Class of 2015... How ya doing?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Yeah 🙁 First year (general path) they set out specimens and we went around to each one and gave a morph, then sometimes an etiology or pathogenesis or whatever. They had a few histo slides printed out and we had to answer questions about that lesion. This year for lab exams (systemic path) they do a powerpoint with an image of the lesion or a histo slide and ask the same things- morph, description, etiology, pathogenesis, etc.

For path lab we have two hours broken into 1 hour each of histo and gross. So half the class goes down to gross lab where specimens are set out and we get to look at them and ask questions. There's also usually a powerpoint presentation. For the other half, each different professor does the histo part differently. We either look at slides on microscopes or powerpoint and have either a lecture type thing associated with it or a "look at these slides and tell me what you see" which is always like pulling teeth because no one has ever studied at that point and we have no idea :laugh:

And thanks🙂

:wow: i'm pretty much speechless!
 
you have a lab exam??

Are there places that DON'T do a lab exam for gen path or sys path??

Our gen/sys path exams were straightforward: 20-30 pictures on the screen with a couple questions about each one (usually a morph plus some differentials, or that sort of thing).

Anyway, I really just came into the thread tonight to say: Y2S2 sucks. Badly. I love vet med (I finally got to use a cutting laser on a living patient today for the first time; that was kinda neat), but this semester is NASTY.

.... back to studying cardiopulm for the next crappy exam.
 
Are there places that DON'T do a lab exam for gen path or sys path??

Our gen/sys path exams were straightforward: 20-30 pictures on the screen with a couple questions about each one (usually a morph plus some differentials, or that sort of thing).

Anyway, I really just came into the thread tonight to say: Y2S2 sucks. Badly. I love vet med (I finally got to use a cutting laser on a living patient today for the first time; that was kinda neat), but this semester is NASTY.

.... back to studying cardiopulm for the next crappy exam.

we dont have lab exams. for gen path last semester we had 3 or 4 labs that consisted of looking at histopath slides and then the rest of the semester was just additional lecture time. for systemic path part 2 we had 3 necropsy labs (like go do it yourself here's a euthanized animal type labs) and the upcoming labs after midterms are a mystery to us. we have what we call Auburn Rounds, where path case presentations have been video recorded and each one is a few minutes each. each week we have a devoted hour to watching a few of those cases, discussing them, and then actually calling an Auburn pathologist (super awkward) to ask questions.

I HATE PATHOLOGY. there. now i feel better.

i love this semester. my whole class does. i think at SGU, the super sucky worst semester is Y2S1 because everyone (past and present) grumbles about how much they hated that term. the disgusting, awful, makes me want to cry part of this semester is happening in a week when we have all 5 midterms back to back in one week. 😡
 
No lab exams for us either. Our tests had 3 questions from each lab on them, but that's as close as we got.

Today is the start of toxicology, small animal surgery, companion animal medicine, and anesthesiology. Unfortunately our radiology exam did get moved back and that will be on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Geez. That doesn't sound fun. I liked our Path labs. We'd all wander down to the path theater and stand in the stadium viewing area while the path staff and residents took turns presenting whatever interesting cases they had going on and they'd quiz us about the cases as they went. It was actually fun, educational, and a good break from sitting in a lecture. Then at the end of semester we got a lab exam that consisted of pictures from some of the cases we'd seen (or similar ones) that semester.

It doesn't hurt that almost all of the path staff/residents are decent presenters with a sense of humor.

(This is me trying to bury my head in the sand and pretend I'm not about to fail a cardiopulm exam in a half hour or so.)
 
We didn't have an actual lab exam for path, but we had a crapton of gross labs and each written exam included two or three gross specimens that we had to describe. Also, there was no histopath--just pound after pound of formaldehyde-soaked guts.
 
Our gross path course director is great at path and stinks at teaching... But you didn't hear it from me.
 
We'd all wander down to the path theater and stand in the stadium viewing area while the path staff and residents took turns presenting whatever interesting cases they had going on...

That sounds fancy...

We have path rounds every Thursday. We do have bleachers to sit on, but there isn't really any elevation to them so you can't see better, it's just a place to sit.
 
No bleachers or stadium viewing... Some labs are hands on, but the course director likes to just go through more pictures during lab, and she holds the vast majority of labs, so there isn't much hands on or live exposure in path here.
 
