Tag Archives: studying

Learning Medicine #SmartNotes

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What if I told you there’s a system that makes it easy to remember the things that you need to remember for exams, but also creates links that make it easy to study and understand the network of knowledge that you really need to learn to heal? 

And what if you could start using this system beginning on the first day of medical school…or at the beginning of your PGY2 year… or wherever you are on this journey now? 

Here’s how:

Step 1. Create a folder in Google Drive*

Step 2. Take notes. About everything.  

Step 3. Put the notes in your digital folder, filed by date and time, identified by hashtags and keywords. 

Step 4. Synthesize, summarize, and link. 

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Step 1: Create a folder in Google Drive*

Don’t panic. Yes… just one folder. 

Mine is labeled “card file”. You can always rename it. Maybe start with “My digital brain”?

If you just can’t stand it, you can create sub folders based on an anatomic filing system (e.g. Appendix, Colon, Heart, etc) but trust me – no sub-sub folders! 

*I like Google Drive because it’s very flexible and you can access it from any computer and your phone. There are other ways to store digital data that can work as well, like Evernote, OneNote, etc. 

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Step 2: Take notes. About everything.  

Keep a notebook in your pocket, use paper out of the printer, use a white board, or dictate directly into Google drive… but just take notes! 

This practice is a leap for most of us, but it not only leads to phenomenal learning, it fundamentally transforms how you interact with your day. There is power in a practice that makes you more present in your day. Every encounter, every lecture, every article you read becomes a potential adventure, a source for new insight and growth. 

There are only two rules

Rule 1: One concept per note. 

Rule 2: Write the note only one time  – don’t rewrite or retype notes. (If its’ a paper note, take a photo, or create a pdf to file in your google drive.)

What kind of notes will go into this system? 

Lectures. You know how to do this from other classes! Just because we call it “Grand Rounds” or “Path-Rad conference” doesn’t mean it’s not a class. Take notes! 

Notes from Reading. Textbook chapters, articles, handouts… 

SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). This one is key if you are in a procedural specialty. Keep a single “note” for each procedure and update it with new information as you scrub with new attendings. Put in links to good videos, photos from textbooks and anatomy books. Anything that will help you review what you know and have learned before you do the procedure again. 

Milestones. The first time you….listened to a murmur, talked to a patient about their prognosis, did a Whipple.

Questions, thoughts… “Why isn’t there a way to diagnose malrotation that needs surgery (vs.nonrotation) with diagnostic imaging?” 

What you learned from patients. Make it your goal to learn something from every patient you take care of. Write it down. Make sure it’s HIPAA compliant – no patient identifiers that someone else could decipher. 

Sounds. Yes, you can digitally store recordings! 

Summary Notes. One page summaries of complex ideas

Unanswered questions. Ideas for possible publications, future investigations, etc.

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Step 3. Put the notes in your digital folder, filed by date and time, identified by hashtags and keywords. 

File the notes by date and time + description e.g. 2022-07-18 1645 Creating a filing system for studying medicine.

Why?

Imagine… It’s the last year of your residency, it’s 2am, and you are admitting a patient with Hemophilia A who needs emergency surgery. 

You open your phone, go to your folder and search for #Hemophilia… and you find these notes: 

First year lecture on coagulation

Second year lecture on disorders of coagulation

Second year lecture on the pharmacology of factors given for the different types of hemophilia

Your summary notes on coagulation, coagulation disorders, and the meds used to treat them

Notes from a review article on caring for patients with hemophilia

Notes about that really cute 6 year old on your pediatric rotation who had hemarthrosis

Notes from Grand Rounds on your medicine rotation about disorders of coagulation

A lecture during your surgery rotation on pre-op preparation of patients with clotting disorders. 

Notes from Sabiston’s Textbook of surgery on patients with Hemophilia

What you learned taking care of the diabetic hemophiliac who needed an amputation when you were an intern

Last years’ conference with the visiting professor who was an expert on Hemophilia B 

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Step 4. Synthesize, summarize, and link. 

There are so many details in medicine that we often lose track of the big picture. That takes thinking, creating one page summaries of complex topics, and noticing connections.

Maybe it would be easier to show you rather than tell you. Let’s say you are in a lecture about how to read a chest x-ray. In your notebook (or on your computer) you are taking notes… lots of notes… how to tell what’s a pneumonia vs atelectasis, what different lung tumors look like, how to tell if the mediastinum is too wide. As a result, 2 years from now when you see a patient with a lung mass, you will be able to search your drive for “lung cancer” and these specific notes will come up. 

But as you sit and think about this lecture, you’ll realize that in addition to the details, there were more general concepts that were important, too.  For example, how important it is to systematically review every diagnostic image so you don’t miss the lytic lesion in the bone that was behind the big mass in the chest. (Link to my favorite study describing how this happens)

So you create a digital note that describes, in your words, how important it is to have a system to look at images. Which makes you remember that this is very similar to how we always follow a system to do a history and physical. So you search in your drive for the card you made about how to do an H&P and you link them, using the “insert link” command.  And, as you look at your H&P card, you notice that you had already linked it to cards you made about Basic Life Support (BLS) and ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support), two certificates you were required to obtain, both based on a system to not miss important steps in resuscitating patients. And suddenly you are interested in why systems like this make it so much easier, so you do a quick search and find a fascinating article on memory and learning (as opposed to memorizing). 

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This post represents a modification of the amazing Smart Notes system described by Sönke Ahrens in his book How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking. I highly recommend it, especially if you are considering an academic career!

