technical ability and medicine

[longshot]

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So much of medicine seems to involve procedures and technical dexterity. Personally, I'm not that great with my laboratory techniques like working with separation columns, running southern blots, setting up assays and the like. In college, I was always the last person to leave the lab after doing an experiment. Now at work in a diagnostic laboratory, I'm having trouble just getting in decent results for my supervisors. Do any of you guys have or experienced the same problem? I don't know that doing gel electrophoresis is analogous to suturing a wound or starting an IV.... But nevertheless should I be concerned about this weakness?

 

[Ernham]

Just stay away from pathology and the like. Hey. Go into psychiatry and psychoanalyze someone else trying to figure out "blots."

 

[paramed2premed]

I am not in med school yet. But I was a rather pokey lab student in org chem, never quite as facile as the other folks.

I have also done some work as a paramedic, so I know that this deficit does not extend to clinical skills. Learning how to place an intravenous catheter or an endotracheal tube is more like learning how to rock climb, or downhill skiing for the first few times. A lot of practice, getting the sequence down, planning it out.

If medicine were in any way like a lab session, I would rather be a SAAB mechanic!

 

[Neuronix]

It takes time and practice to become proficient at research techniques. I was horrible in my ugrad lab classes and when I started doing research it took me at least six months to really get going. Everyone who has been through it will tell you that research techniques often don't come quickly or easily.

The same goes for medical techniques. Hence 4 years of medical school followed by 3 - 7 years of residency.

The key in my opinion is to be patient, persistant, and attentive. In research at least, if you fail any of those things, you won't get anywhere. When I was last in my ugrad labs it was usually because I was being all three of those things and my classmates were doing none. For the most part, they didn't care at all about the lab and just wanted to get out as quickly as possible (most common reason, Dawson's Creek was coming on). My TAs did not like the fact that I was making them sit there longer, but hey, screw them.

Good luck!

 

[Penguin Poptart]

I have the same concern about technical ability and med school, all also stemming from traumatic experiences in undergrad lab classes. I swear I never have that feeling of being either too slow or a bull in a china shop except for in organic chem lab. I also agree with Neuronix that part of the problem was taking lab too seriously, being too concerned etc. I think I may have done consistently better on the reports/quizzes than the other students in the class, but I was also the most stressed out and the last to leave and I too think the TAs didn't love me quite as much as they should have considering that I wasn't dumping the stuff down the sink like some of the others.😱
My hand shook sometimes too... I guess from nerves? Never saw that before or since. Anyway, the whole business of being a good clinican worries me, too. But I guess I have hope that being smooth in orgo lab is different from being a doctor. (No, I don't plan on being a psychiatrist, like Ernham suggested.) I plan on maybe having to try harder than the next person at first and quieting my nerves until I get the hang of doing the procedures. But in the end, I think I am comforted by remembering that the other people who stayed late with me in orgo lab were often the ones who I noticed to be more careful, watchful and more deliberate (i.e., hence maybe I am also those things), and those seem to be good traits in a hands-on doctor.

 

[Penguin Poptart]

Oh yeah, and paramed2premed, with me you could fill in the following blank with just about anything.

If medicine were in any way like a lab session, I would rather be a _______.

 

[Biodude]

Cool...glad I'm not alone. I sort of suffered through labs myself. It was funny that most people seemed to do better in lab and worse in lecture, but for me it was the other way around...

These seem to be pretty good tips.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

I'm reading a book, How To Choose a Medical Specialty, and it seems that the majority of medicine specialties/subspecialties require very little manual dexterity. (In the Why This One section of each specialty, non-surgical practitioners frequently said things like, "I'm a klutz" to explain why they chose that field.) I wouldn't worry about it at all.

One of my friends from high school didn't think she would be especially good at procedures, turned out to be great at them, is going into OB/GYN, possibly into gyn onc. Another friend, who is a marvelous pianist, is staying as far away from procedures as possible. So you really can't tell until you get there.