Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Synapsis Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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HIPPOCRATIC OATH I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepios and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant: To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art — if they desire to learn it — without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but to no one else. I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work. Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief, and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves. What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot. (Translation by Ludwig Edelstein) %TSk ,

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The unit is a group of 204 students who entered the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medical School devoid of medical knowledge, but swollen with restfullness, the enjoy- ment of life and the appetite for having a good time. The assemblage ventured onto two years of didactic work. They began to develop strange relationships with cadavers and found their new body scent to the Eau de le Formaldehyde. Fatigue started to overcome them though they still managed to continue to enjoy themselves. New c o lumbrosacral strain and sprain arose from the increasing amounts of class notes being carried around. Behavioral changes were noted in many as these two years went by. Fatigue became replaced by narcoleptic behavior which was unrelieved by a full night ' s sleep, sleeping in class, not going to class and or various stimulants of unknown etiology. The group proceeded onward after having full doses of such things as midterms, written finals, lab finals, oral exams and National Boards Part 1, to prove themselves on rotations during the final two years of school. The first few months caused increased difficulty for many. New stepping stones, such as the history and physical, the admission note, the admission orders and the daily progress note, had to be crossed. A new rotation would begin, and then it would end after four weeks, just when the group finally learned the layout of the hospital, where the two-by-four index cards were kept, what phones dialed out directly, and when the attending learned the names of the individual components of the unit. Every four weeks a new hospital, a new place to rest their bodies and a new address. Loss of memory, at least as far as to what town they were in, became an ever-present problem. The collection of persons developed new symptoms such as: Dyspnea on exertion — after running up nine flights of stairs to a code to find they are the hundredth person in the room, intermittent claudication — while standing around for hours waiting for rounds to start, and hypoglycemic episodes — since when rounds finally did begin they went through lunchtime. They proceeded through the thirteen scheduled rotations of their third year into the final year of their medical school education. These four-week rotations were found to be no different except that the group, now as fourth year students, were supposed to know vast amounts of medical tidbits not known the year before. Then for an indeterminate quantity of rotations, at a nameless institution, they not only had to deal with the everyday happenings in the hospital, but they now had to cope with a parking dilemma which was beyond their control. But with only eight or so months left to go this rowdy, noisy, rude, obnoxious class, as they were named by some, let this problem pass without too much squabbling. The subjects met in March for a test of their medical trivia knowledge by taking the National Boards Part II. In June the unit would undergo one final procedure.