Contributing Writer
Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Allison Chin is a fourth-year medical student at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, FL in the class of 2023. In 2017, she graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and nutrition, along with minors in chemistry, psychology and art. She was inducted in the Arnold P. Gold Humanism Society and awarded the President Volunteer Service Award and the Florida Board of Medicine Medical Student Recognition Award in 2022. She enjoys custom card making, yoga, painting, and discovering new red wines and dark chocolate in her free time. After graduating medical school, Allison would like to pursue a career in Internal Medicine.
During the last week of my clinical rotation in family medicine, my attending advised me and the accompanying medical student that going forward, the health providers of the clinic must limit their scope of care for patients who present for annual examinations.
When I first started learning how to write SOAP notes, I was under the impression they would serve as objective documents to detail the medical history and current health problems experienced by patients It seemed these notes were to be created by — and for — clinicians. I now realize this perception could not be more wrong.
good morning, i’m the medical student / i must ask how you are feeling / even though my eyes already sting
The instant I activated my phone, it rang. I steadied my microphone and saw 34 callers in the queue. “COVID-19 hotline,” I answered.
This period of healing set Lori on a long road that was paved with pain. She lived in chronic pain from the fistula. While her physicians delicately weighed her safety with pain relief, she learned to balance both patience and uncertainty.
As I took my shirt off this morning to shower, I noticed my teres major muscle in the mirror — or more precisely, I identified it for the first time.
Last year, I walked into a big hospital room towards the tiny NICU bed with a tiny baby in his space helmet. The moment he came out of that helmet, which was pumping in 100% oxygen, he would start deteriorating.
One crisp Sunday morning in October, I arrive at the community free clinic to find four student volunteers — two of whom are in their third month of medical school like I am — and one attending physician. As usual, we are overbooked.
If someone asks me how my first year of medical school went, half of the time I dismiss them with a one-word answer, saving them from a conversation they aren’t ready to have. The other half of the time, I tell the truth, just to see what they have to say.
It is morning outside, the sun barely kissing the horizon. The curtains have been drawn in an attempt to force any lick of light from the room. But one slim shard cuts through the drapes, illuminating John’s face.
This summer, the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, the landmark case from 1973 that previously affirmed the right to an abortion, effectively ending access to safe, legal abortions in large swaths of the United States. Many across our country are still grappling with the ramifications of this decision…But how in particular will this affect medical education? And what can medical students do about it?
Over the next few days, workup revealed she was experiencing paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, a manifestation of her occult cancer. In a matter of three days, a patient who had come in for seemingly benign constipation was told she had metastatic lung cancer.
Contributing Writer
Florida State University College of Medicine
Hayden is a fourth-year medical student at Florida State University College of Medicine, class of 2023. She graduated from Florida State University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics and received her Masters of Science in Medical Sciences from the University of South Florida in 2017. She enjoys lifting weights, hiking, paddle boarding and gardening in her free time. Hayden aims to pursue a career in neurosurgery.
