Do you have a class you just cannot stand?

[sylvanthus]

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I'm sure most medical schools have a course that is required, that does not help us become better physcians, but we have to go to and put effort into anyways.

What class do you have that you just cannot bloody stand, but have to go through? Feel free to vent away!

My class will remain unnamed, but is lovingly named "compassion" class. It is 3 hours for 2 years. Yet, my school has 1 hour of micro a week for one semester.....Figure that one out! We are required to go on field trips, write papers, online discussion board, exams on minutiae that noone studies for, etc. Meanwhile, many people are failing systems.

Thoughts, whines, flames?

 

[brianmartin]

We have a similar class. In it we discuss acronyms for interacting with patients, ethics...basically an extended meditation on what it means to be a doctor and how to behave. Personally I think it is not the best use of time. I think you learn those things in real life not in a classroom, and no amount of article reading, essay writing, or group discussion is really going to make a difference. I do a lot of thinking on my own about the meta-issues and I find it annoying that I have to PROVE I do that thinking by writing a journal and spending 3 hours every week in a round-table discussion.

Like we had an entire 3 hours of lecture and small group discussion that basically boiled down to something completely obvious like "you should try and empathize with your patients." Holy crap! Really?

It's not that I hate touchy-feely stuff. I just hate talking and writing about it. One of the things I loathe most is being forced to write a journal, just because some staff professor thinks it is a good idea. I journal about patients quite enough in my own head, writing it down is just redundant.

 

[njbmd]

I didn't mind the subject matter of our biostats class but I fell asleep as soon as the lecturer started. Since I could rest better in my bed at home, I just didn't show up for that class. Turned out I didn't need to.

 

[corbis11]

embryology

 

[JimmyChitwood]

Biochem. 'Nuff said.

 

[jm192]

I'm sure most medical schools have a course that is required, that does not help us become better physcians, but we have to go to and put effort into anyways.

What class do you have that you just cannot bloody stand, but have to go through? Feel free to vent away!

My class will remain unnamed, but is lovingly named "compassion" class. It is 3 hours for 2 years. Yet, my school has 1 hour of micro a week for one semester.....Figure that one out! We are required to go on field trips, write papers, online discussion board, exams on minutiae that noone studies for, etc. Meanwhile, many people are failing systems.

Thoughts, whines, flames?

Hate hate hate histology.

 

[Daedra22]

We have a class on how to read scientific articles... fortunately I had plenty of this in undergrad, so this class is a complete waste of my time. ^.^ However, apparently there are people in my class who have never read a scientific paper (?!) and are learning from this. Since that is the case, there is obviously some reason for it... I just wish I didn't have to take it.

 

[Superman DO]

Evidenced-Based Medicine. . .seriously, the worst class I've even taken. Thank goodness it ended today! And I hate embryo lectures. . . .

 

[Bernoull]

Anatomy, specifically the written exams....

 

[ButImLETired]

Anatomy. Everything about it. There was nothing pleasant, interesting, or seemingly relevant about it. Our anatomy professor once told us that we had the "third toughest anatomy program in the country", which made me wonder what the hell 1 and 2 were (and who decided how to rank the programs?!). Anyway, I hated every moment of anatomy and get nauseated whenever a lecturer puts up some kind of anatomical atlas picture on a slide. It's truly that visceral a response.

This year, I'm not a big fan of radiology and I think pharm is pretty boring. In general, I like processes and concepts more than sheer memorization. I see no benefit in knowledge for its own sake and in the ability to say "oh so this is here".

 

[naus]

Histology was pretty crappy.

But yeah the whole empathy crap gets old too. Those professionalism/ethics small group discussions are so inane, especially the idealistic/utopian drivel that comes from classmates with no health care or professional working experience.

You can't eat on empathy.

 

[engineeredout]

Pharmacology is the bane of my existance. We aren't simply taught drug classes, the drugs in each class, the MOAs and the major side effects. Instead we have Ph.Ds in pharmacology trying to teach physiology along with their pharm lectures but ****ing it up really badly. We have pharm professors who pull out these 10 year old documents with indications of various drugs for various conditions that are not only useless because they're outdated by now but are not even board testible because it is so subjective. The useless crap that ends up becoming emphasized, including random ass side effects make studying for class from pharm cards and/or FA pretty useless, so you have no choice but to uselessly cram the extra bull**** into your head only to let it all fall out right after the exam because it is not worth remembering in the slightest.

