Tag: medical education

Katharine Lawrence, MD Katharine Lawrence, MD (2 Posts)

Physician Guest Writer

New York University School of Medicine

Katharine Lawrence is an Internal Medicine resident in New York City. She received a BA in Anthropology from Vassar College, and a Master's of Public Health from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She attended FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, FL. Katharine's writing has appeared in numerous medical and literary journals, including Hektoen International, the New Physician, and KevinMD.




Are Women Really Bad Negotiators? Social Darwinism and the Gender Wage Gap in Medicine

Published by Katharine Lawrence, MD

In 2015, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research published an alarming statistic: on average, women made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. Even more alarming was the fact that when the study controlled for qualification or stratified by job title, the gender wage gap persisted. Unfortunately, medicine is not immune to the gender wage gap phenomenon. According to data from the US Census Bureau, women make up one-third of US physicians, but on average make only 69 cents for every dollar earned by their male colleagues. This results in over $56,000 in potential wages lost for women in medicine each year.

Perspective Gained: A Call for End-of-Life Care Training in Medical School

Published by Andrew Schneider

In today’s America, it is well documented that each year, more of our GDP is being devoted to healthcare spending, and a disproportionate amount of that healthcare spending is towards end-of-life care. According to a 2013 report from The Medicare NewsGroup, Medicare spending reached about $554 billion in 2011. This was 21 percent of the total spent on health care in the US that year. About 28 percent of that $554 billion — $170 billion — was spent on patients’ last six months of life.

Racial Discrimination as an African-American Medical Student

Published by Tequilla Manning

My recent psychiatry clerkship inspired me to examine racial relations during third-year rotations. This reflection originated from a physician submitting a particularly disturbing evaluation of me. She wrote: “[The student does not] recognize and address personal limitations or behaviors that might affect their effectiveness as a physician … [The student is] defensive, rigid, intense and intrusive; unable to see nuances in human behavior that is necessary for analyses of the human psyche; lower emotional quotient than peers.” Her response left me with an open-jawed, stuporous gaze. I could not believe that she had made this kind of assessment after interacting with me in only two patient encounters for less than half a day!

Doctors Don’t Like Fat People

Published by Annika Burnett

“I could never be a primary care doctor,” my friend and fellow medical student says as she pops a french fry into her mouth. There are five or six of us sitting around a hospital cafeteria table, grabbing a quick lunch between our morning and afternoon lectures. “I mean, seeing fat people with diabetes and heart disease all day. It would just be so frustrating, because they did it to themselves, you know?”

Occupational Physicians as Goaltenders

Published by Deland Weyrauch

I recently had the opportunity to shadow a local occupational medicine physician over spring break. I arrived at his office Monday morning expecting a brief day of clinic, maybe some conversation over lunch; maybe I get lucky and he pays for my sandwich. Within minutes of meeting him, though, the physician offered to host me for the entire week on a “mini-rotation.”

Student Protests Reveal a Systemic Disease

Published by Tehreem Rehman

As medical students, we recognize that bias in medicine is doubly damaging: it burdens our peers and it harms our patients. In the opening narratives we see both of these at play: in Micaela’s self-doubt and frustration, and in the intern’s judgment of their older, Latina patient. Such clinician bias has been increasingly shown to contribute to widespread health inequities.

Poker Face: When Patients Are Dealt Terrible Hands (2016)

Published by David Yu

Like poker, medicine has certain rules — patterns of clinical symptoms and lab findings each correlating with a specific spectrum of prognoses that vary in likelihood, the differential diagnosis. Physicians are like seasoned card players, trained to maintain composure and incorporate numerous variables into logical, calculated decisions at what seems like a “dealer’s table” of outcomes. Sometimes, we hedge our bets that the patient will self-resolve, so we elect not to treat; other times, we act conservatively with a battery of tests and pre-emptive therapy.

Resilience in Medical Education: Defining Burnout and How Role Models Can Help

Published by Rae Dong

Medical school is a notoriously challenging experience during which students undergo tremendous personal change and professional growth. Though the stressors that come along with this are varied and unique to each student’s context and experience, they may be categorized within a few common themes. Harvard psychiatrist Raymond Laurie has previously described the concept of “role strain” with respect to negotiating relationships with their families, friends, partners, peers, attending physicians and patients. Additionally, with regard to students’ concept of themselves, individuals who have high achievement may be challenged in new ways both intellectually and emotionally.

Why Would Anyone Choose Family Medicine?

Published by Farrah Fong

Throughout medical school and especially during our clinical rotations, students are often told to keep an open mind about choosing a specialty. This is sound advice, especially since many people change their minds once they are exposed to other fields. However, that does not mean that all specialties are perceived as equal — even in a primary-care focused medical school, third-year medical students often run into prejudice against FM. Worse, they may run into stereotypes about family med which could be enough to sway them away from the specialty they would really love.

Farrah Fong Farrah Fong (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine

Farrah Fong is in the Class of 2016 at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. She is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, double-majored in Exercise Biology and Music Performance (Piano) at UC Davis, and completed her graduate studies at Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She is a student writer for The DO, and a co-founder of FMStudent, a guide and resource page for third and fourth-year medical students interested in family medicine. Her hobbies outside of school include music, powerlifting, dancing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, cooking, and writing. She will be completing her Family Medicine residency at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.