Well, I am in my third week at school, and I haven't posted anything...

The first week was orientation. We had a general orientation for all new students at the school one morning. We learned about all the services the school had to offer to us. We also participated in a research study that matches medical school student's Brigg's Myers (I'm an INTJ) type with their grades, board scores, and later what residency we match into. I thought this was pretty interesting. The rest of the week was pretty much general stuff and introductions to faculty and other students.

We had our white coat ceremony which included a buffet dinner and a speaker, Dr. Warren Jones. Dr. Jones is a professor of health policy. I really enjoyed listening to him, and he really enjoyed seeing my class enter this profession. He sat at a front table with his wife. Both of them were smiling and cheering on each entering student as s/he put on the white coat. A few key points exerted from UMC NEWS:

Dr. Warren Jones, UMC distinguished professor of healthy policy, challenged the class to keep his five Cs in mind throughout their career. Jones’ five Cs are:
• Competition. “The only person who are in competition with is yourself,” Jones, a veteran family physician, told the students. “Give the very best.”
• Competency. Jones asked the students to dedicate themselves to “life-long learning.”
• Compassion. “The true healing art comes from human touch,” Jones said.
Jones, a retired Navy captain, told the students about a patient he saw many years ago that he could tell had something wrong other than a physical ailment. Before the man left Jones’ office, he embraced him, and the man wept. The man was experiencing a host of problems, including family issues.
“Don’t cease to care,” Jones said. “Caring has to be an integral part of everything you do.”
• Culturally proficient. Doctors must be able to communicate effectively with patients and be culturally sensitive, Jones said.
Jones used as an example how Rhode Island once had a problem with Vietnamese women and suicides. The problem wasn’t solved until a set of doctors asked why. It turned out the women were expecting their children to take care of them as they aged like in their home country but in many cases that was not happening, Jones said.
• Cash. Don’t worry about money, Jones told the future physicians.
“Focus on the value you bring to the people whose lives you touch,” he said.

Another highlight was a burner catching fire on the buffet table in the back of the room during the Dr. Warren's speech.

During our class picture on the staircase - Instead of saying "1.....2.....3....CHEESE!" "Someone behind my said "1......2......3......MALPRACTICE!" Which got a pretty good laugh from everyone behind me.

We also had a dinner sponsored by Bank Plus for our M2:M1 buddy event. It was mostly finger food, beer, and wine. We got to mingle with the partner we were paired with. My M2 buddy made me a shirt that said "I love my M2 buddy" with his picture on the front. I thought it was hilarious. About five M1's got shirts like this.