Intersession

We just finished intersession, a week of socializing sprinkled with classes and adviser meetings. While at first I thought it was silly to have these week long transitions, I find them incredibly welcome reorientation and destressing sessions. The theme this week was ethics, and we had several lectures and small groups on how to approach ethical issues, think through them systematically, and argue for or against a course of action. The truth is, I never really liked applied ethics and a physician doesn't approach ethical theory as a philosopher would. But, what we did learn was practical and certainly the discussion of ethical problems overcomes a large activation energy in recognizing its importance. As an ethical purist though, I still find Kant's (praise be his name) theories most compelling.

Another big aspect of this week was professional development. Not only did we have our old foundation of patient care groups (which I thoroughly enjoy), we also had some scary sessions on how to plan our fourth year, the timeline for residency application, and when to take Step 2. I was able to meet with a couple faculty members for advising. Lastly, they try to emphasize professionalism in these intersessions, topics that are better taught by modeling rather than pedantics.

There was also a hodgepodge of other random topics such as master clinician rounds (demonstrating differential diagnosis and clinical reasoning of a difficult case), stem cells, and disabilities. As a whole, I thought the week went fairly well; I enjoyed seeing all my classmates again and I had a lot of fun hanging out with friends.