Surprisingly though, resolutions for medical students aren't as dissimilar to the rest of the students. The study and life balance insidiously turns into a jumbled up mess and new years brings the hope of implementing all the self-help hacks.
My resolutions are to take good care of my health, drink more water every day, eat better, stay optimistic, and journal daily.
One would think, the excess of health and prevention-related knowledge can automatically hook onto the motor areas, making us do all the healthy stuff.
But it takes conscious effort to take care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Medical education is tough at any point of the journey, be it undergraduate or preparing for post-graduation. The usual routine is exhausting sometimes.
Not only, it is important to keep you in shape but also supplies you with all essential micronutrients required for optimum mental health, metabolism, and ability to focus.
The FANTA project has simplified a balanced diet for the general population, but especially those who preach it. There are 10 broad food groups. Dietary diversity is taken as a proxy for micronutrient adequacy, if one is consuming more than or equal to 5 food groups every day, it is assumed that micronutrients are nicely supplied. So, preach it and practice it.
Learning and applying mindfulness can be a game changer. Being a doctor requires a higher involvement of cortical functioning, prompt processing, and decision making, imbibing mindfulness mantra in your life can help you and executive functions: if your intellect is your armory, mindfulness is like carrying a shield, giving you enough empowerment to deal with any challenges head-on.
A very simple practice is breath awareness. Breath is the key to your mind, once you regulate the breath or just observe, it gives your mind enough space to quickly come to the present moment.
Breath is the key to your mind, once you regulate the breath or just observe, it gives your mind enough space to quickly come to the present moment.
Book recommendation- "Power of NOW - Eckhart Tolle"
Let this journey be a journey of compassionate growth. Do not forget to connect and form amazing friendships.
Support your peers in their growth, receive help, and grow together. Nothing solidifies learning as much as the group discussion sessions.
Whatever full commitment means bring it on at this very moment. Dream for it. While I am not personally a "Law of Attraction" advocate or practitioner. But to crack my exam, I needed this inspiration to dive in completely. You achieve things when you want them, however, things can be kept away from you when you are driven. Be driven. Find your driving factors.
Book recommendation - "Man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl", "The Secret by Rhonda Byrne".
This year resolve to understand the complexity of your profession. It is not going to be easy and neither it should be. One must do the penance, to achieve such greatness. A doctor's decision-making, knowledge, and competence go much beyond the ability to crack exams.
You will independently be dealing with lives. Study hard, and study deep for those who are going to be on the other side of the story.
Book recommendation - "12 rules for life - Dr. Jordan B. Peterson"
How can you engage with patients so that you can build a rapport, extract details, listen without confirmation biases, and be empathetic? Learn your history-taking skills in depth. Wherever you are, you are going to need this skill.
Not only will it help you in clarifying your thoughts, to guide you to a proper diagnosis but the kindness will be quickly perceptible by your patients. They will often tell you, "Doctor, you explain things so nicely." This is the fuel that keeps you motivated to sharpen your mind like a blade.
Learn the skill of "Motivational Interviewing" how do you bring about behavior change when no human really likes to be told that they are incorrect, but you must say it at times, how do you put your words that your patient believes your suggestions are going to help him or her.
Communication is the sorcery leveraging your knowledge and guiding you to be a successful doctor.
The next decade in healthcare is going to be fascinating. NHS already employs Augmented Reality teaching ways and many other institutions have resorted to immersive technologies.
In the coming few years, we are gonna see an exponential surge. Health technologies have been around since the late 20th century and we have been inquisitive. Robotic surgical systems, capsule cameras, medical mirrors, and now artificial image-based diagnostic aids. The adventure has just begun.
Embrace it when it reaches your periphery.
While pursuing greatness, remember, perfection is not the goal however continuous learning is, the day you signed up for medical school, you signed up to be a lifelong student. This is a transformative journey, but you need to be working on holistic well-being, to be able to embody this transformation.