Has anyone bought a DASIE to practice on http://www.dasiesurgery.ca/DASIE/DASIE.html? And what did you think of it? I was debating about getting one.

http://shop.surgireal.com/collections/all
http://www.3-dmed.com/Lap_Training_Aids_&_Accessories_Suturing_&_Anastomosis.html#SP3L08

these are the products our sx skills professors recommended to us. for the first website, they recommended the 3 layer (our lab has these to use for the semester) and for the 2nd website they recommended the 4 pack small 3 layer. a lot of us bought the 2nd one and i honestly like it a lot better. i think its easier to work with (although the other one looks and feels cool!). the biggest issue i've noticed about surgireal is that the "skin" wears out with suturing and rips more easily. very frustrating when you're trying to learn and practice. the 3dmed one has help up super well and the material just seals itself back together. if you have 3 other people to purchase with, you'll end up spending $20 apiece ($15 shipping).

so i didn't really answer your question, but these are products that i have used and i like both of them and would definitely recommend them. to practice tying tendons, we have small lengths of rope with tape around the ends, and for pedicles, we have little pieces of IV line that we've sewn on to our practice boards. :laugh:
 
We got ours for free thanks to a company that wanted to sponsor them for us 😍

It's OK. The outside layer gets a bit loose after yanking on it to drive your needle through but generally not a bad concept. I think someone (cowgirla?) was talking about making one of her own which you could totally do.
 
Just throwing out a suggestion for some cheaper things to practice suturing on - pigs feet (not the pickled kind) or a banana. You can't really do an intradermal pattern on the banana, but it's pretty good considering how cheap and easy it is to get. Grocery stores around here sell pigs feet--they're very good to practice on too. For practicing ligation, IV tubing or some other kind of rubber tubing is pretty good. 🙂
 
We got our suture kits and gowns today, and figured out which glove size we need. I'm so glad radiology is over and that we're finally moving onto surgery! We are also taking companion animal medicine, anesthesiology, and toxicology right now.
 
Starting to think about third year electives. We have a core/elective program here for third year. I know registration should be coming up in a few weeks, and I kind of wish someone would come talk to our class about what we need to take, scheduling, things like that.

Meanwhile, therio midterm tomorrow and pharm/tox midterm next week.
 
We got to practice IV catheter placement today on dummy dog legs made by our anesthesiologists lol.

Next week we should get our clinics schedules, and then SAVMA and spring break!

This block is kind of a bummer though. Seven companion animal medicine lectures per week and six in toxicology means we have double lectures a lot. I don't do well with those...
 
Nothing else to do this week, classwise. Not being too productive since next week is spring break. I'm just waiting for the weekend now - it's my anniversary so we gonn' go eat somewhere nice. Nom.
 
Rocked a solo big dog neuter today in northern MN. Considering I had never scrubbed in on a surgery before vet school I was pretty darn thrilled to be asked to do a canine neuter in my second year while the surgeon was busy with another case so that we could save some time.

Fun stuff.
 
19 days of classes left. 4 clin path quizzes. 1 more midterm (toxicology, tomorrow). Surgery lab final on April 8, Anesthesia lab final on April 15. Classes end on April 19, and then we've got more or less an exam every second day until the last one on May 3. Commence countdown!
 
Rocked a solo big dog neuter today in northern MN. Considering I had never scrubbed in on a surgery before vet school I was pretty darn thrilled to be asked to do a canine neuter in my second year while the surgeon was busy with another case so that we could save some time.

Fun stuff.

Wow, nice work! Scary and awesome all at the same time.

Coquette, I have an end of school count down and a wedding count down. Can't wait for the summer!
 
1 month 1 week and 6 days until summer vacation... I'm not sure I'm going to make it. I took spring break completely off and it was so amazing. I came in all refreshed and ready to go. Today I'm sick, stressed, fighting of panic attacks and feeling incredibly behind. Summer can't get here soon enough! Just hoping I don't end up tanking all of my grades 🙁 On the upside, I have a fun wetlab this weekend and we sign up for electives next week.
 
We don't get a summer vacation after 2nd year. We get about a week off, then start clinics. Either way, I'm excited to not sit in a classroom all day every day
 
Another snow day and I called it. My weather app is the most accurate weather thing I've ever seen. Fortunately it went from 10-20in down to just another 2-4 on top of whatever's out there now so hopefully won't be stuck inside all weekend.

We all actually wanted to go to school to get our tox exam over with. I also wanted to do laundry, go for sushi and pick up Ella's new renal food. 😡
 
At UF they have to go back into the classroom after the first clinical stretch though.

that is true. 2 semesters of clinics, 2 semesters of didactic, final semester of clinics left before graduation.
 
