Most worthless medical school course?

[seanjohn]

What do you think it is?

I think it would either be biochemistry, histology, or embryology. I'm leaning more towards biochem or histology being the most worthless and clinically insignificant courses, but maybe a medical student can shed some light into why those courses have any purpose whatsoever for doctors, besides learning them for just basic knowledge.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Pinner Doc]

What do you think it is?

I think it would either be biochemistry, histology, or embryology. I'm leaning more towards biochem or histology being the most worthless and clinically insignificant courses, but maybe a medical student can shed some light into why those courses have any purpose whatsoever for doctors, besides learning them for just basic knowledge.

From what I understand, as an MS2:

Histology is pretty darn important if you're going to be a pathologist.
Embryology is pretty key if you're going to be a pediatrician. You'd better understand the difference between transposition of the great vessels and tetralogy of fallot, for instance. Or Hirshprung's. And what caused them.
And biochem is important in disorders like Tay-Sachs, or PKU, or fun things like Maple Syrup Urine disease!

 

[BKN]

What do you think it is?

I think it would either be biochemistry, histology, or embryology. I'm leaning more towards biochem or histology being the most worthless and clinically insignificant courses, but maybe a medical student can shed some light into why those courses have any purpose whatsoever for doctors, besides learning them for just basic knowledge.

30 years later, none of them are worthless, I've used them all. Which ones are most valuable do vary by specialty.

Just accept it and walk the walk. The rewards will come later.

 

[seanjohn]

From what I understand, as an MS2:

Histology is pretty darn important if you're going to be a pathologist.
Embryology is pretty key if you're going to be a pediatrician. You'd better understand the difference between transposition of the great vessels and tetralogy of fallot, for instance. Or Hirshprung's. And what caused them.
And biochem is important in disorders like Tay-Sachs, or PKU, or fun things like Maple Syrup Urine disease!

Well, I guess you're right, although learning glycolysis all over again in biochemistry, or learning how to identify organelles under a microscope in histology really seems trivial to me, especially when looking at clinical significance.

Some aspects of these courses are usfeul, but I feel as though there is a lot of useless and unnecessary garbage thrown in as fillers.

 

[Touchdown]

Biochem-there are pharmists for a reason, and that reason is so docs dont have to worry about biochem.

 

[Pinner Doc]

Actually, I was thinking... it's pretty worthless to ask an MS2 why these things are important... bc most of us will answer, "Because it's ALL on the BOARDS!"

 

[riceman04]

From what I understand, as an MS2:

Histology is pretty darn important if you're going to be a pathologist.
Embryology is pretty key if you're going to be a pediatrician. You'd better understand the difference between transposition of the great vessels and tetralogy of fallot, for instance. Or Hirshprung's. And what caused them.
And biochem is important in disorders like Tay-Sachs, or PKU, or fun things like Maple Syrup Urine disease!

I am taking histology right now!!!
I can tell you right now that histology is very important...it's a cool class.

 

[tulane06]

From what I understand, as an MS2:

Histology is pretty darn important if you're going to be a pathologist.
Embryology is pretty key if you're going to be a pediatrician. You'd better understand the difference between transposition of the great vessels and tetralogy of fallot, for instance. Or Hirshprung's. And what caused them.
And biochem is important in disorders like Tay-Sachs, or PKU, or fun things like Maple Syrup Urine disease!

Now I feel like having pancakes!

 

[Brainsucker]

The useless courses are the ones where you don't learn anything. My epidemiology course, for instance. Believe it or not, I knew what a p-value was before medical school. And don't get me started on nutrition. There just aren't good studies available. (I don't know if any of you saw the WHI study in JAMA. Case in point.)

 

[Iwy Em Hotep]

The useless courses are the ones where you don't learn anything. My epidemiology course, for instance. Believe it or not, I knew what a p-value was before medical school. And don't get me started on nutrition. There just aren't good studies available. (I don't know if any of you saw the WHI study in JAMA. Case in point.)

