Welcome to the Pre-Med lecture series.
This is lecture one.
Congratulations!
You've been accepted into medical school!
Now is the time to celebrate and reward yourself for all your hard work.
It was an extremely challenging process and you have succeeded.
But now we need to focus on the next stage of your live... becoming a doctor.
Before we worry about what books to study and how to develop a great study schedule,
we need to plan out the logistics of your transition from going from college to medical
school.
The first thing we need to do is getting the basics organized.
You need to establish the basics of food, shelter, transportation and exercise.
Yes, this is not a very romantic language.
But you need a place to live, you need to have transportation to and from school, you
need to eat and you need to maintain your physical and mental health.
Let's talk about housing.
When it comes to picking for a place to live, try to find a location that's close to your
medical school campus.
This may seem like common sense, but I've had friends who've had to commute to medical
school every single day and it's quite the hassle.
Don't worry about living in a city that's more fun or that has more things to do.
You'll be spending the majority of your time in medical school studying and living close
to school will save you time!
Now, think about the extra minutes commuting to and from school and what that takes away.
It really takes away from your study and sleep time.
So for your own sake, live close to school.
Another variable to consider when picking a place to live is the actual environment
itself and that is: inside the house.
You need to live somewhere where it's quite enough, where you have hours of uninterrupted
work that you can study for.
Don't live in a party house or if you are going to have roommates, make sure that they
also spend time studying as well.
If you have roommates you want them to be academics and they live your study lifestyle
as well.
Last thing when picking a place to live: make sure you have a dedicated space inside of
your house or apartment that is designed for studying and nothing else.
Go purchase a nice table and a nice chair.
Nothing too fancy, but get a chair that is build pretty well and gives you good back
support.
Get a desk that is large enough that gives you comfortable space to work and also ensure
that you have a nice, good lightning.
We'll discuss this more later but having a dedicated study space that you study at every
single day, and that's what you do in that space, will make a world of difference in
your efficiency and also your study skills.
Now let’s talk about transportation.
Yes, you'll have to commute to and from school.
In medical school you are going to have anatomy lab, microbiology and daily lectures.
You need to have easy, mindless access to and from school.
Depending on the setup of your city, you may be able to use a bicycle, a car or public
transportation.
Whatever means of transportation that you use, make sure it's rapidly available to you.
The last thing... and I mean the last thing you want to worry about is "How I'm going
to get to school", "How I'm going to get to lab", "I have an exam coming up", "Oh no,
my car is going to break down", "The bus is going running late".
Make sure you plan out the logistics of transportation well on advance!
Speak to family and friends and see if they can help you acquire a mode of transportation
if you don't already have one.
Here, it's ok to be a little bit beggy and ask for help.
Now, let's discuss eating.
This may sound like an unusual topic to discuss.
You may be wondering, why is Mo talking about food...
it’s food... you just eat it, that's it.
Well, that's sort of true.
When it comes to your wellbeing in medical school you need to take care of your physical
and mental health.
It's easy to always eat out or pick up frozen food items from the store.
But in the long run, these options are unhealthy and actually it becomes more costly.
When you're studying or when you're sitting in a lecture listening you want to get the
most out of your time.
You want to be the most efficient.
Eating healthy allows your mind to stay sharp and keep focus.
Keep eating out and eating those frozen foods and you get kind of fog brain.
But let's keep it simple on how to get a solution.
You don't have to become a professional chef overnight.
All you need to do is come up with simple and easy recipes that will allow you to have
control the foods that you eat and also have control of your finances.
Here's some basic recommendations.
Number one: use a slow cooker.
A slow cooker is also called a Crock-Pot and it's just a device where you throw in meat,
vegetables, water and some seeds thing, you turn it on in the morning, you put on the
lid, you come back at night and voila you have delicious and healthy food.
It usually produces some kind of stew, but it's delicious.
Another thing that you can do is that concept of meal prep.
There are countless websites on the internet that are dedicated to meal prepping.
Meal prepping is when you take one day out of the week, usually a Sunday, you prepare
all the food for the week and you package it up and put it in the fridge and you take
it out every day.
Meal prepping is a nice way to work one day at a week and have food for the rest of the
week.
And also when it comes to eating, treat yourself to something you like to eat every now and
then.
Use common sense.
You want to keep yourself happy.
You want to eat things that you like.
But be aware, eating things has more of an impact on your studying and skills than you
might be aware.
Eating healthy and eating clean keeps your mind sharp and keeps your mood better.