Other things I’ve written about studying in medical school and residency: 

Studying for the In-Training Exam 2022-01-30

Study Tips for First Year Medical Students 2018-08-11

How to Succeed in Clinical Rotations (and residency, too) 2018-01-09 

Top Ten Tips on Starting Medical School 2022-06-18

How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams, In-Training Exams and Your Boards 2017-04-14

Studying for the In-Training Exam

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Every year every resident in the United States takes an exam (called the In-Service or In-Training exam) that covers all of their specialty. It’s meant to be a formative exam for residents and their programs, which means it’s supposed to let everyone know which areas need more focus. Unfortunately, because there are numbers associated with this test it has become a higher stress exam than it should be, especially for residents who are applying to competitive sub-specialties.

First a word to Program Directors. When you think about this test there are only three categories for the results

1) Possibly at risk to pass the boards (< 10th% ile?)

2) Going to do fine (11-79th %ile)

3) Extraordinary test takers who really know the info (>80%ile)

This is a comprehensive (and long) exam that often has a VERY narrow bell-shaped curve. What that means is an incorrect answer on 2 questions (some years) can drop a resident up to 10%ile points. Doesn’t it seem silly to think that 70th%ile is somehow “better” than 60th% or 50th%ile? (I’m looking at you, subspecialty PDs)

Now for my colleagues in training. You stressed about this exam, you “crammed” (yes, we all did it – even those of us who know it’s stupid) and now you are breathing a sigh of relief that it’s over…

Take a good break from studying. For the next two weeks, use all the time you would have been using to study to binge watch something on Netflix, read a few novels you’ve been meaning to read, or do whatever gives you rest and joy. Then….

Put this in perspective. At the end of your residency, you will be launched into the wonderful, scary, amazing world of practice. You want to know that you know enough to do this, right? So back away from the idea of the In-Service exam as a pain in the gluteus, and see if you can think about it as a formative exam. Which leads me to…

Learn About Deliberate Practice. The best way I’ve found to think about deliberate practice is to understand how musicians practice. I wish I could remember where I read this so I could properly attribute it (please let me know if you know!), but here’s the best example I’ve found to understand deliberate practice – Serious amateur musicians and professional musicians practice a similar amount of time… say 2 hours a day (for the sake of this discussion). But how they practice differs. The amateur will play the piece from beginning to end multiple times, occasionally stopping to repeat the stanza that trips them up. The professional will play it once or twice, spend an hour on a stanza that trips them up, then start over. That’s deliberate practice. Taking the things that are hard (or you don’t like) and repeating them until they aren’t hard.

So, putting this all together, here is what I suggest you do to get ready for the In-Training Exam:

Step 1: Make notes.  

Take one of the major textbooks in your field and make a spreadsheet of every chapter, topic, and subtopic in the book. Your goal is to make notes on every topic in the book from March 1st to December 1st.  Start with some simple math… March 1st to December 1st is 39 weeks, so take the total number of topics in your text book and divide by 39 to set your weekly goal.

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But you won’t start with page 1 and work sequentially to page 846. (Yes, for those not in medicine, the books are usually that long). When you are on call, and you admit a patient with pneumonia, read the chapter about pneumonia and make notes to store in Google Drive? EverNote? OneNote? It doesn’t matter as long as they are in the cloud and searchable. If you hand write notes that’s ok, too, just use an app like Scannable to turn them into PDFs and store them on the web (don’t forget the keywords and/or tags so you can search for them when you are reviewing). What should the notes look like? You graduated from college and medical school, so I’m betting you have a system that works for you. But, if you’ve never heard of it, take a look at the SQ3R system for studying. (Spoiler, it really works.)

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A few other words of advice. It is VERY helpful to link your notes to a specific patient. You’ll remember everything much better; I promise. So, mention the patient with COVID pneumonia who always wore their yellow baseball hat… but don’t put any PHI in your notes so you don’t get in HIPPA trouble.  Also, don’t limit yourself to notes from the textbook. This system allows you to make and store notes when you read an article, learn a pearl on rounds, create a mind map, use questions banks, or do a presentation…

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Step 2: Deliberate practice. There will be sections of your textbook that thrill you. Parasites? For some reason we are all fascinated by them. Coagulation cascade? Not so much. Recognize that it will always be easier to learn about parasites than the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways. (Unless you are going into blood banking, in which case I apologize). Which means you need to spend more time on the coagulation cascade. Darn. #DeliberatePractice

The fundamental thing that differentiates learning (for your patients) from memorizing (for the test) is repetition. Your goal is to see everything you need to learn at least 5 times, spaced over at least 3 months. If it’s a topic that is difficult for you, it will probably be more times over a longer period of time. #DeliberatePractice

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One of the best ways to learn specific pieces of information you need to know (like the coagulation cascade) is to use an app like Anki or other flashcard apps. The advantage of these apps is they force you into spaced repetition (remember the minimum of 5 times over 3 months?), but if you are more comfortable with the old-fashioned (but effective) analogue system of actual flash cards, go for it!

But – write this down and put it over your desk – You can’t learn to practice medicine from Anki. You may be able to learn the coagulation cascade and the ratios for Massive Transfusion Protocols… but you won’t learn how to care for a patient who is bleeding out. That’s why you read and that’s why you are in residency.

Another great way to learn something is to teach it. Put together a brief presentation and handout for your medical students on the coagulation cascade… and make notes about their questions, who was there (maybe even a team photo?) before storing your handout with your other notes.

Step 3: Review. This system builds in review of everything you learned over the year (by reviewing it at least 5 times over at least 3 months, remember?) but for next year’s In-Training Exam, plan to take a full month before the exam to stop making notes. Spend this month before the exam to go through question banks, review your notes, and memorize the coagulation cascade. 🙂

Study Tips for First Year Medical Students

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Yesterday was my first embryology lecture of the year to the new MS1s at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as the PA, DNP and Genetic Counseling students. For years, I’ve been including a few slides at the end of each lecture to help with the transition to medical school. Yesterday’s lecture ended with tips on how to study. I promised the students I’d share these slides in a written formate. I realized sharing them here might be the most appropriate way to do that!

