Education

Observing Ramadan as a medical student

Education
June 14, 2017

3 a.m. The alarm blares. Get up, make food, study. Maximize caffeine intake, maximize studying efficiency.

4:12 am. Take the last sip of water, pray. Maximize studying with residual caffeine power.

7 a.m. Get dressed, go to work. Stay awake, stay alert, see patients, present well, regurgitate answers, retain information. Produce saliva, clear dry throat. Study during lunch break. Stay awake, stay alert, see patients, present well, regurgitate answers, retain information.

6 p.m. …

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Medical school is miserable. Here’s the secret to surviving it.

Education
June 13, 2017

Dear future medical student:

It’s graduation week. I’m running into people I haven’t seen in a long time. There are a few things on my mind currently, and in four years, you’ll have the same conversations.

“Did you have so much fun in med school? Did you love it?”

“No.”

“Wow! Those four just FLEW by, didn’t they?”

“No. They absolutely did not.”

“Well just WAIT ‘til you get to residency. THAT was hard. What you …

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It’s time for graduating medical students to celebrate their dream

Education
June 3, 2017
YouTube video

A transcript of the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine 2017 commencement speech, Saturday, May 20, 2017.

Angela Jiang: Good morning! As the class vice president, it is my pleasure to welcome Dr. Pamela Wible to our graduation. Dr. Wible is a family physician and a pioneer in the ideal medical care movement. After completing a family medicine residency and working in different family practices for over ten years, Dr. Wible …

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How to give constructive criticism as a physician

Education
May 26, 2017

Here are some questions that are still on my mind as I approach the tail end of my chief year. I’m thinking about the best ways to offer constructive feedback.

  • What is the best way to approach a struggling learner?
  • What is the best way to give guidance and feedback without being perceived as a tyrant or overbearing?
  • How can I maximize the potential of my team members and the trainees …

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Why nurses are the best teachers for medical students

Education
May 24, 2017

It was 5:30 a.m., and I could barely contain my excitement. I was almost done with my clinical rotations.

I had worked tirelessly to improve my medical knowledge and spent hours mastering my clinical skills. Now, as I was nearing the end of my third year of medical school, I felt more than ready for what lay ahead.

I walked into my patient’s room. As she slept, I examined the lines and …

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Should we standardize clerkship grades?

Education
May 4, 2017

I’ll be honest, when I first matriculated into medical school, I didn’t even know what a USMLE Step exam or clinical clerkship was. In fact, the first time I ever heard of them was from another applicant on the interview trail. I have always been a take-it-one-step-at-a-time type of person, but eventually, I would have to succumb to the pressure and ask upperclassmen about the exam. And what did they …

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Doctors aren’t cops: We need to change gunshot reporting

Education
May 4, 2017

On my first trauma shift as a fourth-year medical student, a young, disheveled man with blood-soaked pants hobbled into the emergency department. Wincing in pain, he offered me a bizarre history of being shot in the leg by a nail gun that went off after he dropped it on some stairs while helping a friend move. He lifted his right pant leg and removed the bloody, tattered bandana wrapped around …

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What medical school fails to teach

Education
April 28, 2017

This May, I will graduate from medical school. I will also be part of the first group of medical students to graduate from its new Literature and Medicine track. To me and the other participants, this has been one of the most important components of our medical education. In many ways, it has kept us grounded, serving as a constant reminder that there are experiences different from our own.

We know …

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The hardest thing to do as a physician

Education
April 26, 2017

I’ve been told that one of the hardest things that a physician endures is the passing of her first patient. However, what I imagine to be even more challenging than this is pronouncing the death to the patient’s family for the first time. Although I find myself in a similarly intimidating and burdensome position of addressing the loved ones of our gracious donors tonight, for my first time, I feel …

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A letter from my med student self to me now

Education
April 25, 2017

Dear Me, MD:

Now that you have opened this letter, you may have graduated or maybe you just matched into residency — somewhere, anywhere, hopefully?! As you read this, it should be some time during spring 2017. But, you never know, sometimes the train derails, and it takes a little longer than expected, so forgive yourself if that is the case. You learned a while back that the fast lane is …

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How I went from the bottom to the top 1 percentile on board exams

Education
April 24, 2017

Most doctors are very bright people. I believe that what often sets apart those who perform well on the job and on exams isn’t raw intelligence but rather the ability to learn effectively.

In the MCAT and USMLE steps 1, 2, and 3, I did poorly and barely passed. In 2009, I took my family medicine in-training exam and fell below the minimum passing score. After taking almost five years away from residency …

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Welcome to planet medicine

Education
April 21, 2017

Welcome to planet medicine, where four rides around the sun earns you a golden ticket to study more, to train more, and to enjoy splicing two sacred letters onto the end of your title. The days are long, the weeks go fast, and sleep is optional. In this world, all-star draftees leave their immaculate collegiate careers as masters of memorization and intellectual puzzle solvers only to still be no more …

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We made it! An open letter to my son.

Education
April 15, 2017

“Ya mero llegamos?”

Are we almost there? These become one of the most dreaded words I have to hear every weekend, when I pick you up from the long commute that is from Sacramento to the bay area to spend time with you. Oftentimes I am just as inpatient as you my love. This has been our sacrifice these last few years, being physically away from one another. I take a deep …

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The gunner culture hurts the future of medicine

Education
April 6, 2017

As graduation nears, I recall an away rotation that concerns me for the future of medicine. I remember eagerly boarding my plane, ready to work hard, learn as much as possible, and explore the unknown. My first day in clinic, I was excited to befriend the student I would rotate with. After seeing our first patient together, she asked me to share my clinical reasoning for the case. I happily …

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The infantilization of medical students

Education
April 6, 2017

I was sitting on hold in the resident room gearing up to beg the IT person that would soon come on the other line for enough authorization to be able to view the residents’ patient problem list, and I found myself thinking about what some of the old docs must think of us third-year students now. Talk to some of these older physicians and they’ll tell you their stories of …

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Why this medical student joined the National Health Service Corps

Education
April 5, 2017

Like many of my peers, I started medical school with idealistic dreams of providing compassionate care for poor patients. I thought being a physician was a noble profession and even discussing money, much less changing my career choices based on it seemed antithetical to that. A visit to the financial aid office quickly cured me of my naiveté. I was facing over $300,000 in debt and would be forgoing millions of …

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The little-known ACGME guideline change every resident should know

Education
April 2, 2017

On July 1st, 2017, the updated Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirements will take effect. The increase in the maximum continuous work hour shift from 16 to 24 hours has surely received the most attention, and will likely continue to do so.

However, the ACGME did make some significant improvements in this latest guideline update worth noting. Among them was a slight conjunctional switch from an “and/or” …

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Here’s how to help create the future of medicine

Education
March 22, 2017

As the millennial presence in health care becomes more prominent, the climate of the health care system will inevitably change. Speaking from a personal perspective, there is a growing emphasis on lifestyle in the conversation of career choice. Medicine is becoming less and less of a life, and more of a part of life, a part of the work-life balance. We (millennials) also place emphasis on impact. We want to …

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A resident’s guide to being a medical student: In the OR

Education
March 15, 2017

As a medical student, I had nightmares about my first day in the OR: scrubbing incorrectly, contaminating a sterile field, forgetting the anatomy I had so carefully studied the night before. It seemed like the only thing I could do in that artificially lit room was mess up. After a few cases I came to love the routine and ceremony of each surgery: the timeout; the rhythmic pattern of suture, …

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