Tag: medical education

Jordan Perchik Jordan Perchik (3 Posts)

Contributing Writer

University of Tennessee Health Science Center


I am currently a medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and a proud contributor to in-Training.




Volunteering in Medical School

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.

Book Review: I Am Your Doctor, and This Is My Humble Opinion

History and the greater emergence of medical presence in popular media have placed physicians on a pedestal where they command significant power and respect. As healers and scholars who are privy to the secrets of the human body, physicians are often expected to shoulder great responsibilities for their fellow human being while still maintaining their own mental well-being.

The Beast

“Neuroanatomy lab exam. You’ve got this. You studied hard. You’re good at anatomy, you know that. Okay, found a tag you definitely know. Start at the one you know. You’ll be okay.” It’s the way I try to start every exam. I try to talk myself up to push away all of the negativity slowly flooding my brain. Anxiety is a tough card to be dealt, especially in medical school. There are only so many ways to cope with the mounting pressure.

But Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear?

“Mais où sont les neiges d’antan? But where are the snows of yesteryear?” Not many people are experts in medieval French poetry. It’s a tiny corner of academia, filled with people whose passions and imaginations lie a millennium in the past. And so many of those academics, and I do use that term in the most tweed-wearing, bookish, kindly way possible, have their classes relegated to the far corners of campus, to buildings who are themselves of a different century. Or at the very least, of an era before air conditioning.

From Flexner to Future: My Plan to Reform Medical Education

A few weeks ago, I was unhinging my jaw to swallow the proverbial firehose of information that is musculoskeletal medicine. At some stage between prying my mouth open and forcibly dislocating my temporomandibular joint (really the highest-yield medical procedure for medical students in the information age … I highly recommend it if you want to have at least a fighting chance at Step 1), the following scenario blossomed into my mind: A medical student from 1910 time travels to the present day to document out how medical training has changed, and he quickly takes note of a few other things.

Checking Boxes

Such was the start of clerkship, lost in a sea of paperwork and bureaucracy. A mountain of bookkeeping distributed to each student: due dates, boxes to check, requirements to fulfill and all with the threat of expulsion if any part was deemed incomplete. I understand the need to track what we experience for assessment, but the framing and focus of this introduction emphasized what should be a secondary to our learning.

Let Food Be Thy Medicine: Student-Run Nutrition Education Programs for Medical Students

Hippocrates, the ‘father of medicine’ said, “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” The role of nutrition in health has been recognized since the beginning of medicine, yet somehow nutrition education has fallen by the wayside in most medical curricula. Given that 34.9 percent of Americans are obese and obesity has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer, nutrition should be a focal point of medical education.

Kathryn Rachel Morrison Kathryn Rachel Morrison (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine


Katie is a Class of 2016 medical student at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, OH. She is originally from Columbus, OH and attended college at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. She is engaged to a 4th year HPSP student, who has matched to Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD in Internal Medicine. Katie hopes to join him in the D.C. area the following year.