Medical school (or any high volume graduate school) involves a dramatic change from what students have previously experienced. As you know, if you read this blog, I believe there are a lot of “tools” that can help students “thrive, not just survive”

The biggest change for many students is it really isn’t about the grades anymore. It’s about studying for the patients you will be caring for in the future. That means really learning the material, not just knowing it for a test.

Even though there is still a lot unknown about how the brain works to learn material, what is certain is that it is a physical process. You create new synapses when you experience or learn new things. As they are repeated, these synapses get stronger and stronger.

So, to organize the advice, I’ll share some basics, some specifics and then a little refinement.

Learning this volume of material at this level of complexity is about consistency. You can’t run a marathon by running 20 miles every weekend. This is no different. You need to study every day (except one). One of our great teachers at Baylor, Dr. Clay Goodman, tells our students that they have signed on for a 60 hour a week job. (which roughly means 1-2 hours of studying for every hour in the classroom). If you map out your week as a 60 hour job, it will work a lot better than ever trying to “catch up.”

The SQ3R system is the best system I know to learn what you need to know during the basic sciences. So, how do you translate the SQ3R system into practice?

The night before lectures, spend 30-40 minutes skimming the lectures. No “studying”. Be curious. What questions are going to be answered during the lecture? How is it organized?  (BTW “Mike” is a fictitious patient with muscular dystrophy that Dr. Goodman uses in an introductory lecture to show how everything you learn in medical school matters – from the DNA to the psychosocial context of the family)

This 30-40 minutes is basically the “S” and “Q” of the SQR3 system.

  • SURVEY to get the big picture
  • QUESTION = what questions are going to be answered during the lecture? What else do you want to know to really understand this? (write them down!). Do not try to look up anything now.

During the lecture stay ACTIVE. Don’t sit in the back row and look at FaceBook – even if the professor is reading the slides.* You’ll need to take notes for this to be really active. Put the questions you want answered on an outline you prepare the night before lecture and fill it in during the lecture. Use mind maps or other powerful visual aids to learn. Click here to get to my post on taking notes during basic sciences.

*(If you are a lecturer who does this, stop it! – otherwise you are guilty of “death by PowerPoint.” Find someone who is a good lecturer and ask them to coach you.)

After the lecture, you move on to the 3Rs. Now you get down to the real studying. Read through the printed notes (or slides). Did everything get answered? MAKE NOTES that synthesize what you learned.

Review. Review. Review. Here’s the deal. Medical school is a lot like learning a new language.  The first part of basic sciences (anatomy, physiology, embryology, etc) is learning the vocabulary. The second part of basic sciences (diseases, pharmacology, etc) is learning the grammar. When you get to the clinics, you are practicing the language until you are fluent. “Flash cards” such as Anki are great at learning “vocabulary”. They are terrible at synthesizing and learning connections and concepts.  That’s why you need a single page summary of every lecture. The summary is the “forest”, your notes (plus or minus flash cards) are the “trees”. If you really want to succeed, you need both. BTW, I made the class repeat (out loud) after me (twice) – “You cannot learn medicine from Anki alone.” (It’s on tape. I really did this.)

Here’s an example of a single page summary of the embryology lecture I gave the class yesterday. I spent time to make this really look nice – more time than you will want to spend. It doesn’t need to be typed, it doesn’t need to be particularly legible to anyone but you, but take the time to do these summaries!

Did I already mention that you need to review?

This is probably the single most important slide I show when explaining how to best study in medical school. It’s the basis of many apps in medical learning, including the NEJM Knowledge+ courses. There are two really important points in this graph.  First, it takes at least 5 repetitions to really learn something. Second, they have to be spread out in a logarithmic fashion over time.

Here’s how to do it. The first three repetitions should be same day, next day and 2-3 days later. The more times you review it, the better, but it should at least be 1 week later and 3 weeks later.  More is better.  Plan another review a month later and three months later, too. For the Type A folks in medical school (i.e. all of you), make a spread sheet!

 

Another thing about our brains and learning.  Pushing through for hours without rest is as stupid as thinking you can build up your biceps by doing an hour of uninterrupted reps. Speaking of reps… use “study reps”. Get an app if you think it will help. 50 minutes of studying.

Stop studying for 10 minutes (no matter how engrossed you are) when the alarm goes. Repeat.

People sitting next to you in your study areas are going to look like they have it more together than you do.  It might be true… but it probably isn’t.  If someone has a study technique that looks like it will work for you, by all means try it!  Just don’t change too often. I was a liberal arts major in college. If you come from a non-science background, the first 6 months are going to be a little tougher on you because you have more “vocabulary” to learn but don’t worry, after that you’ll be caught up,

Read this slide. Believe this slide. The most important point on this slide is the last line. You cannot make those physical synapses you need to really learn without 8 hours of sleep.

Keep notes about what works for you and what doesn’t. Everyone is a little different, but you will find a system that works best for you through conscious effort.

It’s like running. Some of this is just “time on feet”. Remember the 60 hours a week job concept and you’ll do fine.

I end with this slide to remind my students that there has to be balance for this to work. Most of what I tell my students about finding and keeping that balance is in this blog, so feel free to use the word cloud to the right or search for what you might need. Please contact me if you have a specific question I can answer or if you have an idea for a new blog post.

Welcome to the best career in the world! We are all happy you are here!

 

 

 

 

 

How to Succeed in Clinical Rotations (and residency, too)

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Today I have the incredible joy of talking to the medical students on our rotation.  No agenda, just a conversation that they requested for some “advice”. They just started their surgery rotation last week and it’s their first rotation.  First rotation, beginner’s mind, unbridled enthusiasm… it is so wonderful!. I decided I would come up with what I wish someone had told me at the beginning of my rotations…

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Be mindful, deliberate and excited about learning.

This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give.  Clinical rotations are often a whirlwind of work and you can be swept away without realizing it. Residents can ignore you, people can be cranky, patients can be difficult… and in the midst of all this, you are expected to learn to be a doctor.  You have to stay in charge of that mission, no matter what is happening around you.

