The need for a refreshed perspective on life and practice, a renewed sense of the concerns of our patients, and an appreciation for the subject matter: This is what so many of us need while in residency training. There are rare moments in the midst of it all when a renewing of sorts takes place, is noticed, and makes a small difference. Let me share one of those moments with …
Renewal is what we need during residency training
With the escalating pressures on hospitals, health care facilities, and practitioners to be cost-effective, it is increasingly difficult to justify spending money on education and training. Education and training are expensive when adding together the costs of curriculum development and educators. While finding the right person for the job is important in getting the job done, most, if not all, management would agree that the “right” person includes appropriate education, …
Continuing medical education: Why it’s important and how to make it effective
“So, the next step in the history taking process is to define the pain. You start this by asking for site, with questions like, “Where are you experiencing the pain? Can you pinpoint the site or is it more general? Does the pain radiate (spread anywhere)?” And if the pain is on one side of the body, remember to ask about the other side – this is important. Got …
What makes health care workers superhuman
Last week, Lais and Yuri, our five-year-old twins, were volunteers at the school of medicine, for students to learn how to examine children.
Full disclosure: Volunteers do get a gift card. Therefore, I asked them if they wanted to “work and get some money,” and I also told them what they would have to do during that afternoon. They both said yes, and they were truly excited about the opportunity.
When I saw …
How 5-year-olds brought out the joy of learning in medical students
It has been nearly seven months since I made the decision to take a year off from medical school to pursue a master’s of public health (MPH) degree in Baltimore and nearly eleven months since I last saw a patient. From attending a Public Citizen workshop on access to pharmaceuticals to competing in my first business case competition to meeting several members of Congress to brushing up on my gym …
What it’s like to take a MPH gap year
It was my first week of internal medicine rotation. A newly-minted third-year, I was rotating on the wards back in the spring, when I met a 90-something-year-old gentleman. He had come in for confusion after a fall.
There were no relatives or friends in the waiting room.
I was assigned to follow him. During his stay, his words were few; it was often difficult to engage him in conversation. Whenever I pre-rounded, …
Here’s why you should get a chaplain for your patient
The first day I sought counseling, I felt like I was committing a crime.
Our afternoon anatomy lecture had just ended, and the entirety of our first-year medical class—clad in hunter green scrubs and reciting the intrinsic muscles of the back—paraded in what looked like a single-file line to our cafeteria.
“Act natural,” I thought. “Don’t let anyone find out what you’re up to.”
My friends veered right to enter the cafeteria as …
Start with the students: Addressing the future of physician suicide
With the advent of countless resources and study aids over the years to help medical students prepare for the USMLE Step 1 exam, ranging from the venerable First Aid review book and Anki flashcard decks, to online tools such as UWorld, Pathoma, SketchyMicro, Firecracker, Amboss, and countless more, the entire process of studying for Step 1 has become an arms race. At the same time, Step 1 scores have established …
The new USMLE Step 1: How your medical school and residency will change
In honor of Black History Month, I wrote this article to say thank you to all the wonderful black doctors breaking boundaries and exploring careers that would have been unattainable to black people in late 1800 and even early 1900 America. To all the black doctors, your representation in medicine matters a lot.
I am a third-year black female medical student, and I recently completed my pediatrics rotation. A few weeks …
In honor of Black History Month: Thank you to all the doctors breaking boundaries
The truth is: While physicians are not allowed to discriminate against their patients, patients are allowed to discriminate against their physicians.
This is particularly true in the private sector, fueled by online physician profiles permitting patients to choose provider characteristics ranging from those as benign as Ivy League training background to those as problematic as racial ethnicity. In this setting, the U.S.’s free-market economy reigns supreme — freedom of choice is …
Patient bias may endanger both physicians of today and the future
On February 12, 2020, the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) announced that the USMLE Step 1 will transition to a pass/fail exam in January 2022 at the earliest. This move comes amidst increasing pressure on the NBME regarding its financial conflicts of interest, as well as the tangible sense among medical school deans that students were neglecting …
USMLE Step 1 pass/fail winners and losers
Growing up in a Korean household meant that I had very little experience with the type of baking that most Americans are used to; My grandma made rice cakes, not birthday cakes.
But during my third year of medical school, an intern recommended a show called The Great British Bake Off. After watching a few episodes and seeing what devoted home bakers could do, I was smitten and resolved to bake a …
As I become a better baker, I hope that I will continue to become a better doctor
“How did you like it there?” I ask, sitting down next to a new fellow (between bites of a plump sandwich, hoping there is no spinach in my teeth).
I expect to hear the standard resident talking points — long hours, frequent call, and ballooning student loans. Instead, she surprises me.
“Do you know how much they charged us to park there every month?”
I frequently text friends who are residents at her previous program. It is a …
How minor fixes can help with resident burnout
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As I saw the fellow purposely manipulate her fractured ankle, I knew I was wrong in not stopping him.
Three hours earlier, Mr. Sanchez*, a past boxer, and soccer player, came in with a broken pinky. He was moving from Atlanta to Houston, and in the process of moving boxes, a rock smashed his finger against something. Odd story, but he was the nicest patient I ever talked to up to …
Why medical students shouldn’t always fall in line
“Are you serious! What are you doing to my son! How can you have him tied to the bed like this!”
Michael’s* mother was irate and yelling at my resident as I stood at the back of the room. Michael had HIV/AIDS with a CD4 count of 20. Hours before, he had bit his mom on the hand, leaving visible bite marks. As his mom continued to scold my resident, my …
Losing a patient in an emergency
Medical training is lengthening as students increasingly take gap years before and during medical school. Excessively long training times contribute to many problems. Trainees show high rates of burnout, depression, suicidal ideation, and alcohol abuse. Crippling student debt, compounded by the opportunity cost of not earning a salary, make it difficult for under-resourced individuals …
Use technology to fix medical education
Wow, you’re in medical school? So you are going to be a doctor? What year are you? When are you going to finish? What are you going to go into?
You should become a skin doctor, what do they call them again? It doesn’t matter, but they do good. But they are not real doctors, so maybe it’s not worth it.
You should become a doctor that gives vaccines. Are vaccines real? …
The questions people ask medical students
As a rising fourth-year med student, these are my words of wisdom for all students who are on their clinical rotations.
Your mental health is paramount; do not neglect how you are feeling!
There is not one med student that I know of who hasn’t felt anxiety, paranoia, or depression. Some of your peers may even be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders and take medications. And that is OK! As a mentor of …
A medical student’s advice for clinical rotations
As first-year medical students, we learn that the hallmark of a holistic medical education is an emphasis on the human, personal side of this profession. One way we develop our patient-centered competency is through attending patient panels as part of our curriculum. Here, we learn from people who experience healthcare from the opposite end. From cancer survivors to leaders in healthcare policy, these panels supplement our education by encouraging us …
The impact of panels early in medical school on informing patient-centered care
“Death comes for all of us. It is our fate as living, breathing, metabolizing organisms. Dealing with the fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live.”
– Paul Kalanithi, MD
Recently, first-year students of the medical and physician’s assistant classes completed their seventh and final practical exam in clinical anatomy. Through fifteen weeks, 117 students learned the structures of the human body organized by region, working from …
Ironically, our first assigned patient encounter as medical students would be a corpse
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