medical student

Why Medical Students Need To Understand Statistics: An Interview With a Patho-Geneticist

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Dr. Mary Jean M. has spent the last decade researching in various laboratories, from plant sciences, developmental biology, immunology, cancer biology, and parasitology. She is a patho-geneticist and loves every facet of infectious disease research and biostatistics, from understanding the population dynamic of life to the intricacies of the microscopic world. 

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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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Are Professional Medical Associations Worth It for Students?

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professional medical associations worth it for students

In the US alone, there are literally thousands of state, regional and national medical associations that represent providers in every major area of healthcare. While millions of the healthcare providers in the United States can consider themselves members of one or more of these organizations, there are millions more who are not. As a student you’ve got enough on your plate, so it can be difficult to determine whether or not joining one of these professional associations is worth your limited time and resources. This article will look into whether or not association membership still makes sense in this day and age, and if so, how to determine which association(s) are right for you.

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Q&A with Dr. Ali Wong, Plastic Surgery Resident and Creator of Sketchy Medicine

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Dr. Ali Wong is a plastic surgery resident in Nova Scotia, Canada and creator of the website Sketchy Medicine, in which she shares graphical representations of various medical concepts. Dr. Wong received her Bachelor of Science with Honours in Neuroscience (2009) and her MD (2013) at Dalhousie University. Following initial year in residency, she went on to receive an MSE (Master of Science in Engineering) from Johns Hopkins University (2016). Dr. Wong has been published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Journal of Hand Therapy, and Behavioral Brain Research.

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Four Ways to Practice Teaching as a Medical Student

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During the first years of medical school, we are taught a huge volume of material, covering basic sciences and organ systems. It is not until our clinical rotations that we truly begin to experience medicine in real time. Over our clinical years, we learn how to become comfortable with patients and help them become comfortable with us. Ultimately, we hone our ability to communicate knowledge to our patients. In modern medicine, we work as a team with our patients toward improvement of their health. We are the scientific experts, but require the patient’s help to learn about their expertise: the patient’s own body. For a patient to make the best decisions, we need to effectively teach patients about their situation at a level where the patient can make an informed, proper decision. How can we practice our teaching skills as medical students?

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Surviving Your First Year of Medical School

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first year of medical school

Congratulations on getting accepted to medical school! Becoming a physician is a long and tough journey, and you may not be able to get by using the same methods that helped you succeed in undergrad. To maintain control while drinking from the “fire hose” of medical school, you’ll need to make sure you do these four things:

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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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Jump Starting Your Job Search While In Medical School: Part 5

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Read  about steps 1 and 2 in Part 1 of this series  here.
Read  about steps 3 and 4 in Part 2 of this series  here.
Read  about steps 5 and 6 in Part 3 of this series  here.
Read  about steps 7 and 8 in Part 4 of this series  here.
One day in the future, all your work will have paid off: You’ll have finished your job interviews and you will be fielding job offers. OK, so it’s a ways away in the future. But it’s valuable to understand the process now; you can spend your time focusing on opportunities that are a true fit for your interests and values. This laser focus on what you want and what you’re good at will mean that the job offers coming your way will be good fits for you. Then, the challenge is simply choosing one.

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Applying for Residency

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Last month I wrote about the early part of 4th year as a kind of second-look for medical students – an occasion for confirming specialty choice, or perhaps changing one’s mind altogether. For me, it has been an enjoyable and enlightening process to revisit the specialties I was most interested in and examine them more thoroughly, paying attention to finer details as I considered what a career in that specialty would entail beyond the years of residency. The specialty decision is often made on just a few weeks of exposure and may be highly influenced by observing residents, but it is important to remember that residency is relatively brief in the context of a career, and thus it is imperative to get opinions on the field of choice from practicing attending physicians. I have been grateful for opportunities to do just this; rotating through a field a second or third time has enabled me to make this aspect more of a priority.

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