What to throw away

[Hayduke]

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I got to wear the funny hat last week. Now I'm preparing for a move and happily have taken all my notes out of their folders.

To my partners glee I trotted all the way to the recycling bin. Then I began looking through some of the pharm stuff, micro was beautiful, my neuro was dang near publishable.
These notes are stellar. To my alarm it seems like I have forgotten the bulk of the detail.
Steps 1 &2 are gone. I have a great residency. Now what can I toss out?
Does anybody ever look back and use this stuff?

 

[NinerNiner999]

No. Throw it away.

 

[hardy]

Scan it in and throw it away... that way you will have it just in case.

 

[werewethere]

Give it to the M1 or M2, that will give them some notes if they miss class and the class notes for that lecture were lousy.

 

[deleted113029]

Scan it in and throw it away... that way you will have it just in case.

i doubt hayduke has that much time and determination.

hayduke: i threw away ALL my notes even though i am notorious for keeping anything of educational value. it's quite a cathartic process...especially if you have a paper shredder. those notes being transformed into confetti was a sight for sore eyes.

 

[radonc]

someone in our medschool sponsored a note-burning bbq...it was actually quite a lot of fun.

 

[colbgw02]

If you need to look something up, it will almost certainly be in a textbook. Toss the notes.

 

[MichiMO]

If you need to look something up, it will almost certainly be in a textbook. Toss the notes.

I have found that I learned more by taking notes than actually reading my notes. I have never found it useful to look at them later as a reference (except of course when I was in the actual course and the process of creating them was still fresh in my mind)

Toss them...there are more than enough sources out there if you want to refresh some of the basic sciences

 

[Midwest Medic]

I tossed my notes and quite a few of my M1 and M2 books. I kept the books for the internship, thinking "I may need to lok up some random histo question...." ya, never even cracked most of the books. I kept my anatomy, my physiology, and pharm books, and really haven't cracked them either, but you never know....

 

[AmoryBlaine]

As an M3/M4 if you ever need to look something up you will do it on the computer. Even if you can't find it there, no one is going to back to their old notes from a lecture given by a PhD to answer a clinical question.

Disclaimer: I would reccomend you hang onto to your Netter and a Physio textbook.

 

[yaah]

I am in pathology residency and I have never looked at my histo or my pathology notes. I think I went back to my micro/ID notes when I did my microbiology rotation but it wasn't really that helpful - I had the same info in current textbooks, etc. I did, however, save Robbins and a couple of other textbooks as those can be handy reference materials at occasional times.

The type of knowledge you learn in med school is different than practical knowledge. Obviously, a lot of it IS practical, but the way you learn it in residency and real life is different (emphasis, organization, etc). If it is something that is important for you to learn, you will learn it again and it will be in the new textbooks that you look at. Don't forget - almost every residency program is going to have good access to online information, textbooks, journals, etc, that will provide you with easy access to any info you can think of. Searching through your med school notes is unlikely to help much. And while some of your textbooks might come in handy, you can always borrow them from a library or get the info from other sources later (like Goodman and Gillman, Robbins, micro texts, etc).

 

[Winged Scapula]

Throw it all away.

 

[mgdsh]

I'd say throw most everything away, but somethings are time pieces... Some books are just classics. My dad still has his Robbins (from the 1970s), and although it was never mine I still awe at the sight. For those who are wonder, no he's not a pathologist or anything close to it 🙂 I'm definitely keeping my Robbins, Guyton and Netter's.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I'd say throw most everything away, but somethings are time pieces... Some books are just classics. My dad still has his Robbins (from the 1970s), and although it was never mine I still awe at the sight. For those who are wonder, no he's not a pathologist or anything close to it 🙂 I'm definitely keeping my Robbins, Guyton and Netter's.

From one book lover to another, I agree...don't throw away major texts, especially those like the ones listed above that cross specialties.

However, it was my impression that the OP was asking about lecture notes and what she should throw out. Most of us in residency and beyond seem to agree that you will never look at those notes again and to throw them all out (hence my post above). Books are another matter as they can be valuable resources.

 

[sophiejane]

I kept a few things that were, in the immortal words of Oprah, "aha" moments for me. Stuff on what electrolytes go where in the kidney, some neuro stuff. Things I might actually need to know. The thing for me is that just looking at my own notes/diagrams jogs my memory in a way that a textbook or article can't, because it's personal.

I have other little pearls written in the back of my Maxwells, and other pocket books.

I saved the cards I made when studying for step 2 because there were some good little gems in there, too.

Not that I will ever look at any of that crap, really. But they are sort of like my favorite stuffed animal from childhood that I still have in a box somewhere.... an intellectual Binky, you could say. 😉