Mistakes and Lessons from Medical School by Dr. Justin Sung

Introduction

• Dr. Justin Sun: Former junior doctor, now a learning coach, head of learning at 'I can study'.
• Goal: Sharing mistakes and lessons from medical school to help current students.

Key Mistakes and Lessons

Over-Engineering Learning for Exams

• Initially focused on exam-specific learning only.
• Result: Failed first clinical attachment in General Medicine (Internal Medicine).
• Problem: Knowledge didn't translate well to clinical practice, built a system based on short-term memory.
• Strategy Change: Focus more on foundational knowledge that carries through different stages of medical practice.
• Detail Management: Over-focused on specific details, fragmented knowledge, struggled with atypical patient presentations.

Clinical vs. Preclinical Learning

• During clinical years, knowledge needs practical application.
• Issue: Lacked big-picture understanding of medical conditions and disease presentation.
• Peer Observation: Seniors were able to synthesize complex information and formulate detailed management plans.

Learning Methodology

• Initial Method: Learned topics as presented without seeking simpler methods.
• Impact: Wasted significant time without understanding practical application.
• Adjustment: Implemented clinical reasoning early, learned disease understanding retrospectively.

Effective Clinical Attachments

• Early Approach: Skipped engagement in clinical rounds, preferred to study independently.
• Missed Opportunities: Ignored practical knowledge that could be gained from real patient interactions.
• Recommendation: Engage fully in clinical attachments for real-world learning context and application.

Examples and Recommendations

Symptom-Focused Learning

• Scenario: Learning from symptom (e.g., chest pain) to disease, not the other way around.
• Flexibility: Develop knowledge bases for symptom-focused diagnosis and differential planning.
• Approach: Start with broad categories (e.g., skin, bones, muscles) and narrow down to specific diseases.

Simplifying Complex Concepts

• Example: Simplified understanding of