Medical education

2,303 articles · Since 2007

Articles, page 70

Are we training a generation of soft doctors?

December 17, 2015Dec 17, 20155

I watch as my almost-2-year-old daughter awkwardly climbs the stairs. I do not hold her hand, but I do not turn my back on her either. She is still clumsy, and her little-bowed legs often miss their targeted landing spots.…

Every so often she wobbles as she miscalculates the distances and her toes …

May my humanity heal where my science cannot

Lauren Webb

December 14, 2015Dec 14, 20154

As a third year medical student, I am as green as they come. As much as I feign familiarity in the hospitals, each day of every rotation brings a host of firsts: first time suturing, first natural delivery, first terminal patient, first 24-hour shift, first code blue. The novelty of these experiences is equal parts exhilarating and overwhelming. As future physicians, we have invested the better parts of our time, …

My first year as a nurse taught me what true resiliency is

Mandeep Garha, RN

December 13, 2015Dec 13, 20154

I remember attending an eight-hour seminar on my job, where experts educated new nurses about the transition we would experience in our profession. We learned about the change theory and the different levels of transition, from novice to expert. I remember not taking the two-day session very seriously, thinking that my accelerated three-year nursing degree had prepared me well for the workplace. Now that my one year of practicing as …

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Medical students are depressed, but they’re taking the wrong drugs

Sebastian Hyman

December 9, 2015Dec 9, 201516

Studies have varied in their estimates of depression in medical school students, but they all show a similarly startling trend. Medical students have a higher depression rate than their non-medical counterparts. This culminates later in life with physicians with higher than average alcohol abuse problems and higher than average suicide rates, with male MDs 1.5 times as likely, and female MDs twice as likely to commit suicide than their …

Being an American patriot means promoting tolerance even in the face of crisis

Nuriel Moghavem

December 8, 2015Dec 8, 20155

I knew that friendly Mr. S on our hospice unit had been a decorated World War II hero, having fought for the United States on the Italian front lines in 1944. I knew that a grenade had exploded right next to him four weeks into combat, sending him to the hospital for months with terrible shrapnel injuries. I also knew that he wished …

Searching for the holy grail of clinical reasoning

Tom Peteet, MD, MPH, MEd

December 6, 2015Dec 6, 20152

The holy grail of clinical reasoning is, in a word, assessment. Ought we to measure clinical reasoning as a function of experience, knowledge base, or as a process measure? In medical parlance, there is no “gold standard.” In 2015, to…

In 2015, to tell whether your doctor is a great diagnostician is based more on reputation than hard evidence. This gap in evidence is all the more interesting given recent press about the inattention …

Use the power of psychology to ace your medical school interview

Shirag Shemmassian, PhD

December 4, 2015Dec 4, 20154

Receiving medical school interview offers simultaneously provides relief, justifies the incredibly hard work you’ve put into your primary and secondary applications, and confirms that you are indeed cut out for medicine. In other words, you’ve convinced them -- at least…

In other words, you’ve convinced them — at least on paper — that you will succeed in their program and make an excellent doctor.

So why do they even want to interview you?

Consider what schools can only learn about you in …

A medical student resents having to make smart choices. Here’s why.

Anonymous

December 3, 2015Dec 3, 201538

The human experience is an exercise in connection. Nothing is seen, heard, or felt in isolation. This is what can make womanhood in a large urban city so challenging. A catcall is not a single comment, heard on a single morning about the tightness of your jeans or the way your hair falls; but instead carries with it every unsolicited thing you’ve ever heard about your body, a shadow of …

Doctors are growing uncomfortable with procedures. Is training to blame?

Briana Buckner, MD

December 2, 2015Dec 2, 201530

It’s 2 a.m., and the patient’s blood pressure is beginning to rapidly decrease. Every IV line is occupied by an antibiotic or IV fluids, and we are in need of a vasoactive medication. The nurse comes to my computer and sternly states, “We can no longer avoid it. I think the patient needs a central line.” I quickly say “OK,” but I don’t move. I am momentarily frozen by my …

When applying for residency, should medical students be quantified?

Heather Alva

December 1, 2015Dec 1, 20153

It is the fourth year of medical school, and I have been dreaming in the language of ERAS (electronic residency application service). In less than one month, I will put my name into the sorting hat of applications as part of the match’s algorithm to interview, and hopefully I’ll be matched to a pediatric residency position.

