Education

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 …

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

M. Alexandra Friedman, MD

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, …

The secret horrors of sleep-deprived doctors

Pamela Wible, MD

Education

March 12, 2017

Recently, the ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) made the reckless decision to increase work hours to 28-hour shifts for new doctors. Here are the catastrophic consequences of their decision. Here are actual quotes from physicians (de-identified with some patient details changed to protect confidentiality):

“I did my internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology before laws existed to regulate resident …

Doctors don’t often follow their own advice

Jessica Celine Morgan

Education

March 12, 2017

If you were to sit in on any routine doctors visit, you are bound to hear a few things repeatedly.

“Do you smoke? How much alcohol do you drink, if any? What is your diet like? How much exercise do you get weekly?”

These are questions we are trained to ask as early as the first week of medical school. We are taught to treat not just the conditions a patient presents …

I’m retired, but I’m disgusted with medical schools. Here’s why.

Thomas D. Guastavino, MD

Education

March 10, 2017

The year was 1976. I was graduating from a small branch of my state university with a bachelor’s in chemistry when I first applied to medical school. I was living at home and paying my own tuition. There were no physicians in my family, but I became interested in medicine after I was impressed with a surgeon who had operated on my shoulder. I had a better-than-the-medical-school-acceptance-rate average on my …

The truth about Caribbean medical schools

Pamela Wible, MD

Education

March 8, 2017

Dear Dr. Wible,

I want to fill you in on what really goes on behind the scenes at my medical school and maybe you can help inform other students about what happens here before they make a huge mistake. If students slip through the cracks of a U.S. medical school, then international med schools in the Caribbean may be the next choice. Some have better residency match rates than others so …

Does Adderall make you underachieve?

Jack Turban, MD

Education

March 4, 2017

It’s rare for medical students nowadays to go through training without knowing someone who uses prescription stimulants to study. The ever-popular Adderall and Concerta seem to be omnipresent on college campuses and medical schools, while prescriptions for these medications are suspiciously less common. In environments where success and self-worth are often based on academic achievement, the temptation to succumb to using these pills is high.

The temptation is even higher as …

Read more…

Does Adderall make you underachieve?

Having a baby during medical school wasn’t such a bad idea

Allison Lyle

Education

February 22, 2017

My stomach had been in knots that morning.

“Are you pregnant?” my classmate laughed after I returned to the gross anatomy lab for the second time after leaving for fresh air.

“No,” I spat, dissection through fat and fascia, teasing out muscles from nerves.

But, I wondered.

After lab, I bought a pregnancy test. I began medical school in my late 20s, already having discussed with my husband appropriate times to start a family during …

Words of wisdom for new nurses

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Education

February 13, 2017

Welcome to the land of happiness, sadness, confusion, self-doubt, defeat and heroism. You have only just begun. This is not an easy job. And countless times you will say, “What was I thinking?” Or “Why did I do this?”

But it’s not really a job. It is a lifelong sentence. It can be insanely gratifying, or you can throw in the towel.

But be patient. It will consume you, and you will …

Read more…

Words of wisdom for new nurses

Are you asking students questions or “pimping?”

Joseph Cooper, MD

Education

February 10, 2017

One of the most respected and skilled clinician-educators — of course, he is an infectious diseases specialist — at our institute came into my office, sat down and immediately starting eating pretzels. “Let me know what you think about this,” he said between bites. He went on to recapitulate a recent interaction he had with the members of the internal medicine team (medical students, house staff and the attending physician) …

How to navigate the language barrier with patients

Matthew Bower

Education

February 10, 2017

William Osler once said, “Listen to your patient; he is telling you the diagnosis.” Anybody who practices medicine knows that is easier said than done. The ability to take a skillful history takes years to develop. There are many nuances in a medical history and physicians must know the right questions to ask. The next step is to avoid asking the wrong questions and the wrong wording of the right …

How running marathons helped prepare me for medical training

John Biemer, MD

Education

February 5, 2017

It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

You often hear this analogy about the medical training process, but, having run a few marathons myself, I think it’s particularly apt. I’m working my way through my fourth and final year of residency now, and I can attest that running marathons was one of the better things that prepared me mentally for the challenges of med school and beyond.

