Medschool Orientation

Today was my second day orientation in Med school!

During the lecture on "How to destroy PBL" (which I thought is a weird title!), some points struck me. It wasn't really a dawning moment but neither was it mundane and ordinary. It was something I take into heart and yet it still strikes me whenever somebody utters or advises it.






The speaker was talking about the different pit falls of Problem-based learning (PBL) learners. And on one of her topics, she mentioned about biases and our pre-learnings; the dangers of not knowing that you don't know. I have absolutely no idea how to make the previous statement much clearer. But I guess it's quite understandable. She was trying to zero in the danger of being too cheeky, too confident on our knowledge that we forget about life-long learning.

I think that was quite true. There is really a danger. A knowledge error might occur; worst, an inappropriate or and off-tangent learning might occur. Freaky!

To further illustrate, she questioned all of us, "What's intermittent and remittent?"

At first, I thought, well that's easy. I know what they are! And then suddenly, I felt a chill of ignorance.

Crap!

How the hell do they differ! I know we've discussed them during my nursing days. I'm pretty sure these words could describe a lot of conditions but most of all, I remember that an example was made over fever. What is an intermittent fever and a remittent fever?

Crap!

I wasn't able to remember the difference!

Was I getting old or is this just an excuse for me?

Being the inquisitive mind, I've tried to research them over the web. Only to find it more confusing! Just great!!!

Intermittent according to wordnet.princeton.edu is the stopping and starting at irregular intervals; "intermittent rain showers"

Intermittent according to MedlinePlus:Medical Dictionary is an adjective; coming and going at intervals : not continuous

Remittent according to wordnet.princeton.edu is characterized by periods of diminished severity; "a remittent fever"

At least I was right it can be used to described a fever.

On the other hand, remittent according to MedlinePlus:Medical Dictionary is an adjective; is marked by alternating periods of abatement and increase of symptoms

At the end of the research, I realized, I had to find more reference!

F*MYLIFE!