One big life event for me was having my son Matthew during medical school. It has been a fulfilling and interesting journey. I met my husband Andrew during college, and we were lucky to matriculate together at the University of Minnesota Medical School…
Growing up, I was discouraged from becoming a doctor; I was too emotional. My mother, a geriatrician, worried about my attachment to patients and the volatility of inpatient medicine. To some degree, I understood her concerns; I’m tearful during goodby…
Wellness initiatives are not always yoga or nutrition advice or Zumba classes. They can also be filling clinicians’ requests or solving their problems. I first realized this when a social worker included receiving full-text articles that she requ…
My interest in understanding burnout among medical trainees started during my second year of medical school. With Step 1 nearing, I noticed a dynamic shift in my classmates. The growing tension, petty arguments, and constant worry surrounding our futur…
Five days into my emergency medicine clerkship, I had experienced a lot of firsts: My first participation in a code, my first CPR compressions, and my first patient death. This was specifically a code blue for a patient with pulseless cardiac arrest. A…
1. Stop comparing yourself to others. You got into medical school, that is an extraordinary achievement. Whatever you have done so far has worked, you already have proven your intelligence and study habits. You need to trust that you are capable of su…
Although I’m still relatively early in my journey through medicine, it is still notable when a more mundane task becomes a moment I cannot forget. After seeing dozens of colonoscopies for a couple of weeks, I remember one particular patient, who …
Trust me: The time you spend thinking about your personal statement before you start writing will make the actual writing process much, much easier. Before you even start writing a word, spend some time reading personal statement examples. Read good on…
Trust me: The time you spend thinking about your personal statement before you start writing will make the actual writing process much, much easier. Before you even start writing a word, spend some time reading personal statement examples. Read good on…
On an early August morning in 2010, my alarm clock went off. The day had finally arrived. Today was my first day as a medical student at the university I had always wanted to attend. High school had ended just a couple of months before, and today I fel…
