Okay, let’s start with some highly anticipated news…I passed Part 1 of Boards!!! Can you believe it!? The past three years have been so busy balancing both my academics and my leadership endeavors, passing this exam has been a real time-management-icing-on-the-cake-feat. Even more exciting is that my classmate, Jessica Haynes, achieved THE HIGHEST SCORE NATIONALLY on Part 1! She outscored over 1600 students–what an achievement! My classmates did really well on this first of three Boards exams, and I couldn’t be more proud of our collective accomplishments. After taking the exam back in March, and then waiting nearly two months for the scores to be released, I’d say we all deserve a big scoop of ice-cream, or at the least some good quality Memphis fro-yo at YOLO :)
With Part 1 checked off my to-do list and Parts 2 and 3 scheduled for December and August, this all could mean one thing….it’s fourth year, baby! Time has truly flown by way too fast; It’s like I was just a measly first year only yesterday…can you imagine those blog posts from back in the day?
Speaking of 4th year, I finished my first week of externships at SCO’s The Eye Center. Each day I rotate through one of the following clinics: Ocular Disease, Pediatrics, Adult Primary Care or practice at the University Eye Care clinic at University of Memphis, Low Vision or Vision Therapy, and Contact Lens. Each day was packed with patients! I was introduced to new technology, including the completely automated phoropters and Optos retinal camera in Adult Primary Care, to experimenting with the latest in contact lens designs from dailies to sclerals. It’s like I went away for a week to Haiti and BOOM, I’m a fourth year and expected to be more efficient, knowledgeable, and prepared to meet the increasing number of patient encounters I see daily. While I’ll be the first to admit I’m struggling to keep up, my staff doctors have been supportive and instructive, so I welcome the challenge that’s ahead for me.
Check back for more updates soon. This is my last summer in Memphis, so you know there’s going to be a lot in store :)
Carpe Diem,
Amy