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.
Medical training in the United States is a long and tedious process. It begins in college, when one must complete the mandatory prerequisite curriculum and take a medical entrance exam; your score on which is directly compared to other applicants, immediately labeling you as a competitive candidate or not. The process of applying requires the completion of multiple comprehensive applications, the compilation of countless hours of research, clinical experience, letters …
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Is burnout inevitable during medical training?
You are currently on inpatient wards and notice your chief medical resident has been demonstrating erratic behavior, frequently muttering about MEN syndromes and antibodies associated with rheumatologic diseases and has been reciting gene translocations. What is the most likely cause of her symptoms?
A. Hospital-associated delirium
B. Conversion disorder
C. Symptoms related to completing an excess number of multiple choice questions in preparation for taking internal medicine boards
If you guessed C, you understand what I have been going …
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The art of medicine cannot be measured by selecting letters on an exam
Ever since I started medical school, my friends and family will often ask my opinion on a new medical recommendation they recently read online or heard on the radio. The trouble is, many times their query falls upon my clueless ears, as it is the first I am hearing about that medical study. In this last year, as I diligently pour through my medical textbooks, or almost exclusively answer my …
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NEJM vs. the NYT: Which should medical professionals read?
Ten male students crowded around a clean-shaven instructor who asked a series of questions. The students had meticulously prepared and would maintain close proximity to well-rehearsed answers. “Hopefully, the questions are simple,” they thought. One by one, they answered, at times stumbling through their responses. This was expected. The students were learning and the incorrect answers allowed room for humility. Such a scene could easily describe an American teaching hospital, …
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Inside every presidential candidate is a medical student
“A doctor’s mission should not be just to prevent death, but to improve the quality of life. You treat a disease, you win-you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you’ll win, no matter what the outcome.”
– Patch Adams (1998)
It’s that time of year where everyone begins residency applications, and you commonly hear conversations along the lines of, “What are you going into?”, or, “what type of doctor are you …
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What kind of doctor do you want to be? Think about it.
Dear Pamela,
Let me start off by telling you that I am a warrior, a protector, and a healer. I am an Army veteran. I’ve worked as an EMT, completed a bachelor’s degree and two years of medical school, plus I’m raising a family. I’ve achieved amazing things, but I have never been defeated like I’ve been over these past few years.
Honestly, I was less stressed in Afghanistan. Medical school is …
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Medical student: “I was less stressed in Afghanistan.”
“I graduated this July and took the QE (written general surgery boards) on July 19th. I got my results today, and I failed. Not only did I fail but my score placed me in the 5th percentile. Needless to say, I’m disappointed. You hear stories about CE (oral exam) failure but never about QE failure. I never blew the ABSITE out of the water (50, 29, 20, 34, …
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You failed your surgical boards. What’s next?
Many recent articles, blogs, and presentations have focused on what American health care lacks and what additional skills health care professionals should adopt to “fix” our “broken” system. Third-party payers and health care organizations tend to promote the need for quality improvement and economic measures, while clinicians grapple with their transition to less-autonomous employees, noting increased job dissatisfaction and conflicts regarding administration and reimbursements. The theme that American health care …
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Solve our health care problems by conveying more love
As first year came to an end, we were asked to reflect on our experiences thus far. The multitude of tests and memorized facts, anatomy dissections, and patient interactions flooded my mind. Shockingly, it was not the difficulty of the first year of medical school that I will remember the most, rather the jaded comments from physicians and students that attempted to cloud my perspective of medicine.
“Medicine is different now. …
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Be mindful of your words. Medical students are listening.
As the health care landscape in America continues to change after the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, we are seeing an even more diverse group of patients seeking care across the nation. As rapidly as these demographics are changing, however, there is still progress to be made in diversity of health care providers who treat these patients. For instance, although 13 percent of Americans are of African descent, Black …
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Use holistic review to improve diversity in health professions
Dear Class of 2020,
You’ve worked hard to earn the privilege of becoming a physician. I hope you took some time before starting medical school to enjoy yourself and embrace your passions, be they travel, music or art, or simply spending time with family and friends. Becoming a doctor is a long, bumpy and often lonely road. Resiliency is essential. My first and most important piece of advice is to be …
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6 actions new medical students should take
“Please don’t spoil the movie with your own soundtrack.” Remember hearing this message before the beginning of a movie in a theater and how most people turn their devices on silent to watch the movie? The cost of the movie ticket is considerably less than the cost of medical education, but I wonder if learners consider this phenomenon when they walk into their classrooms. Is the habit of smartphones in …
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When medical students and residents are distracted by technology
To those of you who are still in the midst of pursuing a seemingly elusive goal of being in medical school I highly encourage you to take a few moments and jot down why you want it so badly. Make a quick list of all the reasons why you want to be a doctor and how you will feel once you achieve that monumental goal. For those of us in …
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A stark reminder of the opportunity we have as physicians
Starting this fall, second-year students will no longer have the stress of grades at our medical school, Washington University in St. Louis (WashU). In extending the pass-fail system from the first year to the second preclinical year, WashU joins the other 18 of the top 20 research medical schools on U.S. News and World Report that grade the entire preclinical curriculum on a pass-fail basis. (The sole holdout is Penn, …
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Pass-fail is here to stay in medical schools. And that’s a good thing.
It’s that time of year where upcoming fourth-year students are frantically preparing applications for their chosen specialties. Statements like “I LOVE psoriasis,” and “’I’m fascinated by the colon,” are heard from eager, smiling, seemingly-passionate faces when asking preceptors for a “strong letter of recommendation.’”
But what about you? You know, the one whose specialty decision-making process feels more like being tossed into an M.C. Escher lithograph than the instant, undeniable attraction …
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You don’t have to love your specialty. Here’s why.
I am blessed to love being a doctor. As the child of two physicians, and the fifth generation of physicians in my family, I had no choice but to go to medical school. But from the first day of medical school, I loved it. What a privilege, to know how the human body works! And I didn’t think medical school was particularly fun: I thought it was hard. The first …
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10 pieces of advice for new physicians
“Code fifty-two, emergency room. Code fifty-two, emergency room,” blared over the loud speaker in the hospital. Simultaneously a chorus of beepers went off, like crickets on a sticky summer day.
I glanced down at my pager that echoed the same message “CODE 52, EMERGENCY ROOM.” The same message flashed across the screen three more times as I ran quickly down the main hallway. Code 52 meant trauma. I was about to …
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A medical student’s first trauma
What is holding you back from pursuing a career in medicine? What keeps you from going in 100 percent? Have doubts crept into your life and destroyed your premed dream? Is there someone whispering in your ear that you are not good enough or this is the wrong career option for you?
There are many misconceptions about doctors and often times these are perpetuated by individuals who have never walked in a …
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Don’t let these 5 reasons prevent you from becoming a doctor
When I started medical school, I was most excited to start learning again. Having spent the last couple years as a teacher in a classroom, I sorely missed the experience of being the student. Reflecting on my college days, I missed the intellectual conversations generated in our seminars, hours poring over literature under dimly lit alcoves of the library; even the far-too-frequent all-nighters spent hashing through complex biochemical pathways with …
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A rude awakening for many medical students
