Nymgo

Everyone knows how hard it can be to stay in touch with loved ones around the world, me included (Oh [family in] Canada, how I miss you). And as chance would have it, I’ve been contacted by Nymgo. What is Nymgo you say?

“Nymgo is the newest, most affordable, online calling service able to offer the lowest international rates to both landlines and mobiles.”

Although not strictly medical, I thought it would be pretty cool to share the word as I see a win-win situation here: Nymgo is giving away promo codes to allow the readers of Blogs of Medical Students to try out Nymgo and to connect with friends and loved ones around the world for free.

http://nymgo.com

Also, over the next few months Nymgo will be making major changes so expect big things in 2012, including some amazing giveaways. If you have specific suggestions, the people over at Nymgo would love to hear them. Nymgo is also looking for freelance writers to write for their digital magazine, The Social Expat.

So with that, I hope 2012 turns out great for everyone!

Why Should Medical Students Blog?

As a medical student, you probably have a very busy calendar. Blogging might seem like just another responsibility to jam into your schedule. And yet, it doesn't have to be like that. You could always devote a little bit of time once a week to the blog. And despite your trouble, you would actually be creating a very useful tool, both for yourself and for others. Here are a few reasons why you should consider blogging about your experiences in medical school.

To Build Community

Blogging about your education is a great way to extend your learning community beyond the physical boundaries of your particular medical school. As you write about your medical-related interests, new things you have learned, and your troubles, other students can read and react to your thoughts. Then you can react in turn, thus continuing the conversation. You essentially expand your community to include not only the students with whom you study, but also students in other programs around the world. By joining this community, ideally you can strengthen it with your own ideas and interactions with others. Through the transfer of knowledge and experiences, the community can improve as a whole.

To Reflect on Your Experiences

Another important aspect of learning is the act of self-reflection. Through self-reflection, students evaluate their learning process, their successes and failures, and their plans to move forward. Self-reflection is a professional tool as well, and many highly successful organizations use it to figure out how they could do a better job next time: aviation crews, athletic teams, and military units often debrief after they experience significant events. So reflecting upon your day's work and education will help you tackle the next challenge.

To Create a Guidebook

To a certain set of readers, your blog could work as a guidebook to medical school. Prospective students, new students, and those who have just begun considering a career in medicine all could benefit from reading the thoughts, opinions, and worries of a current medical student working through the program. Such a blog might implicitly help prospective students prepare for the rigorous work of medical school. Through your experiences, others can learn what to expect.

Of course, you can adjust the focus of your blog however you like. You can mix and match these purposes, or you can limit your writing to just one. The goal is that the blog be useful in some way, and not become busywork, something you feel like you have to do. If that happens, eventually you'll neglect the blog, and it will no longer be worthwhile to yourself and to other readers. So think carefully about whether or not blogging while you're in school is right for you. If you think you can somehow balance your own education with writing a blog that benefits you and your readers, then maybe blogging will be perfect for you.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Tim Handorf, who writes on the topics of online colleges and universities. He welcomes your comments at his email Id: tim.handorf.20@googlemail.com.

Med Blog contest invitation for bloggers

As promised, a contest. Please read my disclaimer at the bottom of this post.*

Bloggers invited to compete for prizes in Thailand’s Medical Tourism Blog Contest

The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Medical Tourism Blog Contest kicks off with cash and prizes worth nearly US$20,000 up for grabs, including a seven-day all-inclusive medical tour of Thailand for 12 finalists.

The competition is easy and fun, with the aim to promote medical tourism in the Kingdom by awarding winning contestants trips to the Land of Smiles and other prizes.

Twelve finalists chosen from the entries will win an experience of a lifetime: an all-inclusive seven-day Medical Tourism Familiarization Trip in Thailand, which will take place from November 20-26, 2010. Some of them will travel to Phuket, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Ko Samui, while others will explore Bangkok. The TAT will arrange additional sightseeing tours for finalists so they can experience the attractions of Thailand as a medical tourism hub.

During the competition period from November 20, 2010 to January 31, 2011, each finalist will use blog posts, photos, videos and other social media tools to share their daily experiences with the medical services available in Thailand with a global audience. The goal is to inform readers about what is available and to persuade them to learn more about Thailand’s top medical tourism destinations.

