9 classes for block 1

[docman85]

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Just curious to see how many classes other DO schools have during their 1st block. We have 9 at my institution, which makes for a rough load coming from being lazy and only taking pre-reqs this past year.

We also have 1 full day of testing over these classes every other Monday so we constantly stay behind...

 

[bleeker10]

We have gross anatomy, embryo, OPP w/ lab, H&P, and doc talk for the next week. We take our embryo final on monday and do our head/neck written test monday and NBME gross shelf on tuesday. After that we start our core, which consists of immuno, micro, biochem, and physio. We usually have a test every monday but usually don't have more than one test per monday. I know at one point we have two physio tests a week apart and then don't do physio for a couple weeks. We tend to do a lot of one class in a week and put the other classes on the back burners for that week

 

[Bacchus]

Ours is attached

 

[EmersonAnne]

We do a systems based curriculum, which is great! We're in Musculoskeletal right now so we do everything that's relevant to it -- anatomy, pathology, embryology, histology, physiology, microbiology, genetics, biochemistry, pharmacology, radiology, and we've had Internal Medicine lectures, Pediatrics lectures, and several patient presentations.

It's a lot, but it's all related to the musculoskeletal system so it's cohesive and interesting. I love it!

 

[thanecyan]

That's how my school works, EmersonAnne

I like it

 

[Vita]

I'm at VCOM, too. We have a systems based curriculum as well, but block 1 is just the foundations of medicine block, so it is a little annoying. I don't think I'll mind having 9 subjects when they are being related to specific systems. Right now, though, it is like a weird hybrid between the schools that do entire subjects in small amount of time (like my friend at ETSU's med school, who just finished his entire Anatomy course in 10 weeks) and the systems based schools.

Only 2.5 more weeks in Block 1 though!

 

[EmersonAnne]

I'm at VCOM, too. We have a systems based curriculum as well, but block 1 is just the foundations of medicine block, so it is a little annoying. I don't think I'll mind having 9 subjects when they are being related to specific systems. Right now, though, it is like a weird hybrid between the schools that do entire subjects in small amount of time (like my friend at ETSU's med school, who just finished his entire Anatomy course in 10 weeks) and the systems based schools.

Only 2.5 more weeks in Block 1 though!

My school does a foundations of medicine block too, but we finished ours in four weeks. We're in our 5th week of the musculoskeletal system now and we have finals week next week. We start cardio-pulmonary after that.

 

[Vita]

My school does a foundations of medicine block too, but we finished ours in four weeks. We're in our 5th week of the musculoskeletal system now and we have finals week next week. We start cardio-pulmonary after that.

Wow - 4 weeks? That's fast.

Do you find it is more cohesive when you are in the systems vs. the foundations? I think switching topics so often (especially on exam days, where we take 6-9 exams in one day) is a bit choppy/jumpy, since there isn't a lot of overlap yet.

 

[EmersonAnne]

Wow - 4 weeks? That's fast.

Do you find it is more cohesive when you are in the systems vs. the foundations? I think switching topics so often (especially on exam days, where we take 6-9 exams in one day) is a bit choppy/jumpy, since there isn't a lot of overlap yet.

Yeah, we went really fast and blew through our Foundations block. Yes, it's much, much more cohesive once you get to the actual systems. There's also a lot of overlap. For instance, we'll learn about rheumatoid arthritis in a lecture on internal medicine, then we'll see it again in pathology, then we'll see x-rays of it in radiology, then we'll get a patient presentation on it. It's great! Our exam weeks aren't like yours. What we do is we have our OMT practical and didactic tests on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we have our anatomy practical and a pathology practical. On Thursday, we have a lecture exam that covers all the topics we learned from all the regular lectures, including the lecture aspects of OMT, path, and anatomy.

 

[Bacchus]

I don't think I could handle that or want it. We have three SPOM (Structural Principles of Osteopathic Medicine) exams in our first trimester. SPOM includes anatomy, histology, embryology, and radiology. Each exam has a written and practical portion. We have two histology practicals. We'll end up with one written and two practical OMM exams. I'm not sure, to be honest, what is going on with primary care skills. Next trimester we have CMBM (cellular and molecular basis of medicine) which has an exam every three weeks.

Exams every week seems as if it would cause to much distress. Now, even if you take a week off after an exam, you have time to catch up.

 

[EmersonAnne]

I like it this way because everything is connected so you don't have to wonder "what in the world does this have to do with medicine?" We have a lecture exam every two or three weeks -- one mid-term and one final. We have an anatomy practical, a path practical, and an OMT/Clinical Skills practical every 4-5 weeks during lecture finals week. We also have human simulators and do exercises with them that are related (patient with an injured leg as part of musculoskeletal for example). Our medical interview with them/SOAP notes/H&P we write up/etc. count for a portion of our grade.

I don't know that I'd be interested in learning the basic sciences without the clinical relevance.

 

[koojo]

WVSOM switched to compressed classes this year. We started off with 9 weeks of anatomy (finished last week), OPP and Clinical Skills (both with labs). Since anatomy finished, we picked up Biochem and microanatomy. I like this better since you're concentrating on less things at once. I can't imagine doing 9 classes at the same time...ouch

 

[dani042]

We finish up first quarter the week before thanksgiving and we have Anatomy (gross, embryo, radiology), Histo, Biochem, EBM, Complete DOctor, and OTM.