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.
I read somewhere in the comments here something to the effect of this: “Physicians are only good for one thing: doctoring.”
That would explain the general ineptitude of many physicians when it comes to skills outside medicine, such as political lobbying, or business and personal finance decisions.
The New York Times has written a helpful column that’s required reading for any new …
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Doctors should learn personal finance during medical school
Are big-city academic institutions really necessary to train excellent clinicians? What irreplaceable benefits do they provide?
When I attended medical school a decade ago, there was a group of students comprising about 50% of my classmates that I rarely ever saw. Most of these were students who had come to medical school straight out of college, and still denied that anything important in the world happened before noon. They skipped …
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A rural medical school to train rural physicians
So many times we feel so overwhelmed by the crush of medical school that we forget to share the really amazing moments that come along each day. One of the incredible gifts you get as a medical student is that you get to step inside medicine as a worker and observer. Often, you get overwhelmed with being the “worker” and do not remember to be an “observer” of the …
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A medical student experience in the newborn nursery
My patient had onychomycosis – toenail fungus. Not a devastating disease. The treatment for this fungus is a 12-week course of terbinafine. About $50 for a month’s supply … $150 for 3 months. Terbinafine’s potential side effects include liver toxicity.
During my primary care clerkship at the Bronx VA Hospital, I treated several patients who had onychomycosis and had undergone the antifungal treatment. One patient declined treatment with terbinafine because …
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Medical school rotation at a free clinic for the uninsured
According to Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) policy, medical education curricula should provide opportunities for and encourage medical student participation in research and scholarly activities. Some med students take the summer between first and second year while others may take elective time or a year-off to pursue more in-depth research experiences.
Med students may also choose to become the subject of research by participating in a clinical trials as patients, although …
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Medical student research and reading
An article written by Dr. Sally Satel in The Wall Street Journal, Physician, Humanize Thyself, discusses the origins of the white coat ceremony. In the 1980s, as insurance companies placed increasing pressure on physicians to minimize visit time and maximize patient volume, the medical profession at large became increasingly cynical and disgruntled. A direct result of this was the White Coat Ceremony, whereby each medical student goes up on stage …
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Does the White Coat Ceremony encourage compassion?
This post is dedicated to the many 3rd year students whom I have had the privilege to teach over the past 35 years. They continue to inspire me to help them become great physicians. They care.
The third year of medical school is wonderful, but it is a year of great change. Those readers who are physicians will completely understand, and I will try to explain to the non-physicians.
During the third …
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Why the third year is the greatest year of medical school
Over the last two weeks, I have been engaged in an email discussion with a young woman who is trying to decide where to attend medical school. I shall call her Ms. X.
Ms. X has been accepted to numerous schools and has narrowed her options to two: School 1 is a private school in Boston (not Harvard), and school 2 is a public school in suburban New York City …
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Consider the cost when choosing a medical school
During Christmas holidays, many medical students, interns, and residents will not be celebrating the holidays with their families. Instead, they will be on call, or night shifts, or just long schedules, taking care of patients.
For life and death, sickness and health, do not take holidays, and nor should our compassion for taking care of those who are in trying times. I recall working last year on Christmas Eve at …
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During the holidays, our goal should be to provide a holiday for our patients
In general, educators are often trying to find unique ways to engage their students.
This is certainly true of medical educators, given that little has changed in medical education in the past 100 years, and for that reason there have been many recent efforts to change this. Similarly, there is often a generational gap between teacher and learner, and thus teachers look for ways to connect with the younger generation they …
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Using Twitter as an audience response system
I recently spoke with some people about medical systems—the actual processes involved in providing health care to patients. Story ideas involving systems sparked in my head: What about the guy who makes your sandwich at the deli? What if he had to grow the tomatoes? and cure the meats? and chop down trees to fashion the cutting boards? and weld the freezer parts together? etc.
All the ideas looked much better …
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To help patients, physicians must rely on systems
This is Lokin. Every morning as I enter the hospital, Lokin sits in the same spot. Last week he was covered in gasoline and set aflame by a man in his village — a dispute over gambling debts.
For the past five days I’ve walked silently past this man, torn apart by not knowing what to do. I could tell him all …
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Showing me how much medicine I’ve never even known existed
At lunch recently, a few of us got into the topic of mental health in medical school. The conversation started when someone brought up the fact that a Harvard College senior and a Harvard Law School student had both recently committed suicide.
We all worried that the medical school wasn’t doing an adequate job caring for students who may be suffering from mental illness. To be fair, University Health Services …
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Medical schools need to better recognize mental illness in students
It happened on a bus on my way to work. I got on and sat in the only available seat, which I quickly realized was next to a disheveled looking man who smelled faintly of urine and had a dry hacking cough that could be heard throughout the entire bus. He was leaning against the window and did not seem to notice me. I was less than pleased with my …
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A medical student’s first day of clinical training started on the bus
I recently saw a post in Yahoo questions entitled, “Is it illegal for a medical student to introduce themselves as ‘Doctor’ before they have received their MD?”
One of the answers that was rated highly was “I think it is more unethical than illegal.” Clearly, if a student is deliberately misrepresenting themselves as a ‘doctor’, it is grounds for disciplinary action. More often than not, this misrepresentation …
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Should medical students be introduced as Doctor?
If you’re a new intern you are hopefully a little afraid of the new found responsibility in your life. I say “hopefully” because there is nothing more frightening in healthcare than someone who is “unconsciously incompetent.” That is, someone that doesn’t even realizethey have no idea what they are doing.
Before starting medical school I was an emergency nurse. As an RN, I had the opportunity to see many medical …
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Advice to new interns from a nurse turned medical student
A strange thing happens on your first day of med school. Yesterday, you may have joked with old friends about upping your Paxil dose, but starting today, you are expected to be professional. And professional is suddenly a word that prevents you from being open with your new friends, a word that hints admitting to any real struggle could be a career-ending mistake.
I want to tell you that it isn’t, but the truth is, I’m …
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A medical student with anxiety and depression