Next topic, physical health and exercise.
Now, if you have any baseline health problems, dental health problems or vision problems…
now is the time to address them!
Your time will only become more occupied with school and studying as medical school gets
on.
Get regular checkups now and address your personal health concerns today.
Don't wait until medical school starts!
Now when it comes to exercise, I know what you're thinking: "Mo, I won't have time to
exercise in medical school, I'll be busy studying all the time!".
Well, hopefully through these lectures that you're listening to you will learn that you
have more than enough time while in medical school to do the things that you want.
Exercise is one of the best uses of your extra time.
An hour a day of running, cycling, lifting weights or whatever you want makes a tremendous
difference in your overall physical and mental health.
Now one solution is to figure out what are the hours of your school gym and when are
they open.
We'll talk about this more in the next topic but be social with your peers, go to the gym
to someone else in your med school class.
Having a workout buddy increases accountability and makes it more likely that you and your
friend will go to the gym.
Now, going to the gym is kind of a challenge while studying.
I'll be honest, I have that problem as well.
But what you need to do is get in the simple habit of going to the gym and then you won't
be able to stop.
You'll notice as well that once you start going to the gym, you'll start to study better
and you'll feel more control in your time.
That’s a good subconscious feeling.
The question here is, how to build the habit of exercise.
We will use the same analysis of habit forming when it comes to the future topics of studying.
Recall, that a habit has a cue, then the habit and then the reward.
We call this the habit-cycle.
For the cue, you will need to pick a regular cue that will trigger you to start exercising.
When you get home from lectures or before you start to have dinner, whatever it is,
pick a time and a cue that works for you and stick with it.
Once that cue has been triggered in your mind, then go to the gym, workout, do whatever you
like and then afterwards give yourself a reward.
This reward can be anything.
It can simple be feeling good about yourself, eat something you like or enjoy some type
of entertainment.
This will complete the habit-loop.
The cue, the habit and the reward and then you'll have a great system in place of exercise
that will increase your efficiency in studying and also makes you more healthy.
Now let’s talk about mental health.
You may have a desire to skip over this lecture, but this may be the most important topic of
everything we talk about today and I'll be honest with you, when I was in medical school
I would've probably skipped this as well.
But I've gone to the race and listen to me: this is very important!
Getting into medical school, as you're aware, is more competitive than ever.
Medical students are eagerly setting to obtain high USMLE scores and to match into the residency
programs of their choice.
With the recent increase in medical school suicides it's more important than ever that
we as doctors and medical students take care of our physical and mental well beings.
First, if you have any baseline mental health problems continue or start seeking care.
Before medical school is the time to start taking care.
Don't ignore it.
Don't delay it.
You're only going to get more busy.
Something to do that will help you in this respect is to develop the skill of becoming
introspective.
You need to learn how to ask yourself "How am I doing?".
Try to keep an eye on yourself and see if you notice any change in the following: Your
sleep.
You sleep more, you sleeping less?
Your interest.
Are you losing interest in things that you previously liked?
Do you feel guilty about anything?
Energy.
Are you more energetic or are you feeling tired?
Concentration.
Do you feel like you’re losing it?
Appetite.
Eating more, eating less?
And this thing in psychology that we call "psychomotor state".
Are you more kind of still not moving or are you moving too fast?
And finally, if you're having thoughts of harming yourself or anyone else.
These same question you should ask yourself introspectively but also try to see if you
see them in your friends or someone else.
You can help other people out!
Now, make sure that you stay touch with your friends before medical school and also your
family!
A very important thing that we look for in medical school Admission Committee is, “Do
students have a social network of support?”.
So that's very important that you maintain your social network of support and this actual
support system.
You will need the support of your friends and family more than ever and especially as
the medical school progress continues.
Lecture summary: Planning out the logistics of your life before medical school is the
first step to success.
It's also a lot of fun!
Start by organizing where you want to live.
Live close to school and live with other students who are academic, if you have to have roommates.
Obtain reliable transportation.
Bicycle, car, whatever.
You don't want to worry about how you're going to get to school.
Eat healthy and control what you eat.
Not only will it save you money but more importantly it will improve your study efficiency.
Take care of your physical health and also exercise.
Go see any doctors that you need to and obtain the necessary steps.
Create and exercise habit-loop to make sure that you actually exercise and get a reward.
And lastly, take care of your mental health.
Stay in touch with your family and friends and watch out for signs from yourself and
others of people who are not feeling well.
Thank you!