Hello, my lovely readers!
I am here to share with you another “Typical Day in the Life of a U of T Medical Student” post! This time I will be focusing on what our Friday schedule is like.
Fridays are one of the days in our week that follow a pretty predictable schedule. There isn’t a lot of variability in what our Fridays look like since typically it involves clinical skills sessions and review lectures before our Monday exam.
5:45 am
Alarm goes off and I lay in bed for a few more minutes before starting off my day. Once I finally find the motivation to get out of bed, I head straight to the kettle to boil some water for my first coffee of the day.
As my water boils, I hop in the shower to wake me up. I am someone who does everything in the shower… teeth brushing, face washing, the works. With my wet hair wrapped in a towel and wearing my comfy robe, I enjoy my coffee in bed and eat breakfast! My recent go-to meals have been either toast with peanut butter, cinnamon and honey, apple slices with peanut butter, or Greek yogurt with granola and berries.
6:30 am
Time to put on some professional clothes, blow-dry my hair, do my makeup, and pack up my stethoscope and clinical skills kit. I also throw a few snacks in my bag to eat while at the hospital. If I know it’s going to be a long day (lecture after clinical skills), I will also pack myself a lunch and extra snacks.
7:00 am
Time to leave my condo and walk to the subway.
7:45 am
Arrive to my subway stop and walk to the hospital.
7:55 am
Settle into the clinical skills classroom and chat with my group before our session starts.
8:00 am
Our tutor arrives and we begin our session. We start by reviewing our clinical skills booklet that outlines the steps of physical exam or patient history we are learning about that day.
We also take time to practice the new physical exam on each other, while our tutor guides us through the entire process. After practicing, we have the chance to ask questions and go over anything we need help with or are confused about.
10:00 am
Break time before we see inpatients on the ward. Usually we all go grab another coffee, because these mornings start particularly early for us with the commute, and chat.
10:15 am
We are assigned patients on the wards to take a full history and physical, if they are up for it. However, on the days we do not see real volunteer patients, we either interview each other through role play activities or see standardized patients, actors who pretend to be patients for us.
11:15 – 11:30 am
We return back from the wards, or complete our interviews with standardized patients, and wait for our other group members. Now, we all take turn presenting our cases to our preceptor and are provided with feedback based on our performance.
12:00 pm
Our clinical skills session is complete and we head back downtown for review lectures or an afternoon off from academics.
12:45 pm
We arrive back to the city!
If there is class, we all scramble back to the Medical Science Building as fast as possible to devour our lunch before the lecture starts. Lectures usually begin at 1:30 pm and end at 4:30 pm. They will review all the major topics we were taught about during the entire block and answer any questions.
If there isn’t class, I usually go straight home to eat lunch then start off my weekend early! Sometimes I go home for the weekend to spend time with family, socialize with friends, or get some extra work done!
So, there you have it! That is a typical Friday in medical school at U of T! If you have any questions or comments about this post feel free to reach out to me via social media or email!
XOXO,
The Girly MD (to be)