Whoa...Slow Down!

"Education in medicine is just a way of becoming a free man. The more competent you become, the more opportunity you have to do as you please." (Steadism #166, p.55)

I am becoming a free man! There is hope to shake the shackles of PA serfdom...[LOL] My goal is to learn as much as I can, but hopefully, become competent at the knowledge I do attain. Now I know that this is not really possible at this level...too much...not enough clinically relevant experience with it (that comes in years 3 and 4 of medical school), but I have great hope that the competence will come. I have faith.

Let me repeat. Medical school is an infolanche! It is really incredible how much there is to learn (and I'm sure forget later right before the national boards). Dr. Nick van Terheyden, Chief Medical Officer for a large medical technology firm once said that "Clinical knowledge is estimated to double every 18 months."  Now I can't verify the stats (my public health professor would be proud), but that means that since I graduated PA school it has doubled 16 times. Might as well be a new profession. But there are many consistencies from the knowledge I had, and have obtained since. Thank goodness for that. And thank goodness for Wikipedia. It is a bunch of stuff. And I REALLY want to learn it all and become competent at it.

At the current rate, how will future medical professionals learn this, this way, and how will they retain it all? I'm sure this is not going to bet easier in the future. Are we moving toward a time that attaining the knowledge base is beyond the capacity of mortal man? Certainly, the way that it is being done. For now, I'm content of figuring out where the muscles attach on the tibia. That just in time knowledge is "due" on Friday with our next lab exam. I'll worry about the rest later.