An excerpt from The Unseen Body: A Doctor’s Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of Human Anatomy.
Everybody learns in grade school that the human body is composed mostly of water—roughly 60 percent in adults goes the statistic. I learned this fact as a child and understood that humans share their aqueous makeup with all other organisms. I imagined living things as …
This article is sponsored by BeMo Academic Consulting, one of the most sought-after academic consulting firms for helping applicants with admissions to highly competitive programs and its staunch advocacy for fair admissions.
Almost every professional or academic program has its most feared admissions component. Those who …
BeMo MCAT Prep lesson #1: The liberal arts is a friend of MCAT test-takers
Medical students are quickly familiarized with which specialties are most competitive when they finish their first year. The prior year’s Match statistics can make the process seem daunting. As if the enormous amount of material to be learned is not enough, students also face the anxiety of adequately preparing for a coveted residency position. There might be additional stressors for a medical student in a small city or rural area …
9 medical student tips to prepare for the Match
Each time I am in the emergency department (ED) as a medical student, I meet new members of the health care team that make superior patient care possible. I have quickly developed a greater appreciation for the fact that no medical professional works in an isolated bubble. The strengths that each other bring to the table are paramount to the flow of patient progress. Before my time as a medical …
The work of an emergency department nurse through the eyes of a medical student
The year is 2022.
Like the thousands of freshly minted new medical students around the country, we sit in this liminal space between a life past and the journey to come. In a time when the word uncertainty does not begin to describe the climate of our health care systems around the world, we are truly stepping into a global institution marred by systemic fatigue, constant entropy, and profound grief.
For as …
The first page in a story that’s been years in the making
Medical school is like a tennis match—a series of short sprints and challenges that, when put together, tell a larger story. Unlike tennis, however, everyone can win. Being “successful” in med school has multiple meanings—from caring for your rural hometown, working with your institution to implement a racism in medicine curriculum, and matching into orthopedic surgery. No matter how you define “success,” there will be bumps and potholes along the …
6 tips for success in medical school
“Guiding kindly illustrates mentorship, whether it be in the dojo or in an academic medical setting. Regardless of one’s stage in medical training, certain errors in patient management will be made … this is part of the learning process. It is the role of the mentor (i.e., attending physician to …
What I learned about medicine in the House of Pain [PODCAST]
When I was about to take my first quiz in medical school, I was convinced I would fail while everyone else felt prepared and would score perfectly. While I floundered to believe in my mastery of the material, my peers had seemed confident and secure. This couldn’t be farther from the truth: I was indeed prepared and ready to succeed in my academics as an M1, and many others were …
How to combat imposter syndrome in medical school
I failed my Step 1 medical school board exam by 1 point. This was very hard for me to process, and I consistently wondered if I would have passed if I had just waited an additional week. This new challenge led me to reach out to a new resource: the disability office.
Never before had I considered my medical diagnosis of endometriosis and anxiety as a “disability.” I had obviously done …
Requesting disability accommodations in medical school
In September 2021, Hasan Minhaj appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and touted a purported “a war … between MDs and DOs.” In it, he compared osteopathic physicians, DOs, to RC Cola as opposed to the Coca-Cola of MDs, claiming that DOs are “off-brand doctor[s]” (and notably placing MDs above DOs with a slight, almost imperceptible motion of his hand). The bit occurred while Minhaj …
Hasan Minhaj’s joke at the expense of DOs
The white coat ceremony marks the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of medical students. An academic ritual steeped in symbolism, the ceremony calls on new medical students to reflect upon and adhere to the values that guide the profession. The honor of graduating medical school returns these soon-to-be-doctors to the ideals of medicine. They must take an oath to avoid harm, build trust, and …
Educating for the oath: a medical student’s lived experience with the hidden curriculum
The highly anticipated release of Marvel Studios’ Eternals has people excited about superheroes. When I see an individual in a white coat and stethoscope or a person in scrubs, I see a real superhero, someone who works in the health care field. Our health care providers showed us their superpowers when our country was infected by the novel coronavirus. We witnessed collaboration amongst medical disciplines to combat this deadly virus. …
Superheroes can have disabilities, too
Thousands of medical students are in the midst of interviewing for their dream job. The importance of interviewing well cannot be overstated. Below are the top five common interview questions that could be asked during your interview.
Tell me about yourself.
Purpose:
Top 5 interview questions and strategies for medical students
I imagine you’re excited to receive this letter, but please listen to me for a moment. I’ll need you to suspend your disbelief here. I am writing to you from the future, and you are me from the past. I needed to reach out to you about the choice you’ve made.
I realize — again, because I am you — that you are super excited about the hare-brained idea to go …
“Economics taught me that I didn’t have to culture cells in a dish to do interesting and life-changing work. I built a habit of being inquisitive and intellectually curious about the world around me because I learned in undergrad that our human, flawed world contains elegant experiments, puzzling oddities, and …
Why economics is the best pre-med major [PODCAST]
This article is sponsored by Altus Assessments, data insights for health care education.
As diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives in medical education work towards improving the heterogeneity of learners, the weaknesses of an educational system with uniform instruction will become more apparent. Uniform instruction does not take into account the complex mechanisms underlying each individual’s learning goals or …
Personalized, precise, and data-driven: Precision Medical Education is here
The dusty gym is a blur in my peripheral vision as I grip the high bar tightly and swing downwards from a handstand. I slightly pike at my hips to avoid hitting the low bar behind me before recruiting my abdominal muscles to tap my legs through a transitional arch position and complete the circle around the bar. Just before I return to vertical, my hand slips. I feel the …
I will finish medical school and become a doctor — before I get scared
Mentorship is one of the cornerstones of growth as a clinician and student. Given that so much of medicine is learned outside of a classroom and through individual experiences, mentorship helps to clearly round out these experiences and help us grow as clinicians. I remember starting medical school and being told at every corner to look for mentors. I wanted to make sure that I was able to grow at …
Formalized mentorship as a requirement for medical schools
Here — outside with nature — this was where I needed to be. It was raining cats and dogs, unlike the light drizzle earlier in the day.
Earlier in the day.
Earlier in the day, I could still see the casket go into the ground, adding finality to the affair as if death was not final enough. Goodbye, Baba. I was yet to cry. That was why I needed to be here. …
What my father taught me about language
While I am commonly considered to be a friendly person, I never had very many friends. This was likely because I was too much. I am was too brown, too bookish, too loud, too assertive, just too much in every single category. It was hard for people to accept me, and I gave up early on in high school to make friends. I fell in where I could, my boyfriends …
Dirt masks and couples massages: My trauma bonds in medical school
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