A few months ago, we had an opportunity for one-on-one time with standardized patients (SPs): the trained actors that are well-versed in how us medical school fledglings should and shouldn’t be performing physical exams. It was a laid-back, non-graded session wherein we could ask for advice and even have the SPs walk us through exactly what we should do. So, when it came time for the abdominal exam, I asked my …
“Ultimately, I am convinced that in my future lies not simply a profession performed ably, but a vocation performed lovingly and devotedly.”
Soon, after the coming pomp and circumstance fade into fond memories and well-framed photographs, I will be in the hospital. Soon, I will have my own patients in the clinic. With these occasions, life will be what I hoped it once would be some years ago – being a …
Recently, I began to think of death as a friend. My grandfather was hospitalized on Mother’s Day, and by the time my parents called me on Monday morning they couldn’t tell me anything more than, “He’s in the ICU with multiple seizures. They’re taking him off ventilation tomorrow.” Reaching for the knowledge I’ve spent all year chipping away at textbooks to acquire, I asked about neurologic exams, autonomic drugs and …
I remember opening that email. The overwhelming weight of nervous emotion that collapsed into a wave of ecstasy as I read, then re-read, then read again those words: “Congratulations. You have been accepted.”
That moment marked the end of so much. The destination had been reached. The long nights of studying made worthwhile, the pre-requisites taken and survived. Trying to compile an accurate reflection of one’s life wading through resumes, CVs, …
A PubMed query of the phrase “social media” yields 8,747 unique peer-reviewed articles. When the search is refined to “social media medical education” there are 578 articles. When “professionalism” is also added to the search string, there are only 31 article results. This suggests that very few authors are writing about the topic: Approximately 0.4% of the available peer-reviewed literature about social media pertains to how we doctors should use and …
In a recent blog post, I described a cultural shift involving the use of smartphones at Jacobi Medical Center, a large, acute-care hospital that’s part of New York City’s public hospital system. When research from an Einstein-Jacobi study demonstrated that smartphone use during inpatient attending rounds can lead to distraction, our hospital instituted a “smartphone policy” in the departments of medicine and …
He was my first patient — ever. I had seen only a few patients before at my school’s student-run clinics, but never had I conducted a full visit. He was my first patient since starting the second semester of my first year, which meant more independence on my part (theoretically), and that, for the first time, I would be holding the office visit from beginning to end. Without guidance. Of …
I recently served as a preceptor for first year students at our Hofstra-North Shore LIJ School of Medicine who were doing one of their RIA (reflection, integration and assessment) sessions. The students do these sessions every 12 weeks, and are generally scheduled with the same preceptor over time. It may be routine for the students, but I found it absolutely remarkable.
Each student is responsible for doing a complete history and …
This letter was received and edited for clarity by Pamela Wible, MD.
Dear Dr. Wible,
This will be my last email to you because I am giving up on my dream of being a doctor.
I’ve contacted so many colleges and medical schools hoping to find one that would help me become a doctor for my tribe. Today, I finally got a response from the …
Many friends from my original medical school class will graduate and officially become doctors in just a few weeks. I can’t believe I’ll be at that point in only a year, and I’m incredibly proud of my soon-to-be-doctor friends. This time of year there’s always a lot of talk surrounding graduation, and in light of that I have a …
Most children stare at me with that wide-eyed look. Thinking from their perspective, the six-foot something curly headed giant with big round glasses probably appears very strange to the little human that barely scrapes my knee. They do not cry. They just stare. I smile, and they gape. Parents laugh as I grin sheepishly. Towering over the patients, I likely appear more …
My family has always expressed that they’re proud of what I’m doing — the funny thing is, they go on to say that they’re unsure of exactly what I do.
My parents know I’m studying medicine and that this means I’ll be a doctor. What they don’t get is where in the process I am, what specializing means or what I’m talking about most of the time when I share stories …
Before the 1980s, drug testing was uncommon. It was widely viewed as an invasion of privacy and an infringement on fourth amendment rights. Today, a medical student is likely to be drug tested before entering medical school, before clinical rotations, and/or before residency. If preventing drug use among medical students is the goal of these tests, they have failed miserably. Urinalysis drug tests are ineffective. But more importantly, they are …
As a future doctor, I believe that digital dialogue affords medicine a powerful responsibility to educate and engage. I believe physicians have a responsibility, as daily witnesses to the gaps and failures of public policy, to advocate for social justice and policy reform. I believe that medicine should extend beyond the proximate effects of illness and injury to address their root social etiologies.
I’ve always held these beliefs with firm conviction. …
Whenever new physician salary data is released, reporters and policy experts often compare doctor salaries in the United States to those of other countries: most notably, France.
“You will have 15 minutes to take a full medical history,” the moderator says in a plain, mechanical voice. We stand at our assigned exam room doors ready to embark on a mission that will be recorded, reviewed, and graded as part of an OSCE (objective structured clinical examination).
“You may begin!”
I knock, enter, and make a b-line to the soap dispenser — check. I take the history in record time …
Congratulations, student doctor, you studied hard and scored well on your exams — not only on your MCAT but in your organic chemistry classes as well. You mastered anatomy as well as pharmacology, neurology and more “ologies” than you care to remember. Now it is time to get hands-on learning experience, without being able to hide in the library while preparing for your clerkship shelf exams or showcasing your talents …
I am an imposter in a white coat. I’m not sure if anyone knows yet, I hope I am good at hiding it. It’s a well-kept secret amongst all medical students. In the hospital, I am at the bottom. I know the least and have the least power. Most patients don’t realize this and look up to me like I’m an all-knowing, wise muse or something of that nature. Sometimes, …
As a medical student seeking to learn the principles of entrepreneurship, I have found Steve Blank’s insight to be a great guide and resource. His Harvard Business Reviewarticle, entitled “Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything,” was my first exposure to the idea of customer discovery.
The idea of customer discovery is a simple practice — listening intimately to multiple customers’ needs and pain points and using it to inform …
In the 2012 National Residency Match Program survey, which is sent out to residency program directors around the country by the NRMP, the factor that was ranked highest with regards to criteria considered for receiving an interview — higher than honors in clinical clerkships, higher than extracurricular experiences or AOA election, and even higher than evidence of professionalism, interpersonal skills, and humanistic qualities — was the USMLE Step 1 score.
