Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine
Shan is in the Class of 2016 at University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician and father of Western medicine, once said, “To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art—if they desire to learn it—without fee and …
Editor’s note: This article was originally published here by contributing writer Samantha Margulies. We take exams. We take patient histories. We may or may not go to class. We study… a lot. Before all of this, however, we were newly inducted first-year medical students, and Dr. Slaby introduced our class to our very first patients. They would become our best study buddies. While he spoke to us and explained how class would work, I thought about their families—you. …
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’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 …
Today I was told that, because of the profession I have chosen, I am at a high risk for suicide. And so commences the medical ethics portion of medical school. While this was not the line with which the lecture began — which I’m sure would have evoked terror in most of the stern-faced-but-wide-eyed first-years that faced the front of the room — it was stated directly and at point-blank, roughly halfway through the introductory …
On Friday, January 25, 2013, my classmates and I prepared for a ceremony of remembrance, a ceremony which would represent our sentiments of honor and solemn appreciation of the lives and selfless acts of donation to the medical field of the men and women who were our anatomical donors. Over a nine-week course, we spent countless hours in the anatomy lab studying the human body from the inside out. Among our tools in mastering the …
Editor’s note: This article was originally published here by contributing writer Samantha Margulies. “Did I tell everybody I love them?” Daniel Gaballa worried as he drove over two hours away from his medical school. He turned into a long driveway leading to a few white buildings. With farmland on both sides, Gaballa and his friends could see the horizon. The Mayan predictions did not concern him at the moment. His world — not the whole world — could end today. …
It was Wednesday, August 4, 2010, a day I will never forget. I woke up that morning in anticipation of meeting a new friend who I had never met before. Up until this point, this friend was only in my dreams; I only had imagined how he would look, how old he would be, or where he would be from–let alone a multitude of other questions. Today was the day when I would meet this mystery …
Editor’s note: This article was originally published here by contributing writer Samantha Margulies. I have seen dead bodies before. Two of my grandparents had open caskets. I have previously visited two cadaver labs–once during a medical school tour and once visiting a friend at medical school. Similar to seeing my grandparents, I feel a pull into the lab to see the cadaver I will soon dissect. The entire class of 2016 walks into the gross anatomy lab after …
The conversations among my fellow MS1s have evolved dramatically over the last three months. Mid-August, we were energetic and extremely excited to start this next chapter of our lives. For some, putting on the white coat was an expectation since childhood. For others, like myself, this was an unexpected, yet exciting, career change. We all walked into orientation ready to take on the world! Why wouldn’t we be thrilled? We beat thousands of qualified applicants …
Imagine having a shiny ice pick pushed into your eye and up into your brain, waved around for a couple of minutes, and then taken out. This is exactly what happened to the patients of Dr. Walter Freeman, the man who led one of the darkest periods in the history of psychiatry in our country. In the early 1930s, Dr. Freeman thought that he was destined to do great things in medicine. As the grandson …
The life of a medical student is a rapid succession of lectures, small group sessions, exams, clinical experiences, workshops, meetings, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. As such, there has never been a more perfect time to stop and smell the roses. Seriously. As described in the blossoming literature, mindfulness techniques quite literally offer the opportunity to stop, breath, and take in the present moment -– roses, exams and all. Mindfulness is the nonjudgmental observation and …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine
Nicole is a Class of 2015 medical student at the University of British Columbia, Canada, who enjoys the unique perspective her bachelor's of tourism management provides her in medicine.
