Learn before you do

I think the most frustrating part of med school for me is the fact that there's a lot of learning but not a lot of doing. Obviously, that makes sense. You can't throw the average 1st year medical student into the deep waters of a hospital and expect them to swim. Or not kill anyone. However, I'm not your average 1st year. And please, don't misunderstand me, I'm NOT saying I'm better than anyone. I just have more experience than most 1st years. I've worked in hospitals before (on a different capacity, but I've learned a lot). I have gone to Tchad.

I don't have a lot of the book-knowledge that you acquire in medical school (and which I'm acquiring now), but I have a lot of practical experience. I know how to put in an IV, the steps for an above-knee amputation, how to poke my index finger and find an inflamed prostate inside the belly of a 60-year-old man. Those are things your average 1st year does not know. They simply had no opportunity to learn it yet.

Most 1st years, and indeed, most doctors, haven't seen refugee camps in poor African countries. It's hard to wrap your mind around a population of 140,000 people suffering from everything under the sun (malaria, intestinal parasites, typhoid, high blood pressure, tuberculosis) and one doctor with barely any supplies, to try to help them.

I'm not making much sense in what I'm writing, sorry. What I want to say is that I miss Tchad. I miss doing things and seeing the improvement of people's lives. And I want to do so much more. There are more and more people forced to leave their homes, fleeing conflicts in several African countries, CAR, Burundi, Nigeria and becoming refugees. I feel useless and powerless.

But that just motivates me that much more, to be the best student and become the best doctor I can be, to bring the best help I can give. Learn before you do. I am learning now, but I cannot wait to go back and do.