I have wanted to write a post about what it was like to be an IMG and the pros/cons of going off-shore for an MD for some time. Yes, officially I am done with this blog but for those future SGUers that may be reading later or lurking this post is for you...
My List of 10 Things to Consider:
1. SGU or another Caribbean medical school (but be careful because they are not all created equal) offers you a chance to earn your MD, a CHANCE to become a doctor. Getting accepted and going to SGU is by no means a guarantee that you will achieve your dream. I think this is an important point to make and for future and contemplative students to understand. I could tell you about a boy that came to SGU but left after a term because it was just too hard, I could tell you about a girl that left her fiancé to attend medical school and could not figure out how to be in a relationship with 1500 miles between her and her betroved. I know a student that left and is now in PA school. I personally know several people that despite graduating are unmatched and trying to figure out a way to secure residency in 2014. The say the hardest part of medical school is getting in. That may be true for US schools but I would not same the same for SGU.
2. Medical school is hard. You have to want it. And you have to be doing it for yourself. Otherwise, see above.
3. Even if you succeed and graduate, you MAY NOT MATCH. This is the truth and it is sucks. So if you have options, are young or simply don't want to be in this situation figure out how to get into a US Medical School. Go to DO school. Get into a medical masters program and try again. Being an IMG is a disadvantage and unfortunately this situation is only going to get worse.
4. You are one of many. The class sizes are large and growing each semester. There were 418 students at my white coat ceremony and another 86 that joined us second year from the Global Scholars Program in the UK. That means I am one of 500+ students in my term. The good- you can find your own click, study group, friends, out of 500+ this just happens. The bad-you never know everyone, you may rotate with fellow classmates that you never knew on the island. The professors and faculty will not know you unless you happen to do research (which is no small feat during the basic science years) or go to office hours incessantly. Individual attention is not going to be given to you so if you need small class sizes or personal help think twice before choosing SGU.
5. Your medical school only exists as an umbrella. Once you leave Grenada there is no campus, no SGU events or official student get togethers. You must seek out your own mentors and get advice on how to apply for which residency. For me this was not much of an issue as I was already decided that I would do Child Neuro and Dr. Boyfriend had gone through the whole process so I had support and mentors from my past research job, etc. For some students this was difficult and they struggled figuring out what they were going to do, what to apply for, how many program to apply to, etc. US medical schools tend to have academic advisors and small groups of students that meet throughout the four years and this type longitudinal support is lacking at SGU.
6. Medical school is DIY. I am sure that this is somewhat true for all medical schools but being an IMG in a class of 500+ students accentuates this aspect. There is no personalized instruction or mentoring. Sure you have an assigned faculty advisor but this is mainly lip service. I was able to meet with mine a total of two times in two years. One of the meetings was a lunch for all of the advisees. My advisor did not know my name. When I emailed him, his secretary responded. I had friends that had slightly more involved academic advisors but it really comes down to the fact that there are SO MANY students and that you are only on the island for two years. Resources are limited in this regards. Once I left the island I thought maybe I would find a clinical mentor but since I rotated at nine different hospitals and was continually moving this was a difficult proposition.
7. You have no medical center home. I was continuously changing hospitals during my clinical years. I rotated in county, state, community, private, and inner-city hospitals and saw a variety of patient populations. In doing so I learned different ways of accomplishing similar tasks. I believe this was a huge advantage and as I interviewed for residency I was able to apply my knowledge of different programs and know what I was looking for. Learning a new computer system or finding my way around the hospital was no longer a daunting task but simply part of each new rotation. Sure it was a pain to live out of a suitcase and move every 4-12 weeks but I liked the variety and exposure. For some, this is a disadvantage and there are work arounds. Note, you can choose to stay in one area but if you do this then you are limited to some of the less desirable places to train, in my opinion. I think moving around gives you a more diverse education better chance to network, etc. This worked for me but it was not always ideal.
