Throughout my life, I have been trained by Jesuit institutions. I have loved all of what they have prescribed – to “find God in all things,” to “care for the entire person,” to “be a woman with and for others.” But the most important pillar that I have gained from these educational institutions is to have a reflective mind – the ability to ask why and dig deeper into a …
A Black woman whose kidneys only function at 15 percent of normal wishes to be evaluated for a kidney transplant. Although this is very reasonable, before 2021, many physicians would have said, “I’m sorry, but your kidney function is not bad enough to be referred for a transplant.”
This is because the kidney function calculator used before 2021 overestimates kidney function for Black people, making her kidney function seem “too good” …
The COVID-19 pandemic has uprooted our lives, tilting them into imbalance and oftentimes severing our individual sense of inner peace. The newfound public initiative to combat these paralyzing challenges is welcome, especially to me. I’ve coped with major depression for as long as I can remember.
The grinding pursuit of my own inner peace led me to medical school. Medical training, I expected, would make a healer out of me, able …
If “video killed the radio star” and Zoom squelched the commute, it seems certain that virtual reality and three-dimensional imaging will be the death knell for cadavers.
Recently, NBC Nightly News did a story featuring staff members from Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine using the metaverse and 3D imaging to map out the details of an upcoming complex brain surgery. No matter that the four participants were in different …
In a crowded primary care clinic in an inner city, Mr. Smith, with pursed lips, was sitting next to his oxygen tank and waiting patiently for his doctor. He gratefully commented on how much the oxygen tank had helped him with his daily activities. However, his recent Covid-19 infection had exacerbated his symptoms. It had been more than two weeks since he started coughing. He couldn’t wait to see his …
International medical school graduates (IMGs) play an integral role in the health care system of the United States and constitute approximately one-quarter of the physician workforce. In 2022, fewer IMGs registered for Match than in 2021, with a match rate of 58.1 percent. The transition to USMLE Step 1 pass/fail, elimination of Step 2 Clinical Science, and implementation of secondary application will likely impact IMGs in their 2023 Match. Here …
“Well, you may think you want to be a surgeon, now that you’re young and think you can do it all, but that will change — once children are in the picture. You’ll see how hard it is to leave them and wish you could be with them all the time.”
As a young female medical student, I seriously considered the physician’s words. I imagined what it would be like to …
I knew I wanted to be a doctor when I was seven years old. I excelled in school, attended a good college, scored well on the MCAT, and was accepted into medical school just as I always knew I would be. It was only as I progressed in my career as a physician that I realized that being a white, middle-class individual had given me an advantage—I had access that …
The following article is satire.
We’re again approaching that time of year for medical students: ERAS application season. As students whimper and wonder if they’re making the right career choice, as they set their dreams on a specialty but have been told they need a “backup,” while determining their geographical boundaries of where they can possibly think of living for the next three to who-knows-how-many-years. With all this chaos, they must …
I am a second-year medical student at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. In 2018, I graduated from Westwood High School in Austin, Texas. My experience at Westwood was harder than my first year of medical school at UTMB. I wrote this piece to provide some context to students like myself who struggled or are struggling with public school in Texas.
When I was 17 years old, …
“Nerves ablaze, my voice cracked as I ended my remarks outlining the need for equitable data collection. I leaned towards the screen, adjusted my eyeline to make eye contact, and asked Representative Thomas Suozzi to support The Equitable Data Collection and Disclosure on COVID-19 Act. Representative Suozzi paused for a second, appeared to think over, or perhaps through the points of my argument–and then responded resolutely with, ‘I will cosign …
As we continue through the summer months, medical students are putting the finishing touches on their elective rotations for their fourth year.
These rotations, also known as audition rotations or sub-internships, enable students to “showcase” their talents, meet faculty and residents and put their best foot forward prior to submitting their electronic application.
A 2016 study showed that rotating improved a student’s chance of matching at that program by a factor of …
Medical training has historically been known for its intensity, during which work-life balance is traded in for intensive study sessions and early morning rounds. In recent years, medical schools have become increasingly interested in programs to improve student wellbeing. Many of these programs teach students the importance of wellness, touting the value of exercise, hobbies, and spending time with friends and family without providing the time …
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New resident physicians who have earned their MD degrees will be heading to hospitals to start their residencies during the last two week in June and the first week in July. What can a beginning doctor do during the first month of internship to get his or her career off to a good start, and in so doing, also learn to provide the best care to patients? Here are 10 …
An essay from 1989.
Some day one of my children will likely ask what I once asked my stepfather, “Dad, do you think I should try for med school?” I feel that it will most likely be our inquisitive middle child, Clayton John (“CJ”). And, when that time comes, what will I say to Mr. CJ?
For many physicians in the past, the answer to this question would have been a resounding, …
Many providers enter medicine to comfort patients and their loved ones. However, much of what I do doesn’t live up to that intention. In the past few months and particularly the past few weeks, I’ve spent most of my afternoons making little difference in the course of my patients’ hospital stays, and instead of having multiple conversations with the loved ones of these ill patients, providing daily updates, reiterating expectations …
“And when we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent, we are still afraid, so it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive.”
– Audre Lorde
Like Audre Lorde, I would rather be afraid and speak my truth than choke on my silence. Often, as I navigate my journey through medicine, I feel as though …
You’re feeling pretty confident as you walk into your medical school interview– but then you meet your interviewer. “Why did it take you so long to get here?! I’ve been sitting here, waiting and waiting, and I’m in so much pain.”
Welcome to the world of the MMI. The Multiple Mini Interview, commonly known as the MMI, is a newer type of medical school interview, and it’s increasingly being used in …
In 2021, among the 37 individuals named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for health care, 24 were identified as “co-founder” or “founder” (64%), while only ten individuals were MDs or MD Candidates (27%), and only 4 were both MDs and Co-founder/founders (11%). These metrics demonstrate that of people under the age of 30, the majority of those who were most recognized were not medical students, residents, …
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”) – Movement II ‘Largo’: a soundscape like floating beside the clouds in a perfect blue sky. The brass chords flood your ears. The underlying orchestra adds harmonic depth and richness. The English horn solo tugs at heartstrings, sighing at the end of each phrase.
After years spent in numerous youth symphonic orchestras, this performance stands out to me among an …
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