This is a letter to everyone who has ever smiled, shrugged their shoulders, or nodded while either hesitantly or enthusiastically uttering the words, “Yes,” “Sure,” “OK,” “I guess so,” or, “Of course,” when a medical student has asked if he or she can talk to and examine you before your doctor comes in. We know that you are busy and that your time has value. We know that you have …
I am not a doctor. (Yet.) I am a novice third-year medical student, somewhat able to perform and document a physical exam on a sleeping child, to dial the correct number to call a consult and to make wild guesses about chest X-rays (“I see a consolidation?”). I write about medicine not from a position of experience, but of malleability. I want to become like the best doctors I see.
Towards …
I vow not to call my patients “difficult.” Here’s why.
This article was originally presented as student remarks at the 2015 Harvard Medical School commencement.
At the end of medical school, I always return to a musing, a zen koan of sorts from Dean Jeffrey Flier. At my white coat ceremony, a close friend and current resident, Dr. Nina Gold was chatting with the dean about the heft of our newly bestowed bright white coats. He asked her, in one beautiful …
A cancer survivor embraces the light of going to medical school
More and more health care practitioners are turning to social media for their medical education. Fellows are learning ultrasound from Snapchat, nurses are learning how to insert NG tubes from watching YouTube, and learners are learning pathophysiology from blogs and podcasts. To reach this audience with credible and reliable content, it is important for medical educators to be present where the learners are, and that means social media.
Users are also …
Gamification of medical education: Choose Your Own Medventure
I don’t think I would be the first resident to claim that residency is hard. Anyone who has gone through, or is currently participating in residency, will attest to the challenge of medical training. Efforts have been made on national and institutional levels to address this with work hour restrictions limiting the number of hours a resident can work or the number of calls a trainee can take. These rules …
When medical training stresses you: Write it out
When my husband Brian started first-year of medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, I jettisoned off to Thailand to spend a year teaching English and traveling. We figured if we were going to date long-distance, why not go all in? Why not ensure that we were a full 12 hours apart, on literal opposite sides of the world. What can I say? We like a …
5 keys to a successful long-distance relationship during medical school
A white coat ceremony address to the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, August 4, 2017.
“It takes a village” is one of my favorite proverbs, an African proverb, that resonates with each of us on this monumental day. There is without a doubt that every one of you worked very hard to get into medical school. However, this difficult journey was supported by dozens of important individuals: teachers, …
The white coat symbolizes 2 important commitments
A couple of weeks ago, I met my new medical students. These 10-12 trainees will be my small group for the next two years. We will meet monthly to discuss the soft stuff of medical training — hierarchy, tribalism, death and dying, medical errors, difficult patients, etc. Some call it “third-year medical student support group.” This is my 6th year of the pleasure and privilege (I inherited my first group …
A teacher’s job is to show love first
Last month, thousands of medical students donned their white coats as they took their first steps into hospitals nationwide to begin clinical rotations. This marks an important transition from the classroom into an actual inpatient setting to demonstrate the knowledge they’ve accumulated over the past two years. For most students, this means pretending to hear and correctly identify heart and breath sounds while agreeing with whatever the attending says. During …
10 things that weren’t advertised to me before I started medical school
There is a feeling that you get when you’re out at a dinner party standing and smiling at strangers as they walk by you — a temptation to rest on the “wow” factor of your medical training. Partly because peacocking is inherent to social events such as these, but partly because you fear that you’re inherently boring to people outside your field. The surest way, you think, is to announce …
A medical student confronts life outside the hospital
I’ve had some of the most wonderful experiences of my entire medical training working with kids and their families. And this, to me, is not surprising. After all, I envisioned myself as a pediatrician long before I ever entered medical school.
However, I remember that more frequent news of declining vaccination rates at one point temporarily gave me pause: What would it be like to take on the tremendous responsibility of …
Why the anti-vaxxer label makes this medical student uncomfortable
In his famous novel, Moneyball, Michael Lewis illustrates the phenomenon of professional baseball scouts focusing on all the wrong characteristics when looking at players. He describes how scouts focus on fastball velocity as a way to compare pitchers, despite the lack of correlation between fastball speed and the quality of a pitcher. As it turns out, the most important factor in a pitcher is deception, not a high-velocity fastball. The …
Residents need to learn medicine, not how to pass a test
The other day I was sitting at home looking out the window at an achingly crisp, clear blue sky. A slight, cool breeze was wafting through that open window, and faint birdsong accented a view of tree tops in blooms of pink, red, and white. The blue-tinged mountains were hovering in the distance, proud and majestic.
Only, no. I was actually at work. Underground. In front of a computer screen, whose …
Life can be meaningful even in the midst of residency
ADVERTISEMENT
Imagine taking the MCAT, applying to schools, getting interviews and even being accepted into medical school. How would it feel knowing your dedication has paid off? I felt great, as I had studied hard and made sacrifices others were unwilling to make. As I saw the finish line for what would be the beginning of medical school, I began to ask myself, “Should I continue onwards toward medical school or …
Why I got into medical school and chose not to go
When I entered college, I wanted to be a chemistry major. I had no idea what college chemistry would be like, but it was the class I loved most in high school and something I was pretty good at. The town I grew up in had little more than 3,000 people and more gas stations than stop lights. My school didn’t have Advanced Placement classes or partnerships with local hospitals …
Love something other than medicine? It’s OK.
Congratulations on your acceptance to medical school! Wherever you’re starting this fall, know that you’re joining a “cult” of health care professionals and health care professionals-to-be. No matter how little you know, you’ll be asked for medical advice. And the more you learn, the less likely you’ll be able to sit through an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” without picking out the make believe. We’re right there with you.
Medical school is a …
3 pieces of advice to new medical students
Fireworks, champagne toasts, sparkly hats, and the ball drop are all items that we conger up in our minds as we think of the New Year. For the majority of the world, January 1st represents the transition from one year to another on the calendar. New resolutions are made, and there is a global fresh start. However, for those of us in the medical field, there is another new year …
3 reasons why July 1st should be a day to celebrate
My sister calls my name three times before I hear her. I am so distracted by the palm trees and the ocean view that I don’t feel her put the car in park. I look up at the “Physician Parking Only” sign straight ahead.
“Hurry up and get out. We’re running late, and I don’t want to have to stay after my shift ends,” she says.
“Don’t you always stay like two …
How a blanket changed the way I thought about medicine
Every July, recently graduated doctors from medical school transition into hospitals, clinics, and surgical rotations. Doctors completing their internship year welcome the second year with additional leadership roles. This period of transition is coupled with the pressure of doing well, the stress of proving your competency on attending rounds, and the desire to receive respect from your team.
It is easy to become confused and frustrated as you learn to navigate …
5 ways to transition to residency
My husband and I met during my graduate studies and while he was earning his bachelor’s degree. Two years after getting married, we packed our belongings and moved to a new state where he began medical school. We started our own little family a year later and welcomed an amazing daughter into our lives. After she was born, I made the personal decision to leave my job and stay at …
Waiting on a significant other to finish medical school? Here are some tips.
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