8. You get to live in a foreign county. This was good and bad. I loved the experience and enjoyed Grenada. Many of my classmates did not. I missed my grandmother's funeral. I missed many birthday parties, weddings and family Holidays. There was no option of going "home for the weekend". This means that I was freed from many social obligations but it also meant I missed out on those special family moments. I lived away from my husband for two years and we joked about our "marriage by skype" this worked for us, but it was difficult.
9. You will most likely enter primary care or IM. This is simply a fact. If you desire to become a neurosurgeon or a dermatologist than SGU is not for you. Sure a token few in the top 5% of the class will match into a couple of highly competitive residencies but the vast majority (over 70%) are going into Family, IM and Pediatrics. Surgery, ER and anesthesia are possible but very competitive. This is the reality of becoming at IMG. (Note-I based my calculations on the 2013 match list with a denominator of approximately 700.)
10. You will be in debt (unless you are a trust fund kid or have independent wealth of course). This is really not unique to SGU as all private medical schools are expensive but living in a foreign country and having to move around during 3rd/4th year adds to the expense. My medical school debt is over $350,000. I just finished my exit loan counseling and my monthly loan payments will be over $2000 (which is the graduated 20 year plan. Note, you do have the option to defer these loans during residency and accumulate more interest or pay based on salary but these options only apply to Federal Stafford loans not any Direct Plus or private loans you may have taken to subsidize expenses or apply to residency, etc.) Also note #9. As a PCP you will not make the big bucks to pay off your loans so unless you do a loan forgiveness program you will most likely be paying off your education for a very long time. I never really thought of this aspect or spent too much time worrying about the debt that medical school requires as money was not my reason for choosing the field. Yet I now believe this topic is worth the mental exercise.
If you can be happy doing something else, do it. If not, well then choose carefully, have a plan and may luck be with you!
Showing posts with label Grenada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grenada. Show all posts
4.06.2012
missing you
I don't know if its the ho-hum of rotations (8 weeks into IM) or the fact that I'm away from truly good friends for so long but I've been missing Grenada lately. I miss the warm breeze and the chance to go swimming in clear blue 80 degree water. I miss my friends on Friday nights when we would chat over a bottle of wine about our week and our plans after Grenada. I miss the study breaks and the ability to go kayaking on a random Tuesday morning before class. I miss the island time lifestyle and all the awesome Grenadian people. I miss Prickly Bay Pizza and I miss my path group. I've taken to wearing my Path Group NOS scrub tops to the hospital lately... I just miss it all.
I don't miss being an MS I or MS II (being and MS III, almost IV is much better) but I do miss the people and island and good times.
I randomly started talking to one of my favorite clinical assistants at the hospital yesterday. He was born in Mexico City and was telling me how beautiful his home country is and how I should go on vacation there... (and I'm sure he is right) but all I could think was, I'd rather go back to Grenada!
I do like California and where I am and what I'm doing. But it would be super nice to be sitting on the beach looking at St. George's with a good friend calling me to join her for a swim in the warm, sun-kissed aqua water....
Happy Friday!
I don't miss being an MS I or MS II (being and MS III, almost IV is much better) but I do miss the people and island and good times.
I randomly started talking to one of my favorite clinical assistants at the hospital yesterday. He was born in Mexico City and was telling me how beautiful his home country is and how I should go on vacation there... (and I'm sure he is right) but all I could think was, I'd rather go back to Grenada!
I do like California and where I am and what I'm doing. But it would be super nice to be sitting on the beach looking at St. George's with a good friend calling me to join her for a swim in the warm, sun-kissed aqua water....
Happy Friday!
4.27.2011
Confessions of a Med Student- Part V
After much delay this is the final Grenada installment of my confessions series. The following post is all about Term 5. Follow these links for previous terms: 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th
The schedule: Pathophys, BSCE (Basic Science Comprehensive Exam Review), Pharm, Clinical Skills, oh and don't forget to self study for Step 1!
