As a medical student, I have encountered more emotional and psychological pain as a direct result of my training than I could have previously anticipated. My pain may not be physical (though sometimes it is secondary to sleep deprivation), but it is real. I look around me and am reminded of who I do not want to be, and the kind of person I would dread becoming. At first, I …
Hurting medical students healing hurting patients
Nothing compares to the apprehension of starting residency.
OK, that’s not true, but it’s really high up there on nerve-wracking firsts.
I remember my first day as a resident. In a matter of a few hours, I went from being human furniture to being asked to make life-altering decisions. I was overwhelmed, to say the least. Here are some pieces of advice that I wish senior residents would have emphasized before I started this …
Be prepared mentally, physically, and socially for residency
In an oft-cited psychology experiment from the 1960s done at Stanford, toddlers were isolated in a room with a table on which sat a single marshmallow. If they could resist the temptation to eat it, as they were told by the experimenters, they would be rewarded with two marshmallows later on.
If we replaced these toddlers with medical students as the subjects, the experimenters would have run out of either marshmallows …
Does medical school ever pay off?
I recently read an article that my future in medicine would be mediocre. It made me reflect on some things. Like the author of that article, I am a fourth-year medical student waiting to graduate and start my training in residency, the training that will prepare me for a successful career as a physician.
Like the author of the article, I decided to become a doctor with the hope …
Medical students can make a difference in health care
I am forced to write anonymously because of gross neglect by my residency program regarding standard ACGME duty-hour rules. If my name were published, it would identify my program.
As a PGY-2, I worked 100+ hours per week on average last year while taking primary call for my urology department. (Admittedly, the PGY-2 is the historic “worst year” for any urology resident.) On a quarterly basis (depending on manpower), we take …
This resident works 100+ hours per week, but is still a poorly trained surgeon
Tests and exams are the most challenging part of campus life, especially when it is in medical school where students will frequently encounter different types of examinations. One of the things which makes it special is that in medical school, exams are not only given as a written examination but also as oral and practical examinations in which students must face their instructors. Most of the time these are external …
How this medical intern deals with stress
It is frustrating for patients to have unanswered questions, and it is equally frustrating for doctors to not have answers to their questions. In the past month, I have cared for three patients who have stood out to me because they have all presented under personally dire situations.
“I have had crushing 10/10 chest pain since this morning,” Ms. A tells me at the urgent episodic appointment she scheduled in my …
The uncertain diagnosis is difficult for everyone involved
As a clinical student, I’ve been a part of dozens of outpatient clinic visits, but several days ago, I witnessed a clinic visit much unlike the others.
For one, our patient arrived not for a 20-minute appointment, but for a three-hour one. As a hemophiliac, this patient came to Stanford once a year, for a comprehensive, coordinated patient care visit, where she saw not only her hematologist but also her social …
Reminder: Keep it simple for outpatients
We as humans start learning new things since we are born and continue learning until the last breath we take on this earth. We learn lessons that are essential to our lives such as walking and talking, all the way to life lessons that we learn when we face death. I learned a lot through my lifetime; as a child, as a student, as a citizen, and I continue to …
What this medical student learned after being diagnosed with cancer
I’m a first-year medical student who recently discovered the magnetic pull of surgery.
As one might assume, on my first day scrubbing into the OR under a pediatric surgeon, I was beyond excited. The surgeon’s precision and expertise fascinated me, and the constant activity in the surgical suite was something I could definitely get used to. Adrenaline was as pervasive as anesthesia in the OR, and I knew I’d thrive there.
However, …
Doctors should take care of teddy bears too
“Pregnancy termination” and “infanticide” are two different words, used by two very different kinds of people, to describe the one exact same thing: abortion. The source of an argument is found by looking at the words used to frame it; the rest is filler.
I am a medical school student. Like many of you reading this, my life is spent between the walls of the library and the walls of the …
“Medicine Purple is now rounding at Room 202.” The announcement rang throughout the hallways on the lower pavilion. It was an announcement I had heard many times before, but this time it was quite different. As I glanced in the upper right-hand corner of the electronic medical record of my first patient, the following glared back at me in all capital letters: “ATTENDING: COOPER, JOSEPH DAVID.” I had imagined the …
The moment my passion for clinical care was reaffirmed
I am a professor of family medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. During their third and fourth years, students must complete a four-week clerkship in family medicine. The clerkship includes a “significant-event reflection” project, in which students discuss patient encounters that they’ve found especially meaningful.
Over nearly a decade as a facilitator for these groups, I have heard many powerful and emotional stories. I’ve often felt deeply moved–and admiring …
Why I’m a doctor: Life-changing stories from med students
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Pre-med students are characterized by a number of things. Most notoriously, they prominently carry type A labels. Perhaps the intricately color-coordinated notes give you away. Maybe it is your strict, military-like regimen with which you go about your daily existence. Whatever it is, you are not alone. Many pre-meds turned medical student harbor these behaviors to some degree. After all, we get to where we are because of years of …
What is the mistake that every pre-med makes?
I arrive 7:15, 15 minutes before I was supposed to come in. I make sure to bring a shelf review book, knowing that I will be getting significant use of it that day.
After surreptitiously observing my surroundings, I attempt to seek out a physician of sorts, a guide, a mentor, a guru that could aid in my quest for knowledge and experience. I am seated in a chair against a …
In memory of what medical education used to be
On Friday, November 4, Thomas Nasca, MD, the chief executive officer of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), released a letter outlining the proposed changes to intern work hour restrictions and other regulations.
Specifically, the proposed update is expanding the previous restrictions to the length of the intern (who is a physician in their very first year out of medical school) work day from 16 to up to 28 …
The new hour restrictions for residents: Stop with the manipulation
“C-section at OR 3,” said the clerk at the neonatal ICU (NICU). We then sped to the prep area to enter the OR as soon as we could.
Once geared up, we entered the OR and waited for the new addition to the NICU family. Mom had no prenatal care, but we knew she had used multiple illicit drugs throughout the pregnancy, she was young, had a history of psychiatric disease, …
A NICU case that will stay with this medical student forever
“It won’t be the last sacrifice you make for medicine.”
These were the words my surgical intern said between yawns as I expressed regret at having to miss a distant cousin’s wedding. The digital wall-clock read a blurry 3:15 a.m. as we sat together in the on-call room, the coffeemaker dripping black gold into the pot.
She had three pagers affixed to her scrub pants which would beep intermittently in turn, signaling anything …
The sacrifices we make for medicine
I made it through the rigors of pre-med. I made it through (almost all of) med school, with a few scars to show for it. And now that I’m a big, bad MS4, I finally have the time and the distance to reflect on all the literal blood, sweat, and tears it took to get here.
I am a loud and proud Duke Blue Devil. It was my dream school despite …
This medical student’s biggest regret? Not watching enough college basketball.
Dear future doctor,
Please remember. Remember what it feels like to be a patient.
Remember the pain, remember the anguish of the unknown, remember the detours of being referred from one physician to the next, and how you hoped that this doctor would finally be able to diagnose you and empathize with your suffering. Remember the agony of not knowing what caused the mysterious, writhing pain; however, at the same time being …
Dear future doctor: Remember what it feels like to be a patient
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