Medical Education

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.

Stop letting delayed gratification steal your joy

Maseray S. Kamara, MD

Medical Education

February 6, 2018

I couldn’t wait to get into college. Next, I couldn’t wait to start medical school. But, last year, when I found myself eagerly counting down the months to graduation, I was disgusted with myself.

Why was I always waiting to arrive at a destination? Had I unknowingly signed up for a never-ending, achievement journey? Upon reflecting, I realized that by inaction, I had accepted this lifestyle. I had become content in …

Every medical student deserves to be educated in an anti-bias learning environment

Sarah M. Smith, MD

Medical Education

February 4, 2018

In recent years, medicine has begun to advance at a rate that is, at times, difficult to even comprehend. The world has now seen its first birth from a transplanted uterus, an artificial pancreas, mobile stroke units, therapeutic virtual reality, an embryo with three genetic parents and more. No doubt, medicine has come far. But as we enter 2018, we are still missing the mark on gender equity.

Before I started …

Here’s how poetry saved my life in medical school

Tolu Kehinde, MD

Medical Education

February 3, 2018

I often tell people that medical school has been one of the most challenging periods of my life — emotionally more than academically, although my test scores might tell you that it hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park in that regard either. I came to medical school after a fantastic gap year in Boston where met and built a strong community of friends that turned into a family …

How a symbol influenced this patient encounter

Christel Wekon-Kemeni

Medical Education

February 1, 2018

I lightly knocked on the door of the next patient that I was set to obtain a history from. It was late in the morning in the middle of the week, and my mind was becoming increasingly preoccupied with deciding what to eat for lunch. My preceptor had allowed me to practice my history-taking skills with every patient that had an appointment with her that morning and had also given …

Segregation in the medical school classroom

Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako

Medical Education

January 31, 2018

“Are you a left-sider or a right-sider?” my classmate asked with a puzzled look during an end-of-the-year dinner among first-year medical students. I was confused. He repeated himself then answered. “Do you sit on the left or the right side in class … that’s right; you sit on the right.” He then mentioned that everyone present was a “right-sider.” Nearly everyone was white.

For the past 18 months, we sat in …

Medical education systematically ignores the diversity of medical practice

Rebekah Fenton, MD

Medical Education

January 30, 2018

I remember the moment I first saw a female chest X-ray. It was my own. My lecturers in the first months of medical school showed a few chest films, but I failed to recognize that the bodies all looked the same. I proudly showed my sister my clear lungs. She laughed and said, “I can see your boobs.” I looked again at mine with new eyes, taking in the dull, …

How my skepticism brought about a culture change in how our residency functions

Michael Alpert, MD

Medical Education

January 30, 2018

“No one can know what you’re doing here.”

The resident across the table from me made this clear the moment we sat down. We were in her hospital’s cafeteria, talking discreetly at her request with the union coordinator. In an effort to generate more revenue for the hospital, her already substantial call duties had been increased yet again, leaving less time to spend with each patient with no discernible educational benefit. …

What inspires this medical student

Jamie Katuna

Medical Education

January 28, 2018

Someone who I care about deeply messaged me today: “I think I’m done with surgery.”

This person, a surgeon, feels like his potential is elsewhere. There are more opportunities, different challenges, and fulfilling experiences in other places and he is ready to explore.

I told him that he inspires me.

But I am in medical school. So how could someone leaving the medical field be inspiring to me?

Because inspiration does not come from a job description or a fancy …

Read more…

What inspires this medical student

Studying to be a doctor, while living as a patient

Claudia Martinez

Medical Education

January 26, 2018

Walking up to the admissions desk I knew the routine. I stretched out my arm for my hospital band. A name, a number, and a doctor were what defined me during my many hospital stays. It was simple; my brain was too large for my skull. Brain surgery after brain surgery has occupied my life for many years, all while I have been studying to become a doctor.

I just finished …

Scenes from a medical student’s rotation in psychiatry

Natalia Birgisson

Medical Education

January 25, 2018

My classmate and I were walking back to the residents’ workroom when we realized one of the psychiatry patients was trailing along behind us. I glanced over my shoulder and found a very short gentleman in a patient gown walking just a little too close to me.

“Serena,” he said, smiling at me.