Lectures are in the afternoon which I liked much less than morning lectures. Because I went to class most of the time I felt like I never really had a chance to study until after dinner which is a bit late to start (think back to first term, yikes!) and what this meant for me was that I had a lot to cover on the weekends and that I rarely went out during the week. I found that 5th term was just a busy as 4th but that might have only been my class going perception.
Mornings are consumed with small groups and clinical rotations. One day of the week you go to the Hospital for Clinical Skills and mini-rotate through the different wards. In theory you get to see a variety of patients and practices but really the point of this is not to learn about pediatrics vs OB/GYN vs Family Med (that's what 3rd year is for!) but to practice taking histories and doing physical exams. As long as you don't expect that you will be suturing in surgery or actually doing anything of importance this can be a fun morning to hone your skills and meet a variety of Grenadian docs. I enjoyed being about to see the difference between the hospital, private practice and clinics. It was educational on many levels. Grenada does not have the resources of a well developed country and so the type of medicine practiced did not always reflect the US style health-care system but there are fundamental similarities and for the most part the teaching was good and the patients more than willing to assist as themselves.
There is a small group for everything! Pharm, Clinical Skills and Pathophys all include a morning session and depending upon the tutor/Prof/subject they ranged from helpful group learning experiences to a total waste of time. In theory these were great but in reality it was lots of busy work preparing for the sessions and then attending, etc. And because these were in the morning I tended to not get a lot done beforehand or during the lunch break. I think it is because of the schedule that so many students stop going to class. Small groups + mid-day break/lunch + class = day over and no studying accomplished. If I could have stomached sonicing I would have but alas I had to stick out the lecture hall. Hence my lack of life outside of 5th term. But I guess it is medical school after all...
Class in and of itself was okay. The pharm department is well run (I heart Dr. Dasso) and lectures are as exciting as pharm can be I would guess. Basically it was biochem on drugs. I hated biochem and found pharm to be a fair amount of work and a ton to memorize but I somehow survived. Small groups were a bit tedious for my liking but overall I think SGU pharm prepares you well for Step 1.
Pathophys is taught in conjunction with BSCE and is basically a huge review course: Pathophys is a subtle repeat of Path minus the morphology and BSCE is a review of everything else (anat, biochem, histo, physio, etc). I annotated into First Aid and started doing questions in prep for Step 1 as part of the class studying because at this point it all becomes one and the same. Which is not to say that prepping for BSCE or spending Friday afternoons in Taylor are enjoyable but if you use your time wisely the work you put into BSCE can be helpful come Step 1.
I already wrote about Clinical Skills. And actually I thought these small groups were some of the best. Each week a different system is assigned and the tutor takes you through a case and review which as a group you use to review the system and arrive a diagnosis. (Bonus- minimal prep needed besides reading through that section of First Aid and the class notes.)
All in all, 5th term is like your senior year of anything else. It is physically hard to be in Grenada and you just want to go Study for Step 1 and be done with basic sciences already. But the classes are okay and the material matters so you just do it. And then before know now it, you are packing your suitcases and shipping your things home. Grenada is over and two years of your life never felt so difficult, rewarding, simultaneously long and fly-by quick. Then you take a break (optional) and prepare for an exam that will test your past two years and determine your future. So yeah, that is 5th term in a nutshell. I hope this has shed some light on the final term of basic sciences. I do not yet miss lecture, but I do sometimes miss Grenada. Enjoy it while you can.
The schedule: Pathophys, BSCE (Basic Science Comprehensive Exam Review), Pharm, Clinical Skills, oh and don't forget to self study for Step 1!
Lectures are in the afternoon which I liked much less than morning lectures. Because I went to class most of the time I felt like I never really had a chance to study until after dinner which is a bit late to start (think back to first term, yikes!) and what this meant for me was that I had a lot to cover on the weekends and that I rarely went out during the week. I found that 5th term was just a busy as 4th but that might have only been my class going perception.
