Doctor’s Orders is our section for residents and physicians to give wisdom and advice to medical students.
Columnist Emeritus Dr. Valentina Bonev is a board certified fellowship trained breast surgical oncologist. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine and earned her medical doctorate at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. After general surgery residency, she completed a breast surgery fellowship at the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She is passionate about surgical education and community outreach on breast health. In her spare time, she enjoys writing and scrapbooking.
As a former in-Training staff member and columnist, I gave you A Taste of Your Own Medicine and now it’s time to give you a taste of my own medicine! I started writing for in-Training as a medical student when the site was in its infancy. It’s amazing to see how it’s grown while I have been away in training and now as a breast surgeon. It only feels right to provide some reflections on …
It was Valentine’s Day morning with about thirty minutes until rounds when I noticed Madeline, one of our medical students, approaching. I took my eyes off the WOW to greet her, and she shakily said that the nurse had just told her that a patient was pulseless.
This is a story for those who struggle in finding their specialty. Sometimes it takes time to figure out your place in medicine. We may not always find it on our first try, but the journey in its pursuit is what influences us into becoming the kind of physicians we are meant to be.
About three months into our roles as editors-in-chief of in-Training, we had created a system. Mondays, I’d come home from the hospital — usually with some ineffective Anki studying, or commiseration with my roommates, or hastily composing a Chopped-style dinner with leftovers — log into our WordPress backend, and start making my way through the latest batch of submissions.
My mother likes to tell the story of how, as a small child, I referred to the superficial wounds sustained in my first head-over-handlebars accident as an “abrasion.” I remember staring at my knee, fascinated by my body’s ability to heal itself. The sacred anatomy of wounds, atoms as spacious as galaxies, coalescing and woven with no instruction of my own to renew what had been lost.
Every day, twenty times a day, I listen to breaths. “Take a deep breath in and out… good… and another…” Mostly clear breaths, sometimes crackly, sometimes wheezy. I place a hand on the person’s shoulder, subtly offering kindness and connection. I enjoy this time to take deep breaths myself.
Simply put, the humanities seek to capture the mosaic of human existence across the chasms of jubilation and despair, life and death, love and fear. The humanities are both disciplines of academic study and modes of expression.
In my high school years, I had an English teacher, Mr. Moon, who once remarked that his dream would be to “write a paper” about a certain book we were reading, and publish it somewhere. “Write a paper”? Was he kidding? In his free time, he was going to write?
Ten years ago, I stepped onto the grounds of my medical school for the first time. I remember there was so much anxiety — I was anxious to become a student doctor, anxious to choose a specialty, anxious about my own insecurities around my impressive and brilliant classmates. I wish I could go back in time and sit down with my younger self at my favorite coffee shop. I’d treat her to a hot matcha latte with honey and vanilla (it’s going to change her life) and tell her everything is going to be okay.
Dr. Kevin Dueck, MD is an adjunct professor at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University and practices rural family medicine and addiction medicine, and he contributes this video presentation as a former in-Training writer.
The Match process is an emotional roller coaster ride that feels like it lasts forever but also flies by. Being on the other side and looking back, I wanted to do my part and share my thoughts about how to stay grounded and sane during this time.
After four years of intensive studying, two years with long hours in the hospital and three years of dating, we made the decision to apply to dermatology and plastic surgery. Recognizing the competitive nature of both of these fields, we quickly realized that matching together may not be feasible. We wanted to take each other into account in the process without either one of us making a large sacrifice in the quality of our training program to be together. Open communication and transparency were critical for us throughout the process.
Resident Physician Guest Writer
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Arianna Yanes is a PGY-2 dermatology resident at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2015, she graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. She completed medical school at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2019.
