Brain not big enough?

[Pathres11]

I'm beginning to think I may not be cut out for this. In med school, I had no problem learning since everything was given to us in giant, but digestable, syllabi. Now, especially in surgical pathology, there is an endless amount of information and hardly any time to study. Following each rotation, I feel like I completely forget everything a week later.

Our SP rotations are broken up into 2 week organ system blocks, but just the LENT service covers lung, H&N, salivary.. equating to more than 100 (dense) pages in the Washington manual. I hardly have time to read, and actually understand, about 20 pages, which means I have no idea what's going on 75% of the time. Am I doing something wrong? What are ways to approach surg path in order to maximize retention?

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[longlakeboy]

I'm guessing you're a first year, mostly because I felt this way as a first year and I think almost everyone who isn't either a genius, cocky, or both feels this way.

There's no magic fix. Read as much as you can, and look at as much glass as you can, but keep it within reason - don't let residency consume you. You are going to forget a lot. But then you'll have a rotation a second time, a third time, a fourth time... material will get pounded into your brain at slide conferences... you'll keep reading. Things will start to stick. Repetition is key, and you're going to get repetition in any decent residency program.

Most residents I know say there's a point that usually happens late in the second year where things "click." Try to stay calm, don't beat yourself up, and just work hard.

 

[yaah]

Once you realize you can't possibly memorize everything you will be better. Stuff will start to stick - some of it takes a couple of times before it does.

 

[mlw03]

I'm beginning to think I may not be cut out for this. In med school, I had no problem learning since everything was given to us in giant, but digestable, syllabi. Now, especially in surgical pathology, there is an endless amount of information and hardly any time to study. Following each rotation, I feel like I completely forget everything a week later.

Our SP rotations are broken up into 2 week organ system blocks, but just the LENT service covers lung, H&N, salivary.. equating to more than 100 (dense) pages in the Washington manual. I hardly have time to read, and actually understand, about 20 pages, which means I have no idea what's going on 75% of the time. Am I doing something wrong? What are ways to approach surg path in order to maximize retention?

Try not to stress. The advice others gave is right. Read what you can, learn the common stuff first. No one knows everything. That's why we have books and colleagues.

 

[LADoc00]

Make flash cards and find a quite place to read and study up on cases. Do not freak. Freaking is a common "Im overwhelmed" response by interns, often before they drop out..

I had 2 roomates during residency that literally turned my life upside down with their hijinks. I then lived by myself during my fellowship and ended up reading around 200-300 pages a day religiously 7 days/week. Part of that was roomate hijinks and just the lack of sleep due my residency schedule wasnt going to allow much info retention. But during that fellowship year, all of it came together. I was pretty much signing all my surgpath aside from difficult consult stuff (and even alot of the consult stuff I took down well) solo by the end, was a fairly shocking transition.

 

[Euchromatin]

As one of our senior attending pathologists likes to say, "Repetition is the branding iron of knowledge."

I agree with the other posters, it all seems overwhelming, but just try and master the most common entities and the rest will come. Don't beat yourself up if you don't have time to do extra reading (+/- comprehending) at the end of those really long days. I know it depends on the way your rotations are structured, but if you have time, try and do most of your reading as you are previewing your cases, when the slides are right in front of you.

I felt something like a breakthrough during the spring of first year (our whole first year is general surg path plus autopsies when required) when I realized that information I had learned about one entity, organ system or immunostain could actually be pretty helpful in evaluating other entities/organ systems. Once I had some of the basic building blocks in place, learning new things was easier and took a little less work because I could relate it to something else I already knew.

 

[deleted314957]

Don't freak. like the others have said---it comes with time. i've been doing this a long time and i still consult references all the time. thats why i have them. you don't have to memorize everything.