Purexia: January 2015

Monday 26 January 2015

I spy I spy..

A horde of Y1s (first-year meds of a 6-year traject) bitching about learning physical exams in med school.
Yes, I'm not a Y1, but I planted a spy in Y1, who alerted me to the issue of ladies not wanting to be practiced on by male students during their Anatomy block.
Reasons for this are shyness around males, or religious beliefs.
Similarly, some male students do not want to practice on females because of the same reasons.

Seriously?

You're in fucking Medical School. You're one lucky bastard to get into medical school, now don't be a prude and don't ruin medical education with religious beliefs. Learning how to save lives includes physical exam, and hiring simulating patients for practicing physical exams on is ridiculously expensive. (that being said, if I got paid for getting practiced on, I would totally do it).

So suck up and deal with it.

Saturday 24 January 2015

YES! This!


Thank you, pediatrician who put this up, and thank you, Redditor who posted it!

This is a rant post, specifically aimed at anti-vaxxers. Do not read if you don't like pro-vaxxers, because I am one. If you keep reading this, you might get your feelings hurt (not like I'd particularly care about crushing your anti-vaxx ideas, but I like to pretend I'm nice)

<3

First Aid and over-the-counter meds at events..

Those of you who aren't aware of my activities outside of med school: I volunteer at the Red Cross as a first aid provider at events. (Events being small local pop concerts, fairs, sports games, national holidays etc)
People generally never ask me for a paracetamol (acetaminophen) tablet. If they do, the occurrence is only about once or twice for every 50 hrs of volunteer work.
To be clear, our Dutch Red Cross district doesn't hand out pills if we can help it. Our volunteers also aren't given medication to hand out to people.
But at my latest 5-hr shift, I've been asked for aspirins/paracetamol/ibuprofen over 6 times.
Some people were suffering from headaches, others were trying to get one for their friend with a headache. And another was trying to get aspirins for a 2 year old child.
.. Uh. How about.. No.