Introduction to the second year

Summer internship at the cardiology department in the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) was quite an intriguing and fascinating part of my holidays. During the internship I had the opportunity to learn and practice most of the activities nurses do during their workday. These include: blood taking, obtaining and giving medication to the patients, preparation of the patients for surgery and control of their vital functions, as well as stitch removal. During this time, I also had the chance to learn about the hierarchy and bureaucracy of the hospital, which are its important aspects as well as the practice of medicine itself.

On October 2018, the school year officially started on the First Faculty of Medicine, and among the majority of the students erupted a textbook shopping craze, followed by the examination of the subjects to be studied in the given year. Thanks to the fact that I completed most of my “easier” subjects last year, including nursing, English, biology and genetics and the summer nursing internship, I was left with only 3 subjects for this year. Having only 3 subjects could to some of the readers sound like a small number, however, I can reassure you that the study of physiology, chemistry and microbiology will very likely force the majority of my evenings to be study oriented.

My extracurricular activities this year will include the study of infertility in The Department of Biology and Genetics on the 1LF, Portu project, teaching English as well as dissection demonstrations. On the department of biology and genetics I will be studying the genetic background to a structural defect in sperm cells under the supervision of professor Liška. Furthermore, I will be applying for the position of dissection demonstrator as well as a lecturer, which is essentially an assistant to the teacher during anatomy lessons of the first-year students.

Second year is, compared to the first year, more analysis, and connection between studied aspects oriented. In the first year, one only had to memorize the books, and critically thinking about the memorized aspects was not necessary. This change is, because of my previous Open Gate studies, more than welcome, as my high school studies focused on analysis and critical thinking more than mere memorization. Writing this blog post will be followed by a physiology textbook, with hopes and dreams that the upcoming exams will go smoothly and without major problems or complications.