Over the last couple months, I have often been asked what I plan to do as a recent college graduate. My response has been that I will be attending medical school in Chicago. “Oh! Medical school!” many exclaim as their…
Over the last couple months, I have often been asked what I plan to do as a recent college graduate. My response has been that I will be attending medical school in Chicago.
“Oh! Medical school!” many exclaim as their eyes light up, “So you’re going to be a rich doctor.”
This response as well as most others I have received seemed to imply that medicine is an ideal profession if one …
During my ambulatory care rotation, I got the opportunity to tag along with my attending on a house call to a geriatric couple. The husband, “Joe,” had recently been in the hospital for severe respiratory illness. His wife, “Sally,” had…
During my ambulatory care rotation, I got the opportunity to tag along with my attending on a house call to a geriatric couple. The husband, “Joe,” had recently been in the hospital for severe respiratory illness. His wife, “Sally,” had recently fallen and broken her hip and was recovering from a hip replacement.
While my attending checked on Sally, he advised me to talk to Joe. We chatted a while about …
Students wishing to go to medical school — premedical students — have gone through pretty much the same process for nearly a century. The requirements have some variability according to the whims of particular medical schools, but in general a…
Students wishing to go to medical school — premedical students — have gone through pretty much the same process for nearly a century. The requirements have some variability according to the whims of particular medical schools, but in general a person wishing to go to medical school needs a four year collage degree, during which he or she has completed two years of chemistry (including organic chemistry), a year of …
Try your hand at a question from one of our anatomy exams. What nerve supplies the obturator internus muscle (a muscle in the pelvis)? The correct answer is the "nerve to obturator internus." It's like answering who is buried in…
Try your hand at a question from one of our anatomy exams.
What nerve supplies the obturator internus muscle (a muscle in the pelvis)?
The correct answer is the “nerve to obturator internus.” It’s like answering who is buried in Grant’s Tomb.
As a time-strapped medical student, it feels like a godsend when a medical term is named in an obvious way. Even a lay person can intuit the meaning of medical terms …
When I was a fourth-year medical student in 2002, I signed up for an intense sub-internship rotation in family medicine. My goals for this rotation were two-fold: first, I wanted to make sure that I was ready for intern year…
When I was a fourth-year medical student in 2002, I signed up for an intense sub-internship rotation in family medicine. My goals for this rotation were two-fold: first, I wanted to make sure that I was ready for intern year and, second, I needed a good letter of recommendation to match into a good family medicine residency program.
On this rotation, I was essentially treated like the other interns. I had …
I knew from the beginning that residency would be one of the biggest challenges in a career in medicine and reading Dr. Pauline Chen’s article, "The Impossible Workload for Doctors in Training," put into mathematical terms what I had been…
I knew from the beginning that residency would be one of the biggest challenges in a career in medicine and reading Dr. Pauline Chen’s article, “The Impossible Workload for Doctors in Training,” put into mathematical terms what I had been sensing all along.
In what other profession do you go through four years of undergrad and four years of $60k/year medical school, only to end up working 100 hour weeks for …
Jennifer was one of my first patients as a new doctor, and she came to see me about an unintended pregnancy. A single mom to a rambunctious 5-year-old girl, Jennifer was struggling economically and battling depression. We talked about the…
Jennifer was one of my first patients as a new doctor, and she came to see me about an unintended pregnancy. A single mom to a rambunctious 5-year-old girl, Jennifer was struggling economically and battling depression. We talked about the options available to her: continuing the pregnancy and preparing to parent another child, offering the baby for adoption or having an abortion. She chose to continue with the pregnancy, and …
One Saturday morning at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, I got out of a call room bed and realized I had done it. The year everyone dreads, the year everyone says, “you just need to get through”…
One Saturday morning at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, I got out of a call room bed and realized I had done it. The year everyone dreads, the year everyone says, “you just need to get through” was finally over. I had completed my write-ups on all the patients I admitted overnight. My emergency room consultation requests had been seen. I checked my pager for missed pages: …
After six weeks in the accelerated bachelor of science in nursing program at the University of Rochester, I was already on clinical rotations in the hospital. I was learning clinical functions that my second-year medical school friends had no idea…
After six weeks in the accelerated bachelor of science in nursing program at the University of Rochester, I was already on clinical rotations in the hospital. I was learning clinical functions that my second-year medical school friends had no idea how to perform: catheterizations, wound dressing changes, how to calculate and administer medications. There’s just not enough time in the first two years.
If you’ve read my reviews of the new medical TV show Monday Mornings, you’ll know I’ve been critical of many things about it. I was particularly disappointed with the way the show handled one of its central themes: the morbidity…
If you’ve read my reviews of the new medical TV show Monday Mornings, you’ll know I’ve been critical of many things about it. I was particularly disappointed with the way the show handled one of its central themes: the morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference.
