Without cadavers in school, will doctors be the same?

Education
August 13, 2020

The Kaiser Permanente’s Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine opened this summer, and its students will not learn anatomy by dissecting a cadaver. Instead, they will don virtual reality headsets and dissect virtual bodies. The school does have a collection of pre-dissected, “plastinated” cadavers, but according to the chair of biomedical sciences students will spend the majority of their time studying electronic …

Read more…

Without cadavers in school, will doctors be the same?

I challenge you to discuss death

Education
July 30, 2020

My medical school’s secondary application, like that of many other medical schools, asked me to describe a personal or professional challenge or conflict and to explain how I worked to resolve it. However, unlike other medical schools, my school specified that they did not want to hear about the MCAT or another academic challenge.

For this question, I wrote about a challenge that I have been facing for most of my …

Read more…

I challenge you to discuss death

Coronavirus takes a toll on IMGs: anxieties over USMLE Step 1 becoming pass/fail

Education
July 27, 2020

The NBME has announced that the USMLE Step 1 exam is changing from graded on a curve to pass/fail no earlier than Jan 1, 2022. This announcement came before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and significantly disrupted pretty much everything, including medical education. Since then, given widespread Prometric center closures, study schedule disruptions, altered medical school curricula, and a whole host of other unexpected challenges, many …

Read more…

Coronavirus takes a toll on IMGs: anxieties over USMLE Step 1 becoming pass/fail

Why medical students should be taught the business side of medicine

Education
July 19, 2020

The field of medicine is always changing. In fact, half of what students learn in medical school will either be wrong or outdated five years after they graduate. As future physicians, medical students must learn to adapt to these changes. In fact, the medical school curriculum itself has evolved greatly over the years. In addition to basic science, pharmacology, and clinical medicine, curriculums now include content …

Read more…

Why medical students should be taught the business side of medicine

Declaring racism as a public health crisis from the lens of two Latinx student doctors

Policy
July 15, 2020

“I often heard as a child that Mexicans were lazy and dirty. As a Mexican-American, I did not wear shorts for years despite the heat because I thought my knees looked dirty. Now I fully embrace my identity. However, as a medical student, I still feel the pressure to disprove these stereotypes.”
– Camila Hurtado

“Growing up in the barrio, my white classmates would tease and bully the brown Latino kids constantly. …

Read more…

Declaring racism as a public health crisis from the lens of two Latinx student doctors

Pearls and pitfalls for medical students entering their clinical years

Education
July 9, 2020

Transitioning from the classroom to the wards is an uncertain and anxiety-provoking time for many medical students. Schedules are constantly changing, as are expectations and learning objectives. Mentorship and advice from upperclassmen, residents, and attendings was an essential tool in my MS3 toolbox. I would go so far as to say that these pieces of insight are the toolbox. The 2020-2021 academic year will provide its own degree of obstacles …

Read more…

Pearls and pitfalls for medical students entering their clinical years

Why cultural competency courses should be requisites for medical school

Education
July 8, 2020

Like many others, I have felt immense frustration in the past couple of weeks. The news surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, compounded by many other incidents of injustice against minorities, has made me feel constant rage at the society we live in.

I’ve tried to channel my anger into as much activism as I can think of, and I’m looking for more opportunities every day. Beyond donating, protesting, …

Read more…

Why cultural competency courses should be requisites for medical school

Why do Black Americans have worse COVID outcomes?

Education
June 28, 2020

Our country is currently battling two urgent and severe health care crises: COVID and systemic racism. We believe that addressing systemic racism now is as urgent and as dangerous to the health of our nation and its people as the COVID19 pandemic. In addition, we believe systemic racism is intersecting with the COVID-19 pandemic, as seen through disproportionate access as well as morbidity and mortality among people of color.

While it …

Read more…

Why do Black Americans have worse COVID outcomes?

Why a prison psychiatry rotation should be mandatory for all medical students

Education
June 24, 2020

Most incarcerated individuals — over 95 percent of them — will return to their communities. Medical students have a unique opportunity, as a part of their training, to learn about the medical needs of this group and help provide care for a vulnerable population that has historically been abused. Moreover, prison health services have been shown to reduce the stigma of those …

Read more…

Why a prison psychiatry rotation should be mandatory for all medical students

A young mother’s medical school journey

Education
June 22, 2020

I was 19 years old when I became pregnant. Pregnancy and birth, at such a young age, was both the happiest and the scariest thing to have happened to me.