Pharmacology is important. Pharm the class is a waste of time. Pharm professors should be replaced with a box of flash cards.

 

[siliso]

Any class that is like, please memorize this list of letters and numbers that will be outdated by the time your tests are graded.

 

[Ischiowhat]

Instead we have Ph.Ds in pharmacology trying to teach physiology along with their pharm lectures but ****ing it up really badly.

👍 👍

Same with biochem. Biochem is important, but not they way they taught it.

 

[Mace1370]

Military studies, without a doubt. Such a huge waste of time. Here are some gems we have done so far this year:

1) 3 hour mandatory lab that consisted of watching video clips and then discusses what leadership "styles" were used (these were Hollywood movies like Flags of Our Fathers, etc).

2) Mandatory lab involving risk management. We had to read situations out loud and then discuss what could have been done to "reduce risk." Examples included "getting a weather forecast" to make sure you had the right clothes when going out for the day.

3) Mandatory lab that was a two hour class wide (all ~200 of us) "You don't know Jack" trivia contest. It was pure chaos.

Last year we had fun activities like a mandatory exercise lab where we were taught how to stretch and do pull-ups the day before a biochem exam. Some of the instructors got snippy and told us what they were teaching was more important than our medical classes. 👎

 

[Knicks]

I hated psychiatry and embryology.

 

[beachblonde]

we had a disaster preparedness class where we had to listen to a lecture, do an online module, and attend a small group to discuss what we would do in an emergency (natural disasters). We also had to turn in our "plan" for such an emergency. I wrote "1. buy water, 2. leave town" and handed it in. got full credit, too.

we also had a cultural competency class where, for several sessions over several hours, were told that we must be culturally competent. but they said that they couldn't teach us how to have this competency, but it was essential that had it. um, thanks?

 

[chiz2kul]

embro, biochem, evidence based medicine, histology, biostats

 

[MonsterHospital]

we have a similar "how to play nice with your colleagues" class at my school, and every time I attend I think "I could have been studying for [insert basic science class here]" It's a complete waste of time--if you've gone this long in life as a self-centered bully, why are you in med school trying to help others??

probably my least fave and probably least useful basic science course: histo.

 

[AlexMorph]

we have a similar "how to play nice with your colleagues" class at my school, and every time I attend I think "I could have been studying for [insert basic science class here]" It's a complete waste of time--if you've gone this long in life as a self-centered bully, why are you in med school trying to help others??

probably my least fave and probably least useful basic science course: histo.

umm, med students are notorious for being self-centered and not being able to get along with others. i'm not saying that class is going to change anything, but let's not pretend med students just wanna hold hands and sing kumbaya all day long.

 

[silverhorse84]

Last year I probably would have said gross anatomy.

I might be a little biased because we just finished this course, but I hated our parasitology course - I could never keep the genus names straight and I didn't understand why we had to memorize crap that we'll always end up looking up in a book once we're attendings.

 

[Mace1370]

Last year I probably would have said gross anatomy.

I might be a little biased because we just finished this course, but I hated our parasitology course - I could never keep the genus names straight and I didn't understand why we had to memorize crap that we'll always end up looking up in a book once we're attendings.

Parasitology was annoying for me more because of how they taught it. Not mentioning that we didn't need to know drug doses until a day or two before the exam? Grrr.

 

[ArcGurren]

we have a similar "how to play nice with your colleagues" class at my school, and every time I attend I think "I could have been studying for [insert basic science class here]" It's a complete waste of time--if you've gone this long in life as a self-centered bully, why are you in med school trying to help others??

probably my least fave and probably least useful basic science course: histo.

You're kidding me right? A good portion of the medical students I know are here for two reasons (1) they want to make a lot of money when they get out and (2) it's an ego trip.

I don't really mind the ethics/humanism classes that are taught at schools to be honest. They were a nice break from the mundane nature of most classes and they allowed some creative thinking that wasn't completely scientific in nature.

