Alumni Letter (2016): Claire Gleadhill, MD, East Tennessee State University

My Transition to Medical School

            I started medical school at Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University about 6 months ago.  Since my medical school started in July, I only got a month-long summer after graduating from Cal Poly in June. For that month, I worked part-time at a doctor’s office in Atascadero, enjoyed my free time, and made the big move to Tennessee.

            Medical school for first and second years is information overload, and the rumor around here is that second year is the roughest.  So far my classes have been solely focused on learning the entire human gross anatomy. We have covered the entire body, and in these next two weeks we will finish with learning the Head and Neck. In anatomy, we have lab groups with four people per cadaver. It has been an amazing experience to learn all about the human body. Dissecting the cadaver has taken a lot for me to get used to, it has been hard for me to wrap my head around tearing a body apart when I got into medicine to heal and put people back together. However, as a future physician, it is paramount to know what is going on in the body and where everything is and this cadaver experience is really the only way to do it.

            School is hard and I think I could have been more prepared for anatomy by taking a more recent course during my last year of undergrad if I hadn’t been feeling lazy. That being said, I am doing well in the course, it just takes a little longer for the information to sink in compared to others that have seen it before.  

            

           However, the energy of the faculty and the learning environment at this school is almost completely free of competition and I could not imagine my medical education coming from somewhere else. I have learned how to do a complete physical exam and can relate it clearly to the gross anatomy I am learning concurrently. We also take many communications courses about inter-professional education and patient-centered patient encounters.

            I love medical school and am assured that all my hard work in undergrad has paid off! Keep it up and you will get there too!

-Claire Gleadhill

Note: This letter was received in 2016