Based on 2014 program director survey data published by the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) …

What academic medicine can learn from #ConcernedStudents1950

Dr. Dale

November 30, 2015Nov 30, 2015

In August of 2002, as a spry young adult, I stepped foot onto the University of Missouri’s campus. Eight years later, I was a double alumnus of my wonderful alma mater, and today, my heart still bleeds black and gold.…

After graduating high school, I had spent a summer at Xavier University in …

I got rejected from medical school twice. It was the best thing that happened to me.

Antonio Webb, MD

November 28, 2015Nov 28, 20156

Most people who apply to a graduate school and/or graduate medical programs apply to get accepted the first time of applying. No one wants to have to apply a second time and definitely not a third time. After a second rejection, a lot of people would probably recommended someone picking another field to enter or even giving up altogether. For me, both of my rejections were taken hard and still …

A medical student learns from the power of the bystander effect

Misha Armstrong

November 27, 2015Nov 27, 20155

I have the privilege of being a first-year medical student. Awkwardly learning how to perform the physical exam, repeating the same questions to collect an HPI from standardized patients, unsure of how all of my mediocre skills will translate to the precision of the physicians I attempt to emulate. I have settled into the pace of lectures, and the rush of experiencing the human body has left me as I …

What medicine is really like isn’t seen in some medical schools

Nathaniel Fleming

November 24, 2015Nov 24, 20155

Any Stanford student knows all too well that the immense campus, with its seemingly eternal sunshine and endless rows of palm trees, can make it difficult to want to get outside and experience the real world. When it comes to medical education, this creates a very real concern: Is it possible to experience the full diversity of our health care system when you are living in the so-called “Stanford bubble” …

High quality health care shouldn’t require big saves

Alexandra Millet

November 17, 2015Nov 17, 2015

As the last line of defense in soccer, the goalkeeper holds a privileged position. She’s the one who can see the whole field unfolding in front of her, and she’s the one who must come up with big plays when the game is on the line. When I was a goalkeeper, I lived for the pressure, drama and chance to be the one to make the big plays for my …

Maybe medical school applications should come with a warning label

Anonymous

November 12, 2015Nov 12, 201515

I did some pretty crazy things to get into medical school (don’t worry, Mom, nothing illegal). For several years before applying, I became a medicine groupie. I read books about being a doctor, watched documentaries about medicine, and shadowed physicians for hours on end so I could imagine what it might be like. I watched many a friend go off to med school and graduate … and I waited, I …

Transgender discrimination: Physicians must not lag behind

Tehreem Rehman

November 11, 2015Nov 11, 20156

As a native New Yorker, I was thrilled when Governor Cuomo announced plans for an executive order that prohibits discrimination against transgender people in areas such as employment and housing. Specifically, this executive order would expand existing anti-discrimination protections to include gender identity, transgender status, and gender dysphoria. There have also been advancements regarding the protection of transgender people from discrimination in health care.

Recently, the Department of Health and Human …

We are morally scarring our future physicians

Alex Smith, MD

November 6, 2015Nov 6, 201515

Have you ever had that experience when you think what you're doing is futile, and that thought goes through your mind: "Why am I doing this?" "I'm torturing him." "This feels wrong." For those of us that are physicians, think…

Have you ever had that experience when you think what you’re doing is futile, and that thought goes through your mind:

“Why am I doing this?”

“I’m torturing him.”

“This feels wrong.”

For those of us that are physicians, think back to your internship and residency training. I think we can all remember at least one of these situations, if not more.

I remember being in the ICU as a third-year internal medicine resident, being sent …

If you don’t advocate for women, I don’t trust you with patients

Anonymous

November 1, 2015Nov 1, 201519

I started medical school recently. Before it started, I told myself (and everybody else) that I would feel like a kid in a candy shop when I was here. I'd get to try different specialties and figure out which one…

I started medical school recently. Before it started, I told myself (and everybody else) that I would feel like a kid in a candy shop when I was here. I’d get to try different specialties and figure out which one I want to do out of everything that excited me. It really is kind of like that, don’t get me wrong. But I’m also confused and disheartened.

I had a different …

What a Muslim medical student thinks of Dr. Ben Carson’s words

Cherie Fathy

November 1, 2015Nov 1, 201565

I wonder how I would’ve felt if Ben Carson had run for president back when I was a kid. At that age, I was wholly inspired (and terribly intimidated) by doctors. They knew everything! They were the coolest people ever! Nowadays, I’m in medical school where I’ve learned that doctors definitely learn a lot, but we’re not the coolest ever, and we are certainly not filled with innate knowledge on …

Medical education

Articles, page 70

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