Students, educators, and physicians writing on KevinMD about medical school: admissions and what they select for, the cost of tuition and the debt it leaves, the curriculum and what students say it does and does not teach, Step 1 and the test-prep industry, pass/fail, mistreatment and depression in training, the match, Caribbean schools, and what should change. Most contributors are students writing while still in school, many of them anonymously. For what physicians have said about paying off that debt and the money decisions that follow, see Physician personal finance: what physicians say about their own money, in their own words. For a maintained record of what students and physicians have said about medical school on KevinMD since 2004, see Medical school: what students and physicians say, in their own words. For what physicians and deans have said for and against affirmative action and diversity in admissions, see Race and medicine: what physicians say, in their own words. For what international and Caribbean graduates have said about the Match and visas, see Immigration and medicine: what physicians say about immigrant doctors and immigrant patients, in their own words.
Medical schools around the country remain closed due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, swapping hands-on learning experience on wards and within the operating room for Zoom lectures and telehealth visits. Ten months ago, this was the furthest thing I imagined as I began my third year of medical school, filled with nervous excitement to move on from the relentless studying required for Step 1 and start seeing patients. …
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It’s so important to just take another moment with your patients
As the gentle rumbles of thunder became increasingly sonorous, the sharp crackles of lightning casting out the darkness of night, striking like the angry whips from a scorned martinet, and the torrential rain now cascading down from our awning like loose waterfalls, making heavy splashes around us every few seconds, I could taste the intoxicating smell of petrichor laced with pot in the air. All the while, we …
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How a sojourn atop a mountain in Vietnam changed my life forever
My phone chimed. I received an email stating that rotations were canceled, so I had effectively graduated medical school while sitting in the parking lot of my local grocery store. It felt like a natural end to an isolating day. That morning, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. The streetlights shone against the budding trees and reflected an orange luminosity that refracted against the dewdrops condensed from …
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I graduated medical school while sitting in the parking lot
Almost immediately, the heat from all of us “freshly minted M1s” dissipated, as did the smiles and excitement on everyone’s faces. The frigid temperature, mimicked the morbidity and mortality interlaced in the air. 38 metal containers. Each carrying the life of an individual who had passed on. Was I feeling dizzy because of the smell of formaldehyde or because of the overwhelming unease? Nothing could have prepared me for this.
The …
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A reflection on a man’s life before dissection
I slip through the slightly cracked door.
“Knock, knock,” I say, but mom is hidden under the blankets, resting while there are so many of us to take over for her for a tiny bit. In the darkness, I make my way to the crib, where a crack of sunlight peers through from the slightly opened blinds and shines onto the little one. She’s breathing, with some difficulty, but breathing. Oxygen …
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How this medical student is inspired by pediatrics
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, medical education is receiving unprecedented attention. By and large, the focus has been on the immediate problem of what to do with medical students. The answer has hinged on medical students being designated as “non-essential” to patient care, and has (for the most part) entailed avoiding clinical activities. A long-term problem that has received less attention is, why are medical students non-essential in the first place? …
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Why are medical students non-essential?
Since the first case of COVID-19 on January 21st, there have been countless stories highlighting the health care heroes. Individuals are risking their lives and demonstrating unanticipated sacrifices to close the wounds on a bleeding health care system. Amongst those watching these stories are students of future health care professions, getting a glimpse at what their lives might look like should there be another outbreak. Common sense would suggest supporting …
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How the USMLE fails COVID-19
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, …
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After the pandemic, would I choose medicine again?
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 …
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The power of poetry during a pandemic
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 …
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Please make the tragic death of this physician mean something
Ten years from now, the internist stands in the emergency department. Doctors run past him as he stares at the number of gurneys pushed against the wall with struggling patients who all need assistance. There are not enough gowns for him, and his colleagues, the sheer volume of blood needed surpasses what the hospital provides, and he has never faced a hospital emergency room in a time of such uncertainty …
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The long term effects of COVID-19 on medical education
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 …
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An open letter to graduating medical students
As many of the spring MCAT dates have been canceled due to the onset of COVID-19, pre-med students across the country will be faced with daunting decisions on when to test and how to prepare for arguably the most definitive examination of their careers thus far. Students’ strategies surrounding the MCAT can affect anything from their academic schedule to the cycle in which they will matriculate. Throw the tremendous costs …
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COVID-19 and the MCAT: What should premedical students do?
Many of the patients whom I met during my oncology rotation felt hopeful for a cure. They imagined how once their cancer went into remission, they could go back to their normal lives as they once were.
I was struck then when one patient, a 72-year-old male Mr. G, shared with me a different attitude towards his cancer. His father, his mother, and his sister had all died from cancer. He …
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How we respond to COVID-19 can serve us well for the rest of our lives
Wake up. Turn the coffee pot on. Stretch. Read about the latest news. Over the past several years, this same sequence of events has served as the start to my day, and it has continued to be my routine over the past few weeks. However, this early morning routine has been the only thing in my life that has remained “routine” since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
As a third-year medical student …
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To volunteer or to stay home? A medical student’s daily dilemma during COVID-19.
As American cities continue to shelter-in-place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, thousands of medical students are in limbo as they wait to see when they will be able to take their licensing examinations. The growing backlog of test-takers is particularly problematic for the Step 2 Clinical Skills examination, a one-day clinical performance exam which is held on limited dates at one of five testing locations across the …
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There is no place for USMLE Step 2 CS during a pandemic
I still remember the morning of Monday, March 11th, 2019, with vivid clarity. I was on my last rotation of medical school. My medical ICU team was preparing for morning rounds. Vital signs and lab results suddenly seemed less important as my rotation friends, and I anxiously awaited “the email.” At precisely 10 a.m., we would learn if our years of hard work had paid off with a residency position. …
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Unmatched: a setback or a step forward?
