Keeping up

I'm truly one of those nerds who swear by the imperativeness of the internet, at least in the context of my medical studies. I find that I never ever could finish one book before getting outdated by the internet. I just bought my 2-volume Harrison's Internal Medicine slightly more than 2 months ago, and today I was told that the information on a certain topic in it was already outdated. Frustrated, yes. I was revising a topic this afternoon and realized that what I've just begun to grasp (a concept, I mean...) have already been revamped, and now I have to get acquinted to the new "approach"... I imagine by the time I get used to this new one, another may just beat me to it again...

That's the nature of what I've pledged my life to do...

I spent close to 4 hours online today just to revise for my little clinical assessment tomorrow with the King of Confabulation. In moments like these, the traditional books seem lacklustre. I love the colours and the animations and the varieties that the internet offers. I guess the only disadvantage is that it lacks strructure, and there's always the risk of unreliable sources....

Anyways, don't want to bore everyone, except that my point is that I know I can't live without the internet. Period. I know you can chuck me in deep jungles or isolate me in a desserted island, but give me internet access, and I'm sure I can survive quite long.

A colleague of mine from another posting and I were chatting over late lunch about our medical studies... and I realized that with the "approach" my faculty has adopted.... "self-directed learning"... we spend a lot of time on our own, learning and making mistakes along the way.... to put it very crudely, they place a tremendous trust on us to make ourselves into competent doctors... they just chuck us in the wards, keep their fingers crossed, give us some exams, and hope and pray that we turn out ok at the end of our final year.... 5 years....

But I'm not sure whether that's adequate.... I'm sure we would eventually all "get it"... but how the hell they know that 5 years is the cut off point for competency?

I know I should spend all this pondering times for my revision, but I can't help feeling anxious and weary... I can't help wandering whether I should be allowed to handle people's lives in 6 months time.... it's sooo daunting.

Ok, that's just what I usually think about in the midst of the hustle and bustle of my studies...

Wish me luck!