Physician Assistant Student Guest Writer
Stanford University School of Medicine
Sophi Scarnewman is a physician assistant student at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, CA, class of 2024. In 2013, she graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in American studies. Her favorite weekend activities are taking her son to the farmers' market, cycling away her woes in a Peloton ride, and hiking with her husband. Upon graduation, Sophi is excited to pursue a role in pediatrics or psychiatry.
As my fellow PA students and I compared notes after our first cadaver dissection session with our medical student colleagues here at Stanford University, we discovered that more than a few of us had fielded slightly abashed questions from our MD student counterparts along the lines of, “So, what exactly is a PA?”
The crumpled old gentleman nestled in the armchair of his hospital room, bundled in blankets from the warmer down the hall, cards from his family propped up like a miniature Stonehenge on the table beside him. I listened closely to his heart and lungs, eyed the half-full urinal hooked onto his bed frame, and drew my fingers along his shins.
In my second year of medical school, amidst the frequent exams and impending doom of third year rotations, I would often look forward to Tuesday nights. On these nights, students and residents would come together to play pick-up basketball at a local gym, removed from the stresses of medical school.
One step and then another; / the end is near! The end is nearly here! / And yet, it is not. Not yet near. / So, I carry on, though I am weary, / though my telomeres shorten or because my telomeres shorten,
The following infographic is the result of my goal to create a resource, backed by literature, from the perspective of a medical student to help other students become fluent in the “language” of oral case presentations at the start of any clerkship rotation.
One of the most powerful paradoxes of medical education is that we learn how to heal the living by dissecting the dead. Our cadavers house the beauty and intricacies of human creation, the distinctiveness yet commonality of each human body and the finality of decline.
My Grandmother never once told me how / she feels about dying.
There are two main types of advocacy: community-based advocacy — which consists of direct provision of services to marginalized populations — and political advocacy — which involves crafting legislation that affects a large group of people.
I work with four other medical students at the family medicine clinic. I am the only female medical student — our attending is also male.
she is curled on her side like a child / eyes closed, back exposed.
Many people told me that my third year of medical school would be both the most rewarding and the most difficult. That I would choose my future specialty and discover my specific path in medicine — a task which, as I began the year, seemed both exciting and daunting. Little did I know that during my third year of medical school, I would learn just as much about myself as I would about patient care and the practice of medicine.
This is a reimagination of anatomy from the outside in.
Contributing Writer
University of Washington School of Medicine
Betelhem is a fourth year medical student at University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA class of 2023. She graduated from University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering. She enjoys creative writing and spending time with friends and family in her free time.
