Contributing Writer
University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
Stephanie is second year medical student from Southern California. She enjoys a diverse background spending her undergrad years as a hairstylist, getting a minor in Business, and doing stem cell research-- among other things. Her interests continue to vary from community volunteer work in underserved areas, eating vegan food all over the map, and reading as many true crime books as she can while continuing to study during her 3rd year of medical school.
My medical education has been a long journey to this point — a journey filled with many obstacles and detours resulting in moments of self-reflection and personal growth. One of the most important detours on my journey led to me being relocated to Riverside University Health System (RUHS) for a longitudinal care assignment.
“So, how would we test for PBC?” my professor asks from the front of the room.
I know that being a third-year medical student is like being a transplanted kidney. One starts the day in one body. School is composed of lecture halls and written exams. However, the world has shifted by the end of the day, and shockingly, one’s old body is not present.
There are patients who leave lasting impressions on us in one way or another throughout our training. I had never expected an angry, alcoholic patient who left against medical advice to be one of those patients for me.
I am writing to share my concern regarding a series of unusual and troubling cases affecting medical professionals across the country. It manifests as a selective form of hemineglect in otherwise neurologically intact individuals.
The practice of humanism must be at the core of medicine, and this different model, entitled the biopsychosocial (BPS) model, permits and exemplifies this practice.
A patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) suddenly develops respiratory distress and hypoxemia. Her lungs sound clear bilaterally. She is placed on supplemental oxygen via face-mask while a chest angiography is ordered to assess the possibility of a pulmonary embolism.
Nutritional education, as an appendage to conventional medical education, has the power to close the gap by equipping physicians with more well-rounded knowledge to help patients manage the more unmanageable conditions.
I want my residents and attending physicians to be aware of the elements that have so far shaped my medical school experience–a certain racial awareness, if you will–and to be as enthusiastic about teaching me as I am about learning from them.
The best mentor-mentee relationships I am a part of have allowed me to make mistakes while encouraging me and giving me targeted ways of doing better the next time around. They have also consisted of developing realistic goals and expectations. But, above all, they have taken what I bring to the table and helped elevate what is already there, not change it.
Previously, the only health care provider who possessed a doctorate degree was the physician. However, with the rise in educational standards across the United States, many health care professionals now must earn doctorates in their field before even beginning their careers.
Whenever my friends or family ask, “How’s medical school?” I have a simple, scripted response … But this response relays a fraction of what medical school has been like.
Writer-in-Training
Warren Alpert Medical School
Jeffrey Lam is a second year medical student at Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island. Jeff was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. In 2016, he earned his Bachelor of Science in health and human biology from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Jeff's senior thesis focused on the intersection between positive psychology and public health. Before medical school, Jeff worked on public health research in Hanoi, Vietnam. In his free time, Jeff enjoys thinking, lifting heavy things, having good conversations, dabbling in new hobbies, and learning about himself and the world. After medical school, Jeff would like to pursue a career in internal medicine or psychiatry.
