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.
“Look, you’re not out on a four-year picnic at that medical school, so stop talking like a disappointed lover. You signed up for a spell of training and they’re dishing it out to you, and all you can do is take everything they’ve got, everything they hand to you, and tell yourself how lucky you are to be on the receiving end — so you can be a doctor, and that’s no bad price to pay for the worry, the exhaustion.”
Every other person in my family assured me I have nothing to fear, that I shouldn’t toss and turn in my bed at night feeling powerless because I’m in Philadelphia, thousands of miles away from India. Most days I reminded myself that to go to India I must first drag myself across the finish line of first year. But late at night alone in my apartment, I was haunted by lab values. I wracked my brain over the latest hemoglobin, sodium, potassium and chest x-ray. What am I missing? Is there something I can see that doctors with hundreds of years of collective experience cannot? The reality is that I didn’t have the answers for the people I love, and that thought terrified me more than anything.
Distilling lengthy science publications into short summaries is challenging. The pioneers at Useful Science have made it their mission to communicate evidence-based snippets of science to the general public.
When I started medical school last August, I arrived on campus excited to fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a doctor, eager to learn more about the body and its mysteries, and more than a bit nervous. “Medical school,” the physicians in my life told me, “is no joke.” But “everyone survives” they assured me. While I clung to this promise as I made my way through the year, I did so perhaps for different reasons than I first imagined.
On behalf of Pager Publications, Inc. and the staff of in-Training, we are proud to announce the official launch of in-House, the online magazine for residents and fellows. in-House aims to build a community for new physicians as they navigate the monumental transitions in learning and personal growth in their graduate medical education.
Welcome, Player One! First clerkship. Ready? Go!
LEVEL 1, PSYCHIATRY ACUTE INPATIENT SERVICE, MISSION NOTES: Med student didactics at 0700 daily. Rounds start approximately at 0800. Comprehensive interview with team at bedside. Ask about daily activities and goals. Enter orders while running list. PM schedule varies. Check desk for group session and recreation schedules. Plan to admit at least 8 patients in 3 weeks. Work closely with social services to coordinate disposition.
How can doctors-in-training practice not just patient-centered, but family-centered medicine? Carissa, a graduating fourth-year medical student in Indianapolis intending to pursue an obstetrics and gynecology residency, shares the lessons she learned as a medical student when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
On March 4, 2015, JAMA Psychiatry published an article entitled “Depression and Suicide Among Physician Trainees: Recommendations for a National Response” calling for “[a] national commitment to support residents and fellows throughout the challenges of medical training.” However, we believe that the term “physician trainees” should also be inclusive of medical students.
I am a medical student, yes. I am also a survivor of sexual violence. With the recent Columbia University commencement, the surge of articles surrounding the narratives of Emma Sulkowickz and Paul Nungesser prompted me to reflect on this latter identity. When histories of sexual harassment at my school emerged last November, my survivor status edged its way into my path toward doctorhood. I know I will always carry the mark of my trauma with me, and I am learning how I will better empathize with patients because of it.
As medical students we’re told over and over to treat the whole patient, emphasizing unity of body, mind and spirit, recognizing the things that make us unique: upbringing, culture, values and beliefs. But on the way to achieving this holistic view of our patients, we often lose ourselves in the process. Barraged with metabolic pathways, pathological markers and exams, medical school tends to become a zero sum emotional game.
For most medical students, the third year of medical school is their introduction to life in the hospital. This results not only in exciting learning opportunities, but also emotional tolls — grief, fear, anxiety, exhaustion — that can lead to serious problems including burnout, depression, and anxiety.
There is another reason wellness is now stressed so heavily in medical schools, and it is one that is not often talked about — physician suicides. As many as 400 physicians commit suicide each year. That is equivalent to four medical school classes who take their lives every single year.
Writer-in-Training
University of Illinois College of Medicine
Karishma is a Class of 2018 medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She majored in English and Psychology at Northwestern University and hopes to go into surgery.
