The Dreaded Exam
The medical school recruiters and academic advisers had conveniently forgotten this detail during my educational overview when I originally signed up to be a physician.
Tag: standardized patient
Managing Editor Emeritus (2018-2019)
Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine
Lydia Boyette is excited to be a managing editor for in-Training Magazine. In May 2019, she graduated cum laude with a Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine and summa cum laude with a Master of Business Administration. Lydia matched via the NRMP into anesthesiology residency at the University of Central Florida.
Throughout medical school, Lydia wrote stories about her experiences learning clinical skills and has had her work published by PubMed, KevinMD, and StatPearls, LLC.
Additionally, Lydia has spent a significant amount of time working for community health centers in rural areas. She served as a student physician ambassador for her medical school and previously held the position of editor-in-chief for the local community health clinic's newsletter.
In 2015, she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in healthcare management and a minor in general science from Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. She also served as an English composition tutor and editor. While completing her undergraduate degree, Lydia was inducted into several honor societies including Phi Kappa Phi, Delta Mu Delta, Pre-Med Allied Health, and Who's Who Among Students Class of 2015.
Standardized History, Unusual Life
You knock on the door. “Come in.” When you enter the room, a gowned patient sits calmly atop the examination table. For the next 15 to 20 minutes, you spend your time in the small, cramped and surveillanced room with this individual to tease out the mystery of their chief complaint.
Playing the Part
He and I are early, and we are the only ones in the room. I sit in an office chair — the kind that swivels — around a long, industrial-looking table with another ten chairs, and I watch him as he nods, his eyes closed, to music playing through his headphones.
Talking Dirty
Barely into my second year of medical school, I already have a reputation — I love asking the uncomfortable stuff. Social history, sex, drugs, alcohol, I want to know it all. At first, it was just because that section randomly fell on me during small group sessions or standardized patient encounters. Then, I began to volunteer, or be volunteered. “Mariya loves the dirt,” my classmates say. Without saying, I always approach this section of the …
Communication Breakdown: The Art in Medicine
I walk around, wide-eyed yet confused. It seems so different. I always thought I was too objective for my art friends and too subjective for my science friends. But was that really an accurate reflection of my own personality? Medicine is about reductionism, objectivity and straightforwardness. In medical school, I’m learning a method of communication in which empathy is taught as a route to finding out more about a patient; it’s conveniently called the patient-centered …
I Don’t Know How to Tell You This…
“My rheumatologist was the one who told me I have cancer because for nine months we thought my back pain was due to a type of arthritis. He felt really bad about it and when he called me to tell me the diagnosis, he started crying on the phone.” A student in my second-year medical school class says this when we are in the big lecture hall for a class presentation on how to give …
SP to MD: My Alternate Route to Medical School
It was just supposed to be a temporary job. At least that was what I envisioned when I started my position as a standardized patient at Albany Medical College. Four months earlier, I graduated a semester early from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama. When I applied to be an standardized patient (SP), I was searching for a way to take my acting career to the next level. …
Well, I Did a Digital Rectal Exam
“The patient, today, is Stephen,” revealed Mister the patient, his lips curled up in a mischievous smile. He was already wearing a hospital gown when I entered the physical exam room with two of my classmates. “But it’s not the name that’s written on the schedule. I’ve got Luke here,” my classmate noticed. When I heard Mister laughing that cheerfully, I knew that this clinical skills session would be different. Really different. It was not …
Former Managing Editor
University of Sherbrooke Faculty of Medicine
Nina Nguyen is a Class of 2016 student at the University of Sherbrooke Faculty of Medicine in Sherbrooke, Canada. Currently a blogger for her institution and a content editor of the Publications Support Division of the International Federation of Medical Students' Association, she has a strong interest in medical journalism and in medical humanities.
As an aspiring physician-writer who wishes to commit to the field of public health, she enjoys advocating for reproductive health and rights and understanding the power of media in the doctor-patient relationship.
Find her on Twitter at @meimeian, where she can tweet in 5, maybe 6, languages.
