I’ll never forget the anxiety of the first day of medical school. I was excited. I was enthusiastic. I was overwhelmed. But all of these emotions were humbly interrupted by my profound, palpable sense of otherness. I was surrounded by one hundred and sixty-seven brilliant peers, many from high-ranking undergraduate schools and each of whom had countless accomplishments in their already rich pasts. They clearly, unquestionably deserved to be here. …
How do you ask a person to be the last person to go through an education system that is failing them? Yet we’re doing just that. Every day tens of thousands of medical student wake up to an education, and an education system, that is failing them. This is not to say that we are not producing good doctors. On the contrary, our doctors are likely the most well-educated, and …
Education debt nearly is a practical puzzle. For many students, this lending proves crucial and extends enormous utility. Stickiness usually surfaces only after a student graduates and his or her loans enter repayment. While debt dollars or repayment problems may differ across academic majors and college settings, students should be reasonably able to defer their education loans, regardless of lender, while enrolled in school.
When borrowing for education, students often draw …
In the past 84 days, I have traveled to eleven different cities, been left stranded in two unfamiliar airports by cancelled flights, met approximately 124 new people and briefly recited the more interesting parts of my life story far too many times to count — all for the purpose of matching to a residency program in March. Exhausting doesn’t come close to summing it up.
Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. -The Russell-Einstein Manifesto
The American healthcare system is a paradox of triumph and failure. We lead the world in medical innovation, yet we lag behind in cost, quality, and equity. During my last month of medical school, I sat with a group of graduating students to discuss this challenge. As students, we had directly confronted the shortcomings of modern healthcare. As the next generation of …
A recent survey published in H&P, the Stanford medical school magazine, asked twenty graduating students to recommend books to read during the clinical rotation in internal medicine. Surprisingly, the top vote-getters weren’t books at all. The two most popular resources were both banks of practice questions, while the next two included a review book and a pocket handbook.
“Is this how our students learn the subtleties of sickness and health? What happened to textbooks? …
Placebos work. This isn’t news. The term “placebo” was coined 60 years ago to describe how one-third of people respond to pills without any active drug in them. Twenty-five years later, we learned how they work: through endorphins produced by the body that work just like morphine. Today placebos are everywhere: from mothers kissing boo-boos to international drug trials.
A recent paper, though, shows that all placebos aren’t created equal. As expected, …
It’s 11:00 a.m. when we finish listening to a somewhat pointless series of talks from various medical school administrators on interview day — one on financial aid, one on the medical curriculum, another on the school’s student organizations. It’s time for the medical school tour. All the applicants rise from their seats in unison, button their suit jackets, pat down any newly …
I was very happy to come across a new article in the Washington Post discussing the pros and cons of shortening medical school education to three years. This article could not have come at a more timely moment for me, as I just had a discussion about this very topic last week with one of my fourth year medical student colleagues.
Sitting in her Chicago condo as she completed modules for an …
Pretty much every conversation I’ve ever had about working to change physician culture boils down to two words: “medical education.” That was especially true at the 2013 Lown Institute Conference, which focused on the issue of right care: eliminating harmful overuse and harmful underuse. This comes down to reforming the way today’s physicians practice — eliminating the ordering of expensive tests and treatments that provide little to no benefit to …
It was the first time I had every flunked a test. My fragile ego was shattered. It was my first year at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, one of the most difficult to enter. I failed my pharmacology test, not because I was stupid, not because it was difficult, but because I was clinically depressed.
A dark cloud covered my head and I could not see. Much of my …
One of the many important decisions a future physician will make in his or her career is the medical school they choose to attend. The highly competitive application process is supposedly designed to ensure that our matriculating medical students will be able and wanting to contribute transformative innovation to the communities and institutions in which they end up working. However, given the dynamic nature of our health care system, many …
No one can deny that medical students today face an increasingly competitive environment with a strong focus on board scores and class grades as strong requirements for entrance into competitive specialties. Mirroring the trends in both primary and secondary school, a standardized test has become the yardstick by which all physicians-in-training are compared.
The most recent survey reported by the National Resident Matching Program, showed that scores on Step 1 of …
While on my inpatient psychiatry rotation, I had the opportunity to work with an adolescent female with a troubled past and a significant history of psychiatric illness. It was through coloring that her barriers broke down and we were able to establish a safe space for difficult conversations. She was safely discharged two weeks after her suicide attempt. As she left, she gave me a hug and handed me this:
I was a junior medical student, wearing a short white coat, pockets stuffed with reflex hammer and spiral bound Washington Manual of Therapeutics, rubber tourniquet and pens and pads. I was on a rotation out at the Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia. DDEAMC was not too far from my home away from home, the Medical College of …
Is Physician “Shadowing” a Shady Practice? asks Dr. Elisabeth Kitsis in a post at the Doctor’s Tablet, a blog run through the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She concludes that yes, it is, and invites readers to share their opinions on having high school and college students shadow physicians.
I was reminded of my fantastic 8 week shadowing opportunity as a college student through the Project AHEAD program at the Charles B. …
Medical school becomes a blur after a few years in practice. You forget about all the hours spent in classrooms and then every night after a quick dinner. You somehow block out the “pimping” and public humiliation of being questioned about topics not quite under your belt. The worst feeling? The fear of wondering if you will master medicine …
KevinMD.com shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system, but are rarely heard from. Over 2500 articles were published this year from these voices, including practicing physicians, patients, policy experts, nurses, social workers, medical students, and hospital chaplains, among others.
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Last night, I responded to a code blue while working the night float at the hospital. The patient was a relatively young female who had just completed a coronary artery bypass procedure. Per training, I began compressing her chest to induce blood flow to the rest of her body.
As I pushed, the incision reopened and blood began spewing everywhere. I could feel her ribs giving and cracking from the force …
Video games evoke several connotations. They are regarded as childish, escapist, and time wasters that prompt isolation and bad habits. Video games are even blamed for violence and other ills of society. In actuality, many serious scientists have convincingly argued that video games not only have acquired an undeserved reputation, but they are actually potent and effective tools for science education.
Features of video games inherently support scientific learning
