Medical education

2,303 articles · Since 2007

Articles, page 81

Should medical students consider lifestyle when choosing a specialty?

October 5, 2014Oct 5, 20145

A medical student recently asked my advice on her decision to pursue a career in dermatology. It was about 25 years ago when my own parents encouraged me to pursue this specialty. What was their deal? Perhaps, they anticipated future developments in the field and were hoping for free Botox treatments? As readers know, I rejected the rarefied world of pustules and itchy skin rashes for the glamor of hemorrhoids, …

How to give feedback to medical students

Alex Lickerman, MD

October 5, 2014Oct 5, 20142

My student’s voice trembled as she answered my question. “How do you think you’ve done so far?” I’d asked her. We’d been together on the general medicine inpatient ward for two weeks — the midpoint of the rotation — and as was my usual custom I was giving her feedback on her performance by first asking her to rate her performance …

Vulnerability is a virtue in medicine

Michael Metzner

September 26, 2014Sep 26, 20146

Medical students are repeatedly taught the importance of the physician-patient relationship. We are told that to be a good doctor we must strive to exhibit compassion, empathy, respect, professionalism and confidence all while applying our medical knowledge to figure out a diagnosis and treatment plan. If you add in the pressure of doing this within a 15-minute visit, all while answering questions faster than an Internet search, it can get …

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Vulnerability is a virtue in medicine

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Lessons from the first month of residency

Pramod Theetha Kariyanna, MD

September 25, 2014Sep 25, 2014

Where there is love there is life. - Mahatma Gandhi In this first month there is a lot I saw, learned and experienced. Love tops the list. I became an expert in arterial punctures as I did 4 to 5…

Where there is love there is life.
– Mahatma Gandhi

In this first month there is a lot I saw, learned and experienced. Love tops the list. I became an expert in arterial punctures as I did 4 to 5 of them each day in the floors. Each time I headed for an arterial puncture, many things automatically came to my mind: collect all of the required supplies, talk to and comfort …

Responding to a medical student in pain

Abigail Schildcrout, MD

September 23, 2014Sep 23, 201427

This evening, I read a post written by a woman who finds herself feeling alone, depressed, desperate, and afraid of losing herself as she goes through medical school. This post is my response to that woman. Dear colleague and friend,…

This evening, I read a post written by a woman who finds herself feeling alone, depressed, desperate, and afraid of losing herself as she goes through medical school.

This post is my response to that woman.

Dear colleague and friend,

You are not alone.

You are far from home. You are far from your family. You are far from the desert, the open …

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Responding to a medical student in pain

Get rid of the trolls in medicine

Petr Rholls

September 22, 2014Sep 22, 20145

Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer once said, "There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago." Like physics, medicine has its…

Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer once said, “There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.”

Like physics, medicine has its share of problems, namely cost control.

Like children, we must open our perception to the problem of cost control to consider other possibilities that better account for the issue than the theories …

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Get rid of the trolls in medicine

The value of continuity clinics cannot be understated

Elaine Khoong, MD

September 22, 2014Sep 22, 2014

There is much talk about cynicism in medicine, and I remember being confronted by it almost from the beginning. In fact, I still remember how shocked I was the first time I heard a provider describe a patient in a…

We were responding to a 911 call regarding a woman in her 30s who was feeling short of breath. I remember being worried; she seemed too young to be …

“Studies show”: It’s time to ban the term

Brian J. Secemsky, MD

September 19, 2014Sep 19, 20147

We’ve gone through four dreadful pre-medical years of learning everything from the composition of atoms to how an apple exerts force when falling off a tree. We’ve taken a massive exam full of content mostly unrelated to our future field only to be put through four more years of intense medical education (and several additional massive exams). We’ve managed to receive a medical degree and have gone through at least …

Attentive questioning: You can’t learn this in a medical school classroom

Christine Sunu

September 15, 2014Sep 15, 2014

I don’t remember how many patients I saw at the health fair before George came to me; none of them were as memorable. George was a tall, stooped man with a serious expression. His skin was weathered but he couldn’t be called elderly by any means. I guessed that his age hovered somewhere around forty. He looked serious and spoke quietly. He had no interest in being rude, but no …

Today’s medical students are better prepared to practice medicine

Lindsay Mazotti, MD

September 12, 2014Sep 12, 201413

As patients, we think of working with medical students as a good deed, a necessary evil to improve the future doctors of America. You spare the extra time, discuss your mother’s sister’s medical history, a detailed account of your drinking…

But medical students are changing. Today’s students are starting medical school with more experience …

Bambi Syndrome saved my life

Pamela Wible, MD

September 10, 2014Sep 10, 2014243

Pet Goats and Pap Smears. Life changes in a heartbeat. In the “Events of the Cardiac Cycle” lab, four students are assigned to each dog. Instructions: Inject the live dog with epinephrine and study the EKG. Sever cardiac nerves. Carve…

An excerpt from Pet Goats and Pap Smears.

Life changes in a heartbeat.

