Project 2 - Rough Draft
Medicine and healthcare are essential aspects of our modern society that allow us to pursue such amazing accomplishments. Better training, techniques, and information about how the human body functions and responds to disease has allowed humans to double the average life expectancy in the past century. These improvements originate from the training doctors receive before they are allowed to called themselves an M.D. Medical students are a very select community that pulls together brilliant individuals willing to sacrifice their lives to help those who are sick. Fascinated by the ability to learn everything man has discovered about the human body and its complex network of systems that keep us alive, I decided to further investigate the community of medical students at Florida State University. Having to process such massive amounts of information, medical students use a variety of genres of communication to effectively retain this information and be able to pass it on. Not to mention, I sought to find out about how these individuals were selected and deemed able to handle this responsibility of learning and passing on this knowledge to the communities they serve later on. Although the methods are extensive, steps can be taken to further the effective dialogue among the community and improve the quality of medical care in a 21st century world.
Second only to veterinarian school, medical school is the toughest professional program to be accepted into in the world. Although medical students are pulled from a group of students with very high academic standing and test scores, there are many other aspects of the application that set them apart. From volunteer work to independent research opportunities, these applicants have found a way to balance a rigorous pre-medical course load with many additional activities. According to a study done by Keith Steele, medical school is becoming more selective every single year. On average, MCAT scores, GPA, and class rank are all increasing and a lower percentage of applicants are accepted each year within the United States. Within the past decade, the average GPA of accepted applicants has risen ten percent and MCAT scores have increased by five percent. Not to mention, the applicants that are accepted recorded higher amounts of extracurricular involvement then ever before to go along with this increasing academic standing. Amazingly, these individuals are able to find a way to keep up with their responsibilities as a students as well as an active member of society. This led me to the conclusion that most medical students are exceptional at time management as well as very calm when put under a lot of pressure. Contributing to their preferences in the genres of communication that they use, medical students utilize methods that are efficient and can condense large amount of information into a simplified version. Also, medical students were once predominantly white males, but this trend is changing as the medical community is becoming more diverse. More minorities, women, and people from non-science background are attending medical school with each passing year. With increasing diversity among the racial, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, the methods through which this community communicates have been altered.
Medical procedures seem simple when they are performed on popular medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy or Scrubs. However, even the most basic medical procedures have small margins of error and can be the difference between life and death. As medical students transition into their third year of schooling, they are allowed to do clinical rotations with doctors in a hospital setting. Although they are not directly in charge of the treatment or diagnosis of patients, doctors seek to teach them basic procedures and techniques they will be required to perform in their residency. Videography is an essential genre of communication that is used by professors to illustrate the proper way to perform many of the essential medical procedures. These include procedures such as drawing blood or intubating a patient that can’t breath on their own. The video that I discovered displayed an Emergency room physician demonstrating how to properly perform a tracheal intubation. He explained why a patient would need this procedure, conducted a hands on demonstration, and warned of all the possible mistakes that could be made. Reading about these procedures in textbooks help the medical student to grasp the reasoning and basic concepts behind them, but it lacks the ability to present the student with what the situation looks like and the proper course of action. A video gives the student a visual representation that will help guide them through the first time they perform the procedure themselves. The video is very effective because it is not overwhelmingly long, effectively explains a step-by-step procedure, and helps reinforce what not to do. For example, the physician explained how important it is to hold the patients head at an angle that allows you to get the scope down their trachea. The inability to do so would result in a blocked field of vision and likely lead to an unsuccessful intubation. On the other hand, videography is also a useful tool for students to gain a better understanding of a concept they have read about. I discovered extensive libraries of videos that simplified the inner workings of the human body and made it more understandable. Videos are an amazing tool, but they do lack the ability for the student to actually feel what it is like to perform the procedure first hand. Medical students benefit tremendously from these videos because they can watch them as many times as they like and pause in between steps to make sure they are aware of what the instructor is doing through each step of the process.
As illustrated earlier, medicine is a vast field that covers all the information humans have been able to gather about the human body and how it functions and responds to disease. Commonly, many of these concepts are hard to grasp because they are on such a small molecular scale and can’t be seen by the naked human eye. Models are an amazing communication tool that allows professors, students, and patients to see difficult phenomenon in three dimensions. For example, the human spine is a complex network of nerves, bones, tendons, and muscles that are the literal backbone of the central nervous system. It connects the most powerful computer, the human brain, to the rest of the body and allows us to have the dexterity that no other species possess. However, it is hard to grasp the concept of how the spine is supported, and models are an essential genre of communication to display its function. The models of the spine that I discovered in my research provided an enlarged model that showed how the disk were separated by spinal fluid and nerves ran up and down the vertebrae. Without this model, students would have only two-dimensional pictures to depict this amazing part of the human body. Models are so effective because they provide students the ability to physically interact with a concept rather than just look at it. In addition, a doctor’s ability to communicate to his or her patients is one of the most important traits a physician can have. It is not uncommon for the uncertainty a patient has about their health to concern them and hinder their recovery. To address this, doctors must be able to simplify a patients condition and help them understand why their treatment is the best approach. Overall, models are necessary to show patients who are not trained medical professionals the structure of their anatomy and how disease affects it.
