how was your first year? anything you loved/disliked?
I'm in love with my class. We have such a wonderful mix of people, and we all really care for each other. There's 155 of us, but I think I'm closer to more people in my class now than I was in college.
I really like the clinical aspects we get exposed to. The very first week, we were down in the simulation center, and we actually learned a lot of skills (blood pressure, phlebotomy, allergy testing, etc) before the class above us did, even though we were separated by a year. We interview patients (both real and standardized) all the time, and we get exposed to different types of patients (for instance, we got to do ultrasounds on pregnant women when we were learning embryology). Plus, a lot of the clinical faculty that come teach us are amazing.
A lot of the things I disliked are nitpicky things that didn't work so well in the new curriculum, and those will be changed for later classes. I'm especially jealous that next year's class gets a fall break each year, when we didn't get one last year and don't get one this year. Plus, they get an additional three weeks for summer break that we don't get (we're actually still in class right now; we have this week and another two weeks until we get out).
I thought the pace of some of the courses was a little off, but they're changing that starting with next years class, by removing a lot of time for one class and adding time to other classes. Some were more organization things that I hoped are fixed for future classes, things like posting resources in a reasonable time frame, integrating pharm into the curriculum a little more, etc. The administrators are really receptive to feedback, and I think the classes below us will really benefit.
But, in general, I do like the new curriculum. It makes more sense, and there's a lot of application, so hopefully we'll remember a lot more when we get to the wards than the classes above us did. Plus, you know, we finish in December, instead of March.
