Category: Medical school

Transition recommendations for the reporting of USMLE Step 1 scores as pass/fail

On February 12, 2020, the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) announced that, “the USMLE program will change score reporting for Step 1 from a three-digit numeric score to reporting only a pass/fail outcome” as early as January 1, 2022….

How medical education fails minority students

“You have to work twice as hard to get half as far.” As a black woman, this sentiment has haunted me for my entire life. Minority individuals are consistently forced to go above and beyond to prove themselves, regardless of the setting. Unfortunately, …

It’s time to flip the medical school classroom [PODCAST]

“As a nearly graduated medical student, I have come to the conclusion that the focus of medical school is split between training and distinguishing medical students. Modern pedagogy has not found its way into the modern medical school classroom. …

The black physician’s burden

I remember clearly the first lecture in which I began to feel the painful knot of despair clenched in my chest. We were being taught about piebaldism, a disease that impacts the pigment-producing cells of the body. It was not the description of the con…

That was me: a millennial physician’s experience with racism

A black girl was called the N-word on the playground in elementary school in the ’90s. That black girl was me. A black girl was called ugly because of her dark black skin in elementary school in the ’90s. That black girl was me. A black girl created an…

Why medical trainees need knowledge and education on health care systems and policy [PODCAST]

“As medical trainees, we will shape the rapidly changing health care environment in this country. We are fiercely advocating for our disadvantaged patients, debating the price of life-saving medications, and carefully considering how the upcoming…

When imposter syndrome becomes incompatible with the profession of medicine

When people ask me what A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is about, I have trouble describing it beyond the story of a young man named Jude with a horrific past and his relationships with the people he meets in college. The heart of the story lies not …

How this physician incorporated medical students in COVID care

More than once, I have joked with my medical student leader that I look forward to the day when she will be my boss. I have mentored hundreds of health professions students over the past ten years. Teaching young thought leaders to address complex issu…

What’s next for medical students? The path is not so clear.

The evolving COVID-19 outbreak has generated concern for students across a variety of disciplines.  While some might believe the healthcare sector is protected in the setting of a pandemic, rising medical graduates are realizing they, too, are not immu…

Medical education during COVID is more than a monolith

This pandemic has taught us that undergraduate medical education is nimbler and more adaptive than we have previously assumed it to be. COVID-19 has propelled medical schools into an online, remote learning age. It has beseeched educators to creatively…