I thought long and hard about the financial ramifications of medical school before I started. I already had a job in the medical field that I enjoyed, and I was happy with my level of compensation at the time. After running the numbers, I knew that the choice to pursue medicine would result in a delayed economic benefit that would take at least 15 years to recover, and only through …
The financial ramifications of medical school
I was working at the free clinic late in the first semester of my third year of medical school when I met a patient I will call Mary, the last patient to be seen for the evening. Mary had a fairly typical story among uninsured individuals. She was 26 years old and worked three jobs near minimum wage to make ends meet, none of which offered cost-sharing for health insurance. …
What does “do no harm” really mean as a doctor?
Having recently watched a cable television recreation of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, I am left thinking about how far some of us have come and how far some of us haven’t.
The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991 changed the concept of sexual harassment in the workplace by bringing the issue to the forefront. By the time, I started residency nearly 20 years after the …
More needs to be done about sexual harassment in health care
I was spending time with friends and family over the holiday when I started to experience various vague symptoms without an obvious etiology. Having been treated for high blood pressure about ten years prior before successfully overcoming the issue with exercise, I immediately recognized the return of the condition. (As an aside, it should be stated that elevated blood pressure typically produces no symptoms at all.)
Stopping by my local pharmacy, …
A doctor who forgot the basics they teach you in medical school
Perhaps the greatest flaw in medical training is our blatant avoidance of any education related to the business of medicine. Primarily focused on treating illness, trainees often don’t want to hear about how they are going to be compensated in the future, and medical school administrators fear that such training would further decrease interest in specialties that reimburse at a lower rate per unit time. Some doctors get 10s and …
This is the greatest flaw in medical training
“How much experience do you have with human suffering?” It was a question asked of me at my first medical school admission interview, and it took me by surprise. I was expecting to be asked about my volunteer experience, my research, or my desire to become a physician. The simple truth is that most of us really don’t have that much experience with human suffering when we’re in our 20s.
The …
Physicians experience grief in a different way
I had spent medical school and the better part of my adult life in another state by the time I matched into a medical internship back home. Such an opportunity allowed me the opportunity to enjoy a more familiar setting complete with the more bucolic and relaxing lifestyle I had missed for so long. Though not quite in my rural hometown, …
MD? Who cares about that? The virtues of doctoring in a small town.
I was at an orientation luncheon prior to my first week of medical school when my new classmate turned to me and asked, “So why did you decide to go back to school?”
“Back” to school? In the eyes of this then-23-year-old future doctor, I must have appeared older than I was supposed to be. She was right. I was a little …
The personal cost of medical training. Why it’s worth it for this doctor.
I was volunteering at one of the free clinics associated with my medical school last weekend, and while teaching a medical student how to sew a cut, he queried, “That is an interesting technique, who taught you how to suture? Are you a surgeon?”
“I am actually a radiologist,” I replied. “To answer your first question, I was actually taught this by an obstetrician during my third year of medical school.”
Puzzled, …
What this radiologist learned from his obstetrics rotation
I will always remember my awkward medical school interviews. Filled with bioethical scenarios and questions to measure my ability to prevent an impaired physician from practicing, the interviewers seemed hardly interested in my prior career achievements or humble beginnings.
Such discussions carried on through the first two years of medical school. They never taught us how health care reimbursement works or why …
A tragic physician story the match doesn’t want you to hear about
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