Electives

The electives I'm taking this quarter include something called Medical Scholars Program. It sounds nifty and official but really, it's just an anatomy review/discussion section. It's run by second-year students and pretty useful. It's important to see different cadavers in anatomy since anatomical structures vary a lot depending on lifestyle, age, gender, etc.

I'm also taking Introduction to Ophthalmology, which is important for me since it might be a field to pursue. It's a seminar-size lecture-style class that covers a lot (in my opinion). We've done a basic overview of eye anatomy (which I know very little about) and covered a few eye diseases and disorders. At the end of November, we'll have a practical clinical skills session where we play with our ophthalmascopes and try to inspect each other's optic nerves. We'll also get to use the microdissection lab to dissect a cow's eye I believe. Hopefully by the end of this quarter, I'll know whether I want to be an ophthalmologist. One big downside, however, is that I can't spell ophthalmologist.

The last class I'm taking is a course offered in the Ob/Gyn department. I attend a weekly lecture series on childbirth and am paired with an expectant mother. I attend her prenatal visits and am also present at the birth. It sounded like a pretty interesting program (though I have no real interest in going into Ob/Gyn) and I expect I'll learn a lot. Originally, I was thinking of a more standard elective, but I decided to push my boundaries with this one.