My dream of becoming a doctor began when I was in middle school, from a seemingly mundane moment that suddenly and unexpectedly changed the course of my life.  It stemmed from a tennis injury, a broken leg, and a visit to …

Read more…

A young mother’s medical school journey

Transition recommendations for the reporting of USMLE Step 1 scores as pass/fail

Education
June 15, 2020

On February 12, 2020, the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) announced that, “the USMLE program will change score reporting for Step 1 from a three-digit numeric score to reporting only a pass/fail outcome” as early as January 1, 2022. This change will have a major impact on medical education. USMLE has not announced a complete plan for the transition to pass/fail score reporting. USMLE’s careful …

Read more…

Transition recommendations for the reporting of USMLE Step 1 scores as pass/fail

How medical education fails minority students

Education
June 14, 2020

“You have to work twice as hard to get half as far.”

As a black woman, this sentiment has haunted me for my entire life. Minority individuals are consistently forced to go above and beyond to prove themselves, regardless of the setting. Unfortunately, medical education is no different. Black and Hispanic students, often referred to as underrepresented minority (URM) students, consistently face racial bias, which places them at a disadvantage to …

Read more…

How medical education fails minority students

The medical education question that needs to be changed

Education
May 18, 2020

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

That is a common question you hear in the setting of medical education. I think I heard it for the first time on my first clinical rotation. A little background, I was a non-traditional medical student. I worked as a clinical pharmacist for ten years prior to starting medical school. When the resident asked me that question, I was initially a …

Read more…

The medical education question that needs to be changed

Deploring racism isn’t enough: Addressing white privilege in medical school

Education
May 10, 2020

If you ask a group of medical students to raise their hands if they are, in fact, racist, I’d venture to guess that not a single hand would shoot up. And I don’t think they would be lying. I am sure that no student believes that he, she, or they are a bigot.

Many of us have committed our lives to care for patients regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status. …

Read more…

Deploring racism isn’t enough: Addressing white privilege in medical school

A medical student asks: Are we just cartoon heroes?

Physician
May 9, 2020

The one thing about the coronavirus I keep coming back to is how much SketchyMicro let me down.

Out of all the mnemonic cartoons SketchyMicro has produced, their entry for coronavirus is among the most simple: a kingly figure is blowing his nose into tissue paper beneath a blazing sun, his towering castle perched atop a hill in the distance. His regalia include a golden crown (to remind us of corona) …

Read more…

A medical student asks: Are we just cartoon heroes?

After the pandemic, would I choose medicine again?

Education
May 1, 2020

Several weeks ago, after hearing that I plan to begin medical school this August, someone asked me if I still would have chosen to become a physician had I known about COVID-19.

When I submitted my AMCAS application one year ago, I never imagined that I would be waiting in quarantine, wondering whether I will have a white coat ceremony. It never crossed my mind that I would be reading articles, …

Read more…

After the pandemic, would I choose medicine again?

The power of poetry during a pandemic

Education
April 27, 2020

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

These verses flashed on my computer screen, the glare lighting my face as I sat in my bedroom. I paused my usual work and …

Read more…

The power of poetry during a pandemic

Please make the tragic death of this physician mean something

Physician
April 27, 2020

I hugged her for the last time on March 15, waving goodbye as she drove away from my apartment complex. On April 15, I got a call that my friend was dead. She had unceremoniously taken her own life, unable to overcome the crippling feeling of hopelessness that plagued her after repeatedly being prevented from fulfilling her dream. The details of her death are devastating and tragic. Imagine being in …

Read more…

Please make the tragic death of this physician mean something

An open letter to graduating medical students

Education
April 21, 2020

I see you.

Studying. Reading the updated guidelines for patients with COVID-19, reviewing differentials, and management algorithms for common chief complaints during this time of restricted direct patient contact. Embracing online boot camps. Completing residency paperwork. Thank you for preparing.

Relaxing. Trying out a new yoga video. Watching Netflix by the hour. Reading a new book. Going for a run or walk. Thank you for re-charging your batteries so you can serve …

Read more…

An open letter to graduating medical students

42
pages