Students, residents, and educators writing on KevinMD about how physicians are made: medical school, the match, residency, duty hours, supervision, assessment, board exams and recertification, mistreatment, and the path from student to practicing physician. Many contributors write while still in training, and many write anonymously. For a maintained record of what students and physicians have said about medical school since 2004, see Medical school: what students and physicians say, in their own words. For what residents and attendings have said about residency itself, see Residency: what residents and attendings say, in their own words. For what physicians have said about board certification and maintenance of certification since 2008, see Board certification: what physicians say about the boards and MOC, in their own words.
I remember the second I received my first phone call from admissions to a medical school. I was sitting at an airport, after having finished another interview. After putting down the phone, I started to cry. All of those years of hard work had been recognized, and I was finally welcomed into the profession of my dreams. I never thought that I accomplished something less meaningful because it was a …
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DO and MD: If perceptions matter, which one matters most?
Increased prevalence of ophthalmic diseases due to continued population growth and aging requires an increase in the number of ophthalmologists nationwide. Multiple sources, including the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), report that the number of people with the most common eye diseases will double between 2010 and 2050. This includes the elderly suffering from long-term eye diseases such as cataracts, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), …
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The need for ophthalmologists is greater than ever
“Code blue!” the overhead speaker blared.
I had just started my shift in the pediatric emergency department. “This will be good for you to see,” the off-service junior resident said to me, as she sprang up from her chair in Pavlovian fashion. With a surge of adrenaline, I blindly followed a group of nurses and physicians towards the trauma case that had just rolled in.
I eventually ended up in a crowded …
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Trauma: Encountering the past in the present
It was the first day of my third year of medical school. I was assigned to an outpatient OB/GYN clinic. I woke up early, had only a coffee for breakfast that I would later regret, hesitantly wrapped a stethoscope around my neck, unsure if this specialty required such a tool, and punched the address into Google Maps. After almost 16 months of virtual med school, I was walking into uncharted …
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Medical school is more than practice problems
You are more likely to be struck by lightning than be born with cri du chat syndrome and OCD. The chances of becoming a performer with these diagnoses are even smaller, and yet, what a show Tanner performed.
His performance is meticulously planned out. Pump soap dispenser twice. Rub hands three times. Wash quickly. Create bubble! As the first bubble emerges, the kids take notice.
Pushing her wheelchair forward, Maria pops the …
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Advocating for people with disabilities: People First Language
I sat hunched over in a coffee shop, staring at anatomy flashcards as they appeared and quickly disappeared on my computer screen. I was in the midst of my first semester of medical school, and I was feeling discouraged and overwhelmed.
My classmates and I had just finished a notoriously difficult block of material (foundations of pathology), and we were onto the cardiovascular system. I dishearteningly clicked through anatomy pictures of …
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To the lady in the floral dress
As another medical school class graduates in the continued aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, I look back on my own ceremony. I remember the half-empty auditorium, the rows of parents snapping photos on their phones, and the many bored participants counting down the minutes until they could go home and rest after a long four years.
Luckily, the speeches were short, and the pomp and circumstance were not as pompous as …
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We’re doctors. We signed the book.
As medical programs across the country welcome new residents and celebrate the beginning of the medical new year, they cannot ignore the influence of the family’s adjustment to the success of a physician’s new role in residency.
Between leaving behind family and friends for a new community they know little about, with partners training over 80 hours per week, medspouses and partners are oftentimes left feeling alone and unsupported during the …
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10 ways to help PGY-1 spouses and partners new to your medical program
Medical school can strip you of everything you have. As you’re doing everything you can to help others, there can be so many levels of dissatisfaction with your career choice and distress around going through medical training.
But what I found was that there was always my loving family to return to whenever something was going particularly poorly. My family was also always there for my successes, which I found to …
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5 ways to maintain family bonds in medical school
First off, congratulations to the Class of 2025 for getting into medical school. With the pandemic restrictions lifting, enjoy the next few months doing the things you love because medical school will take an emotional and financial toll on you. According to AAMC, the median debt for medical students in 2019 was $200,000. Unfortunately, fundraising for scholarships was difficult for many organizations due to the pandemic despite more students seeking …
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8 scholarship tips for medical school
Have you ever been to one of those areas in the hospital called “the library” or “the educational/academic center”? No, I’m not talking about the athenaeum at the universities. The library we are talking about is the one at the teaching hospital specifically dedicated to the education of the trainee residents and fellows. Usually found on the first floor, it is a place where anyone can walk in and use …
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Redefining what a hospital library should be
Parenting is one of those things most of us end up doing but never get any full training on. It’s awkward. Some people are good at it; some people are terrible at it. Sometimes we never know if the parent is simply terrible at parenting, if they have a terrible child, or if there is just a combination of bad factors. However, there are some people who end up being …
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Mentors, thank you for parenting me
Mentorship. We all do it; we all benefit from it. But we rarely talk about how the mentor-mentee relationship looks. We rarely talk about ways to improve a mentorship relationship or even have decent mentor-mentee relationships. In fact, many of us likely get into medicine because we want to help patients, but forget how important mentorship often is on our way to learning to achieve such a goal.
Here are 5 …
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5 ways to have an outstanding mentorship relationship
I was first diagnosed with major depressive disorder as a preteen after my teenage sister died. I attempted suicide three years later. This would be the first of several attempts and the first of countless times I felt my life was not worth living. But I am not unique.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1 person dies by suicide every 11 minutes.
My depression is like …
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Surviving medical school with depression
Aside from grades and test scores, medical students are selected based on their selfless qualities such as altruism, passion, service-orientedness, resilience, advocacy, and others. Many of my medical school classmates did remarkably selfless things before starting medical school, such as starting nonprofit organizations, advocating for social and racial equity, working on ski-patrol and search-and-rescue teams, volunteering in hospitals, and serving medical missions at home or abroad. I believe it is …
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Doing good in the world as a medical student
It’s a well-known fact that medical school has grown increasingly competitive over the past decade. While this is true that getting into medical school has become somewhat harder, what is more concerning is that for many students, admission to, and paying for, medical school does not guarantee a career as a physician. A critical part of becoming a physician is graduate medical education, or residency. It is well-known that there …
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Bracing for change: the escalating importance of USMLE Step 2
Being a medical student in a family that does not have any doctors, honestly, has many perks. Although I may not have all the experience a tenured physician has in diagnostics and clinical management, I recognize the importance my current exposures in medicine give me in addressing the concerns of my family members. While answers may not always come to me immediately when I’m asked things like, …
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Please don’t ask about my test scores, Mom
The COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on institutions that we did not think were pausable, allowing us to ask critical questions regarding their relevance and necessity. One such institution is the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). During COVID-19, Prometric sites closed, delaying exams for many. In response to public outcry, Step 2 CS has become defunct. Before COVID-19, there had been calls to reform the expensive licensing exams, …
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It’s time to end the USMLE Step 3 exam
“I am the one who knocks … I am not in danger, I am the danger … Play in a rage …”
While the first two quotes may be better attributed to the former high-school-chemistry-teacher-turned-drug-dealer Walter White in AMC’s hit show Breaking Bad, that final quote is reminiscent of my former collegiate defensive line coach, one of my greatest mentors and inspirations as I set my closing sights on becoming a …
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In crisis, danger and opportunity are present
Feedback is an integral part of growing as a clinician. We all have room for improvement, and each and every one of us is a work in progress. We all grow by having others observe us and discuss how we are doing with each of us. Giving feedback also becomes an integral part of our medical education and formal training, and it must be something we strive to become good …
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6 ways to give quality feedback to medical students
