On Wednesdays, Gram Negative Bacteria Wear Pink
A web comic aiming to shine a creative and Rather Humerus spotlight on med school.
Columns
Columnist and in-Training Staff Member
Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland
A philomath expressing enthusiasm for anatomy and puns, Nikita is a Class of 2018 medical student at The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She balances science and art, as artist of the medical web comic Rather Humerus. She is passionate about poetry, reading, writing, gastronomy, animals, LGBT rights, women equality and having a strong WiFi connection to the Internet. She currently lives in Dublin, Ireland and has lived in India, Dubai and most recently Singapore.
Rather Humerus
A web comic aiming to shine a creative and Rather Humerus spotlight on med school.
The Exam Room Cloud
Last spring, I saw my first real patient. The plan was to go into an exam room and take the history and physical of a real patient who had graciously offered to sacrifice half of his day. A doctor would watch everything and give feedback. The intimidating fact that I was being monitored made me feel like I was about to go on stage in front of an audience. If you had followed me into my …
Life after the Ph.D. (with the M.D. Still to Go)
As an MD/PhD student, I’ve always understood that the training process would be neither easy nor brief. After five years as a biochemistry graduate student, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation and earned a PhD in July. In August, I’ll be a full-time medical student, with three more years of medical school to go. As I’ve wrapped up the graduate school era of my life, I’ve thought a fair deal about what I’ll miss, what I won’t …
A Med Student’s Biggest Privilege
[ca_audio url=” http://in-training.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/03-Wake-Up-Everybody-feat.-Common-Melanie-Fiona.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player” autoplay=”false”] Two interesting opinion pieces published a few months ago inspired me write this column: one from Tal Fortgang, a Princeton freshman defending his “white man privilege,” and another from Max Ritvo explaining what exactly that white man’s privilege is. To summarize their points, the former author laments that his academic success is shadowed by society attributing his successes to being genetically a white man. As a result, society believes …
Reflections on the First Year of Medical School
It’s almost been a full (calendar) year since medical school began. I’m officially a second-year medical student — and this year’s been a momentous one. As I look back on it, here’s some of the things that I learnt along the way. Fire hose: Med school really is like a firehose you’re supposed to drink from. It’s high pressure, it’s intense, it’s humanly impossible to get it all down your throat. The idea is that you …
Rural Appalachia: A Medical Mission in Our Own Backyard
Belize for the summer, Africa for spring break, the Philippines during winter break, and the list of medical mission opportunities goes on and on at most medical schools. Now, don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love mission trips and all of the great work that certain groups like the Christian Medical and Dental Associations and other mission-oriented organizations do for the cause. However, I feel that one vital area that definitely qualifies as a “medical mission” …
Hemlock Societies
Mr. Lacey was irate, to say the least, as he rattled off a list of his symptoms. Constant pain. Nausea. Dizziness. Numbness. Weakness. Fatigue bordering on exhaustion. He said he had been spending most of the day in bed and had become dependent on his wife and children for basic daily tasks. “I’m serious, Doc. I’ve just about had enough of this. I’ve been looking into Hemlock Societies.” The interview screeched to a halt, and …
8 Ways to Strive for Health and Wellness in Medical School
Whether you are embarking on your Step 1 studying journey or starting your clerkship, it is absolutely essential to maintain your health and well-being throughout medical school. It can be very easy to get caught up in the flow of studying lectures or rounding on patients. Even though it may seem convenient to go for the bag of potato chips when you’re on the run in the hospital or plowing through lectures without taking a …
Hemorrhaging People
We discover, learn about and follow important world events through the endeavors of journalists and reporters working within media outlets which, taken wholly, has the purpose of disseminating information, presenting opposing analyses, and constructing discernible truths from a finite data pool. This purpose notwithstanding, as commercial entities, news organizations are still influenced by the need to continually associate with “fresh” topics lest they lose eyes and ears to the competition. Of course, what is and …
A Good Doctor, aka The Goldilocks Effect
When I told people I was going to medical school, the first thing I’d hear was, “Oh, you’ll be a good doctor.” As an idealistic and energetic first-year, I was flattered every time a standardized patient complimented me. But I wasn’t a good doctor — I don’t even have an MD. I was exposed to esoteric subjects like biochemistry and physiology, but I wasn’t much help to any person in distress. I believed, like my …
Alone in the Crowd
It’s easy to see how the hospital can be an intimidating place for a patient. Being alone, in an unknown environment, covered only a flimsy cloth gown, and surrounded by strangers can make anyone anxious. Now, imagine not knowing what these strangers are saying to you, about you. Imagine these strangers cannot understand a single word you say. I had just finished up a previous case in the OR with the orthopedics team when the …
Here is a Helping Hand!
A web comic aiming to shine a creative and Rather Humerus spotlight on med school.
Columnist and in-Training Staff Member
Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland
A philomath expressing enthusiasm for anatomy and puns, Nikita is a Class of 2018 medical student at The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She balances science and art, as artist of the medical web comic Rather Humerus. She is passionate about poetry, reading, writing, gastronomy, animals, LGBT rights, women equality and having a strong WiFi connection to the Internet. She currently lives in Dublin, Ireland and has lived in India, Dubai and most recently Singapore.
Rather Humerus
A web comic aiming to shine a creative and Rather Humerus spotlight on med school.