It seems as if boards are here again. Last time this happened was about a year ago and the weeks prior to the exams, I was freaking out about them. They are ominous and scary due to their career delaying potential. During the exams, it feels like time flies by in the beginning and slows way down in the end. At least this was my experience last time.
Our exams, parts II and III, are supposedly easier than part I. I think that is because they are clinically based questions and all we have been doing is studying clinical science since the beginning of last summer. Personally, I feel pretty prepared and calm with it all. I haven't studied as much as I did for part I. This is partly due to having no motivation to study and having no quality time to pour into the books. I imagine this weekend will be busy with finals coming up next week as well.
My hope is to enter with confidence and a calm mental outlook so that I can critically think for many hours of examination. If I remember correctly, the nerves were pretty fired up during the last exams and I do believe that took it's toll on my scores. Thank goodness it wasn't too big of a toll. Things do happen like that, so if something happens where I have to retake a board exam or two, I wont be too wrecked over the news.
In regards to my last post on Gonstead, I removed it a few days ago because I felt it wasn't fair. I didn't stay through the doctor's lecture in order to give a very good synopsis of what was taught. I judged them unfairly and should have stayed longer to be fair.
That being said, I still believe technique systems are the plague of our profession and they are lacking in ethical character. They convince people that their health status is solely due to the subluxation and that is not right. We are musculoskeletal doctors and their moves are cool and that is it. We should use them to our advantage but stay clear of the dogmatic principles they preach to their followers and vulnerable patients.
If you believe in some awesome connection to the universe and think that your work helps connect them to this powerful entity, keep it to yourself. Don't tell your patients that this is what you are doing because they, at large, have their own religious backgrounds and beliefs. It is not only a recipe for a weird/awkward conversation that turns into a sales-pitch, but it makes people think that all DC's are like this and that is not true.
Interestingly, I do find some of the theories on placebo very fascinating. The power of suggestion is so incredibly strong that significant changes can occur simply by changing someone's thought process. Take psychotherapy for example. A patient with a mental health condition goes to therapy for treatment of anxiety and within a few sessions, he or she is back to normal. No drugs given, only education and suggestion. They changed themselves so, could this be a placebo? How about when we are trying to get a person to relax in order to apply a precise adjustment. If we tell the person to relax and place a hand on their back in a gentle manner, they relax and BAM, we adjust them. They changed their tissue tone and allowed a physiological change to occur. Is this a placebo?
My point is that we are largely customer service representatives with our patients. We are here to make them feel better and obtain therapeutic results eventually. We can use objective markers all day and lose our patients because they don't feel as if they are treated any better than a lab rat. I find the evidence-based approach a bit annoying sometimes due to this ignorance. Patient satisfaction effects clinical results and compliance to a treatment plan is critical. Without compliance, what kind of objective outcome can be measured? Notta.
Lastly, in my blog post "Nearing the end", I referred to the entering class of 10th quarter students at the CIC as newbies. I used this term loosely and offended a few people. I usually do not care if I offend anyone on this blog because it is my blog and if you are offended, at least I got your attention and you took a fricken stance on something. Anyway, my use of the word newby was quite innocent. Newby means, a new person to a situation. Have the fabulous 5 ever worked at the CIC? No they have not, so they are technically newbies to the CIC. Are they competent? Hell yepper! Do they have skill? F'n A!
Was I called a newby by the 11th and 12th quarter students when I arrived at the CIC? Yes I was. And I am very proud to have gone through the hazing. Good luck fresh, innocent, new CIC interns...
All for now
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