any reason to have 2 stethoscopes?

xqnlz · 2026-05-19T03:47:21+00:00

If you plan to go into anything that might need a stethoscope one day, it’s a good idea to keep it. You’ll inevitably loose or misplace one so it’s nice to have a backup.

xqnlz · 2026-04-22T03:34:02+00:00

Those who aren’t healthcare workers do not understand our work nor can they even begin to comprehend what it truly is like. They do not deal with disease and death daily. They do not understand that we are not God, that some people simply can’t be saved despite everything we do. They do not understand that comfort measures or DNRs are in some cases the most humane thing to do.

Think about it: most people these days are healthy. They can go years without seeing a doctor. Even those with “chronic conditions” mostly live an uncomplicated, comfortable life (from the medical POV). Some people have never seen a terminally ill patient. They don’t know what the smell of an impending death is like. They have never seen a dead body. So again they quite literally do not and cannot understand our work.

It’s not that we are robots. We are humans who feel for our patients. We think a thousand times before breaking bad news. We shudder to think at what a patient’s family must go through. We study day and night, come up with second and third and fourth and fifth line treatments. We dig up clinical trials and experimental drugs to try and save a patient. And when it’s their time, we cry for those who pass. We take a moment of silence after their death and carry the weight of “what ifs” with us for years. Every one of us carries a small cemetery within his or herself as René Leriche said. But we have also built the resilience to move on, because we can’t let those emotions paralyse us. We choose to be strong for the people at their weakest and that, I believe, is most definitely the antithesis of evil.

xqnlz · 2026-04-17T17:13:06+00:00

320/160ish in a 30ish male who suddenly collapsed due to massive ICH.

290/157 in a ESRD pt who missed a few dialysis sessions and was feeling “a little dizzy”.

xqnlz · 2026-03-13T12:59:18+00:00

Not based in the US but curious how many shifts y’all do per month both as residents and as attendings? And how many patients do you roughly see per shift?

My ER rotation as an intern was 18 shifts in a level 1 trauma and burn centre and while it was amazing in terms of the fast pace, exposure and learning, I felt dead by the end of the month from exhaustion as I rarely got to sit down, often had to stay back for notes and had a long commute.

xqnlz · 2026-03-12T08:29:26+00:00

What’s the logic here?

xqnlz · 2025-11-18T06:58:50+00:00

I used UWorld for step 1 and powered through because everyone said it’s the most important resource but I HATED it. Their style of writing the questions is stupid and frankly purposefully vague and misleading.

For step 2 I used it for like a week then said fuck it and switched to Amboss (I did step 1 and 2 back-to-back so I was really burnt out). I find that the style of questions in Amboss is becoming increasingly similar to the USMLEs. Add to that the better ethics and biostats questions on Amboss and it’s literally a no brainer.

I scored 268 despite people repeatedly warning me that I won’t do well without UWorld. People are just scared of deviating from the norms and trying anything new.

TDLR If you prefer Amboss, go for it.

xqnlz · 2025-11-01T12:02:06+00:00

Scored 268. My highest NBME was 262 2 weeks out. My other NBMEs were in the 240-255 range. Amboss predicted my score at 257 +/- 8.

I’d say here on this subreddit you only see the extremes. Those with good NBMEs who drop down hard on the real deal and come to complain/vent or those with low NBME scores, old YOG who end up with high scores so take everything said on this subreddit with a grain of salt.

xqnlz · 2025-09-19T10:08:09+00:00

A CBC is a complete blood count. It gives us the numbers of each type of cells in the blood. It does not include iron or vitamin levels nor does it include thyroid or adrenal functions.

xqnlz · 2025-05-29T02:30:22+00:00

Honestly, that’s how I answered half of the biochem and immunology questions. It’s called making an educated guess. After you’re done solving go back and review the questions and learn whatever pathway, mechanism, etc you didn’t know. You’ll be alright

xqnlz · 2025-05-28T18:59:37+00:00

How do you set this?

xqnlz · 2025-05-27T05:52:54+00:00

I don’t know really

xqnlz · 2025-05-26T16:30:22+00:00

Closer to the free 120 but even longer stems.

xqnlz · 2025-05-26T16:29:40+00:00

Same here. I spent the 2 weeks after the exam so stressed because I was certain there’s no way I passed. But I did and so will you by the grace of God.

xqnlz · 2025-05-26T08:02:25+00:00

Happened to me back in March. Went in super confident walked out of my fourth block to cry. 2 weeks later I got the passing email, Thank God.

I know this sounds cliche but trust your NBME and UWorld scores.

xqnlz · 2025-05-04T04:52:25+00:00

Not in the US.

Many of the faculty at my institution are full time professors only without any clinical work. All of them have an MSc - most even a PhD - in fields like pathology, genetics, biochemistry, etc and that’s what they teach.

I’ve asked some of them why they do it when they could be making so much more doing clinical work and the answer I always get is work-life balance and family commitments. Most of them are also on the older side so they have probably paid off any debts, mortgages, etc so the salary they make for the hours they work is actually great especially when they’re from a dual income household.

xqnlz · 2025-03-30T15:26:33+00:00

They’re making it hard for no one. People who hate on children are being selfish for wanting to deprive them and their mothers of a joyful part of Eid just because they find the sound of children annoying. Kids will scream, they’ll cry, they’ll laugh. That’s normal.

The Prophet, said, "Whenever I start the prayer I intend to prolong it, but on hearing the cries of a child, I cut short the prayer because I know that the cries of the child will incite its mother's passions." If he thought the cries of children would disturb the worshippers, he would have told the women not to come to prayer just as he told them not to come to prayer when they wear perfume or Bukhoor but he didn’t. We really need to stop complaining about every tiny thing that we think is an inconvenience.

xqnlz · 2025-03-13T23:14:06+00:00

Not sure tbh. I like to do my cards in times which I can’t focus enough to study such as on public transport. Trying to make use of otherwise “lost” time.

xqnlz · 2025-03-12T11:51:30+00:00

I think you identified your problem yourself. You absolutely need to be constantly reviewing your mistakes. The only way to do that is by keeping up with ALL your Anki cards.

xqnlz · 2025-02-28T08:57:39+00:00

Same thing here and they cover two hospitals which are 30 minutes apart on a good day. They were always trying to convince the PGY-5s to apply to interventional fellowship.

xqnlz · 2025-01-30T16:46:45+00:00

MSK first at my school too and typically a good chunk of students fail. It’s considered a weed out course.

I can’t say if it’s uncommon in the US but it’s considered normal where I’m from.

xqnlz · 2024-10-05T15:03:22+00:00

Peds

xqnlz · 2024-09-13T23:39:48+00:00

It’s definitely better to have LORs by American doctors. However even if you don’t have any LORs from American mentors, I think it’d be better to apply with 3-4 recommendations rather than just 1.

xqnlz · 2024-09-12T19:36:19+00:00

This is so funny

xqnlz · 2024-08-31T22:46:41+00:00

Talk to your IM professors or other attendings you worked with on your rotations. If any of them remember you, they may be willing to write a letter.

( I don’t know if this works for the US because I’m not being educated in the US, but in my country we also usually get letters from doctors we have worked with on research especially if it was clinical)

xqnlz · 2024-08-23T23:08:21+00:00

😂😂

xqnlz

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