Medical education

2,303 articles · Since 2007

Articles, page 97

On the inpatient psychiatry ward, a new code governs

November 16, 2012Nov 16, 20124

“By the way,” my chief resident told me on the first day of my inpatient psychiatry rotation, “don’t lick your lips in front of him.” “Wait, what happens if–” I fell silent as the patient walked into the interview room.…

“By the way,” my chief resident told me on the first day of my inpatient psychiatry rotation, “don’t lick your lips in front of him.”

“Wait, what happens if–”

I fell silent as the patient walked into the interview room. The resident wanted to discuss his paranoid delusions; the patient wanted to discuss his discharge.

The patient wasn’t ready to leave because the medications that made the demons stay away were also making his …

Death is not supposed to be a comfortable subject

Eve Purdy

November 3, 2012Nov 3, 20122

A palpable tension was present in our cab as we drove west. The taxi driver taking us to the retirement home of our patient filled the air with stories of the local prisons and the beauty of this area in the summer time. I am sure that I laughed at his light-hearted anecdotes but all I really could focus on was my heartbeat, its obvious crescendo as we drew kilometer …

Why medical students need to begin in the classroom

Lucy Hornstein, MD

October 29, 2012Oct 29, 20123

My esteemed colleague Dr. Bob Centor is enamored of an interesting essay from which he quotes:"Only you can educate you—and you can’t do it by memorizing. You have to find out who you are by experience and by risk-taking, then…

My esteemed colleague Dr. Bob Centor is enamored of an interesting essay from which he quotes:”Only you can educate you—and you can’t do it by memorizing. You have to find out who you are by experience and by risk-taking, then pursue your own nature intensely. School routines are set up to discourage you from self-discovery. People who know who they are make trouble for schools.”

Personally, I found it more of …

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The rewards of family practice in a rural town

Haley Adams

October 28, 2012Oct 28, 2012

Although McAlester, Oklahoma, is a relatively small, rural town, it’s the largest town in southeastern Oklahoma. Well over 100,000 people come through for a number of goods and services, including health care. Growing up 30 minutes outside of town, I understood rural Oklahoma from a patient’s perspective, and I looked forward to seeing it from the provider’s perspective. During a summer rural externship, I spent three weeks shadowing Carol Gambrill, …

Rural medicine in India: What American health care can learn

Roheet Kakaday

October 27, 2012Oct 27, 20122

Many premeds take time during their undergraduate careers to volunteer abroad. Popular destinations include Mexico, various Central and Southern American countries, and Africa. These are great opportunities to discover more about underserved care and, more importantly, what you are made of. I just thought I would share my reflections on volunteering abroad during college. Hopefully, you can glean something from them.

In the backcountry of India, in the state of Maharashtra, …

How to steel myself against this profession I have chosen

Shara Yurkiewicz

October 25, 2012Oct 25, 20126

An elderly man startles awake after a man in a white coat touches his shoulder. He looks around and sees three other white-coated people standing around his bed. “Sir? Good afternoon, sir. How are you?” says the man who touched…

An elderly man startles awake after a man in a white coat touches his shoulder. He looks around and sees three other white-coated people standing around his bed.

“Sir? Good afternoon, sir. How are you?” says the man who touched the patient’s shoulder.

“Oh, I’m fine.” He’s perfectly calm.

“I know this is a silly question,” continues the man, “but do you know where you are right now?”

“Of course, of course. I’m at …

My feelings of superiority were replaced by a sense of kinship

Shumon Dhar

October 25, 2012Oct 25, 20123

In the summer of my first year of college, I did an internship as a nursing attendant in a rehab hospital's stroke unit. As a premed student, I had little idea of what it meant to be a physician. But…

In the summer of my first year of college, I did an internship as a nursing attendant in a rehab hospital’s stroke unit.

As a premed student, I had little idea of what it meant to be a physician. But that didn’t stop me from feeling slightly superior to others who weren’t on the same path. Although I didn’t know how to take someone’s blood pressure, I often treated friends to …

How gross anatomy changes you forever

Anonymous

October 21, 2012Oct 21, 20122

After a week of medical school orientation, followed by two weeks in the classroom studying cellular organelles and biochemical pathways, our class was finally going to start the centuries-old rite of passage that is human gross anatomy. For many students, it will be first time seeing a dead body. The anatomy lab is where future surgeons will make their first cut with a scalpel, without the pressure of life and …

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How gross anatomy changes you forever

Are pregnancy and residency compatible?

Linda Brodsky, MD

October 16, 2012Oct 16, 201213

Viewpoint #1. Training programs might say: we are headed for a major league collision in the training of women physicians. Soon 50% of all trainees will be women, and in some specialties, such as OB/GYN, they will be 80-90% of…

Viewpoint #1. Training programs might say: we are headed for a major league collision in the training of women physicians. Soon 50% of all trainees will be women, and in some specialties, such as OB/GYN, they will be 80-90% of the residents in any particular program. Training years coincide with prime child bearing years. Imagine if even only half the residents in a program were pregnant at once. What would happen …

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Are pregnancy and residency compatible?

