Patient crushed their middle finger.....

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NontradCA

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I actually love learning anatomy, and it's easy for me to memorize things but what's the bigger picture in this course? I was doing some BRS questions, answering them and thinking "so what?" Example- The patient crushed their middle finger and the anterior interosseus muscle is spared. Is this going to change management of the crushed finger vs. say- the index? Are all these things I'm going to be learning going to have some impact in the future, at some point in which it all clicks and blends together? Is all of medical school like this?

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Further, am I supposed to be looking up the treatment of these injuries on my own, reading up on the complications and different types of fractures not covered? I know it's not covered on a test, but to what extent will this be covered later? Should I not care at this point in time and worry about acing my tests?
 
I've been using FA and BRS as purely supplemental clarification for my classes. Not sure how your curriculum is set up, but there's a good chance you'll learn it second year if you skip over it in class now. It seems like the only goal of my curriculum (and most of the others that I've looked into) is to prepare us for boards, and with that being said, all the other stuff that isn't covered is probably something that you will learn during rotations or that is easily inferred given the information they give you in class. However, I can only speculate...best bet is going to the prof and getting clarification.

And to answer your first question, I was told that everything I learn (med school or undergrad) will be needed later in life. Either it will blend together with the other knowledge I gain, or it will have a direct impact. Either way, it doesn't hurt to learn more than what is taught in class, so long as you have a good grasp on what you're going to be tested on.

I can offer my best advice/opinion on the matter, but in the end I feel the same way you do (especially about not caring about the extra material and just focusing on acing my tests)...so it'd be nice to hear the opinion of someone who's had a few more years in med school.
 
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Further, am I supposed to be looking up the treatment of these injuries on my own, reading up on the complications and different types of fractures not covered? I know it's not covered on a test, but to what extent will this be covered later? Should I not care at this point in time and worry about acing my tests?
Unless you do ortho, ER, FM, GS (w/hand service), or rads, you probably won't ever learn tx of that stuff.
 
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Unless you do ortho, ER, FM, GS (w/hand service), or rads, you probably won't ever learn tx of that stuff.
Thanks for the reply, so focus on doing well on tests and enjoying what material is given. Gotcha.
 
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Thanks for the reply, so focus on doing well on tests and enjoying what material is given. Gotcha.

You need to be strong with the Anatomy, but don't lose sight of the forest for the trees. While some things in Anatomy are essential to memorize (function, innervation/nerves, vascular supply, origin/insertion to a degree), you should keep in mind an overall idea of how certain injuries might result in loss of function, might damage neighboring nerves, etc. If you have a strong enough idea of what anatomical is near each other, and what muscles in that area do, what blood vessels in that area supply, etc., you can figure out potential complications of certain injuries.

For example, you don't need to necessarily memorize that a fracture to the surgical neck of the humerus could potentially damage the axillary nerve or post. circumflex humeral artery, but you should know that the nerve runs alongside it and the artery wraps around the neck, so you could deduce that a displaced fracture could compromise those structures (and whatever they innervate/supply), etc.

As far as learning treatment and management, forget that. You'll cross that bridge when you get there. For now focus on knowing as much as you can, because anatomy is essential, and learning it now will be much easier than relearning it during board prep (at least the high yield stuff, but even a strong anatomy foundation will make OPP much easier).
 
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I actually love learning anatomy, and it's easy for me to memorize things but what's the bigger picture in this course? I was doing some BRS questions, answering them and thinking "so what?" Example- The patient crushed their middle finger and the anterior interosseus muscle is spared. Is this going to change management of the crushed finger vs. say- the index? Are all these things I'm going to be learning going to have some impact in the future, at some point in which it all clicks and blends together? Is all of medical school like this?
That's an orthopedic surgeons issue, the rest of us you splint it, pain meds, and send to ortho.
 
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That's an orthopedic surgeons issue, the rest of us you splint it, pain meds, and send to ortho.


F that. Don't send it to me. Im a peds ortho fellow, and if that shows up in my office in ten months, it gets sent to the guy that did a hand fellowship!
 
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F that. Don't send it to me. Im a peds ortho fellow, and if that shows up in my office in ten months, it gets sent to the guy that did a hand fellowship!
Well, ortho in the general sense. Where I work there is no such thing as a "hand specialist". My ortho guy does everything except backs
 
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