First Semester of Clinical Years

The first four weeks we started with Public Health and Preventive Medicine. There is no patient contact since this course entirely deals with issues related to handicapped, social and health legislations as well as non-communicable disease prevention. This course was concluded with a state exam hence making it my first state exam.

The second block was Paediatrics. The main departments that we visited included cardiology where we were shown diagnostics measures as well as ICU units where infants and toddlers suffered congenital cardiac abnormalities. Second department was pulmonology. This one mainly entailed children with asthma and cystic fibrosis and how to manage them. The diagnostic procedures undertaken were bronchoscopy and functional diagnostics. And finally the third department was gastroenterology.

Third block: Clinical Genetics. This department provides diagnostic and genetic counselling for individuals or families with or at risk of genetic based conditions. We tackled chromosomal abnormalities, single gene disorders, deletion syndromes and cancer prone syndromes. Furthermore, every day we had a patient presentation whereby a patient was brought to us with a very rare condition and they tried to explain their side of the stories battling with a particular condition.

Currently I am undertaking Otorhinolaryngology otherwise known as ENT. It primarily focuses on Ear, Throat and Nose diseases particularly to children up to 19 years of age. The department is responsible for diagnostics and treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases that are found in the above named organs. Surgiries are very common in this field which includes otomicrosurgery, cochlear implants, application of hearing aids and tumor excisions. I was fortunate enough to visit the operation theatres to see a few surgical procedures.