Does work-life balance really exist for young mothers pursuing medical careers?

Education
March 14, 2019

As our society’s awareness of mental-health issues increases, the idea of balancing personal and professional life has become a central topic of conversation. It cannot be disputed that finding a healthy equilibrium is especially important for mothers who enter the professional world, medical or otherwise. As a student in an accelerated post-baccalaureate pre-health program and a mother of a 3-year-old girl and a 10-month-old boy, I have made many strides …

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Does work-life balance really exist for young mothers pursuing medical careers?

A scribe’s haunting view of emergency medicine

Education
March 13, 2019

If you’re in the emergency department, it’s probably the worst day of your life. You’re scared, confused, anxious, sad, maybe emotionally numb.

You were at home with your husband and witnessed him have a cardiac arrest. He was unresponsive, and he wasn’t breathing. You felt hopeless because you didn’t know how to help him, but you called 911. They rushed him to the hospital, and you followed the ambulance. By the …

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A scribe’s haunting view of emergency medicine

A medical student’s first code. Here’s what he learned.

Education
March 8, 2019

Well, today it happened. I participated in my first code.

We were in the telemetry unit (the room where they monitor all the patients who have EKG strips) to ask about a different patient of mine only to find that a patient was coding (lost a life-sustaining heartbeat). With some coaxing from my attending, the other student and I wound our way through the around-20 people standing outside and inside of …

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A medical student’s first code. Here’s what he learned.

How self-awareness helps with patient interaction

Education
March 7, 2019

What is self-awareness? A quick Google search says that it is “conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.” In other words, my worldview is different than yours. Hypothetically, I am a Republican, and you are a Democrat. You don’t believe in vaccinations, but I do. I believe in universal health care, but you disagree with my stance. You believe in stricter gun laws, and I don’t. That …

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How self-awareness helps with patient interaction

A key tip for premedical students: Ask for help

Education
March 7, 2019

A simple Google search is all you need to do to gauge the difficulty individuals have with asking for help.

“How to ask to shadow someone.” 43.1 million results.

“How to ask for a letter of recommendation.” 66 million results.

“How to ask for help,” 3.73 billion results.

From the popularity of these topics, it is evident that people have a hard time reaching out and balancing coming across respectfully, but still receiving a …

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A key tip for premedical students: Ask for help

Medical schools need to cut their cutthroat culture

Education
February 26, 2019

The United States will be short 120,000 doctors by the end of next decade, according to the latest research from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

That shortage will become permanent unless medical schools make the path to becoming a doctor a bit less arduous.

Some medical schools seem to take pride in imposing a heavy emotional and physical toll on their students. Toughen up aspiring doctors early on, the thinking goes, …

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Medical schools need to cut their cutthroat culture

How a medical student can help the team during clinical rotations

Education
February 23, 2019

Based on my clinical experiences, there are ten pieces of advice I would give to any medical student starting their rotations that will maximize productivity and lead to a robust and thriving work environment (your interns will thank you).

1. Do as complete of a workup on your assigned patients as you can. Be thorough with your admission H&P. Think of all the tests, labs and imaging studies you want ordered. …

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How a medical student can help the team during clinical rotations

The hidden curriculum of medicine

Education
February 13, 2019

Think all the way back to your grade school years. Did you know that your personality traits were starting to be honed for the work you do today? Let me give you some examples about myself and see if you can relate.

I remember the praise and exhilaration of being the only kid in the class to get a 100 percent on an extremely difficult second-grade spelling test.  My teacher told …

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The hidden curriculum of medicine

Reflections after a medical student’s first code blue

Education
February 1, 2019

We were in the middle of the morning routine – sign out between mouthfuls of eggs and homefries – when the call came in overhead, “Code Blue, 9 West.  Code Blue, 9 West.”  Just like that, our team snapped into action, the continued banter only thinly concealing a change in demeanor: backs straight, jaws set, we walked with a sense of purpose.  There was a life on the line.

By the …

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Reflections after a medical student’s first code blue

Why medical students should develop and increase self-awareness

Education
January 31, 2019

The most important piece of advice I can give to incoming medical students is to be vigilant about how you are feeling day-to-day and to be aware of your actions. As is often said, our personalities, the distinctive makeup that makes us who we are, are set in stone. If you are a mindful person, you’ll stay that way even as you get older. If you are someone who likes …

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Why medical students should develop and increase self-awareness

6 things learned from being rejected from medical school

Education
January 26, 2019

I have spent the greater portion of my 20s enduring a premature quarter-life crisis. Patterns of self-doubt and debilitating anxiety became my new normal.