Take a little time to reflect on why you are doing this and what kind of person/doctor you want to become.  When times get tough (and they will) hold on to it.  If it helps you, come up with a slogan to repeat, keep on a piece of paper in your wallet or on your wrist

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Learn about the practice of mindfulness.  Mindfulness has been shown to be effective in decreasing stress and may help to prevent burnout.  It’s not hard to learn, but it’s hard to master … which is the point of a “practice”. (e.g. the practice of medicine)

Learn to keep a “beginner’s mind”.  When I was a student on core medicine I had a senior resident that showed me what beginner’s mind looks like.  It was 2am and I was tired.  We were seeing a gentleman at the VA hospital for his diabetes, hypertension and some electrolyte abnormalities.  I presented the patient to the resident and then we went to see him together.  He had a rash, which I thought was so insignificant that I didn’t even include it in my presentation.  But, instead of scolding me, this resident got excited.  Yes, you read that correctly, 2am and excited about a rash – because he didn’t know what it was. (This next part will date me, but it’s a great example to make us grateful for the access we have to information now).  He called security and had them open the library.  We spent a wonderful hour looking through books – like a treasure hunt when we were little kids – until we found the rash in one of the books.  We were laughing, excited and couldn’t wait to get back to start the appropriate therapy.

 

Understand what you are going to learn (the big picture)

On every rotation, you will be given a list of learning objectives.  By all means, know them, study the things listed and make sure you know them (they will be on the test).  BUT… please realize that diseases don’t stay conveniently siloed in a single specialty so this is not learning “surgery”, it’s learning about how surgeons approach a specific disease you will see elsewhere, too.   You also need to know that what is listed as learning objectives today may well be obsolete tomorrow  (if they aren’t already).

You have chosen a career that ethically demands life-long learning.  That means that one of the most important skills to learn is how to develop a system of learning that you can use in medical school, residency and later in practice.

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Develop a system for lifelong learning now

Learning is iterative.  You will learn broad concepts on each rotation along with a “fly over” of the entire terrain of the specialty  You will need the information you learn on your surgery rotation on your medicine rotation when you are consulted on a patient with an ischemic leg who needs surgical treatment, or on your pediatrics rotation when your patient with a pneumonia develops an empyema.  If you choose surgery at your career, you will read and learn the same topics throughout your residency (and after) but with increasing depth.

The practical points on how to develop a system to learn during your rotation are here: How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams: How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams, In-Training Exams and Your Boards, but the key points are summarized below:

  • Remember it’s school.
  • Make a list of all the topics in the textbook.
  • Breathe deeply. You are not going to read every page in the textbook in addition to your assigned reading.
  • Create a schedule to SKIM every chapter
  • TAKE NOTES. All the time.
  • Figure out how to store your notes so you can find them in the future
  • Go through your daily notes in the evening and then store them in your system
  • Review, review, review

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Take care of yourself.

Pay attention to ergonomics, diet, exercise and sleep.  Most importantly, take care of yourself emotionally and spiritually.  You can’t learn or serve others if your tank is empty.  Come up with what is important for you and make a list.  Seriously.  Make a list of what you find helps you stay on track and then check it off every day.  Look at it before you go to bed.  Celebrate the things you did and don’t be hard on yourself for the ones you didn’t get to.

Don’t forget to take a “Sabbath” every week.  True time off is critical for recovery from this stressful work.

If it gets too hard, seek help.  It’s a sign of strength, not weakness, and most (if not all) of the people around you have been there.

We have the most amazing job on earth.  When the administrative issues or political conflicts get to you (and they will), just remember – you get to take care of another human life with the goal of relieving their suffering.  What could be more important than that?

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Top Ten Tips on Starting Medical School

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Starting medical school is one of the most exciting moments in a physicians career… but it can be a little daunting!  This talk is one I gave recently to the college students in the Baylor College of Medicine Summer Surgery Program.  In addition to talking about how medical school is different from college, I also included my top 10 tips for successfully making this important transition.

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How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams, In-Training Exams and Your Boards.

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Ok, now that I have your attention, let me share something with you. I’m going to show you how to maximize what you learn from the “school” we call rotations in medical school and residency so you can be an awesome master clinician. And, yes, it’s going to help you with your exams, so stay with me.

Clinical rotations are a strange blend of learning and work. You learn from the work, but we all forget that the work is not the purpose of these clinical experiences. The purpose of rotations is to be able to “practice” medicine (as a student) and then master the art of your specialty (as a resident.)

There are six basic principles to learn medicine, and then learn your specialty …and on the way ace the exams:

  1. Remember it’s school.
  2. At the beginning of each rotation, decide what topics you need to learn during the rotation and make a list.
  3. Take notes. All the time.
  4. Figure out how you will store your notes so you can find them quickly and organize them for review.
  5. Go through the notes you make every day to review them and then store them in your system.
  6. You can’t learn medicine from a review book (yes, including UWorld)

Somewhere around the beginning of my third year of residency, I was sitting in the “dome” (the chief resident’s “office” above OR 1 in our County Hospital) when Fred, one of my fellow 3rd years, walked in. He sat down and started to look through a stack of 3×5 cards so I asked him what he was doing. We all knew that he had scored the highest in our class on the ABSITE (the surgery in-service exam) and I was about to find out why.

REMEMBER IT’S SCHOOL

Fred figured out from day one that there was no way he was going to be able to study like he did in college and during basic sciences. Instead of hours to sit and read, it had to be flexible “on the job” learning.

This mindset is probably the single more important thing to cultivate. It’s the thing that drives you to constantly ask questions about why things are done the way they are and then go look up the answers.

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AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH ROTATION, DECIDE WHAT TOPICS YOU NEED TO LEARN DURING THE ROTATION AND MAKE A LIST. 

