Tag: medical education

Jarna Shah (4 Posts)

Editor Emeritus: Former Medical Student Editor (2013-2015) and Physician Guest Writer

University of Illinois College of Medicine

Jarna Shah is an CA-2 resident in anesthesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is interested in the development of medical education, mentorship, and healthcare. She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of in-House (in-housestaff.org), a sister publication of in-Training. In her free time, she bakes ridiculous desserts, practices martial arts, and writes novels every November.

AMA Med Ed Conference: What is the Future of Medical Education?

Published by Jarna Shah

On October 4 – 5, 2013, the American Medical Association hosted the “Accelerating Change in Medical Education Conference” in Chicago, IL., bringing together leaders in the realm of medical education for discussions aimed at “closing the gap between current physician training and the needs of our evolving health care system.” In attendance were two in-Training editors, Emily Lu and Jarna Shah, who reported on the conference and offer their in-depth medical student perspectives on the …

On Becoming a Doctor: Excellent Medical Student, Terrible Clinician

Published by Amy Ho

There is a saying that you enter medical school wanting to help people but exit it wanting to help yourself. It may be a cynical view, but a realistic one. The criteria to being a good medical student are far different from being a good doctor. Medical education may be breeding a legion of self-serving, grade-grubbing, SOAP-note spewing machines rather than the “empathetic,” “compassionate” and “caring” physicians of admission essays yore. I was no different. …

No Mom, You’re Not Interrupting Me, I’m Always Studying

Published by Aisha Harris

Okay. So, I am in medical school. As in, really in medical school. Let’s take a moment and let that sink in. Tilt your head back and think about it. There aren’t many people that get into medical school. I won’t simply say it’s competitive; that belittles that fact that medical school has a significant lack of enrollment opportunities compared to the much-talked-about demand for future physicians. But really, I am a first-year medical student. …

I Don’t Know: The Medical Student Motto

Published by Daniel Lefler

It took one day of medical school to kick me off the high horse I rode through the months leading up to it. “Repeat after me,” said one of our administrators as he quieted down the eager students. “I am a first-year, and I know nothing. Remember that.” It was completely true. (A year later, it probably still is.) To all of my family members who keep asking me what that rash is: I don’t …

An Open Letter to the Self-Loathing D.O. Students

Published by Will Jaffee, DO

Here’s a curious phenomenon I can’t help but notice as an osteopathic medical student: the attempt that some osteopathic medical students make to distance themselves from the two letters that will soon piggyback their names forever. (I’ll give you a hint: the first letter isn’t M). As a member of my school’s curriculum committee, I sent out a handful of formal and informal surveys to gather students’ input on a variety of topics. Without fail, there would …

To Being Doctors-to-Be

Published by Mrigank Warrier

We who were always overachievers. Who missed the dusk of our adolescence solving multiple-choice questions. We who began our adult lives spending alternate days with corpses. Who carry bones in our bags and books that break our backs. Who spend the best years of youth in the grime of wards. Who have already witnessed a lifetime’s share of deaths. Who learn about depression but fail to recognise it in ourselves. We who have no definite …

The Ethnicity Factor in Choosing a Physician

Published by Qing Meng Zhang

I would like to begin this article with a question: Do the name and ethnicity of a doctor affect your decision when choosing a physician? America has always been a melting pot with diverse cultures and ethnicity. The medical field is a melting pot in its own right with its own politics, conflicts, racial disparities and the like. When I was starting medical school, my mother suggested that I should change my Chinese first name …

On the Road with Atul Nakhasi: AMA-MSS Chair and the Person Behind the Next Medical Student Revolution

Published by Meena Thatikunta

Atul Nakhasi has been called the most sought-after young man in Iowa—2007 Person of the Year, Campus Kingmaker, you name it—for his game-changing political organizing as president of University of Iowa Democrats during the 2008 presidential election. Atul now oversees 50,000 U.S. medical students as chair of the American Medical Association Medical Student Section (AMA-MSS). I vividly remember the email Atul sent to me during his campaign for chair almost a year ago. He casually …

Not Enough LGBT Training in Medical School

Published by Neil Kalsi

Approximately 3-5% of the population in the United States identifies as homosexual or as having sex with a person of the same gender at some point in their life. That is approximately eight to 12 million individuals. In comparison, the population of Boston, MA is around four million people. Los Angeles, CA has a population of approximately 10 million. These statistics suggest that engaging in sex with a partner of the same gender or being transgender is not uncommon.

ACT NOW. Save GME.

Published by Meena Thatikunta

Dear medical students: our fates are being decided by Congress on March 1 — we don’t have time to dilly-dally, so here is a high-yield summary of this piece. Congress may cut graduate medical education (GME) funding on March 1. (GME funds residency programs). Congress is considering cuts as high as 50%, which translates into thousands of residency programs and thousands of residency slots on the chopping block. That’s your future on the line. I’ll let the …

LGBT Health: A Story Behind the Statistics

Published by Meena Thatikunta

Let’s keep it real: this is a long piece and you have to study, dear medical student. But just for a moment, I’ll ask you to think upon your own LGBT medical education experience. Do you feel prepared? Do you know what to ask? Do you know how to ask it? The answers to these questions may vary from an enthusiastic “yes” to “I have to study now” to “…no.” Regardless of where you fall, …

The Incompetence of Competence

Published by Andrew Petersen

It was 3 a.m. in the emergency room. I had the ultrasound probe in my hand and was searching for a 50-something-year-old man’s bladder. He had not been able to urinate for over 10 hours and was in terrible pain. I figured his bladder had to be the size of a basketball by now. I stared intently at the black and white fuzzy screen, trying to interpret the landmarks. I did not see the large …

Andrew Petersen (2 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Andrew hails from Thousand Oaks, CA and studied psychology and integrative biology at UC Berkeley. He is now a Class of 2013 medical student at the University of Cincinnati and is planning to match into internal medicine.