From the Wards

Jarna Shah (4 Posts)

Editor Emeritus: Former Medical Student Editor (2013-2015) and Physician Guest Writer

University of Illinois College of Medicine

Jarna Shah is an CA-2 resident in anesthesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is interested in the development of medical education, mentorship, and healthcare. She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of in-House (in-housestaff.org), a sister publication of in-Training. In her free time, she bakes ridiculous desserts, practices martial arts, and writes novels every November.

How to Find the Strength to Keep Going: Words of Advice from a Third-Year

Published by Jarna Shah

It’s 4 a.m., and I’m sitting in the student call room eating dinner during a particularly busy night. A burrito has never tasted this good. Here’s the truth: medical school isn’t glamorous. More often than not, it involves long hours and late nights. There will be days where you come home and fall asleep before eating dinner. There will be 10-hour surgical cases with no bathroom breaks and mornings where rounds take five hours. You will …

“Are There any Physicians on Board, We Have a Medical Emergency”

Published by Manik Aggarwal

“Dr. Aggarwal, should we divert the plane towards Salt Lake City? Dr. AGGARWAL, Dr. Aggarwal, do you want to land in Salt Lake City?” Until this point, it was always “Manik,” and it was a basic question. If I was right, my intern or resident would be enthused with my knowledge; if I was wrong, they would teach and likely talk me up to regain my confidence. Well, that was last month. This month, it’s …

A Letter to Third-Year Medical Students

Published by Emilee Sandsmark

Dear freshly-crowned MS3s, Congratulations on making it to the best part of medical school! I hope that it has finally sunk in that classes and labs are over, and most importantly, you are on the other side of Step 1. It is finally time to take all of the facts that you learned from a textbook and apply them to a real-life person. It is the moment we all wait for and the reason we …

Match Day Spotlight 2014: Internal Medicine, Take Three

Published by Christopher Deans

Recent fourth-year matcher Ben Monson of University of Nebraska Medical Center graces us with his wise words on finding success and happiness in medical school and beyond. 1. Tell us about yourself: Where are you from? What is your undergraduate degree and where did you receive it? Did you do anything between undergraduate and medical school? Ben Monson: My name is Ben Monson and I’m from Papillion, Nebraska. I completed my undergraduate education at Iowa State …

What I Wasn’t Meant To Do in Medical School

Published by Farah Khan

Medical school has been weird. I learned things about myself that I didn’t like and I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by things that I thought I would never like. As a fourth-year student, your focus and energy are consumed with thoughts revolving around future residency: the labor intensive training that follows four long years of medical school. What no one tells you is that you will question your commitment to medicine on more than one …

Match Day Spotlight 2014: Pediatrics

Published by Christopher Deans

Recent fourth-year matcher Margaret Schellen of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE tells us what she believes to be crucial to success in medical school and beyond. 1. Tell us about yourself: Where are you from? What is your undergraduate degree and where did you receive it? Did you do anything between undergraduate and medical school? Margaret Schellen: I am from Waterloo, NE. I received my bachelor’s degree from University of Nebraska-Omaha in biotechnology. …

Match Day Spotlight 2014: Family Medicine, Take Two

Published by Christopher Deans

Recent fourth-year matcher Samantha Balass out of McGill University School of Medicine gives us her wise words on succeeding in medical school and beyond. 1. Tell us about yourself: Where are you from? What is your undergraduate degree and where did you receive it? Did you do anything between undergraduate and medical school? Samantha Balass: I was born in Montreal. I did my undergraduate degree in physiology at McGill. I got into medical school right after …

Reflection on a Code Blue

Published by Gillian Johnston

The usual morning solitude of the small rural Kansas hospital was shattered with the overhead announcement no one wants to hear. Code Blue. Stillness turned to ordered chaos. The room was quickly prepared for the impending arrival of the ambulance. We gathered as much information about the patient as possible. Nineteen years old. Overdose. Found unresponsive. Before we had time to assemble these disordered pieces of the puzzle, he had arrived. The entire staff responded …

Match Day Spotlight 2014: Anesthesiology

Published by Christopher Deans

Kunal Sualy, a recent fourth-year matcher out of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE, gives us his expert advice on succeeding in medical school and beyond. 1. Tell us about yourself: Where are you from? What is your undergraduate degree and where did you receive it? Did you do anything between undergraduate and medical school? Kunal Sualy: I am from Omaha, NE. I went to Creighton University, and got an undergraduate degree in …

It Used to Be a Tiger

Published by Michelle Huyser

I witnessed my first code while I was doing my first internal medicine rotation at a hospital in the Twin Cities; it just so happened to be one of my team’s patients. He was a difficult and grumpy guy who regularly swore at his nurses and refused parts of his health care. A couple days prior to the code, my team and I were group rounding when we visited him. He was his usual disgruntled …

Match Day Spotlight 2014: Radiology

Published by Christopher Deans

Editor’s note: A letter of advice from recent fourth-year matcher (and in-Training writer) Kerri Vincenti of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences on surviving, succeeding and maintaining sanity in medical school. I’ve been attending the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences for the past four years. I was born and raised on Long Island and attended undergrad at the University of Delaware, co-majoring in marketing and management. I graduated college …

The Journey Down the Medical Rabbit Hole

Published by Elizabeth Brunn

Pursuing a career in health care has created opportunities I could have never imagined possible, welcomed or not. The bond a physician has with his patient is not something that can be recreated in any other field. Prior to medical school, I knew I would be exposed to situations and learn the intricate privacies that most people do not have the blessing to learn. But of course I could have never predicted how deep the …