Your list can be pretty simple, or more complex, but it needs to be enough.

First hint – There is a curriculum that has been defined for your rotations. Everything your professors have decided should be taught should absolutely be on your list.   (By the way….If it’s in the curriculum, it has to be part of an objective. If there is an objective, it has to be linked to a test question)

Second hint – There is no way in medical school that “surgery” (or any specialty) can be covered in 8-12 lectures. The same is true for your rotations in residency. You have to do more.

This is one time that an example may be better than a formula. Let’s say I’m a brand new clinical student on my core surgery rotation….

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 Step 1. Find a textbook of Surgery and make a list of the topics from the chapters. A spreadsheet may be best for this, but any kind of list will do. 

For example, our library has Sabiston’s Textbook of Surgery (20th edition, 2017) on line:

 

 Step 2. Breathe deeply. There are 72 chapters and no, you are not going to read all these pages.

Man carrying books

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Step 3. Create a schedule to SKIM every chapter during the rotation. Look only at the “big picture” i.e. headings, section titles, diagrams, tables. Your schedule should leave the last week or two free. So, for example, if your rotation is 2 months long, plan to SKIM 12 chapters a week to get them done in 6 weeks.

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 Step 4 – Now we get to the real deal (remember, this is graduate school and/or specialty training).

List the sections on your spreadsheet.

As a student, you won’t read every section – unless they are very general (Acute Abdomen, for example) or if you have a patient with that particular problem. Here’s what it might look like:

 

TAKE NOTES. ALL THE TIME.

After I learned Fred’s system, I always kept a stack of blank 3×5 cards in my pocket. Like him, for the last 3 years of my residency, I made notes ALL the time.  Here’s the kind of notes we are talking about:

  1. Reading textbooks or other curricular readings. Take the time to make the notes and make them well so you never have to go back to the chapter to review it.
  2. On rounds when someone teaches an important point (e.g. the 7 things that keep a fistula from closing)
  3. During Grand Rounds
  4. During conferences
  5. When you look up a paper to read about a patient
  6. And – most important – what you learn from specific patients. Do NOT put the name of the patient or their MRN (HIPPA). But, do put specifics that help you remember the patient (e.g. pt that always wore a red baseball cap and had a tattoo of a dragon)

As you can imagine, once I started this system, I was making 10-20 notes a day. It is remarkable how much you learn in a given day… and how it’s almost instantly gone if you don’t write it down.  In three years I filled up two boxes with cards. These cards were the only thing I reviewed for my Board exams.

 

FIGURE OUT HOW YOU WILL STORE YOUR NOTES SO YOU CAN FIND THEM QUICKLY AND ORGANIZE THEM FOR REVIEW

This is why using a notebook isn’t the best way to keep notes on rotations. You’ll take them chronologically and, unless you have an amazing index at the back with all the key words and pages listed, you’ll never be able to find a specific note.

The key is being able to “file” the notes so you can find them.  For the 3×5 system, leave a blank square at the top to put the topic you’ll use to file them.

I used anatomy as the basis for my filing system. So I would use a pencil (so I could change it later if I needed to) to put the topic in the box.  For example

Pancreas, pancreatitis

Appendix, neoplasms, carcinoid

This is very old-fashioned (but very effective) system.. I personally think there are better ways to do this now using scanning, cloud storage, key words and tags.  For some ideas, check out this post.

What doesn’t work well is to try to type notes on your phone.  What REALLY doesn’t work is to make notes and then decide to copy them, type them or somehow redo them later. (It never happens).

 

GO THROUGH THE NOTES YOU MAKE EVERY DAY TO REVIEW THEM AND THEN STORE THEM IN YOUR SYSTEM

The key to learning (as opposed to memorizing for a test) is review. Simply filing the cards means you are reviewing them. Plan to pull them out to look at them (and all the work you accomplished!) every week or two.

More importantly, when you see a patient with pancreatitis 5 months from now on a different rotation, pull the cards you made on this rotation. You’ll find you have 20 or so cards (or card equivalents) on pancreatitis … a review of the Surgery textbook, notes from Grand Rounds, the 3 patients you saw with pancreatitis that taught you about the disease and a few pearls you learned on rounds from your chief resident.

 

YOU CAN’T LEARN MEDICINE FROM A REVIEW BOOK (YES, INCLUDING UWORLD) 

I’m really serious. Not only will you suffer when you are taking care of patients, you won’t do as well on the tests (despite what the upper level students or residents tell you).

Remember the last two weeks of the rotation that you saved?  Now’s the time to pull out the review books.  It’s a wonderful way to review what you have learned from your skimming and patient oriented reading.  It’s also a great way to identify gaps and look up information.

p.s. Take more notes while you are doing this.

p.p.s Review all your notes, including the ones you make from the review books.

p.p.p.s Review them again.

Link to the Wikipedia article about the forgetting curve

How To Study in Medical School

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Congratulations to all the first year medical students who are starting or getting ready to start medical school.  As you will soon seen, from day one there will be an overwhelming amount of information to process and learn … much more than any you have seen during college. It’s going to take a new strategy!

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Unlike college, the information you learn during your preclinical studies will be important when you take the first part of your licensure examination (Step 1) and when you start your clinical rotations in 2 years or so, and when you start your residency.

It’s not just about learning this information for your exams, it’s also about creating a system to organize this information for the future.

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What should an ideal system let you do?

  1. Hand write or type your notes
  2. Highlight and annotate notes to make them more easy to remember
  3. Import images, pdfs, powerpoint presentations or other digital information
  4. Review the notes on your phone or iPad as well as your computer
  5. Revise or reclassify notes as you learn more
  6. Make sure your notes can’t ever be lost or destroyed

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What “notes” should you use to study?

