Stages of Change

Tomorrow brings the end of one more class: Human Behavior. It's been a very different class in that it focuses mainly on psychology and the practical aspects of medicine. It has been a nice change of pace but I'll be glad to move on to Immunology next.

One pearl/nugget/quanta of wisdom that I think was most useful from this class was a paradigm in which to view people as you seek to change their behavior - Prochaska & DiClemente's Stages of Change model. It is a way to understand and judge how willing people are to make a change and what is the best way to approach them at their readiness level. As you look at it, you'll see that the first stage is Pre-Contemplation, and next it tells how to approach someone who hasn't even considered changing.

As my fellow student JM said, it helps you anytime you're trying to manipulate someone else! Just jokes - it really would be useful in any relationship where you're trying to help someone make a change, e.g. a parent to a teenager, a friend to someone addicted to drugs, a church or community leader. It probably seems like common sense to most of you, but to me it is really powerful sometimes to have common sense outlined for us, especially when we're trying to help someone we love.

This table & more information at http://www.cellinteractive.com/ucla/physcian_ed/stages_change.html.

Catch Up

If you're wondering what life in med school has been like for the last four months since I posted, then look no further:

This is the view I enjoy every morning on the train as I study before class. However, I look at this picture from this morning and to me it looks like what you fear med school (or any other time-expensive endeavor) will become: claustrophobic, pervasive and oppressive. I mean, just look at me crammed in to that stainless steel seat staring at a neurotically highlighted syllabus! That's no way to start your morning! Thankfully, school (especially these last four months) have been far from this. There has been some challenging material to learn, but I'm lucky to be a part of a good study group to help me keep up and a great wife to help me stay balanced. That isn't to say that med school is neurosis-free. I do feel guilty when I spend time enjoying myself instead of studying & I do have to admit that my highlighting system is a little ridiculous - the picture above is my first pass through and by the time the test comes the syllabus will be rainbowfied with more highlighting. But it works for me.

One new experience for me these last few months was our cell biology class. It was my first full exposure to using microscopes to view tissue samples, which turned out to be possibly my favorite part of this first year. It's just incredible to see and finally truly understand the structures that make up our organs. Just take a look at some of these pictures (link) and try to tell me they're not incredible. I loved it so much that I shadowed some pathology residents for a day to see what else pathologists do (Pathologists being the physicians who examine tissue samples among other things to make diagnoses). Now we have started and have nearly finished neuroscience.

Other than that, our friends have kept us balanced with fun activities like checking out nearby San Antonio & beautiful wildflowers. I also recently got hooked on Billy Collins poetry, and in conclusion I'll leave my favorite 2 so far:

The History Teacher - Billy Collins

Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.

The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan.

The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.

Skip ahead to 1:00 on this video for an intro & reading of "Litany" - a hilarious poem.