variations of the 3 phases, although each has his/her own preferred coping method which colours the way life is lived in Shep. Each method has it's pitfalls. No. 1 obviously created depression and anger in insularity, No. 2 people don't tend to do so well in med (attributed to decreased amounts of studying) and No. 3 people eventually tire and some burn out completely: emotionally or physically.
I personally am a No. 2-er, occasionally lapsing into a No.1, although I am now trying to study like a No. 3. I don't want to find my worth in solely Medicine, I want the relationships, activities and emotions that used to define the landscape of my life to at least still make casual appearances. However, what I have to continue realising is that the career path that I have chosen does require a pretty big chunk of my time, attention and energy, and I need to learn to invest more of that into med. Otherwise my skills as a doctor in the future will be inadequate and that will not be fair to patients who trust you.
I don't know if this is the same experience other med students who are attached to city hospitals are having. This whole Med = Life issue. It may be easier to have both in the city: a life outside Med and still be able to keep up with Med commitments. Because over here... the "life outside Med" bit is in short supply, and the toll it's taking on us is starting to show.
Cracks in the elevator designed to take us through the glass ceiling.