 

[islandCrazy]

Histology- I have it 5 times a week for an hour and half with a horrible prof. His accent is so thick I feel like I'm listening the adults from "Peanuts".

 

[coup de chance]

Har de har har... compassion class Are they for real?

Most places at least make an attempt to disguise these ludicrous classes with clever names or awesome acronyms.

Anyway

I hated just about every M1 class I had 👎thumbdown

So much BS...

I enjoy MDs and PhDs (who taught those classes) for their wacked out hilarity, but not when I'm under the pressure of a M1 test schedule

I'm sure most medical schools have a course that is required, that does not help us become better physcians, but we have to go to and put effort into anyways.

What class do you have that you just cannot bloody stand, but have to go through? Feel free to vent away!

My class will remain unnamed, but is lovingly named "compassion" class. It is 3 hours for 2 years. Yet, my school has 1 hour of micro a week for one semester.....Figure that one out! We are required to go on field trips, write papers, online discussion board, exams on minutiae that noone studies for, etc. Meanwhile, many people are failing systems.

Thoughts, whines, flames?

 

[coup de chance]

umm, med students are notorious for being self-centered and not being able to get along with others. i'm not saying that class is going to change anything, but let's not pretend med students just wanna hold hands and sing kumbaya all day long.

Well said 👍👍

 

[causalinference]

anatomy. Everything about it. There was nothing pleasant, interesting, or seemingly relevant about it. Our anatomy professor once told us that we had the "third toughest anatomy program in the country", which made me wonder what the hell 1 and 2 were (and who decided how to rank the programs?!). Anyway, i hated every moment of anatomy and get nauseated whenever a lecturer puts up some kind of anatomical atlas picture on a slide. It's truly that visceral a response.

This year, i'm not a big fan of radiology and i think pharm is pretty boring. In general, i like processes and concepts more than sheer memorization. I see no benefit in knowledge for its own sake and in the ability to say "oh so this is here".

yes.

 

[siliso]

Anatomy. Everything about it. There was nothing pleasant, interesting, or seemingly relevant about it.

I get that it can be boring and sucky, but how is it not relevant?

 

[secants]

I really have a dislike for Embryology for some reason with a close second to our histology lab. I can look up the pictures in 5 minutes, why waste 2 hours in lab doing the same thing?

 

[Julian2103]

Medical History 🙁

 

[coup de chance]

Medical History 🙁

WTF. A whole class just on history???!!!

If I'm understanding right, then that really sucks 👎thumbdown

That's valuable time they took that you could have been relaxing or going out 😡

 

[UAAWolf]

Global Health. We do nothing.

Listen to extremely liberal guest speakers pushing propaganda on us. Its the most bias POS I've ever experienced.

It could be a good class...but the political agenda and small mindedness of the profs make it garbage

 

[seelee]

Professionalism.

Summed up, it is basically an administrative loop-hole to bust "trouble-makers" for things that aren't actually prohibited by any rule or law.

So far, in my professionalism class the things listed as unprofessional include:

Wearing hats in lecture
Wearing athletic clothes in lecture
Going to pharm lunches.
Accepting pharm pens
Challenging administrative policy
Not challenging administrative policy
Answering too many (group) questions
Not answering enough (group) questions
Drinking when off duty
Frequenting Strip Clubs when off duty
Having sex with anyone at anytime.
Expecting to get paid
Expecting patients to have some degree of responsibility
...

Not to mention, these classes are always 3 hours long, and invariably scheduled the day before an exam.

Classes like humanities and professionalism serve no purpose but to justify salaries for people who earned useless degrees in college.

 

[Jolie South]

My least favorite classes were: doctor skills, ethics, and evidence based medicine. What do these all have in common? Incredible inefficiency in the way they're taught such that I would have to waste 3-4 hours a week on that BS.

Don't get me wrong. There were important things to learn in all of them, but it was just so painful to sit through any of them. Plus, you got participation points for each which really just encourage you to say your token couple of comments for the grade.

As a result, I've learned that I hate long-winded BS and inefficiency. Conclusion: I will never go into internal medicine.

 

[thedoctor8706]

I hate biochemistry, hate it to its very core. Memorizing metabolic pathways is a waste of time, especially considering every practicing clinical doc I've talked to knows less about it than me at this point.