  1. Use the notes provided by your professors, usually in the form of a powerpoint presentation or pdf of the presentation. Many students download the presentations into OneNote and annotate the slides during the lecture. If you use this system, it will be very important to make a one page summary of the key points. Going back to review each slide is very time consuming and not a good “juice to squeeze ratio”. (the effort you put into it is not worth what you get out of it).
  1. Take notes in class or to review like you did in college (highlighters and all!). If you choose to do this, use the SQR3 method or the Cornell note taking method to prepare i.e. don’t come in cold to class. Write down the big topics to be covered, and come up with questions you expect to be answered in class. The key is active listening!
  1. Try mindmaps. Your brain doesn’t organize things into bullet points. If you use colors, images and this more “organic” organization, it’s amazing how much you can remember. Like mnemonics, the more outlandish the images and colors, the easier it is to remember.   You’ll find an example of a mindmap to learn about pilonidal disease below. Note, for example, that the image for obesity is a stick of butter surrounded by fat globules. It’s creating your own images that makes this so powerful. Even though you can share mindmaps, or use software to create them, it’s more effective to draw your own.
  1. Handwritten may lead to better learning…. Worth thinking about!

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How should you organize your notes?

Here’s where it gets fun. Organizing notes with Evernote is the best way I’ve found (ever) to do this.  Evernote is an app for your computer and phone/iPad that allows you to store “notes”. But, the notes can be a lot of different formats:

  1. New notes, typed directly into the software
  2. Imported notes from OneNote or a powerpoint presentation
  3. Scanned notes. Evernote has an amazing free app called Scannable that converts any document into a pdf using your phone. So. if you draw a mindmap, doodle about the anatomy of the rotator cuff or have a typed handout from someone, you can scan it into EverNote.
  4. Photos of whiteboards, paper notes, images.
  5. Videos, like your professor showing you how to examine the knee for instability.
  6. There is an Evernote “web clipper” that can be used on your computer to download any webpage.
  7. Audio notes. You can record a review for yourself and save it as a note.

 

Other advantages to using Evernote

  1. You can share notes with others
  2. You can find information by searching. Both typed and handwritten words will be recognized.
  3. When you store a link to a video it’s active, so you can click and go directly to the site.

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What should I do before I set up this system?

  • Start the notes now – even though you don’t have the system in place.  Listen actively and take notes actively. Make sure you create one page summaries of every lecture. Keep these to scan in when you start your account.
  • Download Evernote for your Life | A Practical Guide for the Use of Evernote in Your Everyday Life by Brandon Collins and read it before you create your system. This ebook is concise, easy to read and will explain why you can’t think about EverNote as a “filing” system in the usual sense.

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A few other words of advice

  • Create your Evernote account with an email address that will follow you through your training. (By the way, if your personal email now is sexyguyfromthecity@gmail.com, it’s time to get a new and more professional address!)
  • I’d create one huge notebook called “Everything I need to know to be a doctor” (just kidding.. but don’t fall into the trap of creating a lot of different notebooks, either.)
  • When you start, be very deliberate about your tags. You don’t want to end up with “Penicillin”, “penicillin” and “penicillinV” as three tags for penicillin… Decide how to standardize your tags before you start i.e. when to capitalize, generic names of drugs only, etc.
  • Evernote is not HIPPA compliant.  Don’t EVER put any patient information (including photos) that could be identified.
  • Go ahead and spend the money for Evernote premium. You’ll be using all the storage and the bells and whistles.

What Big Magic Can Teach Those Who Serve

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“Do what you love to do, and do it with both seriousness and lightness.”*

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On the flight home yesterday I finished Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (She’s probably known to you for her NY Times Best Seller Eat, Pray, Love). For me, one of the overarching messages of her book was this – When you see what you do as your vocation (from Latin vocātiō, meaning “a call or summons”), and not just your job, it will transform how you view your work – a concept which I believe may be necessary (but not sufficient) to treat or prevent burnout.

As I read her thoughts on how to live a creative life, I realized that there were other ideas  that applied to physicians, physicians in training and others who serve:

 

Just show up. Every day.

“Most of my writing life consists of nothing more than unglamorous, disciplined labor. I sit at my desk and I work like a farmer, and that’s how it gets done. Most of it is not fairy dust in the least”

Learning and practicing medicine (or any other field) means showing up – really showing up – every day. Everyone in the first year of medical school learns that it is different than college. Cramming for exams is not only ineffective, it’s just wrong. You are no longer studying for a grade on a test…. it’s now about the patients you will take care of in the future. The same holds true during residency and when you begin your practice. It’s not just when you are a trainee.  Part of the “work” of medicine remains “unglamorous, disciplined labor”… keeping up with the literature, going to teaching conferences when you could be doing something else, finishing your hospital charts, being on call.

But the work of medicine is also about showing up every day in another sense, too – truly showing up for the people who rely on you – no matter what. That, too, can be “unglamorous, disciplined labor” when you are tired or stressed.

“Work with all your heart, because—I promise—if you show up for your work day after day after day after day, you just might get lucky enough some random morning to burst right into bloom.”

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“They are your patients… from the first day of medical school until you retire.

“Most of all, there is this truth: No matter how great your teachers may be, and no matter how esteemed your academy’s reputation, eventually you will have to do the work by yourself. Eventually, the teachers won’t be there anymore. The walls of the school will fall away, and you’ll be on your own. The hours that you will then put into practice, study, auditions, and creation will be entirely up to you. The sooner and more passionately you get married to this idea—that it is ultimately entirely up to you—the better off you’ll be.”

Caring for others gives us joy but also gives us the responsibility to know the best thing to do for them. Whether you are a first year student, 3rd year resident or a PGY35 attending, we are all still learning. “Life long learning” is not just a phrase, it’s the reality of what we do.

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It’s called the practice of medicine for a reason.

“It’s a simple and generous rule of life that whatever you practice, you will improve at.”

