Hi Everybody! The wheels are starting to churn this trimester!
We had two cases due, another midterm in Physical Diagnosis class,
as well as helping to make some Chinese Angelica (Angelica
sinensis) salve in our botanicals class this week. The week was
capped off with Tri Games and my trimester, Trimester 6, finished
in second place out of 8 teams. More about that in a moment,
though.
I'll highlight Physical Diagnosis this week. Physical Diagnosis
is the culmination of evaluation classes beginning in Trimester 2
all the way up through Trimester 5. In the evaluation classes, we
combine patient intake skills such as taking vitals, heart and lung
exams and neurology exams with physical medicine. The physical
medicine part includes musculoskeletal adjustment and soft tissue
work. When we reach Trimester 6, we put all of the pieces together
in one huge class that is 8 credit hours. We spend 10 hours per
week (6 in the classroom, 4 in the lab) rehashing each system of
the body along with how to inspect, evaluate and determine if
something is going wrong. We apply pathologies that can impact that
system or group of systems as we go. To top everything off, we
spend time learning these systems through 'hands on' training.
This is a vast amount of time and information, so we have
alternating written exams and lab practicals every 5 weeks. These
combined exams will culminate in finals week with an hour-long lab
practical and two-hour written comprehensive exam. Needless to say,
I have been spending quite a bit of time on 'Phys DX'! This is a
fun class with many of our clinical professors lending a hand on
various subjects. In my opinion, it's a great way to learn from
each subject matter expert as we learn of their specialty!
Tri Games
Now! About Tri Games! Tri Games is a competition held
three times a year at the Lombard campus. Each of the trimesters (1
through 7, and 8,9,10 combined) competes with each other in a team
sport. This spring, co-ed flag football was the game!
After classes last Friday, everyone packed up a cool beverage,
donned their trimester's color (Tri 6 was red) and readied
themselves to defend their trimester's honor on the gridiron--well,
the field in front of Lincoln apartments. The favorite is usually
the clinic team (students from trimesters 8, 9, and 10) as they
have the opportunity to combine forces.
Although Trimester 6 (ahem) put up a great fight after battling
through the ranks to make the Championship Game, the "Mighty Swans"
of trimesters 8, 9, and 10 were able to barely "squeak by" with a
30-point victory. Even though we were a little bummed at coming in
second, we joined our classmates after the game and listened to
some tunes from the DJ on the basketball court. A great time! Plus,
we'll take the win at the next Tri Games this fall when we are
Trimester 7!
This week I'm thankful that my classmates/teammates would let
the "wily veteran" come out of retirement to join them on the
field! What a great feeling to be welcomed by one's classmates on
the sports field, even though a "step may have been lost" somewhere
in the past 15 years. The inclusive nature of the student body of
NUHS is defined in young, recently graduated college athletes
turned naturopathic/chiropractic med students welcoming a
middle-aged naturopathic med student to represent our trimester in
an athletic competition! Time to hit the practice field and be
ready for kickball in the fall!
Until next week!