Contributing Writer
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Mary is a graduating fourth year medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia, PA class of 2023. She graduated from Villanova University with a Bachelor of Science in biology. In her free time, she enjoys reading works of fiction and history, baking and gardening. After graduation, Mary will be pursuing a residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
As I completed my residency interviews, I recognized that we are hard pressed to find a better way to match burgeoning physicians with training programs searching for their next class of interns. Yet I also knew that neither I nor any other applicant could fit into a preconceived box or several sentence summary. I could not simply market myself as a humanist or an artist, or an activist or a researcher.
In a time when we began medical school online during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our preclinical medical education was lecture-based. This meant my experiences at the free health clinics affiliated with our institution were more valuable than ever in introducing me to patient care.
Because I could not stop for death, / He kindly asked I pause. / My arms were full of sterile wraps, / Scissors, tape, and gauze.
Upon reflection, my actions and feelings in caring for this patient reveal how truly afraid I was to be wrong; not necessarily about the diagnosis, but rather about whether the patient would be okay. Maybe coming in daily and opening her chart for good news was just me hoping that my initial impression was still right instead of coming to terms with the fact I was very wrong.
The crumpled old gentleman nestled in the armchair of his hospital room, bundled in blankets from the warmer down the hall, cards from his family propped up like a miniature Stonehenge on the table beside him. I listened closely to his heart and lungs, eyed the half-full urinal hooked onto his bed frame, and drew my fingers along his shins.
In my second year of medical school, amidst the frequent exams and impending doom of third year rotations, I would often look forward to Tuesday nights. On these nights, students and residents would come together to play pick-up basketball at a local gym, removed from the stresses of medical school.
As a medical student, finding a research mentor can be a challenging task. However, with careful planning and communication, building a productive and mutually beneficial mentor-mentee relationship is possible.
One step and then another; / the end is near! The end is nearly here! / And yet, it is not. Not yet near. / So, I carry on, though I am weary, / though my telomeres shorten or because my telomeres shorten,
She had her head bowed over her sleeping newborn, and her perfect plaits of braids were blanketing her shoulders, cascading calmly despite the insurmountable turmoil clearly manifesting on her face.
“Three, two, one … lift,” the circulating nurse directs as I raise the patient’s feet from the trauma table onto the recovery bed, gushing with the giddiness of getting to use my hands in a medical setting for the first time.
The following infographic is the result of my goal to create a resource, backed by literature, from the perspective of a medical student to help other students become fluent in the “language” of oral case presentations at the start of any clerkship rotation.
What does it mean to “grieve appropriately?” / To silently cry / as to not break the fragility in the air.
Contributing Writer
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
Jessica is a third year MD/PhD student at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, MN class of 2028 (hopefully). In 2020, she graduated from Rice University with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and cell biology with a minor in medical humanities. She enjoys trying new recipes, working out with friends, and exploring the city one restaurant at a time in her free time. After graduating, Jessica would like to pursue a career as a physician-scientist at an academic center.
