(It should be noted that I'm wearing surgical gloves as I type this...teehee!)
Today's word of the day is brought to you by Dr. Basson, our guest lecturer this morning for the surgical interest group. He was describing how we could best prepare ourselves to match in a surgical residency, that we needed a lot of gumption and stick-to-it-iveness. Also honors surgical grades, a decent USMLE score, AOA membership, and letters of recommendation from clinicians who have actually worked with us.
A few of my classmates thought he was being rather pessimistic, but I thought it was a healthy, realistic approach. The first step to getting the residency you want is getting the interview, and he said that one one really cares if you're a wonderful person at that point. They want to know if you have the guns to stick it through. They want to know if you can handle a rigorous course load and come out somewhat on top. They want to know if you can be a leader among your peers and work well enough with real doctors that they also think you can handle it. It was also nice to hear this so early in the year, as it will be a constant reminder of why I'm doing what I do every day. I need to do well in biochemistry so I can do well on the USMLE so I can get the residency I want so I can be the type of doctor I want to be, surgical or otherwise.
Tomorrow is my first anatomy lab. I'm pretty geeked. We had a tour of it yesterday, and it reminded me a lot of the Body Worlds exhibits I've been to, except you get to touch them.
Back to studying!
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