5 pieces of advice nobody tells you before starting residency

Deep Ramachandran, MD

October 11, 2012Oct 11, 2012

Since medical school, I’ve gone through an additional 6 years of training, read countless volumes of medical literature, and had the fortune of having some great teachers. Through it all, experience has been the greatest teacher, which I suppose is what training is about. I’ve watched with interest as advice has been hashed out on the web around this time of year to new trainees on all matter of subjects. …

Medical residents need to be accountable for their own well-being

Brian J. Secemsky, MD

September 28, 2012Sep 28, 20126

I am three months into my medical residency, and I am getting fat. Not the noticeable change-in-pant-size fat, not yet. But I am most certain that what was once muscle is now just “padding,” and I can no longer solely attribute the words “muffin top” to the anatomy of the snacks that I scrounge to stay alive during the long hours in the hospital.

I am three months into my medical …

Morning rounds in the SICU

Amanda Xi, MD

September 27, 2012Sep 27, 20122

I open the heavy, wooden door to the unit. On my left are the patient rooms, equipped with minimal privacy; to my right are members of the healthcare team shuffling around. I continue toward my destination, a small room containing a couple desks and computers dedicated to mid-level providers, but cannot help but notice how eerie the unit is. Although there are at least fifty individuals within this space, it …

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Morning rounds in the SICU

Becoming a doctor in a family of physicians

Brian J. Secemsky, MD

September 22, 2012Sep 22, 2012

Listen. I know that you are in your junior year in college. I know that you’ve picked an unsustainable, or unrealistic. major. For instance, I know that at this very moment in time you have (finally) made the revelation involving…

Listen.

I know that you are in your junior year in college.

I know that you’ve picked an unsustainable, or unrealistic. major. For instance, I know that at this very moment in time you have (finally) made the revelation involving your slim-to-none chances of owning the Jets by means of your pending Sports Management degree.

I know that you are now in the throes of career-choice turmoil.

I understand that the only council you …

The first 24 hours of being a medical resident

Brian J. Secemsky, MD

September 8, 2012Sep 8, 20122

As this is the season for spanking-new physician trainees to flood hospitals around the U.S., I decided to chronicle my own very first 24 hours as a doctor so the reader can get a better insight into this annual event.…

2000 hours, evening before: With my newly starched white coat, stethoscope and light pen packed neatly into my Tumi man-purse, I make believe that I am sufficiently prepared for the first …

The importance of letting go after witnessing a code

Amanda Xi, MD

August 31, 2012Aug 31, 20122

A real code deviates from what they depict in medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy. Television chest compressions are usually too slow and superficial, they are nowhere near forceful enough to sustain blood flow throughout the body. There is no foreboding…

A real code deviates from what they depict in medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy. Television chest compressions are usually too slow and superficial, they are nowhere near forceful enough to sustain blood flow throughout the body. There is no foreboding soundtrack to hint at what’s coming, only the numbers that appear on the monitor that suddenly dip in the wrong direction.

Although I understood the magnitude of the situation as it …

Pre-meds: Do what it takes to get into medical school

Marc N. Katz, MD

August 26, 2012Aug 26, 201231

I sit at my home in New Jersey as I anxiously await my 6am flight two days from now that will take me to the Caribbean island of Dominica where I will begin to take my first steps in the…

I sit at my home in New Jersey as I anxiously await my 6am flight two days from now that will take me to the Caribbean island of Dominica where I will begin to take my first steps in the journey of becoming a doctor at Ross University School of Medicine.

Many people attempted to discourage me from continuing on the path I started on. Doctors I shadowed would warn me …

Patient centered care starts in medical school

Kathryn Nix

August 26, 2012Aug 26, 20123

For thousands of first-year medical students, including myself, last week marked the beginning of classes and our official entrance into the medical profession. We sat through lectures on the normal functions of the body, and many of us even set…

At my school, we didn’t just delve back into the basic sciences—on day two, we also began a class that will …

In medicine, is there a place for learning from those we serve?

Karan Chhabra

August 25, 2012Aug 25, 20125

Inhalation. Exhalation. Perspiration. Equivocation. Self-Abnegation. Devastation. Urination. The list of things I’ve endured in the name of getting to medical school could go on, and I doubt it’s any different from my classmates’. But we’re here, finally, freshly white-coated and…

Inhalation. Exhalation. Perspiration. Equivocation. Self-Abnegation. Devastation. Urination.

The list of things I’ve endured in the name of getting to medical school could go on, and I doubt it’s any different from my classmates’. But we’re here, finally, freshly white-coated and already racing just to stay on track.

The White Coat Ceremony was a timely, though sometimes tearful reminder of what we did to get here, why we did it, and what we’re …

The need to watch medical students interact with patients

Christopher Johnson, MD

August 11, 2012Aug 11, 20122

I’ve written about this before, but some recent encounters with medical students have me thinking about it again. I went off to medical school thirty-eight years ago. For the era, I went to what folks regarded as a very progressive place. It had a curriculum that was quite revolutionary for the time. Among other things, we started having interactions with actual patients during our first year, rather than the third …

Teaching the cost of tests in medical education

Vineet Arora, MD

August 8, 2012Aug 8, 20126

Last week, I tried something new with our residents. We tried to talk about why physicians overuse tests. This is the topic of the moment, as the American College of Physicians (ACP) just dropped their long-awaited new High Value Cost…

In addition to the ACP curriculum, which I served as one of the reviewers for, I also …

Medical education

Articles, page 97

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