The Spiritual Life of a Medical Student

Observation: Medical history taking is vital for medical diagnosis and treatment, so much so that we are trained and grilled to make our presentations are concise and meaningful with a specified format.  We are initially trained to believe that we need to write down what the patients says, but as we become better trained, we learn to include the patient’s answers to our diagnosis-directed questions, trying to fit the patient’s complaint into a box.  Interestingly, osteopathic diagnosis could almost care less about the history because so often the complaint is not located near the responsible restriction.  The icing that tops it off is that DO’s are known for their ability to listen!  The irony is truly giggle-provoking!

Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!  I’ll be in Cleveland, OH with a good friend of mine.  🙂

Since so many of my previous posts were political, I’m going to make this post political as well.  A good friend of mine who lives in Vermont opened my eyes to the good side of the Republican party last summer when I first discovered Obama and enjoyed discussing politics.  She said that Republicans, in their original form, were against making excessive rules and regulations, and I think this was in response to the overwhelming suppression and regulation forced on Americans by England…I have some reading to do.  ANYWAY, my point here was that I am having some desire of dysregulation of the medical system.

I’m in the midst of residency interview season and, although I love neurology, I’m having doubts about where I want my life to go and how to get there appropriately.  I daydream about how osteopathic education was when AT Still first open the American School of Osteoapthy.  I crave the simplicity of learning anatomy and manipulation and then applying this knowledge to every patient.  Sign.  I’ve also been reading a personality book and I believe I have the type of personality that can get lost in daydreams, so I try not to dwell for too long.  Why does the medical world have to be SO complicated, SO specialized and COMPLETELY run by guidelines derived from evidence-based medicine and “expert” opinion?  At times I also dream about going to another country (or the rural-est of rural locations in the US) and setting up a practice where there are no regulations, no records, no equipment; where my hands, heart and mind are the only tools I have to help people.  Oops!  There I go dreaming again.