Adelle

Adelle is a 4th year medical student who loves to hike, bake chocolate chip cookies, and doodle on the corners of papers.

Opportunities in Primary Care

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surgical specialties

Medical students are bombarded with decisions regarding what they want to do with their lives, from choice of specialty to options within the field itself. Quite a few medical schools these days push for students to pursue primary care specialties. These include family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and (sometimes) psychiatry. There are many incentives offered for students to pursue these in-demand fields: scholarships, loan repayment options, etc. Below are a few opportunities for medical students who are set on primary care fields.

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Medical Training Hierarchy: Your Role as a 3rd or 4th Year Student

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surgical specialties

I’ve just started my fourth year, and while it’s a relief to be done with all of my medical school exams, I’m finding that there are plenty of new responsibilities to take on! I’m no longer the lowest member of the medical food chain, which also means that I partially have the responsibility of taking care of my M3 classmates. I am currently rotating on a surgical service where this dynamic is especially prevalent. It comes into play when scrubbing in to surgeries or doing other “higher level” tasks. I think this hierarchy is important to discuss for those M3s just beginning their first clinical year.

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Writing That Personal Statement

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surgical specialties

Writing about yourself can be intimidating. Luckily, I’ve got this venue here for practice, but it really can be difficult, especially when it comes to writing to impress someone else, i.e. those on the selection committees of medical schools or residency program directors. It’s important to articulate yourself well and paint a picture of your personality in a way that makes them say, “Yes, I want this person to be in my program”. I recently finished up writing my personal statement for residency programs, so I have a few tips on how to go about this daunting process.

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How Nontraditional Students Benefit Traditional Students

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surgical specialties

In both high school and college, we get used to our peers being our age. Everyone turns the same age in the same range year after year. This makes it easy for friendships to form based on common interests and just being in the same stage of life. After college, however, most of our paths can diverge in a variety of different ways. Many of my non-preprofessional school friends got jobs and are even buying houses now. Others went straight into medical school, and still others waited a few years and lived out their lives before going back to school to study medicine. I think that is actually one of the most interesting and beautiful parts of medical school: the diversity in age and experience.

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Fourth Year: A Chance To Explore

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surgical specialties

By Adelle, Medical Student

The process of applying to residency can surely be daunting. I’ve compiled a list of programs that I am interested in (as a quick refresher, I’m applying to OB/GYN programs), whether that be in terms of geography, the size of the program, proximity to family, etc. Many, many factors go into just deciding on a list of programs, and then there’s the process of actually completing and submitting applications. I feel like my life thus far has been a series of applications: college, medical school, residency . . . when will it end? Apparently not yet, because there is yet another application process: one for “away” rotations, or those away from your home institution that (usually) take place during the fourth year of medical school. They are a unique opportunity to explore medical specialties and settings in a way you will never have again.

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Entering Third Year With An Open Mind

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surgical specialties

By Adelle, Medical Student

I went into my third year with a somewhat open mind in terms of what I thought I liked and what I thought I wanted to do for the next 35 years or so of my life. Internal medicine interested me because you had to know so much about, well, so much. I felt like my brain was getting bigger every day I was on my internal medicine rotation—there was just so much to know! The number of patients you can see is also fairly high on a typical internal medicine service. On the other hand, I had completely discounted general surgery—I was never very interested in anatomy class and didn’t particularly enjoy teasing apart membranes from fascia from blood vessels and nerves. The thought of doing that for the rest of my life didn’t sit well with me. But, nevertheless, I went in with an open mind.

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Dealing with Subjectivity in Clinical Rotation Evaluations

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surgical specialties

One of my friends recently got back her evaluation from a rotation she had just completed. These evaluations, paired with the rotation’s shelf exam determine your score on that particular rotation. Therefore, these evaluations can be pretty important, especially if that is the field you plan to pursue. She looked down the column of various grading parameters and found that while she had received a satisfactory grade, it was not what she wanted. She called me the next week, crying into the phone about how she would never be able to fulfill her dreams because of this evaluation. Now, this may seem crazy to those who are not in medicine, but especially with mounting stress and increasing responsibility, the smallest things can tip people off. Meltdowns like hers are definitely not unheard of, and I have come close to having one myself. It’s hard to be a third year medical student, and the subjectivity of these grading systems that can exacerbate that.

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Making Mistakes

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making mistakes

I walked into the room with my stethoscope around my neck, still running through everything I needed to go over with this patient before I presented them to the attending physician. I wanted it to be perfect, to make sure there is nothing I left out, nothing I could be criticized for. I collected the information systematically, went through my physical exam, and walked out ready to present the case. As we rounded, we went through everyone’s patients one by one and finally it was my turn. I sweat through my scrubs, and I felt my note sheet dampen in my hands. Why am I still so nervous? I thought to myself. Oh, that’s right—it’s because if I messed this up, I know I’ll replay the entire discussion in my head ad nauseum and feel embarrassed all over again and not be able to sleep at night.

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Getting What You Want: Considering Both Life and Career Goals When Choosing a Specialty

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Chronicles of a Med Student

Under the glow of the OR lights, I could barely make out the pulsating artery through all the layers of fat. This is so cool I thought to myself. Since my first rotation had been internal medicine, I hadn’t seen a lot of hands on stuff like this. As the OB/GYN swiftly cut through the layers of fascia to get to the target ovary, I watched her quick hands harvest it and pull it out of the body cavity. The ovary itself was grossly misshapen as she gently laid it onto the mayo stand to clean it up before shipping it off to pathology. I held it in my hands and thought of how the patient would no longer have to bear the burden of the things this overgrowth was doing to her body. The surgery was a success and the doctor predicted a very good outcome and quality of life for the young patient from now on. How incredible!

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