Columns

Vincent Minichiello (4 Posts)

Columnist Emeritus

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Vinny is a Class of 2013 student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, applying to family medicine residency programs. Passionate about strengthening the body's own healing mechanism, he is invested in learning more about integrative medicine and hopes to practice family medicine in combination with Chinese medicine and osteopathic manipulation therapy in the future. He loves his fiancée dearly and is looking forward to their marriage in May 2013!

Recommendations for Referral to CAM Practitioners

Published by Vincent Minichiello

The sister of a woman recently diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) came to the neurology clinic while I was on rotation there and asked the physician if there was anything else besides riluzole that her sister could use for treatment. Essentially, the doctor responded that there were no other treatments. This sister was inquisitive, though, and pressed further–“I had heard acupuncture might be useful. What do you think?” It couldn’t hurt, the physician replied. She then …

Eat, Study, Love: A Guide to Surviving the Boards

Published by Valentina Bonev

Studying for the boards is like preparing for a marathon shelf. Your stamina, knowledge, guessing skills and sanity will all be tested, although these are not formal topics listed on the syllabus. At first, you’re gung-ho and ready to crack open your freshly bought books. Then, you slow down as you stare out the window wanting to be outside enjoying life. Lastly, you stare at your calendar wishing your test date was already here so …

Cheers: To Old Dreams and New Beginnings

Published by Dragos Rezeanu

Those of you who know me–and in about five words, the rest of you–know that I have a slight obsession with the comic Calvin and Hobbes. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been reading the strip religiously. If I could make a personalized version of those “Everything I Needed to Know in Life I Learned From…” posters, it would end with–you guessed it–Calvin and Hobbes. For the purposes of this column (and your sanity), …

High Risk

Published by Valentina Bonev

When most people think of the labor and delivery department (L&D), they probably have thoughts of babies, laughter, tears of joy, happiness, and pink and blue onesies. My experience on L&D was quite different. A woman who was 26 weeks pregnant walked into the hospital at 10 p.m. on a Monday night, claiming that her water broke. But how could that be? She was only 26 weeks along. It was determined that she had preterm …

Volunteering in Medical School: A Waste of Time?

Published by Jimmy Tam Huy Pham

“Are you going to sign up to volunteer this quarter?” I asked my classmate after hearing about an upcoming volunteering opportunity for a homeless shelter clinic. “Volunteering? Why?” came a brisk and seemingly astonished response from her. “Uh, well, it’s a good opportunity to gain some clinical skills,” I responded, “and don’t you wanna have some volunteering experience when you apply for residency?” “It’s a waste of time! Residencies only care about good grades and …

A Night at the Homeless Shelter

Published by Jimmy Tam Huy Pham

Tonight is not any different. A list of twenty-five patients to be seen. A standing room full of eager volunteer medical students — who just can’t wait to do some doctoring — and a lone attending physician, a family physician who probably enjoys seeing the medical students acting important, walking around with their shiny stethoscopes around their necks, more than anything else. On second thought, maybe the doctor is here every week because he wants …

And BINGO Was His Name-O

Published by Dragos Rezeanu

Author’s Note: Special thanks to the McQueen twins for letting me mention them … twice. Still can’t tell you guys apart to save my life. There are a lot of words you could use to describe the average med student: tired, burnt-out, hard-working, haggard, (and more often than not) seated. But one word that rarely comes to mind is bored. That’s because we associate boredom with having nothing to do, and believe you me, we …

Home Stretch Buttlock

Published by Dragos Rezeanu

If you have some time today (I know, I’m hilarious), take a minute to look up a YouTube video of someone running a 400-meter dash, and specifically watch their last 100 meters. This is the part of the 400-meter where you get what is affectionately referred to as “buttlock” in the track and field world. For that last 100 meters, even Olympic athletes are trying their damnedest to keep form, relax, and stride it out, …

awkward.

Published by Valentina Bonev

Awkward. is a witty TV show about the awkwardness of being a teenager and surviving high school. Sometimes I feel like the awkwardness of being a medical student and surviving medical school is worthy of a TV show. Medical school is particularly awkward when starting third-year clerkships. Depending on how prepared you are for the wards, you may not know where to go, what to do, or what to say. Some students will dive in …

Smelling Roses and Other Such Tomfoolery

Published by Dragos Rezeanu

Ladies and gentlemen, the mood this week is pensive, in a count your blessings sort of way. Fortunately, given that it’s Thanksgiving week and all, I’m thinking my timing is appropriate. Enjoy. Every stage in life, it seems, has its purpose. And by all accounts the purpose of this stage seems to be worrying about all the rest. I don’t mean med school specifically (not that this particular chapter is exactly “worry-free”), I just mean …

Remember Our Veterans With PTSD

Published by Valentina Bonev

If you have the chance to work with veterans during your medical school career, take it. I had the unique opportunity of working with veterans during my psychiatry rotation where I was confronted with the reality of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. I saw the effects of PTSD on veterans who served in past or current wars. It didn’t matter whether they served in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq — they were all haunted by …

And the Presidency Goes To…

Published by Dragos Rezeanu

Considering how much of an effect this presidential election has on the future of medicine, I’d be surprised if every med student isn’t taking the night off, or at the very least keeping a tab open, to watch the states as they as they pick the color they’ll be wearing for the next four years. Unfortunately, that also means that none of you jerks are gonna read this column. For the rest of the night …

Dragos Rezeanu (10 Posts)

Columnist, in-Training Staff Member, and Editor Emeritus: Former Medical Student Editor (2012-2013)

University of Alabama School of Medicine

Writer, editor, motorcycle enthusiast and medical student, Dragos almost achieved the impossible early in life by nearly failing fifth grade. Born in Romania, raised in Colorado and somehow now in Alabama, Dragos graduated magna cum laude from Auburn University in 2011 with a degree in biomedical sciences, making his way shortly thereafter to Birmingham and the UAB School of Medicine. Over the next several years he hopes to make a few friends, learn a few things, write a few articles, and just maybe find himself as a physician-journalist in a fulfilling surgical career somewhere down the line.