Contributing Writer
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Van is a second-year medical student at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in the class of 2024. In 2019, he graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Science in human biology and society with a concentration in bioethics and public science policy. He enjoys watching and talking about films, snowboarding, and completing the daily Wordle. In the future, Van would like to pursue a career in radiology.
During one of my first patient encounters at the clinic, I remember a young and seemingly indifferent patient come in with earbuds plugged in her ears. Her hands tightly grasped the arms of the exam chair as she anxiously awaited the arrival of the clinic optometrist.
The COVID-19 pandemic has relegated medical students to the sidelines of clinical duty. Cancellation of in-person class and clinical rotations combined with protocols for social distancing have left us without our normally packed schedules and to-do lists. Eager to help, many have begun grassroots efforts to support physicians and other frontline health care workers outside of clinical settings and beyond typical roles.
In our undergraduate careers and as far back as high school, we were encouraged, and often required, to volunteer and serve our community. Whether it was a project we believed in or just something to put on our resumes, volunteering was a part of every medical student’s life before enrolling. As classes have grown more hectic and free time becomes scarcer throughout the years, service activities are often cut from the schedule. It is not unusual for medical students to leave behind passions; I know concert violinists who no longer play, Division I athletes who no longer compete, and people who traveled all over the world that never leave the library.
Medicine is the career path I have chosen to pursue, and I feel grateful to live in a city I adore while I work in a field I love. I have long taken for granted that I can make choices about where I want my life to go because of the freedoms I have in this country, because of my family and friends’ support, and because of the resources that are available to me. Ultimately, …
I began volunteering at an interesting time in Chiapas. My medical school was gracious enough to let me participate in a year-long project in Mexico between my second and third years working and teaching for VIVA, an international volunteer group lead by Darinel Ballianas. In June of 2013, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto began introducing laws to restructure the educational and health systems of the country. If passed, they would further privatize the country’s health care …
It was an unusually warm Saturday in October, and my alarm started buzzing. I wanted so badly to shut it off, but my conscience told me this was not an option. I had to get up so that I could go help my fellow classmates weed and plant at the community garden. This is because part of the curriculum at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) includes 40 hours of community service a year. …
Author’s note: This article was written by Sian Hsiang-Te Tsuei and Amy Po-Yu Tsai. Pham (2013) questioned medical students’ underlying reason for volunteering to perform physical exams at free clinics and concluded in the article “Volunteering in Medical School: A Waste of Time?” that volunteering will never be a waste of time because medical students matriculate to “improve the quality of life for humankind, to service the underserved and to advocate for our patients who …
“Would you like one meatball or two?” The words stumbled off my tongue as I smiled sheepishly at the people I was serving dinner to. Throughout my first few weeks of medical school, I had frequently experienced the same acute awareness of my own inadequacy. From long hours spent in the gross anatomy lab in a mixed state of amazement, perplexity and reverence, to the scrutiny of seemingly cryptic pink shapes in histology lab, I …
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 …
“Are you going to sign up to volunteer this quarter?” I asked my classmate after hearing about an upcoming volunteering opportunity for a homeless shelter clinic. “Volunteering? Why?” came a brisk and seemingly astonished response from her. “Uh, well, it’s a good opportunity to gain some clinical skills,” I responded, “and don’t you wanna have some volunteering experience when you apply for residency?” “It’s a waste of time! Residencies only care about good grades and …
Tonight is not any different. A list of twenty-five patients to be seen. A standing room full of eager volunteer medical students — who just can’t wait to do some doctoring — and a lone attending physician, a family physician who probably enjoys seeing the medical students acting important, walking around with their shiny stethoscopes around their necks, more than anything else. On second thought, maybe the doctor is here every week because he wants …
Since the beginning of medical school, I have always been astonished at the fact that my preceptors often had no idea what was going on with their patients. Many times, they resorted to prescribing Tylenol, simply telling their patients to come back if the condition became worse. Gastric ulcer? Tylenol. Terrible headache? Tylenol. Joint aches? Tylenol. Period cramps? Tylenol. Of course, they were family doctors with years and years of experience, but it came to …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine
Currently in Canada. Loving every moment of the way.
