Category: Education

Under-addressed mediators of adherence: personality in patients

When novice medical students such as myself learn how to counsel patients, the primary didactic focus is on developing awareness of how factors such as racism, socioeconomic status, environmental stressors, and social supports may predispose patients t…

Observing the effects of COVID-19 on the pediatric population

“Everyday, there is a theme to our rounds, and I will ask for your thoughts at the end.” This was the warning our attending physician gave before we went to see our patients on the hospital inpatient floor. As third-year medical students on our first c…

Match Day: Leaving behind my polished applicant identity and becoming a physician trainee

On Friday morning, I will receive an email that tells me where I will go for residency. I have spent most of the last year preparing for this email. Over the summer, I completed my sub-internships where I hoped to impress members of my chosen field (ps…

Physician suicide: We need safe spaces to talk about it

Three years ago, I met Dr. Boyce Fish*, the ER physician revived after suicide. I also met Rachel Dawson, wife of Dr. Chris Dawson who killed himself and his two children. We all sat in red ballroom chairs in a room with nothing in it, but it felt full…

Loved ones are hospitalized and alone during COVID

This has been a very difficult year. COVID-19 has rampaged the country, worked hospitals to their breaking point, torn families apart, and kept families apart. The grief seems never-ending. At the beginning of 2020, we watched in horror at the destruct…

How this medical student adjusted her study schedule for better self-care

Sometimes I ask myself why I chose medicine when things get tiring, and we do the same thing repeatedly with a career with such high demands. I think about how we are missing out on our 20s or 30s, and it’s been making me question life, especially when…

Where’s the literature in guiding house staff work hour maximums?

In 2003, the ACGME first set a national standard for house staff duty hours, limiting maximum shift lengths from unlimited hours to 30 hours (24+6) for all house staff. With continued concerns about medical errors and sleep deprivation safer, standards…

You competed your rank order list. Celebrate the moment.

I certified my rank order list (ROL), but … What if I messed up? What if I don’t match? What if my list doesn’t get processed? What if I should have ranked programs in a different order? What if, what if, what if … These thoughts, and their assoc…

A medical student learns to listen with her hands

In my first quarter of medical school, we learned the pulmonary exam.  We were told to watch the patient’s breathing, feel for any asymmetries, use our hands to gauge resonance and listen to all lung fields with our stethoscopes. It didn’t seem too dif…

How to help your child succeed at applying to medical school

An excerpt from Raising Doctors: The Med School Admissions Success Guide for Parents of Future Physicians. Let’s look at how you as a parent can help your child succeed at applying to medical school. Legitimacy and verifiability matter Applying to medi…