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Medical Marvels
The journey from NYCOM student to doctor is a marathon-at a sprinter's pace.
BY BETSY CRAZ
Students who sing "Time Is On My Side" probably don't attend NYIT's New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM).
Each day, roughly 1,000 NYCOM students awaken to a challenging schedule of lectures, labs and studies. Some students prepare for patient rounds. Some also manage research and teaching duties. Still others fit in a family meal, an exercise class or an occasional movie with friends.
Clearly, time is a precious commodity at NYIT and NYCOM. A supportive network of family, friends, professors and colleagues helps students to persevere. But above all, they find that self-discipline, flexibility, stamina and a singular devotion to the profession is critical for success in medical school-and for modern physicians.
Just ask Lourdes G. Bahamonde, NYCOM class of 2005. Bahamonde credits her graduate degree in biology/physiology and prior work experience in the health care field with helping her manage the rigors of medical school-that, and the coffee her husband brews every morning. "It's the only way I can get out of bed," she quips. This morning, Bahamonde will join her fellow first-year students in the William Rogers Auditorium for lectures that last until 5 p.m. During her lunch break, she'll socialize with friends and perhaps attend a guest lecture on various medical specialties, clinical rotations or residency opportunities.
After classes are out, she'll take a yoga or aerobics class, sponsored by NYCOM's Wellness Program. "Being active," she explains, "oxygenates your brain and improves your concentration."
Sustaining concentration is key for first-year students like Bahamonde, who spends hours studying the complexities of gross anatomy, physiology and medical biochemistry. The content is comparable in difficulty to her master's studies, but the workload is undoubtedly heavier. "In my graduate physiology class, we spent two months studying the kidney. Here, we get one to two weeks," she says.
Tonight, after dinner with her husband, Bahamonde will review lecture notes from class and check NYCOM's Academic Web Board, which provides lecture notes, study questions and exam reviews, as well as class announcements and activity schedules. Then it's time to hit the books; her study sessions sometimes last well into the night. "It's my most productive time," she explains.
Bahamonde acknowledges that despite her background, medical school is a considerable challenge, and she anticipates that her second year will be even more difficult. But she vows to continue following the advice she sometimes offers to incoming students: Study early in the year while the material is manageable, take advantage of professors' office hours, stay healthy, and get involved in campus and community activities. "It brings humanity into your learning experience."
Top Priority
For Brian McDermott, class of 2004, a key survival strategy is to not let himself get overwhelmed, but to focus on the individual components of the curriculum. Still, mastering the material is an all-consuming effort. "At medical school, you're always working at 100 percent," he says. "You have to make it your No. 1 priority."
Today, McDermott will join fellow second-year students for a full day of lectures on infectious diseases, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology and pulmonary medicine, and, of course, osteopathic manipulative medicine. Though McDermott says the lectures are interesting, he is eager for the day when his training will move from the classroom to the patient's room. A former funeral director, he jokes about his preference for working with people. "Some people say I'm switching sides."
Along with McDermott's schedule of lectures and labs, he has many additional responsibilities as student council president. Later today, after classes, he'll work with the council on taking nominations for the Student D.O. of the Year. McDermott points out that at NYCOM, students tend to encourage and support one another.
"We don't have a cutthroat attitude with each other here," he says. "We work together."
And after attending various professional conventions as a NYCOM representative, McDermott reports that the same spirit of cooperation is evident among the community of osteopathic physicians.
McDermott has finally settled into life as a medical student, assured in his ability to juggle school and family life. Still, he admits, it's particularly stressful at exam time. "Everything hinges on getting through the task at hand, because you don't advance if you don't pass," he says. More than anything, McDermott wants to pass and fulfill his goal to become an oncologist, a career he deferred in his younger years. He advises anyone who wants to go to medical school to work as hard as they can to get in, not to give up and to remember: "As difficult and serious as medical school is, real life is a lot harder."
Fundamental Focus
After her first rotation, Giovana Rene, class of 2003, realized her biggest fear was unfounded. "I learned that I knew a lot more than I thought I did." It was a big relief considering Rene is spending most of her third year as a NYCOM student at New York area hospitals and clinics, rather than in the lecture halls on campus.
Now living with family in Brooklyn, Giovana will leave around 8 a.m. to reach Brookdale Hospital, in time for patient rounds. Later in the morning, she'll meet with the attending physician preceptor for an hour lecture before leaving for a shift at the hospital's East New York clinic, where she'll see patients until about 5 p.m.
During her current pediatric rotation, Rene developed a very strong interest in otitis media, an infection of the middle ear. Tonight she'll prepare for a lecture on the topic, which she'll present the following day to the preceptor and fellow students.
Though most of her days are spent with patients instead of taking notes in a lecture hall, Rene's time is not entirely free of paperwork. Immunization and insurance record- keeping, she has learned, are time-consuming realities for today's pediatric practitioners.
Having overcome her initial jitters, Rene enjoys working with patients and taking a more direct responsibility for her training.
"This is the year when you begin doing your own unassigned readings," she says. "Third-year students can't rely on review books. You have to read on your own."
Rene acknowledges that it's difficult to fit extracurricular reading into an already packed day, but students find a way to fill in their knowledge gaps on their own time. "Some students read between patients," she says. And when exam time comes, she shifts back into second-year mode, spending entire days studying in the NYCOM library.
Once her rotation is complete, she'll return to the campus again to take her written exams and discuss her fourth-year plans with an advisor. Rene's confidence in her skills continues to grow because she's worked hard to master the fundamentals. She encourages up-and-coming third-year students to focus on the basics before their rotations. "That way they can concentrate on acquiring the clinical skills that they can't get out of a textbook," says Rene.
Midlife Move
Sonia Rivera-Martinez, class of 2002, certainly isn't your typical college kid. Her inquisitive nature, solid work ethic and lifelong dream brought her to NYCOM as a midlife career changer four years ago.
After losing her father to cancer and watching her mother struggle to support the family, Rivera-Martinez developed both an interest in medicine and the motivation to be financially secure. Though she longed to attend medical school, she pursued a more "practical" career in financial services, where she found professional success. Yet her dream of being a doctor endured. Finally, at the age of 42, Rivera-Martinez began her medical training at NYCOM, landing a coveted Osteopathic Medicine Fellowship.
Today, Rivera-Martinez will leave her home in Mineola, Long Island, by 7 a.m. for St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, where she's fulfilling one of her final rotations as a NYCOM student. She spends the morning with attending physicians as they make their patient rounds. After rounds, there are lectures, readings or a lab, then it's back to the patients until she leaves at 4 p.m.
After a quick dinner, Rivera-Martinez will study the following day's reading or prepare a lecture or research presentation. Having just completed her final year, she has become adept at juggling her roles as student, wife and mother.
"When I started at NYCOM, my husband used to tell our friends that he saw his wife half-an-hour a month."
Looking back, Rivera-Martinez says that each hour spent in class, each day of study, each week of hands-on patient care steadily contributed to her knowledge, skills and confidence. This year, she's learning to accept herself and be accepted by others as a medical professional. "This year my confidence level soared," she says.
Her greatest challenge, she believes, will be to reconcile all she's learned in real-world situations with her classroom training, as she prepares for her final exams (which she completed shortly before this article was published).
Meanwhile, Rivera-Martinez continues to seek out more information and experience, because it's an inherent requirement of the field.
Medicine's dynamic nature demands that its practitioners seek and synthesize new information with what is known. Rivera-Martinez urges fellow NYCOM students to embrace the many challenges ahead and to continue asking questions, because in medical practice just as in medical school, she says, "you have to pursue knowledge aggressively."
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