Contributing Writer Emeritus
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Hi! I am a Class of 2014 medical student at Georgetown University, with plans to pursue family medicine. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2009 with degrees in chemistry and the history and philosophy of science, I moved to D.C. for medical school. I love D.C. because it has been an amazing place of opportunity for me to pursue my interests in health policy, underserved medical care, cultural awareness and education, and the arts. There is nothing that an open mind can't teach us, and writing is one of the greatest expressions of what we learn from the world, our experiences, and ourselves.
Chennai, India. “How are you feeling?” I asked an elderly woman in Tamil, the local language. She had recently been diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease at the hospital. I struggled to hide my excitement of finally being able to interact with an inpatient after three weeks of waiting for a “TB-free ward.” In the western world, we quarantine patients with tuberculosis; here they are one of the many patients in the general ward who are seen …
It was my second day rotating through the palliative care service at an Atlanta hospital. The first day, I rounded on the floor with the nurse practitioner. The patients were all ill, but none were in the last stages of death like I had expected. On this day, I worked with the physician on the inpatient hospice unit of the hospital. These patients were taking their final breaths; their care was about providing comfort and …
I entered medical school with the intention of becoming a primary care physician. In my previous years, I was an engineer and researcher, and my affinity for problem solving combined with deeply held interests in quality improvement, patient safety, integrative medicine and nutrition, naturally led me in the direction of primary care. Early in my third year of medical school, however, I found myself disillusioned. The primary care I had experienced was not quite what …
There are some cases you see in the hospital that compel or affirm your interest in a specific field of medicine. I have always been interested in infectious disease (ID), and I am known as “the bug guy” in my class. It’s an odd choice, and I am one of the few that I have met in my class with a true passion for ID. I admit that it seems a bit alienating at times, …
“Women shouldn’t be surgeons; it is impossible to find a balance between being a mother and a great surgeon.” These were the words I constantly ran into as I started to consider a surgical specialty for my future career. At first, I paid heed to these words and decided to become a pediatric cardiologist. However, before long I realized I just could not be a clinician for life. The idea of treating patients with medications …
Upon entering medical school, we all knew that we would have to deal with some difficult diagnoses, emotional situations and even death. In fact, even the earliest portions of our training were centered around a cold, lifeless cadaver that we cut into to learn the intricate anatomy and beauty of the human body. To a first-year medical student, gross anatomy symbolizes the profound meaning of what it is to embark on the long journey of …
I am about to enter one of the most exciting times of my medical school training — my fourth year. This upcoming year is a time filled with Step 2 board studying, elective rotations and, of course, the application process for the 2014 Match. This time is both exciting and scary because I will be working in specialties that I may never do again while at the same time selecting and preparing for a specialty …
“Leadership is taking responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty.” Marshall Ganz The first time I heard one of Marshall Ganz’s lectures, I was astounded. His topic that day was leadership in social movements and was informed by his work experiences, including his contributions to the civil rights movement under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ganz used his examples to outline five practices of leadership that we …
Family medicine is not something I selected once and took for granted. In contrast it seems that family medicine is a path I chose in the past when I studied public health, am choosing as I begin residency, and will continue to choose as I grow into the physician I desire to be. As with any weighty decision, the act of choosing family medicine along with the events that follow reify this career path thus far …
I guess you could call me a late bloomer. I certainly wasn’t one of those people who had known since receiving their Fisher Price doctor bag at age five that they would one day grow up to be a pediatrician. And when I started medical school four years ago, I still didn’t have the slightest clue what type of physician I would ultimately become. In making my third year schedule, I became acutely aware of …
I was on my internal medicine clerkship on an inpatient general medicine service at a major academic medical center. It was another long day and our team, from the interns to the attending, was running low on energy. As we entered late afternoon, we received a page for the transfer of a new patient to our service. As the intern read aloud “CMO” — comfort measures only–the team breathed out a sigh of relief and …
From the first day of medical school orientation, we have been advised to maintain a life outside of the walls of the hospital and to continue our own hobbies and interests. This often feels overwhelming among the endless classes, exams, clerkships and applications, not to mention extracurricular activities. We all want to be a model medical student, battling our desires to be a good friend, husband, wife and person. I find medicine to be an …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Andrew hails from Thousand Oaks, CA and studied psychology and integrative biology at UC Berkeley. He is now a Class of 2013 medical student at the University of Cincinnati and is planning to match into internal medicine.
