If I hadn’t heard her sob, I might not have looked up. I was so immersed in her story, and so fixated on my own studious note-taking, that I didn’t doubt the steady rhythm of her voice until I heard it break. Huda’s (name changed) eyes were filling with tears, and I quickly handed over the tissue box, feeling that its trifling weight was an apt metaphor for how little …
How the stories of refugees affected this medical student
As I approach the end of my medical school training, I want to take a moment to reflect upon the invaluable education that my classmates — novices in medicine but rich in life experiences — have provided.
Nearly all of us identified with the common struggle of medical school: late night study sessions, difficult days, and the general balancing act of focusing on work as well as our own wellness. All …
Advancing physician diversity and representation
It’s that time of year again, the dreaded, yet exciting, residency application season. Year after year, we have learned that securing a residency position extends beyond competitive scores. It involves planning, networking and putting your best foot forward to prove you are the perfect “match” for a program. To avoid having shock and stress of an unexpected scramble, we wanted to share five tips, which extend beyond some of the …
6 tips for medical students to get the perfect match
Despite what the textbooks say or how much research is devoted to substance use disorder, I still meet people who feel that addiction is a “choice,” and that these patients don’t need “treatment” (you made your bed, and now you can just lay in it).
To a certain degree, this is true. Like Little Debbie cakes and type 2 diabetes, cigarettes and lung cancer, lack of exercise and essential hypertension, addiction …
Addiction doesn’t just ruin the addict’s life
I sat on my floor, surrounded by boxes in various states of organization and disarray, sifting through a pile of papers. I was moving for my surgical fellowship and, of course, put off packing to the last minute. However, in the middle of the hectic and scattered process, a particular stack of papers caught my eye; I felt the need to pause and go through them. They were old and …
What rejection taught this doctor
Last week, I spent a few hours completing an online module for one of my immunology courses. The purpose of this module was simply to expose students to the format of lecturing and assessments that would take place throughout the length of this course.
The portion of the module that I found really exciting was a series of videos depicting scenes at a local clinic where a physician examined a patient …
Pursuing a career as a physician: A reminder why
Just a year after the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to race-conscious admissions in Fisher v. University of Texas, this issue is being pushed back to the front of the room by none other than the Trump administration’s Justice Department hauling out hoary tropes about “reverse discrimination.” They are preparing cases against Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, charging to the rescue of the multitudes of …
Let’s not be petty about affirmative action in medical school
I was inspired a couple of weeks ago. Sitting at the WeWork facility in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. I looked at the group of entrepreneurs, creatives and innovative thinkers sitting in front of me. What were we doing you might ask? Collaborating to help one another build our dreams. This is the epitome of the human experience.
One of the topics that came up in conversation was the difference between a man …
Are doctors more like humans, animals or robots?
This is a letter to everyone who has ever smiled, shrugged their shoulders, or nodded while either hesitantly or enthusiastically uttering the words, “Yes,” “Sure,” “OK,” “I guess so,” or, “Of course,” when a medical student has asked if he or she can talk to and examine you before your doctor comes in. We know that you are busy and that your time has value. We know that you have …
This article was originally presented as student remarks at the 2015 Harvard Medical School commencement.
At the end of medical school, I always return to a musing, a zen koan of sorts from Dean Jeffrey Flier. At my white coat ceremony, a close friend and current resident, Dr. Nina Gold was chatting with the dean about the heft of our newly bestowed bright white coats. He asked her, in one beautiful …
A cancer survivor embraces the light of going to medical school
I don’t think I would be the first resident to claim that residency is hard. Anyone who has gone through, or is currently participating in residency, will attest to the challenge of medical training. Efforts have been made on national and institutional levels to address this with work hour restrictions limiting the number of hours a resident can work or the number of calls a trainee can take. These rules …
When medical training stresses you: Write it out
In my first year in the hospital, as a third-year medical student, there was one refrain I often heard from physicians and staff alike: This is a hospital, not a hotel. It was an expression of the frustration engendered by “needy patients,” those who were upset that their breakfast was late or that the room was too hot or that they couldn’t speak with the physician just this second. Often, …
Patients and doctors should give each other the benefit of the doubt
When my husband Brian started first-year of medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, I jettisoned off to Thailand to spend a year teaching English and traveling. We figured if we were going to date long-distance, why not go all in? Why not ensure that we were a full 12 hours apart, on literal opposite sides of the world. What can I say? We like a …
5 keys to a successful long-distance relationship during medical school
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A white coat ceremony address to the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, August 4, 2017.
“It takes a village” is one of my favorite proverbs, an African proverb, that resonates with each of us on this monumental day. There is without a doubt that every one of you worked very hard to get into medical school. However, this difficult journey was supported by dozens of important individuals: teachers, …
The white coat symbolizes 2 important commitments
A couple of weeks ago, I met my new medical students. These 10-12 trainees will be my small group for the next two years. We will meet monthly to discuss the soft stuff of medical training — hierarchy, tribalism, death and dying, medical errors, difficult patients, etc. Some call it “third-year medical student support group.” This is my 6th year of the pleasure and privilege (I inherited my first group …
A teacher’s job is to show love first
The patient looked at me and said that he did not remember the name of the specialist, only that she was a “woman doctor.” As this was completely unhelpful, I pondered the fact that a doctor who was male is never referred to as a “man doctor.” Why is it that woman physicians need the added label, as if the norm is a doctor who is supposed to be a …
Is the end of disparities in medicine near?
Last November, we wrote an op-ed for STAT, as medical students, lamenting how politicized our future profession has become in recent years. In the aftermath of a divisive election that we argued may well have been a “referendum on the Affordable Care Act,” we implored policymakers and other stakeholders to take politics out of health care before attempting to reform it. We believe that partisanship has infected …
The vision forward for health care should be bipartisan
Last month, thousands of medical students donned their white coats as they took their first steps into hospitals nationwide to begin clinical rotations. This marks an important transition from the classroom into an actual inpatient setting to demonstrate the knowledge they’ve accumulated over the past two years. For most students, this means pretending to hear and correctly identify heart and breath sounds while agreeing with whatever the attending says. During …
10 things that weren’t advertised to me before I started medical school
There is a feeling that you get when you’re out at a dinner party standing and smiling at strangers as they walk by you — a temptation to rest on the “wow” factor of your medical training. Partly because peacocking is inherent to social events such as these, but partly because you fear that you’re inherently boring to people outside your field. The surest way, you think, is to announce …
A medical student confronts life outside the hospital
I’ve had some of the most wonderful experiences of my entire medical training working with kids and their families. And this, to me, is not surprising. After all, I envisioned myself as a pediatrician long before I ever entered medical school.
However, I remember that more frequent news of declining vaccination rates at one point temporarily gave me pause: What would it be like to take on the tremendous responsibility of …
Why the anti-vaxxer label makes this medical student uncomfortable
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