Learn the art of deliberate practice early. Deliberate practice, to use a musical analogy I learned in Cal Newton’s fantastic book So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, doesn’t mean playing the piece from start to finish 20 times in an hour. It means spending 55 minutes on the small section that you struggle with, repeating it 100 times before you play the piece through once. It means instead of reading the comfortable material on the anatomy of the kidney, you deliberately tackle how the nephron works. It means that instead of doing the computer-simulated cholecystectomy 10 times you spend an hour tying intracorporeal knots in the trainer. Find the thing that is not easy and practice it over and over until it becomes easy.

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There is Peril in Perfectionism

“There are only so many hours in a day, after all. There are only so many days in a year, only so many years in a life. You do what you can do, as competently as possible within a reasonable time frame, and then you let it go.”

One of the greatest attributes of those who care for others is their devotion to the people they serve. But perfectionism, taken to its extreme, is dangerous. Extending your time to study for Step 1 beyond what is reasonable to try to get a higher score, revisiting decisions about patient care to the point of anxiety, worrying that your GPA has to be perfect are all counterproductive. The motivation to do well is like a cardiac sarcomere – a little worry will make you more effective, but stretched too far, there won’t be any output at all.

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Curiosity can overcome fear.

“No, when I refer to “creative living,” I am speaking more broadly. I’m talking about living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”

It’s something most students don’t realize, but no matter how long you practice medicine, there are days when you are afraid. It takes courage to do what we do. Remember, being courageous is not an absence of fear, it’s being able to do what’s right despite the fear. I agree complete with Elizabeth Gilbert that curiosity helps. When you have something that doesn’t go the way you expect or frightens you, instead of beating yourself up (“I should have studied more”….”I could have made a different decision”…etc…etc) become curious. If you are thinking about a complication, commit to finding everything you can about the procedure and how to prevent complications. If you didn’t do as well on your test as you thought you should, look up different techniques to study, take notes, and remember information, and go back to make sure you really understood what was being tested.

Even more powerful than curiosity is gratitude. Fear and gratitude cannot exist at the same moment. Try it – the next time you are about to snap because your EMR freezes be grateful that you can see the computer, be grateful you have work, be grateful you have been trained to help other human beings …and see what happens.

“We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.”

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Your worth is not the same as your “success”.

“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”

Wow…. This one is so important.

It’s not what you make on Step 1. It’s not how many cases you do, how many patients you see or how much money you make. This concept is taught by every religion and philosopher I know – for a reason. Be devoted to doing the best you can and to forgiving yourself (and learning from it) when you fall short.

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One last thing….for medical students trying to choose a specialty – forget about finding your passion.

This is a little longer quote than the others, and mirrors a similar message in So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love .

Find something, even a little tiny thing, that makes you curious (or fills you with wonder) and follow it. Dedicate yourself to following that curiosity and it will likely lead you to your career.

“May I also urge you to forget about passion? Perhaps you are surprised to hear this from me, but I am somewhat against passion. Or at least, I am against the preaching of passion. I don’t believe in telling people, “All you need to do is to follow your passion, and everything will be fine.” I think this can be an unhelpful and even cruel suggestion at times. First of all, it can be an unnecessary piece of advice, because if someone has a clear passion, odds are they’re already following it and they don’t need anyone to tell them to pursue it…..I believe that curiosity is the secret. Curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living. Curiosity is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Furthermore, curiosity is accessible to everyone…..In fact, curiosity only ever asks one simple question: “Is there anything you’re interested in?” Anything? Even a tiny bit? No matter how mundane or small?….But in that moment, if you can pause and identify even one tiny speck of interest in something, then curiosity will ask you to turn your head a quarter of an inch and look at the thing a wee bit closer. Do it. It’s a clue. It might seem like nothing, but it’s a clue. Follow that clue. Trust it. See where curiosity will lead you next. Then follow the next clue, and the next, and the next. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a voice in the desert; it’s just a harmless little scavenger hunt. Following that scavenger hunt of curiosity can lead you to amazing, unexpected places. It may even eventually lead you to your passion—albeit through a strange, untraceable passageway of back alleys, underground caves, and secret doors.

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*Italics are quotes from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Since I read this on my Kindle, I don’t have page numbers!

 

 

It’s the First Day of Medical School – What Should I Do?

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I’ve written before about what to do before medical school starts, how to study in medical school and strategies for succeeding in the basic sciences. But how do you put this information about organizing your studying and your day into a system that works?   Everyone will have variations on how they do this, but there are some fundamental principles that apply to all.

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Don’t get behind

From day one, the material matters and, from day one, it is voluminous. If you get behind, it’s really hard to catch up.

Study, don’t just read and reread.

You have to actively engage this material and review it (multiple times) to really learn it. You are no longer studying for a test, you are studying to take care of other people. The SQ3R method is used by many students, but there are other systems as well. What is important is to develop a system that works for you.  One tool used by many students is Anki, software that allows you to create electronic flashcards to review key points.

Tips on active studying from UCSD

Tips on active studying from the University of Utah

 Use going to class as time to “study”

One of the important components to active learning is to review the lecture material before it is presented.  This is the opposite of what most of you experienced in college, but it’s key.   Survey the handouts or slides and make a list of the important points to be covered. Stay actively engaged.

p.s. You can’t learn medicine if you are on Facebook in class.

Create a summary page for each lecture

Include the big concepts, and key points. Include specifics that are stressed by the professor, but avoid listing all the details. You may choose to hand write this, but most of you will come up with an electronic format and will organize the class notes, and your summaries using One Note, Growly or an equivalent software. Although your personal notes are fine on the cloud, don’t put copyrighted material or your professor’s slides where other people can see them (it’s illegal).

Begin with the end in mind

In the long term, what you are learning (yes, all of it) will be applied to taking care of patients. In the slightly less long term, you will be tested on this information on the USMLE Step 1, a high stake exam and the first part of your medical license.   Although some dedicated time to study for Step 1 is important, having a system to really learn the material in your basic science courses is by far the best way to do well on this exam.