In the “Events of the Cardiac Cycle” lab, four students are assigned to each dog. Instructions: Inject the live dog with epinephrine and study the EKG. Sever cardiac nerves. Carve open the chest and shock the heart. As the dog’s blood pressure drops, remove the heart. Now, stab …

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Bambi Syndrome saved my life

From the bedside to the bargaining table

Ana Liang, MD

September 9, 2014Sep 9, 20143

There were many things I pictured myself doing as I endured four years of medical school: building relationships with my patients and their families, performing complicated procedures, sleeping with my shoes on so I could jump up at any moment when I was on call. One thing I didn’t imagine was that I would be learning about and becoming a part of the labor movement.

My experience at UCSF Benioff Children’s …

The human cost of physician burnout is almost unfathomable

Brian Goldman, MD

September 7, 2014Sep 7, 201412

Adapted from a keynote address given to the graduating medical class at the University of Toronto. When I was asked to give the keynote to graduates of the class of ’14, it was an honor that nevertheless filled me with…

Adapted from a keynote address given to the graduating medical class at the University of Toronto.

When I was asked to give the keynote to graduates of the class of ’14, it was an honor that nevertheless filled me with terror and a bit of wistfulness.

My sense of fear in giving advice to these amazing young doctors comes from not being sure I belong in the same company. They are whip smart, …

Want to become a doctor? 5 criteria you should consider.

Robert Centor, MD

September 4, 2014Sep 4, 201412

While running several times over the past week, I have thought carefully about our profession. I cannot imagine having chosen any other profession than medicine, nor any specialty other than internal medicine. But that is me, is it you? A…

But that is me, is it you?

A medical tweeter than everyone should follow @medicalaxioms had these tweets recently:

If you become a doctor for wealth or prestige, you are going

…

I never understood the loss of empathy during medical training. Until now.

Anonymous

September 2, 2014Sep 2, 201444

It was 4:30 a.m., and I was on the side of the road, drenched in sweat and tears. I had finally slowed my breathing to normal. I was going to be late for rounds. No time to obsess over possible…

It was 4:30 a.m., and I was on the side of the road, drenched in sweat and tears. I had finally slowed my breathing to normal. I was going to be late for rounds. No time to obsess over possible questions. No time to memorize lab values, or practice regurgitating them.

I thought of home. My family and friend, who I hadn’t …

The desire to spoon-feed medical residents today

Wes Fisher, MD

September 2, 2014Sep 2, 20145

As I begin another year teaching EKGs to our new residents, I find I am increasingly asking myself, "Where to teach?" I do not mean to imply a geographic sense to the word "where" (although this is difficult, too, as…

As I begin another year teaching EKGs to our new residents, I find I am increasingly asking myself, “Where to teach?”

I do not mean to imply a geographic sense to the word “where” (although this is difficult, too, as residents move from hospital to hospital in large health care systems like ours as they change rotations), but rather as more of a “level.” What level do I teach our residents …

High-yield and protected time: A medical student’s take

Hamsika Chandrasekar

August 28, 2014Aug 28, 201410

Learning in medical school often feels like learning a completely new language. There are numerous acronyms (OPQRST, CAGE) and molecules (IL-1, TGF-beta) and more. But most striking to me are two particularly ubiquitous buzzwords: “high-yield” and “protected time.” I feel…

I feel like I heard both these terms — and particularly the former — thrown around every single week of this past school year. High-yield has been used to refer to, as you …

Emphasize the attention a doctor pays to the patient

Andrew Choi

August 24, 2014Aug 24, 2014

My high school graduation ceremony was your typical Californian high school graduation -- the sun hovering lazily over us, a cool, ocean breeze bringing wafts from the sea. As I listened to my principal deliver his address, my attention waned…

My high school graduation ceremony was your typical Californian high school graduation — the sun hovering lazily over us, a cool, ocean breeze bringing wafts from the sea. As I listened to my principal deliver his address, my attention waned in and out. The sun was too warm and the wind was too soft. When the student speaker came up to speak, I reclaimed my attention to listen to him …

Today, I may have saved a life

Edwin Acevedo, Jr., MD

August 23, 2014Aug 23, 201476

Today, I saved a life. And I wish I could tell you a story about fancy heroics -- about an exploratory laparotomy, a chest thoracostomy, or a patient that coded and I was the last person to perform the chest…

Today, I saved a life.

And I wish I could tell you a story about fancy heroics — about an exploratory laparotomy, a chest thoracostomy, or a patient that coded and I was the last person to perform the chest compressions that brought them back to life. But I can’t. But I can tell you that I saved a life.

She was 16-years-old, and moved here four years ago from a different …

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Today, I may have saved a life

Selecting grittier surgeons is harder than you think

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

August 19, 2014Aug 19, 20142

In case you haven't noticed, a hot new topic in education is "grit." In order to reduce the long-standing 20% attrition rate of surgical residents, some say we should select applicants who have more grit or conscientiousness. A recent paper…

In case you haven’t noticed, a hot new topic in education is “grit.” In order to reduce the long-standing 20% attrition rate of surgical residents, some say we should select applicants who have more grit or conscientiousness.

A recent paper in Surgery reported residents who dropped out of programs had decreased levels of grit as measured by a short-form survey. But due to unexpectedly low attrition rates in the surgical programs …

Medical education

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