I was rejected from medical school — again.

After taking time to process the reality that I would have to wait another year to re-apply, I fervently journeyed through a messy jungle of introspection that led me to these six lessons. Although I learned more than I could …

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6 things learned from being rejected from medical school

How this student took care of his severe depression in medical school

Education
January 22, 2019

We learn about it in school as a formula. There is a checklist that we are given, and we ask our patients these eight questions and then calculate whether or not they have depression. It’s so simple. Anyone can do it! I never once thought that I would be calculating my own score at the prime of my education.

I entered medical school full of hope after years of failures and …

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How this student took care of his severe depression in medical school

10 tips for non-traditional medical school applicants

Education
January 16, 2019

I would like to offer some words of encouragement to what many call the “non-traditional” students pursuing medicine.

The term encompasses people in different aspects in their lives. It may be someone in a different line of work looking at medicine as a second career or another just getting started that didn’t take the traditional path in undergrad.

My own journey

I started medical school at 28 after spending six years as a …

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10 tips for non-traditional medical school applicants

Residency training, and training in residency

Education
January 8, 2019

Exhausted. Aching. Hungry. Slightly delirious.

Mile twenty-four of a marathon? Or hour twenty-four of a twenty-eight-hour shift?

I am a resident. I am a runner. I am also a rather tired human since, as I type these words, I’m both post-call and post-run. However, this post-call/run state of body and mind is one I have learned to love and embrace during this residency whirlwind.

I’m not myself unless I’m wearing scrubs or running clothes. …

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Residency training, and training in residency

A medical student’s letter to her parents

Education
January 7, 2019

Dear Mom and Dad,

I love you, and thank you. The rest of this letter is an attempt to write something more eloquent and thoughtful, but those are the best and truest words I can ever speak to you. I made the decision to enter the medical field when the rest of our family is from a business and finance background. Despite being unfamiliar with the different hurdles of application cycles, …

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A medical student’s letter to her parents

What’s the biggest problem with medical education?

Education
January 4, 2019

There has been a profound deterioration in the education of our medical students. I only make this contention after having taught over a hundred medical students across five continents, often one-on-one and for extended periods. Although the majority of those I’ve taught have been students educated at international medical institutions, a substantial number have been those from U.S. medical schools. While I do recognize that those that find their way …

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What’s the biggest problem with medical education?

What’s barbaric in medicine?

Education
January 3, 2019

Late one evening, I received a text from my oldest daughter.

“What in medicine, that we do now, will we think is barbaric in 50 years?”

Wow. They play more provocative bar games now than they played when I was in my 20s.

I promptly texted back my knee-jerk response: “chemotherapy.” As we are on the brink of precision medicine, what will the next generation think of our “slash, burn and poison” paradigm …

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What’s barbaric in medicine?

A medical student after an OB/GYN rotation: Here’s what he learned

Education
December 23, 2018

On one of my first days on the labor and delivery ward, one of the attending obstetricians asked me what area of medicine I was interested in. When I said that I was applying into neurology this year, she said, “Ah! The other end of the body!” After a pause, she continued, “Well, this rotation will be … different.”

It wasn’t the first, or last, time I had heard a similar refrain during …

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A medical student after an OB/GYN rotation: Here’s what he learned

How to foster and encourage genuine, curious learning in a medical student

Education
December 16, 2018

I just had a conversation with a physician and faculty member at my school. He started the conversation like this: “It’s alright if you disagree with me, and I can disagree with you too. Good academic discourse should allow people to disagree with each other.”

He then allowed me to question him and explain my perspectives for over an hour as he explained his answers, helped clarify some points, and gave …

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How to foster and encourage genuine, curious learning in a medical student

The fight to save Howard University College of Medicine

Education
December 13, 2018

Our country is at risk of losing an iconic institution that has played a pivotal role in the history of medical education. A school, which has produced some of the boldest pioneers in medicine, could lose accreditation upon the opening of a new hospital that will shunt away 40 percent of their current patients. Scores of our brightest potential medical students will be ripped away from the communities that desperately …

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The fight to save Howard University College of Medicine

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