“Ms. Lupo is a 39-year-old female presenting to the ED with a chief complaint of unilateral dead arm.” So read a hypothetical patient scenario during my class one day. As a team of first-year medical students, our job was to review the pati…
Category: Education
Medical students are learning to treat others, but who is caring for them?
Imagine being completely consumed by the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Could you do this for a day? How about for a week? What if I asked you to do this all day, every day, for an entire month? Sounds exhausting, right? Medical students are asked to…
Medical students are learning to treat others, but who is caring for them?
Imagine being completely consumed by the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Could you do this for a day? How about for a week? What if I asked you to do this all day, every day, for an entire month? Sounds exhausting, right? Medical students are asked to…
Maternal instincts in medicine: the dual journey of motherhood and healing
It’s 4:57 p.m., and I’m anxiously tapping my foot in a stuffy cubicle, trying to ignore the pain of my compression socks seemingly cutting off circulation to my feet. I quickly glance at the timer. Thirty-one seconds. I close my eyes and sa…
Medical school admissions: an issue of socioeconomic diversity
For thousands of individuals every year, receiving an acceptance letter from a U.S. medical school is a monumental occasion. The culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice. It is an acknowledgment of academic prowess and ability. This is an indica…
The diversity-performance trade-off in academic medicine
The Federal Aviation Administration’s “What We Do” webpage describes the FAA’s primary purpose: “We’re responsible for the safety of civil aviation … We issue and enforce regulations and minimum standards … [and] cer…
Operating room etiquette: tips for pre-med students
“You know how to scrub, right?” The short story is no, I did not yet know how to scrub. As a premedical student, the operating room is different from anywhere else I have been. Just as with any new environment—whether it’s a friend…
Modernize medical education or face failure
In 1950, newly trained physicians may have gone the entire lengths of their careers without experiencing a doubling in medical knowledge. In 2011, Densen predicted that medical knowledge would have a doubling time of approximately 73 days – or 0.2 year…
Is it ever too late to attend medical school? A nontraditional student shares her thoughts.
In a world where the path to medical school is often depicted as a one-size-fits-all journey, my story is a testament to the fact that there is no cookie-cutter method for current or prospective doctors. I am now a third-year osteopathic medical studen…
Generation Z and implications for medical education
Many Baby Boomers have been quick to point out that 2024 is not 1968. When students occupied buildings at Columbia University 56 years ago, at least their objectives were clear – to put an end to the Vietnam War. Do students today who have camped out a…
