This is the end....

On Tuesday, we had our final exam in the Masters in Pharmacology program. And it feels good to be done! This program has been a great experience and my knowledge of Medical Pharmacology will serve me not only for the MCAT but has prepared well for medical school. I have also met wonderful people and made great friends through the program and in the city. Some of the professors are amazing because they were very supportive and didn't hesitate to offer us advice for medical school applications. One of the most memorable quote by Dr Kadowitz is "The best medical school is the one that you get into!". LOL This program has also helped me honed my studying skills and being able to process a lot of information usually in a small amount of time...thinking of all the drugs we had to know for the Shelf  (something that will be needed very much in Med school). It has also reinforced my will to become a physician, and has given me a confidence boost!

The volunteering portion of the program has been one of the highlights. I don't think I would have gotten to know and understand this wonderful city (in terms of education and daily needs, among others) if I had not volunteer my time with KIPP, Habitat for Humanity and Green Light New Orleans. I'm also glad I am staying until the end of May, which will be an opportunity for me to explore even more the city: visit museums, visit interesting neighborhoods, enjoy local food and soak in as much as I can.


About Volunteering:
This month, I volunteered a coupe of times at KIPP. I also had the opportunity to volunteer at the International School of Louisiana (ISL) in Metairie. The school has 3 campuses, one on Camp Street, on in West Bank and one in Metairie. Parents choose what language they want their children to learn between French, Spanish, Chinese and many others. Children then are put into classes that are taught entirely in the language chosen. I get to spend the whole day with children who are fluent in Spanish and get to see the various activities they do in class, all in Spanish, while they have at least on English course. The school is so diverse, with children coming from all over: Ecuador, Colombia, Nigeria, US, Japan and so many other countries! These kids are very lucky!! I also had the opportunity to go with them to a field trip to the New Canal Lighthouse, near the lake Pontchartrain (which by the way as I learned during the trip, is not a lake but an estuary!).
It is great that the children get to learn to speak another language fluently. I believe this offers wonderful advantages, especially in today's world of globalization. I, myself, am multilingual and speaking different languages has helped me navigate through various cultures but also open myself to different cultures. And this can only help me as a future physician who will deal with patients from various cultural backgrounds.
I'll be posting pictures shortly....

Volunteering hours for Spring Semester:
KIPP: 14hrs
ISL: 16hrs
Soil sample collection: 2 hrs

March

I can't believe it is almost the end of the program (in less than 2 months). This got me thinking about things I have done right during this year, and things I wish I had done.

But first thing first, we had our NBME shelf exam on MArch 19. It is the final exam in Pharmacology and it tests our knowledge of all drugs we have learned throughout the year. Although the exam was long, I think it was fair (Dr Clarckson handpicks all the questions!), and everything that was on the exam has been covered in class. Truly, all you need is the amazing pharmwiki (just know it really well), go through the block reviews and one additional book that may help is Deja Review Pharmacology. Don't be afraid to use mnemonics to help you (no matter how ridiculous they sound, as long they help you recall the drugs and important side effects!). This should help you get through the exam and hopefully ACE it.

In about 2 months, I will be leaving New Orleans, and I don't know when I'll be back. One thing I regret is not having explored this city more, and not having taken advantage of all the great things it has to offer (especially in terms of culture). Although I made wonderful friends in the program, part of me wishes I also took time to meet  and get to know people outside the program, locals! I've been here for almost a year, and I don't think I know this city at all. I hope to do so during my last two months here: go to the museums, participate in some of the numerous cultural activities that the city has to offer and hopefully interact more with people from here. I will let you know in the next blog post how this goes. 

February

I forget sometimes that February does not have 30/31 days, and consequently I didn’t even realize that today was the last day of the month. This month we covered the psychiatric block (similar to last block but with a focus on drugs used for treatment as well as drugs of abuse) and I now appreciate the complexity of psychiatric illnesses and their treatment regimens.