Mornings are consumed with small groups and clinical rotations. One day of the week you go to the Hospital for Clinical Skills and mini-rotate through the different wards. In theory you get to see a variety of patients and practices but really the point of this is not to learn about pediatrics vs OB/GYN vs Family Med (that's what 3rd year is for!) but to practice taking histories and doing physical exams. As long as you don't expect that you will be suturing in surgery or actually doing anything of importance this can be a fun morning to hone your skills and meet a variety of Grenadian docs. I enjoyed being about to see the difference between the hospital, private practice and clinics. It was educational on many levels. Grenada does not have the resources of a well developed country and so the type of medicine practiced did not always reflect the US style health-care system but there are fundamental similarities and for the most part the teaching was good and the patients more than willing to assist as themselves.
There is a small group for everything! Pharm, Clinical Skills and Pathophys all include a morning session and depending upon the tutor/Prof/subject they ranged from helpful group learning experiences to a total waste of time. In theory these were great but in reality it was lots of busy work preparing for the sessions and then attending, etc. And because these were in the morning I tended to not get a lot done beforehand or during the lunch break. I think it is because of the schedule that so many students stop going to class. Small groups + mid-day break/lunch + class = day over and no studying accomplished. If I could have stomached sonicing I would have but alas I had to stick out the lecture hall. Hence my lack of life outside of 5th term. But I guess it is medical school after all...
Class in and of itself was okay. The pharm department is well run (I heart Dr. Dasso) and lectures are as exciting as pharm can be I would guess. Basically it was biochem on drugs. I hated biochem and found pharm to be a fair amount of work and a ton to memorize but I somehow survived. Small groups were a bit tedious for my liking but overall I think SGU pharm prepares you well for Step 1.
Pathophys is taught in conjunction with BSCE and is basically a huge review course: Pathophys is a subtle repeat of Path minus the morphology and BSCE is a review of everything else (anat, biochem, histo, physio, etc). I annotated into First Aid and started doing questions in prep for Step 1 as part of the class studying because at this point it all becomes one and the same. Which is not to say that prepping for BSCE or spending Friday afternoons in Taylor are enjoyable but if you use your time wisely the work you put into BSCE can be helpful come Step 1.
I already wrote about Clinical Skills. And actually I thought these small groups were some of the best. Each week a different system is assigned and the tutor takes you through a case and review which as a group you use to review the system and arrive a diagnosis. (Bonus- minimal prep needed besides reading through that section of First Aid and the class notes.)
All in all, 5th term is like your senior year of anything else. It is physically hard to be in Grenada and you just want to go Study for Step 1 and be done with basic sciences already. But the classes are okay and the material matters so you just do it. And then before know now it, you are packing your suitcases and shipping your things home. Grenada is over and two years of your life never felt so difficult, rewarding, simultaneously long and fly-by quick. Then you take a break (optional) and prepare for an exam that will test your past two years and determine your future. So yeah, that is 5th term in a nutshell. I hope this has shed some light on the final term of basic sciences. I do not yet miss lecture, but I do sometimes miss Grenada. Enjoy it while you can.
11.01.2009
Halloween Hash Happenings
So, I did it. I went on my first Hash. For those of you reading along at home who might not know, a Hash is a hike or a run and kind of race, except it isn't... Let me explain.
(If you know all about Hash Rules then skip this paragraph.) The Hash Trail is set (there are typically two, one for runners and one for walkers with the runners trail being slightly longer) and by set I mean someone first creates a trail through mountains, hills, streams, beaches, etc. and leaves shredded pieces of paper along the way. However, there are also "forced" trails- circles that signify branches in the trail and you have to guess which one is correct. If you guess incorrectly you will find yourself upon a big X at some point and thus have to turn back, return to the circle and take the other trail. Now there are some other Hash pointers. At any forced trail you can call, "Are you?" and others will reply, "On, On" meaning they are on the correct trail, or "Checking" if they are exploring the forced trail and not sure or "On, Back" if they have discovered an X and are on their way back to the circle. There is also the spraying of "virgin" Hashers at the end with beer and then lots of beer to drink. For the entire history of the Hash, read here.
