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.
Applying to medical school is really annoying, expensive, and hard for no reason. I’d like to share some wisdom I picked up along the interview trail.
Become an expert stalker. You have had plenty of practice stalking your friends on Facebook. Use those skills to find out everything you can about the school. Admissions officers tend to ask you why you would like to attend their institution. In order to …
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7 tips for students applying to medical school
As a medical student I have come to appreciate two core goals of health care:
1. Health: The delivery of medical knowledge, assessment or treatment to a patient
2. Care: The compassionate approach to any patient
In my medical training, I have also witnessed clinical medicine practiced across a spectrum of situations. Taking my time to reflect on these experiences, I am not certain we are meeting our goals. Too often …
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Are we providing health care, or just delivering health?
For the sake of patient privacy, I am going to tell this story very ambiguously and hope that the insanity of it is not missed with the lack of details.
Because most of us do clinical training with non-pediatrician tutors, we have mandatory pediatric tutorial sessions. While I had already done a little bit of lung and heart listening on some children earlier on in …
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The first child patient at a pediatrics rotation
Arriving in anatomy lab there was an obvious discontent in the air. People were slower to arrive than usual and then they were even slower to get changed in the locker room. Girls would start casual conversation, or would wait for 15 minutes for others to move from in front of their locker, just in the hopes that they would get 5 more minutes …
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The first brain a medical student sees in anatomy lab
I’ve always had a hard time identifying myself as a feminist.
I work for healthcare equality and human rights. Women’s rights seemed to me a part of human rights work (and as Hilary Clinton and others have said, woman’s rights are human rights). Tying myself to the feminist movement then seemed to be looking backwards – clinging to a term that was anachronistic, divisive and too narrowly defined in what activism …
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Examining medicine through the lens of women’s rights
She whispered to me with bulging eyes of urgency, “something is not right, I’ve been in pain all night.”
Her chief complaint was chest pain. She had a routine work-up and some care with little relief. The news came that all of her test results were normal. Her body appeared tense, she looked panicked and afraid. At bedside, the attending suggested endoscopy offering that her pain …
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Matters of the heart
Recently, Dr. Philip Baker, Dean of the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine, gave a speech to the graduating class at the convocation banquet held in Edmonton. Now, there are accusations that Dean Baker lifted much of his June 10 speech from a commencement address given by famed physician and essayist Dr. Atul Gawande at Stanford’s School of Medicine in June 2010.
As Baker gave his address last Friday, medical students …
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A medical school dean plagiarized Atul Gawande in his commencement speech
When Professional Responsibility class began, I was most excited at the idea of not having to sit through another lecture on proteins and cell transport.
I was also looking forward to the class where we would be using clickers from the Library to poll audience responses during the lecture, as doing something while listening to someone talking has a much higher success rate in getting …
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Is First do no harm really part of the Hippocratic Oath?
by Anar Mikailov
I recently finished my surgery rotation at a Level 1 Trauma Hospital in Philadelphia and amidst the ephemeral eight weeks I quickly realized the immense demands of a surgical residency. So, as an avid technology enthusiast and a team member, I took note of inefficient workflows with potential for technology driven solutions. By discussing the observed inefficiencies and potential solutions I hope …
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Hospital inefficiencies observed during a surgery rotation
Recently, the Harvard class of 2014 took its last exam of the year.
We filled our usual amphitheater, took a 60 multiple choice question test on viruses, parasites and fungi, and went to go see X-men in the afternoon. I told my mom last night that I expected people to exit the lecture hall in hysterics, falling to their knees on our marble floors and weeping at being 25% closer to …
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The last exam of a first year medical student
Recently, I was in a meeting organized by the American Academy of Family Physicians in an effort to understand the lack of student interest in family medicine as well as to encourage brainstorming among those of us charged with facilitating interest on ideas that might work and be transportable.
I was with Bill Coleman from Alabama (among others) and was pleased to discover that we were ahead of the region. …
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Students who are the evangelists of family medicine for tomorrow
As intern year winds down and all of the giddy 4th year medical students are shelling out 200 dollars to rent that a robe for one day of pomp and circumstance, all of us interns are impatiently waiting for the fresh meat to arrive.
Having just experienced every single emotion under the psychological rainbow this year, I am going to give a …
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Tips for medical students entering intern year
Whether specialists make too much money depends on whom you ask.
Policy experts
If you ask policy experts, most of whom are progressives, they will say “yes, of course, specialists make too much money.” Too many specialists making too much money spoil the national health care broth.
Just look at any other country, especially countries with government-run systems.
Specialists there make one-half of what our specialists bring home. Look at their total …
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Do American medical specialists really make too much money?
