In medical training, there are moments when the question quietly shows up. It might be during a night shift, after a long stretch without sleep, or while catching up on charting. The thought is simple, but heavy: What if I had chosen something else? What if I had gone into engineering, or business, or any path that didn’t ask quite so much?
This reflection started as an assignment for a medical …
“Did I get dumber?” This poignant question from a medical student, asked in frustration after receiving a lower-than-expected grade, became the focus of a forty-five-minute academic coaching session. Simply put, my role as a learning specialist was to foster a mindset shift: from “my grade determines my self-worth” to “my grade reflects where I am in my learning right now and guides my next steps.” Helping the student build this …
Leadership training in medicine is often framed around titles and administrative skills, preparing students to one day manage teams or step into academic or hospital leadership roles. While these skills are important, they miss the deeper, more urgent need in medical education: helping future physicians understand themselves, navigate complex health care systems, and make intentional career decisions aligned with their values.
Why traditional leadership training falls short
Countless physicians enter practice only …
Many health care providers are still coming to terms with the opioid epidemic. The development of drugs such as Oxy opened a door for widespread opioid use, and the aftermath of this failure has led to rampant addiction in our country’s most vulnerable. As the system gradually regulated legal opioids, dangerous alternatives like heroin and fentanyl increased in prevalence. Other nonopiate medications like amphetamines have also become common in communities. …
There is a generation change happening in how health information and care is accessed, understood, and delivered, driven by Gen Z. They are the first generation of digital natives and the first to fully benefit from the Affordable Care Act, which has cut uninsured rates in half for 19- to 25-year-olds, improving access to preventive care services.
But now, as they enter adulthood and are becoming responsible for their own …
In a little area outside our free clinic in Miami, ten of us sit together in a group. The air is thick and unmoving. Some wear torn shirts while others arrive in stylish outfits. A few have not had the chance to shower in weeks, but all show up, bringing their full selves to the group. These are the people who call the streets home, men and women who sleep …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!
Academic physician executive William Wertheim discusses his article, “America, our health care workforce training isn’t evolving alongside our needs.” He argues that the U.S. medical system is training professionals who will not …
Before I ever introduced myself as a future doctor, I was a listener.
Not because someone told me that listening was important in medicine, but because, as a first-year student, I quickly realized I had no answers—but I did have ears. And heart. And a quiet seat at the edge of patient stories and preceptor reflections.
In the early days of medical school, everything felt unfamiliar. The terms, the pace, the sense …
At first glance, medical school can be simplified to “drinking from a fire hose.” Endless Anki cards, color-coded notes, iPads filled with diagrams.
Cramming and regurgitation, funny acronyms and mnemonics. Obscure conditions. Buzzwords.
It feels like memorizing a ton of conditions and running through the routine steps of diagnosis, treatment, management, clinical investigations, and so on — until you can recite them in your sleep.
You’re buried in biochemical pathways, pathophysiology, and pharmacology, …
The United States and Japan, while separated by geography, language, and culture, share more in common than first meets the eye—particularly when it comes to health care. As post-war democracies that developed robust medical infrastructures in the latter half of the 20th century, both countries have grappled with similar challenges: Aging populations, rising costs, workforce burnout, and persistent health disparities. Yet their respective approaches—the U.S.’s pluralistic, market-driven model and Japan’s …
Throughout my academic career I learned that medicine can be pursued through any major. Although the traditional path is through biology, as long as the correct prerequisites are taken, you are eligible to apply. As time went on, I began to think to myself, “Why isn’t there a common pre-med major?” This major would set students up to conquer the rigorous curriculum of medical school. Additionally, if students decide not …
The memories are still raw: Stepping off the plane alone, unsure of what came next. Where was the campus? The car? A place to live? I didn’t know a soul. I was in a different country, surrounded by uncertainty.
There were moments I truly wondered if I’d make it. I was afraid I’d fail—that this dream might slip through my fingers. How could I study medicine on a tiny island and …
I sat in my pink childhood bed, my name still written in cursive above it from when I redesigned the room at seven years old, staring at the letter that shattered my dream. I had been dismissed from medical school for “professionalism” concerns. I didn’t know what came next. No roadmap. No support. Just the crushing reality that everything I had worked for was suddenly gone.
Medical education demands resilience and …
ADVERTISEMENT
A faculty-wide email recently announced that shadowing in our emergency department would no longer be recognized as a valid educational activity. I wrote back asking why. The reply was brief, dismissive, and telling:
“It doesn’t pay the rent.”
That line has stuck with me—not just because it was flippant, but because it revealed something deeper about how we now view education.
Shadowing has long served as the first bridge between curiosity and calling …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!
Pediatrician Daniel Johnson discusses his article, “From isolation to innovation: the power of learning communities in health care.” He reflects on the collaborative, case-based learning that makes medical training exciting and contrasts …
When I was a medical student, some enterprising classmate started a note taking service so we wouldn’t have to take notes on our own. He set up a tape recorder and transcribed the notes for distribution the next day. One day, our professor showed up with a tape recorder, set it up on the table in front of the lecture hall, and turned it on. The result was an electronic …
“Why do you want to be a doctor?”
Ask any pre-med that question, and you’ll probably hear the same answer: “I just want to help people.”
I’ve said it, too—more times than I can count. But lately, I’ve started to question what that phrase even means. Not because I’ve lost faith in medicine, but because I’ve learned that helping is more complex, layered, and humbling than I ever imagined.
As the host of …
The residency match process is one of the most defining and often most daunting milestones in a medical student’s journey. It represents the culmination of over eight years of dedication, sacrifice, and hard work in pursuit of a dream many of us have nurtured since childhood.
Building a strong application is challenging for everyone. Whether you’re navigating personal doubts, managing financial strain, lacking mentorship, or simply trying to figure out the …
I have been on the pre-med path for years. I started college excited to one day become a doctor, but I quickly learned that excitement was not part of the culture. From the beginning, pre-med students are taught to compete with one another. We are forced into difficult STEM courses that are often graded on a curve, which turns classmates into rivals. I saw people hide resources, give wrong information …
Today I graduated from medical school. It should have been one of the happiest days of my life. And in some ways, it was. I earned this moment through sleepless nights, years of sacrifice, and an unshakable drive to serve and heal. I walked across the stage, accepted my diploma, stretched my smile from cheek to cheek, and looked directly at the camera. But behind that smile, I carried something …
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