Just as mechanics are not trained by just looking at pictures, models, and videos, medical students must get hands-on experience to truly understand how the human body works. For this reason, medical schools are investing in state of the art laboratories where students can work with real human organs, bones, and even full cadavers. For example, Baylor Medical School just invested in a 14,000 square foot facility that is dedicated to research and hands on procedures for the students within the medical school. During the first year of medical school, students are required to take an anatomy course where they spend the entire year dissecting a human cadaver. They methodically move through each system of the body learning what an actual human body looks like on the inside. This first hand experience is the most valuable of any genre of communication because the students can see nerves, tendons, muscles, organs, arteries, and veins up close and personal. Often times, models and textbooks can only provide an overview of what the human body actually looks like and how it is all connected. Professors can communicate with students in this time by guiding them through procedures on large monitors and show them how to take notes. Much can be learned about any concept, especially the complex network that we cal the human body, by working with it hands on. A study conducted Colin West MD, showed that medical students had a significant increase in their ability to analyze evidence based medicine after completing this course. Continuing on with this idea, medical students are sent to do clinical rotations where they can work with real life patients and learn from them.
Medicine is an amazing field because doctors can learn so much from previous case files and apply them to current cases. With a wide variety of conditions, it is often difficult to differentiate between several diagnoses and administer the correct course of treatment. For this reason, many physicians rely upon experience and prior knowledge of conditions to make a reliable diagnosis. Medical students are not officially doctors, and therefore they can’t be directly in charge on the diagnosis and treatment of patients without the oversight of a certified M.D. This is in place to protect patients from getting subpar care from an individual who doesn't have the experience or knowledge to make an accurate diagnosis and provide a proven treatment plan. As a result, medical students rely on previous cases that are made available to them to increase their aptitude for diagnosis in difficult cases. Through my research, I uncovered a case study given to Florida State Medical School students. This case study provided the students with an older gentleman who had type 2 diabetes and was complaining of heart pains. However, the ECG (electrocardiography) revealed a normal heart rhythm. At first glance, there are many conditions that could cause the symptoms that the patient is experiencing. These case studies are purposely selected because of the critical thinking required to uncover what the correct diagnosis and course of treatment is. Medical students are given hundreds of these throughout their schooling, and they must be able to interpret, diagnose, and provide reasoning based on what they are given. This is a very useful form of communication because it provides the students with instant feedback after they come to their conclusion. If they are wrong, they can see what the correct diagnosis was and the logic that the attending team or physician used to make this diagnosis and treatment plan. On the other hand, the student can validate his or her conclusion and way of thinking if they correctly diagnosis the patients condition. This is essential to their development as young doctors because a misdiagnosis can lead to a patient becoming sicker or even result in a fatality.
As someone who is not currently a part of the medical community, it is hard to grasp the importance of prior medical conditions and history when being treated. However, a physicians first job is to uncover as much as they can about a patients prior medical history which includes all previous conditions, tests, and treatments. These records provide physicians and students with an in-depth medical record about the patient as well as their current diagnosis and treatment. These charts are very effective because they contain immense amount of detail to prevent any mistakes from occurring during treatment or surgery. These charts are the basis for medical treatment and doctors, nurses, students, and many on health professionals use them to coordinate treatment of a patient. This genre of communication is in place so that there are no careless mistakes in the treatment of a patient. For example, many procedures can’t be performed until a patient has been prepped for the surgery or procedure. This can involve anything from sterilizing the area that will be involved in the surgery or making sure the patient has been fasting 24 hours before the surgery. It is essential to verify that there is nothing that could complicate or harm the patient as a result of miscommunication. Medical charts contain records of everything that has been given or done to the patient to ensure this doesn't happen. Nurses take records of when patients are given medication or when tests are performed, while physicians take records of what they are prescribing for treatment or what they did during a procedure. In case the patient is transferred to a new doctor or nurse, which is not uncommon, that medical professional can see everything they need to know about the patient before resuming their treatment. This genre of communication is an essential part of the medical student community as well as the entire healthcare community. Without these charts, it would be difficult for healthcare professional to learn anything about a patient and would result in a delayed treatment plan.
The systems through which medical students communicate with one another as well as the others they work alongside are very effective. As society transitions into the 21st century, the medical community must also innovate to keep up with rapidly expanding technology. Carol Tenopir revealed how many physicians are still reluctant to switch over to new technologies like digital medical records and digital journals. These emerging genres of communication are unfamiliar to many, but the new wave of medical students is taking kindly to them. More medical school are utilizing online textbooks, digital models, and electronic resources to prepare these hopeful doctors for the constantly evolving medical field. Within my lifetime, there will be a major shift in the way medical students and the medical community utilizes digital resources to improve the efficiency and reliability of communication. Society as a whole could benefit tremendously by improving the ways in which our future doctors and medical professionals move information between one another and patients.
Overall, medical students are required to acquire and gain a profound understanding of the human body in only four short years. This expectation is not impossible, but it requires students to utilize many tools of communication to effectively understand the material and be able to pass it on later on. Through the use of models, videography, and hands on experience, medical students transform themselves into walking encyclopedias ready to address any medical condition with confidence.