Brent Schnipke (18 Posts)Medical Student Editor, Writer-in-Training and Columnist Emeritus
Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University
Brent Schnipke is a third year medical student at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, OH. He is a 2014 graduate of Mount Vernon Nazarene University with a degree in Biology. His professional interests include writing, medical humanities, and higher education. When he's not studying, he can be found reading at a local coffee shop, training for his next race, or planning an adventure with his wife. Brent is also active on social media and can be reached on Twitter and Instagram @brentschnipke.
Prints, Pages, and Pagers
Prints, Pages, and Pagers aims to look closely at the lives of medical students and doctors, real or fiction, whose lives and experiences are told in novels, short stories, poetry, or any kind of writing. These book reviews are an opportunity for medical students to learn from the many fascinating stories produced by the field of medicine, and maybe to read something other than a textbook.
Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician is Dr. Sandeep Jauhar’s second book. In keeping with good narrative nonfiction, Jauhar offers a mix of personal stories, thoughtful interludes and an obvious effort to back up claims with facts and statistics. He offers compelling anecdotes, which allow the reader to situate him or herself into the context of health care in New York City. These personal vignettes are especially helpful for highlighting concepts difficult to discuss; an ethical dilemma or complex criticism of the health care system becomes much easier to understand when tied to a tangible person or place.
In the UK, there is currently a dispute over the new junior doctor contract. “Junior doctors” are defined as anyone in training and who is not a consultant. Many have deemed the new contract neither safe nor fair, and despite doctors striking, the Department of Health are intending to impose this contract in August 2016. On April 26, there will be a 48-hour full strike including emergency care — the first of its kind in the history of the National Health Services (NHS) — in the hope that the government will change their mind.
Medical students are subjected to a barrage of advertising that inevitably leads to a physician-industry connection that can be harmful to our health care system. Medical students’ exposure to pharmaceutical marketing begins early, growing in frequency throughout their training.
In March 2016, six medical students at Harvard Medical School launched #endstep2cs, an initiative aimed to garner support for the termination of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) that is currently administered to medical students prior to graduation. This past week, we talked with Christopher Henderson, one of the organization founders, and Dr. Peter Katsufrakis, the senior vice president for assessment programs at the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), to discuss the faults and merits of both the CS exam and the student-led initiative to end it.
On the journey to become a physician, your education will take you to a lot of different places, both geographically and developmentally. Throughout this process, the cost of transportation is an important and worthwhile factor to monitor. Transportation can become a large a part of your budget; however, there are several things you can do and steps you can take to keep it well within your budget during the time spent in medical school and beyond.
Every medical student dreams of having that “Aha!” moment where you instinctively realize your future specialty. Unfortunately, it never seems to be as simple. That moment is often insidious and occasionally tainted with self-doubt.
When I started neuroanatomy, I was fascinated by the brain. However, I found it difficult to keep track of the where structures were spatially when there were so many different ways to dissect it. To help myself study, I drew a coronal section alongside an intact hemisphere so I could better appreciate the structures in relationship to one another. When I spend any amount of time creating a piece of artwork, I retain it much more quickly, as if my hands are translating it into my memory.
Medical students’ place in the hierarchy of medicine means we are routinely restricted in what we can (or should) say. That taboo list includes our own transformation — despite being only one of thousands impacted by medical education, all too often we are left alone to process how it changes us. Review of Systems is a series of down-to-earth slam poems by Kate Bock, putting words to the unspoken process not just of learning medicine, but of becoming a doctor.
To me, hitting a tennis ball is a symbol of how we as medical students perceive mental health: we know very well what habits are good for us and which are not. We know that we need eight to nine hours of sleep each night, a healthy diet and regular exercise. We know to engage in positive thinking, to nurture healthy relationships while cutting out toxic ones and to take time to “take care of ourselves” even when we are at our most stressed.
The beginning of third year clerkships is an exciting time for medical students. The first step of my licensing exam was finally behind me and now I could focus on applying the knowledge into a clinical context. I had heard a lot of stories about the third year of medical school. Perhaps what stood out most were the reflections shared with me when people witnessed death for the first time. From full codes to hospice patients, something about death seemed to draw out the most intense emotions and thoughts that can change lives forever. Although I always try to do the best for my patients, I knew it was inevitable that I would come across death. I wondered what profound thoughts and reflections I would have when I experienced it for the first time. It wasn’t too long before I was called to do CPR in the emergency department and I found it did not play out as I expected.
At Albany Medical College, upon our orientation to gross anatomy, we are asked to draw our feelings on blank index cards prior to entering the cadaver laboratory. As we progress through the year, our sentiments regarding anatomy may remain the same, or may change, and these drawings allow us to look back at this milestone we crossed as budding medical students.
Everyone told me medical school would be hard. I thought I was prepared, but nothing actually prepares you for medical school like being in medical school. I was accustomed to working long hours, the constant stress of exams and little sleep. What I wasn’t accustomed to was the absolute dearth of creativity in the coursework.
Poorna Sreekumar (3 Posts)Contributing Writer
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Poorna is a Class of 2019 medical student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Before attending medical school, she studied chemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her interests include health policy, health tech, and health journalism. When she's not studying, she's probably reading, writing, hiking, or indulging in the occasional Netflix.