Don’t sacrifice sleep.

If you don’t sleep you don’t learn as well. Organize your schedule so you get at least 7, but preferably 8 hours of sleep every night.

Eat well, play hard and stay connected.

Clay Goodman,MD the Associate Dean of UME at Baylor, tells our first year class that the first year of medical school is a 60 hr/week job. They need to get up in the morning and “go to work”, using the afternoon and evening to study. He then points out that if they work 60 hours and sleep 56 hours (8 hours a night) they still have 52 hours to work out, spend time with family and friends and do whatever else they want.

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So, what should you do the first day of medical school?

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Here’s what your schedule might look like…

The night before – pack your breakfast for the morning break and lunch for the next day. Review any posted slides – survey them to understand the “big picture” and use them to start your summary of the lecture. Write down what you don’t understand from the slides (yes, at this stage it may be every line… but that will get better!).

7am – wake up (If you prefer morning workouts, you can get up earlier and workout before class)

7:30 Grab a piece of fruit or a smoothie if you don’t like to eat an early breakfast. (If you are ok with it, eat the full breakfast now, but whatever you do, don’t skip breakfast)

8-12 Attend class – Stay engaged. Take notes, make sure the questions you asked yourself in the review are answered, raise your hand and ask questions if they weren’t. Eat your breakfast or a snack at the 10 am break.

12-1 – Lunch with your classmates. Play foosball, talk, or just eat, but take a real break.

1-5 Study. One hour of studying for each hour of class is about right for most people.   This may need to go until 6 or 7 if you have afternoon labs.

7 – Workout and then make and eat dinner. Working out is an important part of self-care. Exercise is essential to decrease stress and also will help you avoid the “freshmen 10”. Your dinner should be healthy, not processed, and definitively not Ramen noodles. Make sure you have fruits and/or vegetables at every meal.

9-10 Look over tomorrow’s lectures and start your summary pages for those lectures. Once you are a week or two into this, you’ll be adding in reviews of material from previous weeks on a schedule.

10-11 Read a novel, watch TV, decompress.

11 Go to sleep!

You are starting on one of the most amazing journeys any human being can have… enjoy it! Don’t forget to keep a journal and take photos (but not of patients). The first time you actually interview a patient, put on your white coat, hear a heart murmur or take a test in medical school are just that … the first time. Write about the experience.

Let me know in the comments what other advice you have for the students starting medical school this summer!

 

 

This Year’s @drmlb’s Top 10 Gifts for Medical Students, Residents and Busy Docs.

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This time of year, family and friends of docs and/or docs in training are looking for the last minute holiday gifts (if you are trying to have them shipped) or planning the trip to the store(s) for gifts.

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The one thing any busy person doesn’t have enough of is time.  If you think about it in that context, you can find presents to support interests, fitness, studying (or just having fun) in a thoughtful way.

1. Someone to help clean their home.  It is the most amazing present to come one once a week (or even once a month) to a house that has been cleaned by someone else.  If there are family members who are willing (and it’s appropriate) you can put together a gift of cleaning supplies with a certificate for monthly housecleaning.  If not, word of mouth to find the best person is usually the best way, and will often help you find someone who also does laundry and ironing.  (a true gift!).   There are professional services in every city as well that can be found with an easy internet search.
2. Something to help integrate fitness into their every day activities.  If they don’t have a good bike to commute to school or the hospital (and this is something they would like) this is a great present.  Don’t forget the helmet, reflective vest and very bright lights as part of the package!
3. A fast computer.  If they have the same computer they had in college and you are able to do this for them, the time they will save in uploads will be very appreciated!
4. A smart phone or mini iPad (especially the new iPad air).  Like the computer, if the phone they have is more than 3-4 years old, the upgrade will be much appreciated.  The mini iPad (instead of the regular size) fits in a white coat pocket, which is why it’s ideal for anyone who wears a white coat.  If they have an iPad, think about some of the more expensive medical apps. (or a certificate for the App store
5. Kitchen appliances to save time (and promote healthy eating).  My favorites on this list would include a rice maker (which can also be used to steam meat and vegetables), a pressure cooker a slow cooker or the Krups multi-cooker.  A blender is always a good gift (to make smoothies and soups).  If you are feeling particularly generous, a VitaMix instead of a blender is much more versatile (and makes much better smoothies!).
6. Prepared meals. If you have family who love to cook, you can make a “certificate” for homemade food in freezable portions.  If you can afford it, there are personal chefs who do the same thing.  You can also give them a gift certificate for a grocery store like Whole Foods that has healthy prepared food or companies that deliver healthy meals (In Houston, it’s companies like MyFitFoods – but this varies from city to city).
7. Fitness equipment for home.  For medical students who are spending a lot of time studying think about a FitDesk, FitBike or a treadmill desk.  The standard stationary bikes, treadmills, etc are another option, but they are expensive and you have to really know that they are preferred over going to the gym (see #8).  A less expensive but very effective gift would be a “fitness care package” with resistance bands, FitDeck cards, a gift certificate for running shoes, and other small less expensive gifts.

8. A membership in a local gym. You can also consider a certificate for group classes in spinning, yoga, or whatever they enjoy.
9. Time with family and friends.  Think about a “certificate” for time together – maybe with restaurant gift cards or movie gift cards attached.  A “certificate” for a monthly home cooked meal?  If you aren’t in the same town, think about how to make it easy for them to spend time with their friends.  If you know their favorite restaurant or hangout, see if you can get a gift certificate.  If not, go for tickets to the local theater, one of the movie chains (find out which one is closest to where they live), or their favorite restaurant chain. If they have children, babysitting is a wonderful gift.
10. Whatever you can think of that makes gives them more time and/or will support them during times of stressful and busy work!

 

 HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!PEACE_ON_EARTH

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Last year’s suggestions on wellnessrounds.org