26.2 miles is no trivial …

The difficulty of maintaining relationships throughout medical training

Farrell Tobolowsky, DO

Education

January 29, 2017

It was 1 a.m. on a Sunday night on call, and we were waiting patiently for admissions in the resident workroom. We were four near-perfect strangers, yet we had one thing in common: our challenges we faced in maintaining relationships. Was it truly because of our shared profession of medicine or because of our similar personalities that led us into the field? We realized we struggled preserving our current relationships …

A young black physician’s letter to future black doctors

Earl Stewart, Jr., MD

Education

January 29, 2017

Dear future colleague,

What a tremendous thing it is to know you are becoming a physician! You are devoting your life and talents to the betterment of the health of your future patients, your local community, and our entire society. You have responded to the call to serve in a profession that is hundreds of years old, steeped in tradition but vehemently progressive, always changing, and vowing to remain abreast of …

I demand you consider us humans: A medical student poem

Anonymous

Education

January 20, 2017

Slave, I am not
Servant, I may be

Arrogant, I am not
Ignorant, I may be

Un-engaged, I am not
However, Quiet, I may be.

Your coat is long, mine short
Your knowledge mile deep, mine mile wide
You have seen 100 patients this week, I have seen 10
You trained for 10 years, this is my first

If I look scared, it’s because I am
If I seem intimidated, I indeed am
If I appear confused, I in fact am
If I …

The debate over how many hours an intern can work misses the point

Raymond Oliver, MD

Education

January 17, 2017

I still don’t know how I did it. I don’t know how I got through life as a lower-level neurosurgery resident. I vividly remember the horrific call nights and weekends. There are certain sensations you get when you have gone weeks without more than two or three hours of sleep at a time. It wasn’t the foggy thoughts that bothered me most, or continually feeling cold, or even when I …

A medical school goes pass-fail: Why this change must happen everywhere

#LifeofaMedStudent

Education

January 14, 2017

Well, I’m officially that old, bitter resident. I had to walk uphill to medical school 10 miles there and back. “In my day,” medical school was fail, pass, high pass, or honors. I recently found out that the medical school I graduated from has changed the first two years of basic science courses to simply pass/fail (while retaining the honors/high pass grades in clinical rotations). I am so annoyed! Why …

The psychiatry rotation terrifies this medical student. Here’s why.

Anonymous

Education

January 14, 2017

Most third medical students look forward to their psychiatry block. After twelve plus hour days and six day weeks on internal medicine, OB/GYN and surgery, the reasonable hours on psychiatry seems like a dream. While my classmates viewed psychiatry as a break, I dreaded it. This was not my first time on an inpatient psychiatry ward.

My world and fate forever changed when I was twelve years old. Sometimes depression is …

Medical school applicants: Waitlisted? Want more interviews? Here’s what you can do.

Jessica Freedman, MD

Education

January 13, 2017

You submitted your application in July. You completed all of your secondary essays by mid-September. Other than one interview that resulted in a waitlist decision you’ve heard nothing but radio silence. What can you do?

Whenever I work with medical school applicants I emphasize that the application process is ongoing because the admissions process is fluid. It is not as if you submit your primary application and secondary essays and the …

The one lesson I learned working in a psych unit

Anonymous

Education

January 11, 2017

I was incredibly nervous going into my first day in the inpatient child/adolescent psychiatry unit. “Was this where the truly psychotic kids are? Am I going to be safe here?” I wondered as I casually introduced myself to the staff on the floor. After a morning of sitting in on group therapy led by psychologists and occupational therapists, I calmed down. Against the backdrop of the soothing soft pastel colors, …

Education

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts