A Reflection on Third Year
Like many medical students, I was vastly underprepared for the emotional turmoil that the nature of the third year of medical school can create.
Tag: medical education
Contributing Writer
Florida State University College of Medicine
Elora is a fourth-year medical student at the Florida State University College of Medicine, class of 2023. She graduated from Florida State University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology. She hopes to pursue a career in internal medicine and potentially pursue a fellowship in hematology-oncology. Elora enjoys being a dog step-mom, cooking, exercising, and true crime podcasts.
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Awareness of mental health and burnout concerns amongst physicians is simply insufficient; there is a dearth in actionable guidelines for training programs and medical schools to better medical student wellbeing.
An Unexpected Apology
Over the next few days, workup revealed she was experiencing paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, a manifestation of her occult cancer. In a matter of three days, a patient who had come in for seemingly benign constipation was told she had metastatic lung cancer.
The Residency Question: Is the Modern Man Resilient?
The interviewer smiled, gave a vague answer and followed it with a diatribe about how present-day residents have it so “easy.” How his generation had to “walk through feet and feet of snow” to get to work and how work hour restrictions did not exist. Caught off guard, I wondered what sparked such an emotional response to a common interview question.
More Than Skin Deep: A Lesson From an Unusual Rash
It was my third day on my home dermatology elective, and I boldly volunteered to see a patient by myself. As a third-year medical student strongly considering dermatology for my future career, I had studied for weeks for this rotation, hoping to make an impression as a confident, knowledgeable and reliable doctor-in-training. Usually, medical students shadow for two weeks before seeing patients on their own, but I was eager to be more independent. This was my chance to demonstrate everything I was working toward.
Doing
Deadlines rush on, relentlessly. / Another email signed, / “Best regards.”
No. 17A
My attention swung back and forth between my mom, my screen and the pairs of eyes periodically peering into the hospital room. I focused on the next question on my screen. Another patient had expired as if they were a carton of milk left too long in the fridge.
Maintaining Thick and Thin Skin
Third-year rotations forced me to reckon with my emotional capacity as a human and future physician. With each patient encounter, I had to decide whether my skin was too thick or too thin.
DVTs
Studying blood clots / While I sit for hours on end / Affixing my own.
From Classroom to Clinic: Building Effective Educators and Providers
Longitudinal community service presents health trainees with clear benefits including development of communication and interpersonal skills, understanding how to teach and insight into community level issues and personal well being.
in-Training’s Role in Cultivating the Medical Humanities, by Samuel Rouleau, MD
Simply put, the humanities seek to capture the mosaic of human existence across the chasms of jubilation and despair, life and death, love and fear. The humanities are both disciplines of academic study and modes of expression.
You
You’ve taken everything / Nothing is left
Contributing Writer
Medical College of Wisconsin
Sarah is a third year medical student at Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin class of 2023. In 2019, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in both biochemistry and Spanish language. She enjoys spending time with her husband Ben, creating artwork, and practicing pilates in her free time. After graduating from medical school, Sarah would like to pursue a career in orthopaedic surgery.