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We sit down with Christina Stach, a medical student who shares her powerful journey of navigating the financial hardships of medical education. Christina’s story sheds light on the unique challenges faced by first-generation, …
Living out of a car to pursue a dream: the true price of becoming a doctor [PODCAST]
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, has once again demonstrated his commitment to equality and social justice. Through his Bloomberg Philanthropies, he announced a monumental $600 million donation to four historically Black medical schools in the United States. This follows his Greenwood Initiative’s $100 million gift in September 2020, aimed at reducing student debt for these institutions.
Other major donors have also made significant contributions to HBCUs. MacKenzie …
Michael Bloomberg’s $600 million donation to Black medical schools sparks major change
Every DO has the quote, “Mind, Body, Spirit,” ingrained in their minds. These words resonate when we step on campus, open a lecture, and discuss osteopathic medicine. These tenets are the foundation for osteopathic medicine when working with patients. While I always understood what that meant, it was only during my psychiatry rotations that I fully grasped the importance of focusing on holistic care and the mind, body, and spirit.
In …
A medical student’s perspective: Using my osteopathic training in the field of psychiatry
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We sit down with Ellie Qian, a medical student, to discuss the profound experiences that shape the journey of becoming a compassionate health care professional. Ellie shares a transformative encounter from her first …
A medical student’s transformative encounter with end-of-life care [PODCAST]
“I want you to be proud of me,” my intern replied when I asked what he wanted to get out of the rest of his year. We were wrapping up the first two weeks of July—his first two weeks of being a doctor—and having our end-of-rotation feedback session. However, he had just flipped the tables on me. His comment was the type of jolting response that made me rethink my …
A doctor’s reflection: 25 years of mentoring and pride in medicine
An excerpt from Curricular Injustice: How U.S. Medical Schools Reproduce Inequality. Copyright (c) 2024 Lauren D. Olsen. Used by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
In Curricular Injustice: How U.S. Medical Schools Reproduce Inequalities, I describe how the medical profession, in its attempt to integrate the humanities and social sciences to develop humane and equitable future physicians, often failed to do so. Clinical faculty members, in their capacity as …
How medical school curricula perpetuate inequality
This article is sponsored by Texila American University College of Medicine (TAUCOM).
Aspiring doctors often consider a range of factors, such as the quality of education, clinical training opportunities, affordability, and global recognition when pursuing a medical degree. In recent years, Guyana …
Consider Texila American University in Guyana for medical school
I never thought I would make it to medical school. I stumbled upon pre-med while walking down the halls, late to my 8:00 a.m. art class because weightlifting went longer than expected. I was on the university soccer team, and my schedule already felt overwhelming. When I got the call, I was on a hike with my dad and husband. “Congratulations Madison, you have been accepted!” I couldn’t believe it. …
The surprising secret to success in medical school
It was a fresh start to my first day of medical school as a second-year student. With a slightly stronger arsenal of information compared to my first year, the energy was palpable. My team and I huddled in our small conference room, gathered around the table, ready to tackle our first case of the week as part of our team-based learning. The first patient was a 1-year-old female infant presenting …
Why speaking up in medical school could save lives
An excerpt from The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging.
With slicked-back hair, a fancy-buttoned vest, and a politician-like charisma, you wouldn’t guess Dr. Bogdan Chiva Giurca, a doctor for England’s National Health Service (NHS), grew up in a Romanian village, handwashing his clothes because he couldn’t afford laundry. “I got to taste the real social determinants of health without knowing they were called …
How a group of British medical students fought for social prescribing
In the past two weeks, there have been two social media posts, one from a resident physician and another from an attending physician, criticizing trainees. The resident was critical of a trainee’s inability to identify anatomical structures in the operating room, while the attending physician was entertained by a trainee who mistakenly wore a shoe cover as a scrub hat, with a photo of it included in the post. As …
Physicians’ social media criticism of trainees sparks controversy
The 2024 summer blockbuster film Inside Out 2 explores the complex emotions that first hit teenagers during puberty. Briefly, the five original emotions (from the first movie in 2015) that define the behavior of childhood Riley – Joy, Anger, Fear, Sadness, and Disgust – meet new emotions that allow Riley to grow further toward young adulthood. Unfortunately, the new emotions – Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui – threaten …
Inside Out 2: How new emotions mirror medical student struggles
This past year, my entire life has fit in the backseat of my Hyundai Elantra as I bounced between four states and traveled over 25,000 miles. As I walk into the hospital and my phone reconnects to the Wi-Fi after a night of using cell data in the parking lot, I am bombarded with emails from Credit Karma and loan services about my new balance. The debt accrues, my stomach …
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As a medical simulation educator, I get a lot of curious looks when I share my job title with people both inside and outside of medicine. Medical simulation is defined by the Society of Simulation in Healthcare as the imitation or representation of one act or system by another. It has four main purposes in health care: education, assessment, research, and health systems …
Revolutionizing medical training: the power of simulation education
Memorizing and retaining the medical knowledge you need to be a doctor is one of the hardest things you can do! If you ask any doctor about their medical school experience, they’ll probably recall hours of lectures, meticulous cadaver dissections, and countless long days and nights of studying, trying to learn a ton of material in a very short time. Of course, this experience can lead to major stress, taking …
Music as a tool for explaining medical concepts
“Tradition” comes from the Latin word tradere, meaning to “transmit” or “hand over.” In contrast, the word “academia” is derived from the Latin phrase acadēmīa (Greek: Ἀκαδημία or Akadēmía), which refers to Plato’s “Academy” – a school residing by olive trees where teachers and learners gathered to educate each other and share knowledge through undefined curricula of readings, lectures, debates, and discussions. “Traditional academia,” then, etymologically describes the passing …
Traditional academia is not dying. It’s evolving.
“A message to the new generation of interns: you’re not just a doctor—you’re an artist, too.”
It’s the first day of residency. You enter the hospital, trying to recall basic medicine after months away from patient care. Gone are the days of hovering between unpaid trainees and health care providers. Gone are the days when you could deploy the instinctive, age-old adage, “I’m just the medical student.”
During graduation this year, I …
From medical student to intern: Embrace your inner artist
U.S. allopathic medical school applications have skyrocketed, with over 60,000 applications in 2021, a nearly 100 percent increase in applicants over the past decade. Despite modest increases in the number of medical schools and class sizes, the result has been an ever-declining acceptance rate, with less than 38 percent of applicants accepted in 2021. Hopeful pre-med students pour over the grievously limited data available through the AAMC (Association of American …
Skyrocketing medical school applications: the hidden costs and stress factors
In the past year alone, legislative assaults on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education have surged across the United States. This disturbing trend threatens the foundational values of our academic institutions and endangers the very essence of health equity in medical education and practice.
The recent introduction of the Embracing Anti-Discrimination, Unbiased Curriculum, and Advancing Truth in Education (EDUCATE) Act by Rep. Greg Murphy, MD, and its 35 …
The misrepresentation of the EDUCATE Act and the future of our health care system
Sarah graduated college during the pandemic and landed a job with a Fortune 500 company in the IT sector, a competitive position. Like many others, she knew of the importance of landing a job, not just for a secure future with a good-paying salary, but in the United States as a way of securing access to health insurance.
This health insurance—being someone young and healthy—was something she got out of habit …
Studying medicine in a time of deep medical distrust: Why I remain hopeful
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