It has been nearly seven months since I made the decision to take a year off from medical school to pursue a master’s of public health (MPH) degree in Baltimore and nearly eleven months since I last saw a patient. From attending a Public Citizen …
Category: Education
Here’s why you should get a chaplain for your patient
It was my first week of internal medicine rotation. A newly-minted third-year, I was rotating on the wards back in the spring, when I met a 90-something-year-old gentleman. He had come in for confusion after a fall. There were no relatives or friends i…
Start with the students: Addressing the future of physician suicide
The first day I sought counseling, I felt like I was committing a crime. Our afternoon anatomy lecture had just ended, and the entirety of our first-year medical class—clad in hunter green scrubs and reciting the intrinsic muscles of the back—paraded i…
The new USMLE Step 1: How your medical school and residency will change
With the advent of countless resources and study aids over the years to help medical students prepare for the USMLE Step 1 exam, ranging from the venerable First Aid review book and Anki flashcard decks, to online tools such as UWorld, Pathoma, Sketchy…
In honor of Black History Month: Thank you to all the doctors breaking boundaries
In honor of Black History Month, I wrote this article to say thank you to all the wonderful black doctors breaking boundaries and exploring careers that would have been unattainable to black people in late 1800 and even early 1900 America. To all the b…
USMLE Step 1 pass/fail winners and losers
On February 12, 2020, the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) announced that the USMLE Step 1 will transition to a pass/fail exam in January 2022 at the earliest. This move comes amidst increasing pressure on the NBME regarding its financial con…
As I become a better baker, I hope that I will continue to become a better doctor
Growing up in a Korean household meant that I had very little experience with the type of baking that most Americans are used to; My grandma made rice cakes, not birthday cakes. But during my third year of medical school, an intern recommended a show c…
How minor fixes can help with resident burnout
“How did you like it there?” I ask, sitting down next to a new fellow (between bites of a plump sandwich, hoping there is no spinach in my teeth). I expect to hear the standard resident talking points — long hours, frequent call, and ballooning student…
Why medical students shouldn’t always fall in line
As I saw the fellow purposely manipulate her fractured ankle, I knew I was wrong in not stopping him. Three hours earlier, Mr. Sanchez*, a past boxer, and soccer player, came in with a broken pinky. He was moving from Atlanta to Houston, and in the pro…
Losing a patient in an emergency
“Are you f*cking serious! What are you doing to my son! How can you have him tied to the bed like this!” Michael’s* mother was irate and yelling at my resident as I stood at the back of the room. Michael had HIV/AIDS with a CD4 count of 20 and dissemin…
