Category: Medical school

A medical student volunteers with the medical corps [PODCAST]

“An email arrived inviting med students to join the State of Georgia’s Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). The MRC is an organization of doctors, nurses, PAs, EMTs, and med students who are the first medical boots on the ground for disasters in Georgia….

Unconventional residency interview tips

I’ve done a lot of interviews on my road to becoming a cardiology fellow. Here are a few topics that people don’t talk about enough. Speed dating I think of interviews like speed dating. Everyone puts on their “first date.” Everyone behaves their best;…

The role of residents in teaching and creating a positive clinical learning environment  

The hallways were dark, and the door had a passcode that I didn’t know. What I knew was that I was nervous about entering the team room on my first day of internal medicine, my first rotation of the third year of medical school. Fortunately, it didn’t …

It’s time we stop saying “black cloud” and “black weekend”

Racism is a pandemic that has long existed before COVID-19. As a fourth-year medical student, I have been rotating in the hospitals and recently finished my sub-internship. Whether on the wards or in outpatient clinics, a recurring phrase would hover f…

Medical students: The work you do matters

By my second rotation of the third year, I could not help but feel like a superfluous, if not inconsequential, cog in the medical machine. Yes, we are learners and need to see patients in order to become adequate health care providers – but on a busy l…

Applying the growth mindset to health care

I love to mountain bike. The thrill of watching trees zip by and of “sending it” through rock gardens is intoxicating, and this thrill is accompanied by a feeling of accomplishment unlike any other I’ve experienced. However, two of my good friends are …

Medical students are benched during the pandemic [PODCAST]

“There is no single culprit responsible for this shift in medical education. However, two, in particular, should be noted. The first is the culture of defensive medicine, or more bluntly, CYA (cover-your-ass) medicine. This culture has been insid…

A medical student’s summer of 2020: Family matters

The summer of 2020 is easily one that I would rather forget but has been one that, I believe, will be etched in my memory for a very long time. After a brief vacation to visit my maternal relatives in India during last winter break, I welcomed  2020 wi…

When interviewing, remember it goes both ways

I’ve just completed traveling around the country for residency interviews, so I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to ask and answer personal questions. In my desired specialty of dermatology, a typical interview day consists of sho…

A medical student’s story of racism and bias

I am a third-year medical student at what I believe to be the most diverse medical school in the country. Every year our entering class is made up of at least 20 percent of students who identify as underrepresented in medicine. Beyond that, we make it …