Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
I am currently a Class of 2015 medical student at the University of Colorado. I am a CU student through and through, and went to CU Boulder for undergraduate. I grew up in various parts of Colorado, but consider Summit County, CO to be home. I have decided to pursue OB/GYN for my career, and can't wait to spend my life delivering babies and advocating for women's health.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Dear (future) self, I imagine that you’re busy right now. Like really busy. Like the coffee-driven, adrenaline-fueled, sleep-deprived kind of busy that you experienced to a lesser degree in medical school except now you’re actually expected to care for patients. Of course, by “care for patients,” I mean “avoid doing dumb things to patients.” A terrifying thought, the burden of patient care, but I’m sure you’re learning and becoming more confident by the day. Why, …
Developing moderately-severe to severe sensorineural hearing loss in my last year of college came as a total shock. My first reaction was a combination of bewilderment and denial. Every day I hoped I was getting better, but repeated tests showed nothing was improving. By what I felt was necessity, I became quite isolated. Repeated attempts at social engagement led to repeated failure. It was very difficult to understand what anyone was saying, particularly in locations …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of Illinois College of Medicine
Greg is a Class of 2015 medical student at University of Illinois College of Medicine.