I looked at my classmate. We were on inpatient psychiatry, and he looked as nervous as I was. Our …

Find the mentors you want in medicine

Jamie Katuna

Medical Education

January 23, 2018

Medicine has been called an anti-mentorship program: In that trainees tend to find a vast amount of physicians who they don’t want to be like, rather than finding tons of inspiring ones who they do want to emulate.

So how do we navigate this? How do we, as trainees, isolate and latch onto the physicians who are full of energy, life, and potential? Who are excited about what they do? Who have brilliant ways …

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Find the mentors you want in medicine

A near-death experience taught this medical student a lesson

Johnathan Yao, MD, MPH

Medical Education

January 21, 2018

I had just taken my final anatomy exam and finished a long two-month ordeal dissecting through and memorizing every component of the human body. At the beginning of the course, I had been excited, energized, honored to commence such a foundational experience in medical training. By the end, I was exhausted, wanting nothing more than just to sleep.

The very next day, we began physiology with two weeks of cardiology separating …

Please show more interest in your health than my looks

Misha Armstrong

Medical Education

January 19, 2018

In 2017, more women than men were accepted into medical school for the first time. 2017 also brought attention to the sexual harassment many women face that often goes ignored. Medicine is not immune to behavior that objectifies women and ignores their complaints. My experiences are mild in comparison to many of my peers, but highlights the comfort both patients and physicians feel discussing the appearance of female trainees.

***

I was …

What do you say to somebody who knows that they are about to die?

Nathaniel Fleming

Medical Education

January 16, 2018

I’ve had lots of practice comforting people. I’ve had to tell patients that their cancer is back in a busy emergency department. I’ve updated family members of patients who are being kept alive by machines in the intensive care unit. I’ve walked alongside patients as they get rolled into an operating room, and crouched down by a patient’s bed as they writhe in pain. There have been moments of fear, …

20 anecdotes that describe the world of female medical students and physicians

Jamie Katuna

Medical Education

January 13, 2018

I recently collected anecdotes from women in medicine who have noticed the same thing I’ve noticed: We’re not as comfortable here as our male counterparts. Despite progress, medicine remains a patriarchy — an “old boy’s club” — and the women in this world are frequently reminded of this status quo. In collecting these anecdotes, I’ve noticed two main themes for the type of advice and comments women receive.

The first one speaks …

The non-difference between MDs and DOs

Brandon Jacobi

Medical Education

January 8, 2018

“What’s a DO?” is something virtually every osteopathic medical student and physician have been asked at some point in their training. There is this public misconception that professionals who carry MD after their names are the only qualified people to medically treat their ailments. Any other degree is categorized as “alternative medicine” in their mental schema. Truth be told, DOs, or doctors of osteopathic medicine are just as qualified as …

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The non-difference between MDs and DOs

Please change the culture of surgery

Anonymous

Medical Education

January 8, 2018

It is December 2017. I have been on the road for the last five months, completing my five months of elective rotations. I am a fourth-year medical student aspiring to specialize in family medicine. I also want to learn procedures, so I did two months of surgery, three months of family practice electives. At the beginning of this process, I had wanted to be a general surgeon, but I ended …

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Please change the culture of surgery

What is the right reaction for a physician when her daughter goes pre-med?

Elizabeth Blanchard, MD

Medical Education

January 8, 2018

I asked a colleague at a recent dinner meeting about his children. They’re all grown, he said, one is actually a doctor. But, he added quickly, “I had nothing to do with it.” His son had chosen his father’s field of radiology, though my colleague similarly disavowed any influence. He did mention, with some relief, that his son was happy with his choice.

About a year earlier, I was catching up …

Medical students: It is OK to not feel OK

Jamie Katuna

Medical Education

January 7, 2018

I pulled into my driveway at 1 in the morning after spending eight consecutive hours in the library. I shut the engine off and allowed the music to continue. And I didn’t move.

And then I started to cry. Initially, I resisted the tears, then conceded to the overpowering emotions so desperate to escape. And for ten minutes, I sat in my dark car in the cold at 1 in the morning …

Lessons from the psychiatric ward

Kristin Puhl, MD

Medical Education

January 7, 2018

The specter of the psych ward looms large in popular culture: video games, horror movies, novels — the concept of a locked inpatient psychiatric ward is shorthand for a variety of terrors. This perception is driven by a complex cocktail of factors. Psych ward patients have struggled with historical and current abuses, which are compounded by misunderstanding and ignorance around mental illness.

During third year, I spent a six-week rotation in …

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Lessons from the psychiatric ward