Kimberly Ku (2 Posts)Editor Emeritus: Former Medical Student Editor (2012-2013) and Former Resident Editor (2013-2015)
Wayne State University School of Medicine
My name is Kimberly Ku, and I am a member of the Wayne State University School of Medicine Class of 2013. I graduated from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor with a double major in biology and anthropology. Since the start of medical school, I have been a fervent advocate of patient safety and quality improvement, founding the WSU Chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as well as the WSU SOM student organization, Wayne IHI. Through the IHI, I have written multiple quality improvement projects, including a grant award-winning project at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. I work closely with WSU's Vice Chair of Medical Education as well as many other faculty to promote greater patient safety and quality improvement mindfulness in the clinical curriculum of both the WSU SOM and the residency programs at the Detroit Medical Center.
Outside of patient safety and quality improvement, I contribute widely to authorship and co-authorship of clinical research projects at the DMC. As a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, I am a strong believer of volunteerism and dedicating spare time to the creative arts. I am applying for an Internal Medicine residency program with specific interest in Oncology/Palliative Care. I also plan to pursue an MPH or MBA after residency in order to incorporate public policy/business management into my work as a future academic physician.
“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 …
It was just a week into our third-year rotations and my class was eagerly awaiting our Step 1 scores while adjusting to the beginnings of our clinical responsibilities. When the day came that our scores were to be released, I received a phone call from my aunt who told me that my Pappou (grandfather), who was in Greece on his yearly summer trip, had collapsed on his veranda and was en route to a local …
It’s that time of the year again. For second-years, USMLE Step 1 is around the corner. For third-years, it’s Step 2. For fourth-years, their future careers are just months away. At times, the pressure of medical school looms and the daily challenges that students face become disheartening. That’s why I like to be reminded of short stories of people who did not necessarily go through medical school, but were faced with many hardships. Some were …
It was 3 a.m. in the emergency room. I had the ultrasound probe in my hand and was searching for a 50-something-year-old man’s bladder. He had not been able to urinate for over 10 hours and was in terrible pain. I figured his bladder had to be the size of a basketball by now. I stared intently at the black and white fuzzy screen, trying to interpret the landmarks. I did not see the large …
Editor’s note: This article was originally published here by contributing writer Paul Thomas. This morning, I had the good fortune of practicing medicine in a homeless shelter with Street Medicine Detroit (SMD). SMD is a student-run organization at Wayne State University School of Medicine that ventures out into the community and provides compassionate medical care to the underserved and homeless of Detroit. Because of the cold weather in Michigan, our “street run” took place inside a church just off …
Since that fateful day when I read the words ‘Congratulations, you have been accepted…’, I consider my medical education to be my ticket into the world of international development. With the tools I obtain through my medical degree, I dream of setting up medical clinics in remote jungles and responding to need following natural disasters. Prior to medical school, I served at a rural Salvation Army medical clinic in Ghana, where I was the lone …
Not everyone has the pleasure, or should I say honor, of being a part of the miracle that is life; even fewer get to say that they witness and influence that miracle every day. As a medical student, I have been privy to a whole new world of opportunities that have opened my eyes to how fragile life truly is and how much of a difference one person can make to affect the life (or …
Scene I: 7:30 a.m. in the OR at the VA [Elderly gentleman with too many comorbidities to be induced into sleep. He is given local anesthesia and lies draped on the operating table. General surgery is suctioning a fluctuant mass from his upper left thorax. Case has been opened.] Patient behind curtain: Oh, God. Oh, God! Errrgggggh! Anesthesiologist: We’re just gonna give you some more medicine. Chief Resident: It’s right around your broken rib. There …
Patrick McCabe (4 Posts)Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of Alabama School of Medicine
Patrick is a Class of 2014 medical student at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. Born and raised in California, he attended the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana and then spent two years applying his English major by teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth graders literature, grammar, and writing for the university's ACE program in Mobile, Alabama. Current extracurricular interests include trying to resume reading and writing as hobbies, watching films, listening to music and collecting film soundtracks, relaxing with friends, and waiting, with diminishing patience, for the Cal Golden Bears football team to have an undefeated season. He remains undecided about a potential field of practice.
