I Didn't Take A Year Off to Write Tests

The Epidemiology course I've been attending's drawing to a close, and tomorrow's the last day. Its main listed event is "evaluation" which I took to mean our evaluation of them, but is of course the other way around. Sigh.

Ribbon-cutting exercises

Yesterday marked a month since my return, and the third month into my year off. It's the only month among the last three where I've actually been expected to do productive work, and I have to admit it hasn't been too bad.

Life led exclusively as a medical student here leaves you with a blinkered view of what actually goes on in this place. Now that I'm out of the loop, I'm finding out things about the hospital and the people who work in it and the projects they work on that I never would have guessed. I even discovered a couple of new departments that I never knew existed.

So far, I've been set on to ideas for research projects, or have thought a couple up on my own and the last month's been spent doing the background research on whether these projects ask questions that really need to be asked, and whether they really need to be answered. Although I have nothing concrete to show for it, I'm now in an appropriate frame of mind to question anything that's said to me. Which is something I hope will serve me well.

I know I'm well into my first post, but here's a little background: I'm in my first clinical year (2nd year) of medicine and I'm taking a year off to do (a) research project(s) as part of a scholarship and an international exchange program. This year ends in June 2008, and I join the class just below mine to resume my career as a medical student (such as it is). Currently I'm in limbo between batches. The implications of that, however, will make another story that shall be told as this blog progresses. At this point in time, I'm trying frantically to get a study proposal together and submitted.