In order to win, finalists must write the best blog post and attract the highest number of unique visitors. The blogger who attracts the most unique visitors to their URL will win the top prize of $13,000 ($10,000 in cash plus luxurious hotel vouchers worth $3,000 at Sri Panwa, Phuket and Westin Grande, Bangkok), and the finalist who the judging committee decides has created the best blog will receive prizes worth $5,000 ($3,000 in cash plus luxurious hotel vouchers worth $2,000 at Ratilanna Riverside Spa Resort, Chiang Mai and Absolute Chandara Resort and Spa, Phuket).

The competition is open to anyone who has experience writing blogs related to tourism or medical tourism in English language or containing English languag. To enter, visit: www.MedBlogContest.com

This is a great opportunity to discover firsthand why Thailand has become one of the world’s top destinations for medical tourism.

Submissions are welcome until October 31, 2010. Check out www.MedBlogContest.com

For media enquiries, please go to the *Contact Us* page and select the subject Press Media Enquiry. A team member will contact you shortly after your submission is received.**”

Thank you very much

Regards,

Narumol Narula

*Disclaimer from Blogs of Medical Students:

I'm simply passing this information on. I'm not connected to this and won't be able to answer questions and inquiries. So, if you need something, visit their site ;)

Failure's Two Options

Doctors, like medical students, seem to have an allergy to failure. Or maybe not so much failure itself as admitting to it. This situation results in two odd treatments (at least in my [personal] experience).

1. Said medical professional realizes he/she hasn't succeeded in something* and then fabricates excuses and attempts to reinforce them in order to show nothing ever happened.
2. Said medical professional simply ignores the something* falsely hoping it will somehow solve itself.

Both methods are far from ideal and even farther from being palliative and no where near curative. After reading a bit of psychology not too long ago I realized that maybe a possible reason for these futile rescue attempts is fear. So in order to make any progress this fear must be revealed what ever it may be.

So I began asking myself specific questions about why I stopped doing something that once ago I thought would have been a great idea. I came up with nothing, essentially unraveling a tangled web of misconceptions and false trepidations (awesome word, no?).

So without further ado, I sincerely apologize for neglecting this resource and all the people who have commented on my old posts. I will try to build up the fire that once helped start this blog and would like to thank all the people who have left comments. Those comments helped prevent all this from completely being extinguished.

Stay tuned for a possible blogging competition from Thailand in the next post.

*Cholecystectomies, Arthral aspirations, Blogging, Hip Abductor Replacements, etc, etc

Soon...

I promise a blog entry by the end of this week. Really, I do ;)

I guess people have ups and downs during their blogging and I think I'm in that down phase for some reason. I sincerely congratulate and tip my hat off to you people that can do this blogging thing day in and day out. It really takes a lot of work in addition to having your own life...(you do have lives right?) lol, just kidding.

My Medical Journey

Stagnation Damnation!

My Medical Journey is a blog by LoverockMD, a.k.a. someone who loves rock music and a medical degree student. LoverockMD just started up his English blog but went straight for the throat and put in some medical posts describing Fibrous Dysplasia and a Hangman's Fracture among others. LoverockMD writes about medical conditions in a way that skims enough of the top to get the reader interested and doesn't dive too far deep so that the reader drowns. It's a nice mix of interesting and informative without overkill. In certain posts LoverockMD also puts in his one view or thoughts which give the posts a more personal feel to them.

Hopefully by including the blog 'My Medical Journey,' LoverockMD will feel inspired to continue putting out fine posts!

And remember: Be healthy and get rich!

A(n)nals of an Idle Mind

Never make promises because if you fail to keep them, they'll haunt the back of your mind until you fulfill them! lol

A(n)nals of an Idle Mind is a blog by Arps who lives in Jodhpur, India (Yes, I linked that to Google Maps. My geography of India is so poor...anyways, I apologize for that ;) ). Arps is finishing up the final year of medical school and has dedicated A(n)nals of an Idle Mind to some laid back easy writing that spans from personal life to medical tidbits such as tips for gynecology (for students) and random bits of information on things such as the APGAR score (Teachers could make it so much more interesting if they actually explained a little bit about the background of these things, good thing we have medical students!). And of course, the traditional post of quoting quotes which helps to find cool quotes in this crazy medical world of quotes. If I could add a few more Q's to that I could make a tongue twister!

Be sure to leave a comment too!