Strictly from a learning and assessment perspective I think it's kind of a neat and innovative way to approach learning clinical material. I know I've gotten a lot more out of the didactic topics where I've had clinical experience in them previously simply because I've got a much better idea of what's important and relevant and can click the details into place a lot more easily. I've realized over the past couple of years that the traditional curriculum is TOTALLY backwards for me. I am not a "start with the details and build the big picture from that" type of person, I am a "let me see the big picture and then the details will click and stick like glue" learner. The other way around seems menial and pointless to me. COMPLETELY backwards from the way we're taught and assessed, haha.

HOWEVER as much as the idea of the UF curriculum really appeals to me in theory, I feel like someone would probably have to knock me out and drag me back to the classroom by my hair because it's such a learned aversion at this point. :laugh:
 
Strictly from a learning and assessment perspective I think it's kind of a neat and innovative way to approach learning clinical material. I know I've gotten a lot more out of the didactic topics where I've had clinical experience in them previously simply because I've got a much better idea of what's important and relevant and can click the details into place a lot more easily. I've realized over the past couple of years that the traditional curriculum is TOTALLY backwards for me. I am not a "start with the details and build the big picture from that" type of person, I am a "let me see the big picture and then the details will click and stick like glue" learner. The other way around seems menial and pointless to me. COMPLETELY backwards from the way we're taught and assessed, haha.
. :laugh:

It scares me how much we are similar.
 
One final down and nine to go. Starting monday we have three finals a week for the next three weeks. Surgery lab final was yesterday. I didn't stab anyone. I'm pretty happy with how I did though it wasn't my smoothest gloving ever. My thumb got stuck. Next up: anesthesia lab final on Monday. I wish they would give us some more information on the format of it though!
 
Just finished with my 2nd exam. 7 more in the next 2.5 weeks and then this school year is finally over! Hopefully everything goes smoothly because I'm leaving the country May 2nd and won't be around for rewrites (last 2 weeks of May)..
 
6.5 weeks left + 1 week to take our end of 2nd year cumulative capstone exam thingy. We start our "Clinical Foundations" block on Monday (anesthesia, surgical tools, etc...) and I cannot wait. So much amazing stuff to learn!!!!!! I cannot wait. My heart rate increases just reading the lecture and lab titles. :naughty:
 
Tomorrow is our last day of class...and we have one class at 8:30am. Ugh. Talk about zero motivation to go...

We've finished two practical exams and our first written exam was today (fish health). Didn't feel super confident about it, but I barely studied, so eh.

Can't WAIT to go home. Also, wedding in exactly one month!
 
Tomorrow is our last day of class...and we have one class at 8:30am. Ugh. Talk about zero motivation to go...

We've finished two practical exams and our first written exam was today (fish health). Didn't feel super confident about it, but I barely studied, so eh.

Can't WAIT to go home. Also, wedding in exactly one month!

Wow... We still have 2.5 months until summer lol.

This week was a little brutal with 3 tests, but next week we only have one and the week after that is finals week. I'm soooo excited for our surgery lab next block!
 
Only 2 more weeks and 3 more exams before second year is over!! Then a week off, a coating ceremony, and on to clinics! I'm terrified and excited all at the same time.
 
Clinical pathology. :scared: There's just too much bloody (pun intended) information for 1 exam. Hemostasis, acid-base disorders, all of biochemistry, urinalysis, electrolytes, a bit of cytology and oh, probably some CBC stuff from pre-midterm for good measure. It's on Wednesday morning. I have so far gotten through the material twice. This is not going to be good.
 
Clinical pathology. :scared: There's just too much bloody (pun intended) information for 1 exam. Hemostasis, acid-base disorders, all of biochemistry, urinalysis, electrolytes, a bit of cytology and oh, probably some CBC stuff from pre-midterm for good measure. It's on Wednesday morning. I have so far gotten through the material twice. This is not going to be good.

our final was cumulative last term, i feel ya :barf: good luck!!
 
Oh yeah, as a subject, I love it. I'm not a fan of trying to cram it all in for an exam though. Working through cases with the ability to refer to books and my notes is one thing. Trying to download all that info to my brain is a completely different kettle of fish. 👎
 
Clinical pathology. :scared: There's just too much bloody (pun intended) information for 1 exam. Hemostasis, acid-base disorders, all of biochemistry, urinalysis, electrolytes, a bit of cytology and oh, probably some CBC stuff from pre-midterm for good measure. It's on Wednesday morning. I have so far gotten through the material twice. This is not going to be good.

So far, I've gotten through MAYBE 50% of it (if you don't count having read it for class/quizzes and attending lecture). I also love clin path so I don't mind studying it, but there sure is a lot of it!
 
Top