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How to Be a Problem Solver on the Wards

take special note of the things the residents and attendings complain about.  What annoys them?  What frustrates them?  Come to think of it, when you are on their service, what annoys/frustrates you?  Make it your goal during 4th year to fix one of these problems.  They will be impressed.

During my fellowship, one of the residents noticed that the ICU attendings complained a lot about the care the Emerency Department (ED) was providing to patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)…. He did a literature search on diabetic ketoacidosis and created a clinical pathway complete with a standard order sheet (so you really can’t screw up the pathway) that the ED and ICU both agreed to.

Turning Problems into Opportunities to Impress [Medscape]

Corollary: How to Master Humility on the Wards

Nasopharyngeal Specimen Collection – A Guide for Medical Students

The New York City Department of Health has prepared an excellent guide for nasopharyngeal specimen collection that describes both nasopharyngeal aspirate and nasopharyngeal swab methods.  This concise review will prove helpful for those medical students beginning outpatient medicine rotations or family medicine.

Nasopharyngeal Specimen Collection for Viral Respiratory Pathogens [NYC Dept of Health]

Basic Lung Sound Primer

Stethographics offers a review of commonly encountered lung sounds that includes audio samples and graphical illustrations of the following breath sounds:

• Bronchial
• Vesicular
• Fine Crackles
• Coarse Crackles
• Wheezes
• Rhonchi

Don’t forget to check out there brief heart sound primer.

Basic Lung Sounds [Stethographics]

Caffeine Maintenance – Can Missing Your Morning Cup of Coffee Reduce Productivity?

An update on Professor Peter Rogers caffeine research…

“Although frequent consumers feel alerted by caffeine, especially by their morning tea, coffee, or other caffeine-containing drink, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal,” wrote the scientists, led by Peter Rogers of Bristol’s department of experimental psychology.

The team asked 379 adults — half of them non/low caffeine consumers and the other half medium/high caffeine consumers — to give up caffeine for 16 hours, and then gave them either caffeine or …placebo.

The medium/high caffeine consumers who got the placebo reported a decrease in alertness and increased headache, neither of which were reported by those who received caffeine.

But measurements showed that their post-caffeine levels of alertness were actually no higher than the non/low consumers who received a placebo, suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to “normal.”

Caffeine addicts get no real perk from morning cup [Reuters]

Corollary: Achieve Morning Alertness without Caffeine
Corollary: Neuroprotective Effects of Caffeine
Corollary: Coffee Drinking and Heart Disease
Corollary: A critical review of caffeine withdrawal: empirical validation of symptoms and signs, incidence, severity, and associated features.

Weekend Inspiration – Dr. Walter Watson

“Papa Doc,” as he’s known to many, has delivered some 18,000 babies during his career.

Watson is thought to be the oldest practicing doctor in the world and, despite having turned 100 in February, still runs a full-time practice in Augusta, Ga.

Watson served in the Army before going to medical school and also spent seven years doing hard labor on a farm — for 50 cents a day — to save up for his education.

He did his residency at University Hospital in Augusta, and still works there to this day.

“I love medicine and I love having contact with people,” Watson said. “It gives me a reason to crawl out of bed in the mornings.”

After 18,000 Deliveries, Doctor, 100, Still Working [AOL News]

How to Honor 3rd Year Rotations

A few tips for your 3rd year rotations from Graham Walker, MD …

1. Be enthusiastic. Energy is contagious, and we all need more of it in medicine. Bring it to your rotations! Even if you’re not interested in, say, surgery, look for a particular aspect that you do find interesting. Help out where you can. Volunteer to do more. It goes a long way.

2. Avoid complaining. As hard as you’re working (and I’m sure you are!), your residents are working even harder (or at least have more responsibilities and are balancing more spinning plates). It’s fine to join in when people are venting about how big your team’s census is getting, but you won’t be winning any points by saying how rough your job is. (We all know scut sucks, but if you don’t do it, your resident will be doing it for you.)

3. Anticipate tasks that need to be done. Once you’ve spent a week or two on a service, you can start to see some patterns: calling for a nutrition consult, getting social work involved, collecting a patient’s list of home medications, and requesting the old chart. Surprise your resident by thinking ahead, and you’ll be at the head of the pack.

10. Come up with your own patient assessment and treatment plan. …show your colleagues that you’re thinking and learning. You’ll sometimes be wrong, but you’re supposed to be wrong, right? Otherwise there’d be no reason to go through medical school and residency.

How Can I Distinguish Myself on Clinical Rotations? [Medscape]

Corollary: Clinical Years – Acting the Part

Corollary: How to Master Humility on the Wards

How to Earn Money Online During Medical School

• BuyMyTronics: Since students are usually huge gadget freaks, it is likely that they have a lot of unused gadgets lying around. The best use of such gadgets would be to sell them to BuyMyTronics. Yes, this is a site which purchases old gadgets and also offers free shipping. It couldn’t get better.

• Ether: Here’s another unique site that could help you make some extra cash. Known as Ether, this site lets experts share their knowledge for a price. If you consider yourself well-versed in any subject or a field, you could sign up for the site and start taking calls at your will.

• Crossloop: If you like helping people with their computer troubles then you might as well make money doing that. On Crossloop, you could create a profile, set your hourly rate and help people from all over the world in resolving their computer issues.

• Pickydomains: Pickydomains might probably one of the best ways to earn $25. You just need to come up with a domain name for a client that isn’t registered yet. Yes, there are a ton of domain names that are yet to be taken up. Just fire up your imagination and get started.

10 Sites Where You Can Earn Some Extra Cash While You Are a Student [Dumb Little Man]

WashU Neuromuscular Disease Center – The Ultimate Online Neurological Disease Database

For thorough summaries of numerous neurological diseases, bookmark Washington University’s database on your mobile device before starting your neuro rotation/class.   Disorders & syndromes are searchable categorically or alphabetically.   The database is updated frequently; a detailed revision history is maintained on the database’s homepage.

Neuromuscular Disease Center [Washington University]