Fourth Year: Fences
The last year of medical school heralds more than just the end of an era. It brings with it the confidence in a career choice doubted several times just a year ago.
Tag: medical education
Writer-in-Training
Emory University School of Medicine
Sarayu is a fourth year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine. She double majored in Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and minored in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When she's not doing med school related things, she loves exploring the food, music and comedy scenes of Atlanta.
Social Justice and the in-Training Classroom: A New Resource for Medical Students
With constant attention to our mission, the in-Training Board regularly brainstorms new ways to reach our peers and serve the medical student community.
The Victim of an Angry Attending: Five Ways to Deal with Criticism
The point of my story is to outline a scenario that many of us as students have probably experienced: being the target of a superior’s anger. This isn’t the first time that an attending or senior has treated me poorly and unfortunately, it won’t be the last.
Losing Control
The most stressful part of the medical school application process for me was the last phase, when there was nothing I could do except wait to hear back. I feel most content when I know there are concrete actions I can take to influence an outcome I care about.
Last and First Days
Was it a fall? Did I miss the last step? These things I cannot recall / Hidden from sight, the blood crept from one lone vessel and began to compress / Nice to meet you, one medical student said, as he unzipped my sheath
The Minority Tax: An Unseen Plight of Diversity in Medical Education
Over 100 years since the 1910 Flexner Report resulted in the closure of all but two predominantly Black medical schools, underrepresented minority medical students and faculty still struggle to surface amid the rising currents of medical education.
On Happiness in Medical School
I was once asked if medical school is an unhappy place. It is a good question, the kind that it takes someone outside of medicine to ask.
Stairwells and Stethoscopes
“No, no, no,” I repeated, first silently and then as a whisper, as I frantically pushed the elevator button. The reliable elevator chime did not ring, and the button light would not stay on. “Great. Fantastic,” I sarcastically muttered.
Smile
The entirety of the third year of medical school is an act. If you want to be a good medical student, you are what your team wants you to be. Amenable, pliant, easygoing — even when inside you are a bitter angry little thing who’s tired of being pushed around.
Learning The Textbook Case
Staring at each high-yield line in First Aid, attempting to commit every word to memory, hour-upon-hour, is the life of a medical student. The stress, isolation and over-caffeination, amidst the constant influx of information, is overwhelming and can cause even the most compassionate student to forget why they are studying.
Are We All Impostors?
Is it just me? / Or does it seem / that my pride / will not let me be
Adding Value: The Case for Economics as a Medical Pre-Requisite
With health care spending becoming an increasingly important topic, medical schools will have to find a way to integrate the fundamentals behind high value care earlier in the curriculum. Students should be familiar core economic principles and how they apply to health care before they are treating patients.
Contributing Writer
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Third year medical student at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Big fan of health advocacy, urban pediatric health, and the Philadelphia Phillies.