We went with the Grenada Hash Hound Harriers (the local island Hash club) and they have Hashes pretty much every other week and sometimes more. This one was at La Phare Bleu in our own Parish of St. Georges, it was beautiful, a nice hike complete with swimming and party afterwards. There was a pool, Carib Tent, good food, lots of families, locals, fellow SGUers and it was a nice way to spend an afternoon/evening. Plus since it was Halloween there were plenty of costumes (I went as Static Cling- socks and dryer sheets stuck to to me, hair sticking out) and even a haunted house towards the end of the Hash. Cost= $2 EC + food/drinks. Well worth it. Something I recommend and will absolutely do again. The ultimate way to see the island and enjoy a study break.... speaking of studying I guess I had better get back to that, ON, ON! (oh and enjoy some pics from along the Hash.)
(If you know all about Hash Rules then skip this paragraph.) The Hash Trail is set (there are typically two, one for runners and one for walkers with the runners trail being slightly longer) and by set I mean someone first creates a trail through mountains, hills, streams, beaches, etc. and leaves shredded pieces of paper along the way. However, there are also "forced" trails- circles that signify branches in the trail and you have to guess which one is correct. If you guess incorrectly you will find yourself upon a big X at some point and thus have to turn back, return to the circle and take the other trail. Now there are some other Hash pointers. At any forced trail you can call, "Are you?" and others will reply, "On, On" meaning they are on the correct trail, or "Checking" if they are exploring the forced trail and not sure or "On, Back" if they have discovered an X and are on their way back to the circle. There is also the spraying of "virgin" Hashers at the end with beer and then lots of beer to drink. For the entire history of the Hash, read here.
We went with the Grenada Hash Hound Harriers (the local island Hash club) and they have Hashes pretty much every other week and sometimes more. This one was at La Phare Bleu in our own Parish of St. Georges, it was beautiful, a nice hike complete with swimming and party afterwards. There was a pool, Carib Tent, good food, lots of families, locals, fellow SGUers and it was a nice way to spend an afternoon/evening. Plus since it was Halloween there were plenty of costumes (I went as Static Cling- socks and dryer sheets stuck to to me, hair sticking out) and even a haunted house towards the end of the Hash. Cost= $2 EC + food/drinks. Well worth it. Something I recommend and will absolutely do again. The ultimate way to see the island and enjoy a study break.... speaking of studying I guess I had better get back to that, ON, ON! (oh and enjoy some pics from along the Hash.)
4.20.2009
I kind of like it here
Now, don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to my last real summer vacation. Who knows when or how old I'll be before I have over two months of personal time to work, travel and lounge at my discretion again. And of course I do miss certain things and people from home. I am looking forward to going home, but I am not dreading coming back in August either.
The thing is, I like Grenada and I think I'm getting a good medical education at SGU. I like my classmates, I've made some amazing friends. Sure medical school is a lot of work, but I think this setting makes it easier to work. There are few distractions that are not self created and people here work hard. Of course there will always be those that work harder or play harder than you but for the most part my classmates want to be here and we are all doing our best to do well.
I have not been counting down the days because I really don't have anything to count down to. Sure ordering a drink from Starbucks, seeing my husband, going to the playground with my nieces, walking around a modern hospital, reading The New Yorker on the Monday it comes out, all of that will be nice. But last night I went out to dinner with a few of my favorite island people and we celebrated a Birthday, a published paper, a summer travel internship and being a month away from completing first term, and that was nice too...
I could write about everything I miss from home and the States, but the thing is, I am starting to think of Grenada as my second home and I'm going to miss my friends from here and the amazing view of the water and the Island time lifestyle over the summer. I recognize that this is not the place for everyone, but as for me I'm okay with being a SGU student in Grenada, 'cause, I kind of like it here!
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