I thought it might be useful to tell you how most real M&M conferences are run. M&M conferences generally take place at hospitals with residency training …
I’ll start with this: it’s great to be back. I’ve been on hiatus from blogging for the past few months because of the exam I took last week: the medical boards, or Step 1, an eight hour test that covers…
I’ll start with this: it’s great to be back.
I’ve been on hiatus from blogging for the past few months because of the exam I took last week: the medical boards, or Step 1, an eight hour test that covers all of the first two years of medical school to prepare us for the hospital wards. To give you an idea of what it entails, most second-year medical students use a …
We were instructed not to knock, that the examiners would invite us in when they were ready. Even under the bright lights and unforgiving atmosphere of an operating room emergency, I couldn't recall being this nervous. Yet today, in the…
We were instructed not to knock, that the examiners would invite us in when they were ready. Even under the bright lights and unforgiving atmosphere of an operating room emergency, I couldn’t recall being this nervous. Yet today, in the dimly lit hallway of a three-star hotel, my hands trembled without a bleeding patient or sharp instrument anywhere nearby. I glanced left …
The fight for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens has been a long and storied one. We have fought for rights related to family, marriage, anti-discrimination and service to our country. We have reveled in the freedom to…
The fight for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens has been a long and storied one. We have fought for rights related to family, marriage, anti-discrimination and service to our country. We have reveled in the freedom to be openly ourselves in public and have cheered as the fight for equality became a priority not only for ourselves but also for our straight allies. As Rhode Island recently …
A few weeks ago I had the distinct privilege to attend TEDMED as a Front Line Scholar. TEDMED isn’t your usual medical conference; artists share the stage with scientists and your notions of what healthcare could be are shifted. While…
A few weeks ago I had the distinct privilege to attend TEDMED as a Front Line Scholar. TEDMED isn’t your usual medical conference; artists share the stage with scientists and your notions of what healthcare could be are shifted.
While the talks I attended were often inspiring and eye-opening, the interaction with fellow attendees was by far the most enriching aspect of the …
Interview season is winding down and budding physicians everywhere are clutching tightly to their hard-fought medical school acceptance letters. I thought now would be an opportune time to reflect on what I wish I had known before starting medical school.…
Interview season is winding down and budding physicians everywhere are clutching tightly to their hard-fought medical school acceptance letters. I thought now would be an opportune time to reflect on what I wish I had known before starting medical school.
Let’s boil it down to five essential aspects of medical school that you wouldn’t expect or are of such crucial importance you should be reminded of them.
Giving and receiving feedback is really hard. When I left training and joined the faculty at a major medical school last year I found many things about my new position daunting. Fitting into a well established practice; learning a new…
Giving and receiving feedback is really hard. When I left training and joined the faculty at a major medical school last year I found many things about my new position daunting. Fitting into a well established practice; learning a new system; being a teacher; juggling different services and roles; billing appropriately; and last but not least, giving feedback.
Psychological and logistical hurdles make it challenging to deliver feedback. Constructively criticizing the …
“That makes no sense!” a friend recently blurted out to me after I finished helping her understand how the vast majority of internal medicine residents are trained in this country. Her incredulousness was less about the "how," and more about…
“That makes no sense!” a friend recently blurted out to me after I finished helping her understand how the vast majority of internal medicine residents are trained in this country. Her incredulousness was less about the “how,” and more about the “where.”
No doubt. When you consider that the overwhelming majority of practitioners will ultimately be practicing almost exclusively in the outpatient environment, and that cost-conscious healthcare reform efforts are specifically …
As the sun rises in hospitals across the nation, medical interns start their age old ritual of rounding and examining patients. While the old guard may feel that paper and pens are being replaced by impersonal interactions of mouse clicks…
As the sun rises in hospitals across the nation, medical interns start their age old ritual of rounding and examining patients. While the old guard may feel that paper and pens are being replaced by impersonal interactions of mouse clicks and scrolling through the electronic medical records; the essence of the intern experience remains the same.
It is a year filled with a roller coaster of highs and lows which adds …
I've been a family medicine residency faculty member for nearly 5 years, and I've come to observe the yearly cycle of a residency over that time. Reminding myself of that cycle helps me weather and celebrate the peculiarities of each…
I’ve been a family medicine residency faculty member for nearly 5 years, and I’ve come to observe the yearly cycle of a residency over that time. Reminding myself of that cycle helps me weather and celebrate the peculiarities of each time of year.
July-September: Adjustment
Every resident’s role changes on July 1. For the first-years, it’s their first day of being called “doctor.” Second- and third-year …
Recently, I was having a discussion with a colleague about being a doctor. She confided in me that if someone asked her about becoming a doctor, she would tell him or her to become a nurse practitioner. After reading the…
Recently, I was having a discussion with a colleague about being a doctor. She confided in me that if someone asked her about becoming a doctor, she would tell him or her to become a nurse practitioner. After reading the emotional open letter to our policymakers in Washington DC, it may sound like a reasonable suggestion. After all, why go into this much debt and spend so much time in …
