Well… another semester has absolutely flown by! I can’t believe my class is already halfway through our second year at SCO. This semester has been challenging but full of exciting new knowledge and skills. The most exciting part of this semester for me was the number of new clinical skills we learned in our Theory & Methods lab. We began the semester finishing up with our Fundoscopy skills that we learned over the summer mini-semester, and by the time finals rolled around last week we had learned to perform Binocular Indirect Ophthlamoscopy (the big kahuna!), Tonometry, Gonioscopy, and other various skills. Juggling learning and practicing these clinical skills along with keeping up with our seven courses was difficult, but we all made it through and now we are one step closer to being clinicians!
Now that we’re on Christmas break, there is only one more semester standing between my class and our first experiences as student doctors in The Eye Center. We start seeing our own patients in May and I could not be more excited! I can’t wait to start applying all of these skills we have been working so hard to master and to begin really thinking like a doctor. SCO has been providing us with every opportunity possible to prepare us for real-life patient interactions so I know we will feel ready and prepared (but still probably a little nervous!) when we’re finally in the clinic in May.
As for the next two weeks, I plan to do a lot of relaxing and catching up on sleep! I’m going home to Texas to visit my family for a week for Christmas then coming back to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl (Gig ‘em, Aggies!) and New Year’s Eve. I know by the time the spring semester begins on January 5th I will be recharged and ready to take on another busy and exciting semester. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and I’ll check back in in January with some spring semester updates! Happy Holidays!!