This block made me also think about mental illness and the mental health system back home in Senegal. Growing up, my experience with mental ill people was limited to either the people I saw on the streets, half-naked, walking aimlessly and occasionally causing traffic or to the stories that I would hear of people being "possessed" by spirits. I never heard of ADHD until I came here for college.

One particular aspect about mental illness (and it can be argued for other diseases) is that it is intrinsically related to culture.  This is not to say that schizophrenia for example has one set of symptoms in America and a different one in Senegal, but it means that people's experiences with the illness (how they live it and how they address it) will be profoundly influenced by culture and social norms around them. For example, mental health care in Senegal is rendered complex by the permeating traditional beliefs and treatments of it. It is not unusual to see people seeking traditional healers (actually, people tend to seek traditional healers before going to the hospital). 

It is amazing to see the progress that has been made in understanding mental disorders and finding medications that can help patients and their families better cope with them.

However, in class, professors always mention the issue of compliance, and a strong support from the family and community, a strong understanding of the illness are critical for compliance. But with mental illness in particular (and really with any other chronic disease) I realize even more so the importance of cultural competence. 

I came across the concept of "Cultural competence" when I was in college and studying (in my medical Anthropology class), a book by Anne Fadiman "The spirit catches you and you fall down". 

The book talks about a child named Lia Lee, born to Hmong immigrant parents  in California. Lia is  diagnosed with Epilepsy at 3 months old. The story revolves around the conflict between the American doctors and Lia’s family perspectives of her illness. The book talks about how the Lees view Lia's seizures as a sign of life of honor in the Hmong community (while also being very concerned with their child's health) while the physicians deem the family as non-compliant, and both having different approaches to how they care for Lia. The tragic consequences that follow are due to difficulties of the two parties to communicate effectively (language and cultural barriers, and a lack of culturally skilled health care takers).

As a future doctor, it is very important to make sure that I also acquire the tools and skills necessary for an effective delivery of culturally relevant and competent care. Medicine can be and should be humbling. Yes as physicians, we can say that we have in depth knowledge about diseases and their treatments, but it would be a mistake, arrogance (and just malpractice) to assume that we hold all the answers and so don't give enough agency to our patients...I could go on and on, but I will not.

P.S I plan to continue volunteering with Green Light New Orleans and helping install more gardens (was waiting for the temperatures to go up a bit). I also want to start volunteering at a hospice care facility (one my classmate, Evy, told me about it and I am very interested) in order to discover and understand another aspect of healthcare that is equally important.

January

December break flew by. I went home (to Senegal) and spent quality time with family and friends. I was not ready to come back…which explains why getting back into the swing of things has proven to be quite challenging.  This semester is shorter and busier than last, and a little bit more stressful.

Fortunately, trials and tribulations from last semester have helped me prioritize better and establish a decent study routine that will make this semester manageable. The key is to study everyday (even if it is just for 2-3 hours). I realized that by seeing a little bit of the same material everyday, memorization becomes easier.

We are currently studying neurologic and psychiatric disorders and their treatments, a topic I find particularly fascinating. From learning about the science behind addiction, to having a deeper understanding of the hormones and neurotransmitters involved in disorders like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, and to seeing how mis-wiring of the brain causes some people to experience the world differently, I have a greater appreciation for the complexity of the brain. Just the physical talent of the brain is mesmerizing!

Everything relates to it.  A fascinating thing I’ve learned in my “Environmental pharmacology and medicine” class is how lead exposure causes irreversible damage to the brain: it decreases cognitive abilities and lowers intelligence, and impairs one’s ability to make decisions by damaging parts of the brain responsible for impulse control and reasoning. Dr McLachlan and Dr Mielke showed us the correlation between crime and lead exposures in cities (and depending on how much lead exposure a city had, one can predict the number of prison cells to be built!)...ok I'm done talking about the brain...for now

Until next month!