Students, residents, and educators writing on KevinMD about how physicians are made: medical school, the match, residency, duty hours, supervision, assessment, 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.
Many people think medical school is all about memorization and books. But some of the most valuable lessons I learned in my first year as a medical student came from a much different experience.
No matter what stage you are at in your journey, there are always new facts, techniques, and procedures to learn. You are presented with an enormous amount of information during your preclinical years. There is so much …
Read more…
What this student learned from a standardized patient exam
Sanjay Gupta. John Locke. Jill Stein. Charles Krauthammer. What do they all have in common?
If you guessed that they are all physicians, then you’re right.
Less salient, however, is the fact that all of them pursued passions outside of medicine. (Dr. Gupta is an Emmy Award-winning medical reporter. John Locke was a physician-philosopher. Stein and Krauthammer both made their mark in politics.) In doing so, they avoided an existential trap that …
Read more…
Why medical students should not let medicine define them
I still remember the warm, fuzzy feeling of receiving my first few interview invitations. Unlike medical school, I received much more “love” from residency programs. Since I was part of the inaugural class of a new medical school, I interviewed for a lot of programs: 16 anesthesiology, six transitional years, and three preliminary medicine programs. After my first few interviews, it became apparent that most residency interviews tend to be …
Read more…
What I wish I knew on the residency interview trail
On my first day of medical school, my father, a dentist, told me he’d just been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Cancer had crept back into my life — except this time not into my body.
At age 12, I was diagnosed with brain cancer. After an aggressive surgery, I was tumor-free for 10 years. Then, at 23, I received the news of an inoperable recurrence.
While going through radiation and …
Read more…
There’s no textbook for when your father is dying
As an aspiring physician on the pre-med track (a microbiology and immunology major), I believe that creating a strong academic foundation, especially in math and science, is essential for future career and academic success. Growing up in Miami’s more improvised area, Liberty City, quality learning materials were scarce. Even when there were resources for active learning, most students were completely unaware of their existence or lacked the training to make …
Read more…
How the science of learning salvaged my college career
Before coming to medical school, I made a promise to myself: I will not become a robot doctor. Time and again, I visited what I call robot doctors: those physicians unable to empathize with me and seemingly unable to compute moments when I said something unscripted. For example, I once made an appointment with a doctor to discuss what might have been irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). While describing my symptoms …
Read more…
A vow to never become a robot doctor
First of all, many osteopathic medical schools are located in underserved areas — or as underserved as possible while still having enough of a medical community to make training possible. My school, LMU-DCOM is located in the middle of Appalachia, for example. Osteopathic medical schools generally encourage students to specialize in primary care, at least as much as they can, considering that our health care system is not …
Read more…
Explaining what osteopathic medicine is
I am both relieved and nervous because they say that the first year is the worst, but now I have the overarching cloud of doom following me around during second year: Step 1.
Now that I’m home, I constantly am wondering how I made it this far — in disbelief that I passed all my courses pretty well. I constantly ask myself if exams were too easy and if I’m just …
Read more…
Reflections after finishing the first year of medical school
“Check it out,” my boyfriend said, angling his rash-covered arms in front of the camera. Despite his best precautions, after a day of yard work, he was covered in poison ivy. Over video chat, he showed off the pustules that had erupted on his feet; I cringed.
“It’s fine,” he said, wincing while putting his socks back on. “I’m glad to know how awful it feels. I’ve seen a bunch of …
Read more…
How physical should medical training be?
The glorious season is upon us. Yes, it is finally autumn. But it is also the season of ERAS with all of its letters of recommendation, USMLE scores, medical school transcripts, and personal statements.
I have dutifully reviewed dozens of applicants whose last names begin with the letters “T” through “Z.” I have noted the test scores and grades. I have considered the caliber of medical school and whether the LORs …
Read more…
5 tips to medical resident success
Note: This article contains language about physical assault that could be upsetting to some readers.
Stanford Medical School saved my life. Not in the metaphorical way, but in a very literal way. If I didn’t start medical school when I did, there is a high chance I wouldn’t be alive today.
I struggled writing this piece because only a small handful of people know my story. By the time you’re done reading …
Read more…
How medical school saved this student’s life
It’s hard for me to believe that a few years ago, I completely turned my back on an acting career I had spent almost two decades building and instead decided to forge into an unknown world of medicine. Even now, with nearly seven years of experience in the medical field and currently in my fourth year of medical school, I sometimes feel lost for an identity.
At the time of my …
Read more…
I learned how to be a good doctor in theater school
I flash a smile as I look up from my notes. “Do it again,” I say, encouraged by his progress, “but this time start with the physical exam.” I am the internal medicine resident leading our “twilight” admitting team, and Vikram, a student on the first day of his medicine clerkship, sits across from me. It is his third time practicing the presentation of Ms. R, a 56-year-old woman with …
Read more…
Judges versus coaches in medical education
As a teaching clinician in an internal medicine residency program, it is safe to say that September is one of the more exciting and busier times of the academic year. Walking through the hallways of our department, we encounter bright-eyed fourth-year medical students scurrying about in a frenzy as they make some big decisions about what field of medicine to pursue, where to apply and whom to ask for letters …
Read more…
A change of clothes might do the residency interview process some good
To lighten the mood, when patients ask me where I went to medical school, I sometimes joke that I got my medical degree online. This usually invites laughter because it is preposterous that medicine could be taught virtually. After all, medicine is a noble professional with time-honored traditions of passing down experiential information and hands-on training provided to students who need years of face time with patients before being able …
Read more…
The alarming possibility of virtual medical school
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
– John Dewey
I stood there in awe as I watched the trauma team leap into action as the patient was rolled into the trauma bay. “Crush injury,” they said. Vitals were terribly unstable, and the patient was decompensating quickly. The corner of the room shielded me somewhat from the organized chaos that ensued and also gave me a great vantage point …
Read more…
How will you educate future doctors?
My parents were married at the College of Physicians.
They picked a location that was not tied to either of their family’s religions but still sated a ceremonial need. A justice of the peace filled the role of a rabbi or priest, and they got married under the only doctrine they both held sacred: the Hippocratic Oath.
I never knew that this was an unconventional wedding location. I used to watch their …
Read more…
My future as both a mother and a physician
I spent my first two years of medical school collecting stories. I journaled about my thoughts in the anatomy lab. I wrote about what it was like to learn how to interview and examine patients, about the immense honor and privilege I felt just being able to don a white coat with a stethoscope around my neck. I wrote about the patients that touched my heart – the patient with …
Read more…
One of the biggest lessons medical school can teach you
Recently, there has been a number of articles on reducing the length of medical training to help ease the physician shortage. And our medical curriculum is due for a major overhaul. Its foundational document, the Flexner report, was released over 100 years ago, and our medical needs and knowledge have changed. Shortening medical education may provide a “bonus” in easing the anticipated shortage of physicians …
Read more…
Shortening time in medical school is a bad idea. Or is it?
