I'm honestly not sure where to put this, but it is hard to open up and vent elsewhere, so...
I'm an Australian medical student, and I'm in the final year of my degree. Our final examination was last year, and I scored slightly above the class average, so... Yay? (to explain: we do three years undergrad / premed, two preclin, an intensive clinical year, our final examination, and then a full year of on-wards assessment (where I am now ) )
But the thing is, I've just started an elective placement in a large general practice... And I feel completely and utterly useless. And stupid. And all manner of other things.
I get to parallel consult which is great, but... So often, I hit things that I just never was taught about (perhexaline associated neuropathy, for example) , or that I learned, for my exams last year, but haven't used in practice since and have forgotten.
On previous rotations, I've always been able to revise and study the area and know at least the common and 'red flag' presentations... But here, when I'm being exposed to so many different things, I'm just feeling overwhelmed. I've been doing stupid things like mistaking mildly inflamed glue ear with OME, or forgetting acceptable variances in PSA levels, or even forgetting that I need to get urine protein and albumin for a patient with slowly declining renal function. I just can't help but think that the GP I'm with (who is amazing) must think I'm the most inept medical student ever. Nobody ever says anything, but I just feel as if I'm almost too dangerous to be where I am in my degree.
I just have to ask... How do others cope with these feelings? What can I do to get ontop of and deal with the sheer variance associated with a GP placement, where it is so hard to study for what you might expect to see?
I'm an Australian medical student, and I'm in the final year of my degree. Our final examination was last year, and I scored slightly above the class average, so... Yay? (to explain: we do three years undergrad / premed, two preclin, an intensive clinical year, our final examination, and then a full year of on-wards assessment (where I am now ) )
But the thing is, I've just started an elective placement in a large general practice... And I feel completely and utterly useless. And stupid. And all manner of other things.
I get to parallel consult which is great, but... So often, I hit things that I just never was taught about (perhexaline associated neuropathy, for example) , or that I learned, for my exams last year, but haven't used in practice since and have forgotten.
On previous rotations, I've always been able to revise and study the area and know at least the common and 'red flag' presentations... But here, when I'm being exposed to so many different things, I'm just feeling overwhelmed. I've been doing stupid things like mistaking mildly inflamed glue ear with OME, or forgetting acceptable variances in PSA levels, or even forgetting that I need to get urine protein and albumin for a patient with slowly declining renal function. I just can't help but think that the GP I'm with (who is amazing) must think I'm the most inept medical student ever. Nobody ever says anything, but I just feel as if I'm almost too dangerous to be where I am in my degree.
I just have to ask... How do others cope with these feelings? What can I do to get ontop of and deal with the sheer variance associated with a GP placement, where it is so hard to study for what you might expect to see?