New Semester Apathy, Ethics
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Loading ...A new semester of school is usually met with the highest level of interest and productivity before the procrastination and rationalization of “later” sets in, right? I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t seem to get it together to get studying done. Granted it’s only been a week, but I can already feel the tug of distractions with the simplest of study tasks not being done. To be fair, we came back from our first vacation to the states and moved into a new house all at the same time, so there was quite a bit of work pending when the semester began last week. Perhaps future breaks when I don’t go very far or for as long will keep me focused on restarting.
Right now we have bioethics, which is a serious, important subject, but taught with the so much open-ended flexibility, I have no idea what’s up or down. “The AMA suggests…” is about all we get from this prof, who is a visiting prof from a Texas med school. I know ethics doesn’t have a “right” answer, but some answers are more right/wrong than others, and we should be focusing on those. Just as there is no one or absolute way to treat a patient/disease, there are certainly things to do that are better than others, and that is part of our training. We read case studies with thought-provoking questions at the end, but no follow-up to say, “Here would be a couple of responses that would be consistent with core ethical principles…1)…2)…” Of course, I wouldn’t mind the thought-provoking discussion except that we have an objective, multiple-choice exam soon, so a sense of what’s right and wrong has short-term practical considerations, too.
Histology is certainly the most dense course right now, but physiology will begin soon, too. Like anatomy, I have a harder time with histology and classes which depend on more visual and rote memorization than concept-oriented ones. There’s not much “concept” in histology. The meatier the courses get (path, immunology, etc.) this semester, the more I think I’ll enjoy them at the expense of their being damn difficult. I can’t wait until then to get out of my study slump, however.
Medical School | enrico | 
January 22, 2006 8:36 pm
By Punchberry, January 24, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
Procrastinate Away
A new semester is always squeaky and new, and yet, there are so, SO many times when you CANNOT procrastinate without significant consequences. So, enjoy it while you can. Take time to enjoy actually being interested in your new classes, and get serious in a couple of weeks.
By Anonymous, January 25, 2006 @ 1:04 pm
Ethics
As a teacher of ethics, you are feeling just the way you are supposed to feel. Grappling with the subject matter is part of the process of learning. Your professor will work diligently to make sure you can answer the multiple choice questions, but that isn’t, of course, what really matters in the long run!
By enrico, January 25, 2006 @ 10:18 pm
Ethikos
Punchberry: I will try my best.
Ethics professor: The test is not what matters in the long run at all, nor is the grade that I get, but the study process — the act of narrowing the endless, open-ended possibilities into a finite number of questions with logical answer choices — does actually help make some systematic sense to help understand the ‘core’ principles involved that are often obscured by emotion, prejudice, etc. when reading cases.