Noreen's
PERSONAL BLOG & JOURNAL

        ARTICLE # 1 

 

Title: Stress and Its Effects on Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Study at a College of Medicine in Saudi Arabia

Author of the text: Hamza M. Abdulghani,1 Abdulaziz A. AlKanhal,2 Ebrahim S. Mahmoud,3 Gominda G. Ponnamperuma,4 and Eiad A. Alfaris5

Title of Journal/Publication: US National Library of Medicines

URL or Web Address: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225114/

Main idea: Medical education is perceived as being stressful, and a high level of stress may have a negative effect on cognitive functioning and learning of students in a medical school. 

Evidence/s that support the main idea:

1. The findings of high level of stress among the medical students in the initial years also suggest that, when students are admitted to the medical school, special care must be taken to find out obvious psychiatric problems or psychological stress among them.

2. The major finding of high psychological stress in the students of the medical college of King Saud University points to the need for establishing counselling and preventive mental health services as an integral part of routine clinical services being provided to the medical students. 

​

         ARTICLE # 2 

​

Title: Getting the Right Medical Students — Nature versus Nurture

Author of the text: Richard M. Schwartzstein, M.D.

Title of Journal/Publication: NEJM Cases in Primary Care

URL or Web Address: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1501440#t=article

Main idea: Selecting the “best” students to admit to medical school is challenging, and admissions committees welcome new ideas on improving the process.

Evidence/s that support the main idea:

1. Historically, less than 3% of students who enter medical school have failed to graduate for academic reasons.

2. No admissions process is perfect, and some students admitted to medical school may well demonstrate little empathy or lack the requisite communication skills to be effective doctors — but is that the primary cause of the problem? That assumption has spawned a movement toward new interviewing techniques and admissions policies.

​

    Article # 3 

​

Title: Discover First-Year Medical Student Priorities

Author of the text: Cassie Kosarek

Title of Journal/Publication: US News

URL or Web Address: https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/medical-school-admissions-doctor/articles/2016-10-26/discover-first-year-medical-student-priorities

Main idea: Many prospective medical school applicants want to know what their first year of medical school will be like.

Evidence/s that support the main idea:

1. I have been challenged to learn massive amounts of information in a short period of time, all while maintaining the core of who I am as both an aspiring physician and a human being.

2. As such, prioritizing responsibilities and activities has been an essential strategy for navigating my first year of medical school.

 

    article # 4

​

Title: Life as a Medical Student: 12 Things You Really Have to Know

Author of the text: Robert Cronshaw

Title of Journal/Publication: Oxford Royale Academy 

URL or Web Address: https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/life-as-a-medical-student.html

Main idea: Becoming a medical student can be a daunting prospect; university is a very different environment to school, with unique opportunities and challenges.

Evidence/s that support the main idea:

1. Being a medical student will involve working harder than you’ve ever worked in your life – but chances are, it’ll also involve having more fun than you’ve ever had before. 

2. There are plenty of off-putting myths about being a medical student, but in reality it’s enjoyable, interesting and highly rewarding, especially in light of what you’re working towards.

​

      SYNTHESIS: 

​

         Being a Medical student is hard. Studying medicine comes with a certain expectation to work harder on average than most other students. There’s also a reasonable amount of pressure on to pass exams. Stress is unavoidable. The truth for many courses is that you are only really studying in order to pass your exams and once you have managed this the information which you have tried so hard to learn is largely useless to you. This is very much not the case in medicine, with areas of study including anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology and pathology all being directly applicable in diagnosing, understanding and treating a disease. Many medical schools record their lectures and post them online. As a result of this practice, some medical students opt against attending class and instead watch the lectures on their own time. The predominant premedical culture has students at the helm of several campus organizations, on a varsity athletics team and holding down an on-campus job on top of their demanding coursework. With the academic time commitment required of medical students, though, making similar broad commitments in medical school is nearly impossible. Ultimately, flexibility and the willingness to adjust my patterns allows Medical students to keep moving forward toward their goal of becoming licensed physicians.