I thought I knew what a p-value was before my epidemiology course. Same with 95% CIs.

I wouldn't say there are any useless courses, but there are certainly courses that I enjoy less than others, and many courses that could have been taught better and made more interesting.

 

[Law2Doc]

What do you think it is?

I think it would either be biochemistry, histology, or embryology. I'm leaning more towards biochem or histology being the most worthless and clinically insignificant courses, but maybe a medical student can shed some light into why those courses have any purpose whatsoever for doctors, besides learning them for just basic knowledge.

In real practice, you'll only use a tiny fraction of any of the basic science year courses. In various specialties, you might use one or two more intensely than others. But the goal is to give you a foundation, a starting place, so that when you need to consult books on a complicated case, you aren't starting with college level bio and working your way up.
(And yes, they are on the boards, and your second year courses will build on your first year courses, so it pays to learn them well.)

 

[gujuDoc]

Well, I guess you're right, although learning glycolysis all over again in biochemistry, or learning how to identify organelles under a microscope in histology really seems trivial to me, especially when looking at clinical significance.

Some aspects of these courses are usfeul, but I feel as though there is a lot of useless and unnecessary garbage thrown in as fillers.

Keep in mind that at the medical school level all the courses are taught at a clinical level so you get to see the relevance a little bit more then if you take it at undergrad level when it is taught from a research standpoint and purely scientific standpoint.

For instance, what I'm learning in physiology right now is useless because lets face it, who cares about invertebrate portions of physiology when they have nothing to do with clinical physiology. But at the medical school level, since everything is taught in a clinical perspective I'd say that it is useful. Will you remember it all??? probably not. However, it serves its purposes.

Actually, I think medical education has improved quite a bit from the hay days of med school because we are seeing more and more integration of clinically relevant medicine in the first two years with the existance of things like longitudinal clinical experience courses where you begin to learn clinical skills from year one, and problem based learning where they take the basic sciences and put them into case base studies so you can see how it relates on clinical levels. I know at USF COM they have it where you learn the gross anatomy, embryology, etc. first year, and then they start to teach pharmacology and immunology and tie in the clinical relevance a lot more in year 2.

But they have clinical experience courses and preceptorships in first year and second year to get you into the swing of learning how to take histories and start learning diagnosis procedures.

You may not remember everything you learn in medical school, and in fact won't use a lot of it. However, i believe it does serve its purposes to some extent or another.

 

[gujuDoc]

In real practice, you'll only use a tiny fraction of any of the basic science year courses. In various specialties, you might use one or two more intensely than others. But the goal is to give you a foundation, a starting place, so that when you need to consult books on a complicated case, you aren't starting with college level bio and working your way up.
(And yes, they are on the boards, and your second year courses will build on your first year courses, so it pays to learn them well.)

This about sums up my point beautifully.

 

[gujuDoc]

I am taking histology right now!!!
I can tell you right now that histology is very important...it's a cool class.

I agree. Histology was a pretty fun class, but we had a dry lab which was the only part I hated. By having a dry lab, we just sat in lecture watching her put up slides for the lab portion. Even if we didn't prep the slides, I would have preferred to look at prepared slides in a microscope by myself rather then sitting and looking at the ones she put up on a screen.

But I thought it was pretty interesting and actually liked it better then macroscopic anatomy.

 

[Maskchamp]

I'm in med school right now and as of now in my first year its a review of undergrad. Is organic chem, Krebs cycle, Golgi bodies and all that crap really that useful? I don't know of any physicians that actually remember any of it...

 

[tux4]

Neuro anatomy


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[21Rush12]

11 year old thread guys.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[pathogeN7]

Dat necro.

 

[bcemslayer]

My mandatory interdisciplinary studies course that I am in with dental hygiene, nursing, dieticians, pharmacists, SLP and IT.
We have practice team meetings every other week, where we work on being different members of a team like "time keeper", "imitator" and "energizer"

 

[WedgeDawg]

this thread

(please don't bump posts for no reason)