When applying for residency, should medical students be quantified?

Education
December 1, 2015

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) …

Read more…

When applying for residency, should medical students be quantified?

POLST and well-intentioned advance directives

Physician
May 12, 2015

Somewhere along the way I learned to believe that if a declaration is written down on physical paper and signed, it carries with it an almost magical certainty of follow-through: it can be framed, cited, stored in a safe, and, if need be, brandished in a court of law. This is an interesting idea in the realm of advance directives.

Well-intentioned advance directives

The goal of an advance directive is to protect …

Read more…

POLST and well-intentioned advance directives

My first experience administering injections

Education
April 16, 2015

My first experience administering injections involved sitting in an ICU room, ten years old, drinking bitter diet Shasta colas and watching thrillers from the 90s starring Sandra Bullock. The nurses started me on oranges. Easy as pie — I could stab away, practicing insulin injections with saline and fruit. The oranges practically squealed with delight upon puncture, rewarding me with the scent of citrus and a plume of juice — …

Read more…

My first experience administering injections

Learning the language of Patient and Doctor

Education
February 17, 2015

At the outset of this process of becoming a doctor, a friend and mentor of mine, a professor emeritus of medicine known as a mentor who cares deeply about his students and for his New England style dinner parties, sat me down to explain the gist of medical school.

The first two years, he explained — bowtie notwithstanding — are the equivalent of studying a language from textbooks. You must first …

Read more…

Learning the language of Patient and Doctor

Death with dignity: Perspectives from a medical student

Education
December 10, 2014

Background 

Under the 1997 Death with Dignity Act, Oregon was the first of the now-handful of states to allow physicians to write a prescription that, when filled and administered, would cause intentional death.

Let me be clear: Death with dignity is not offered to Oregonians en masse or even on a whim. To legally qualify, a patient must be 18 years or older, a resident of Oregon, capable of making and communicating …

Read more…

Death with dignity: Perspectives from a medical student

Introduce our patients to mentors

Physician
August 26, 2014

A resident once offered me this piece of advice: Find mentors whom you admire. Not just for their rapport with patients, but also for their lifestyle, their hours and their family life. Make goals that you know to be realistic because someone has already accomplished them.

My question now: Why stop there? Why not share that ounce of brilliant advice with our patients? Why don’t we link older, successful patients with diabetes …

Read more…

Introduce our patients to mentors