Contributing Writer
Albany Medical College
Medha Palnati is a medical student at Albany Medical College in Albany, NY, class of 2026. She has a passion for refugee and immigrant health, and has worked with refugees and migrants in various capacities over the last eight years. Medha plans to pursue a career in Family Medicine with hopes to serve the refugee and migrant community as a future physician.
15. Fifteen minutes before I was supposed to leave the hospital, April’s pager went off. That beep, beep, beep is now forever seared in my mind. She pulled up the imaging of the patient we were about to meet, barely looking up as the ICU physician, Dr. Wissman, whizzed by her. “I accepted a crazy transfer,” he called out without stopping, “it’s from an urgent care.” April’s green eyes darted up and down the computer …
I walk into my patient’s room as he is receiving a blood transfusion with a guitar strapped across my back and sheet music in hand. He is used to seeing me in the early mornings when the surgical team rounds. He has been in the hospital for a week now, recovering from a liver cancer resection. He had joked with me in the operating room before he went under anesthesia, and I had looked forward …
The ability to empathize and to wonder is fundamental to being human. These aspects of thought allow us to expand our knowledge and deepen our connections with others. Before starting medical training, I believed I would maintain my own sense of wonder, perhaps even expand it through new experiences. Yet after three years of medical school, I have found this more difficult than expected. Although medical education has certainly broadened my mind and offered remarkable …
The transition from the classroom to the hospital was an incredible experience. After spending endless days behind a bright screen, I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement to finally apply my medical knowledge and delve into the world of patient care.
We are very excited to commence the 2023-2024 academic year with you all! As the years go on, medicine and medical education, inevitably, continue to evolve.
When I was growing up, I used to love a particular series of video games called Trauma Center. In 2010, they released a version called Trauma Team where you got to play as various medical specialists, one of whom was simply considered a “Diagnostician.” Dr. Gabriel Cunningham’s “cases” were some of the most challenging because you were presented with an array of symptoms, imaging, and lab work and started ruling in or ruling out diagnoses until you got the right answer.
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.
In my high school years, I had an English teacher, Mr. Moon, who once remarked that his dream would be to “write a paper” about a certain book we were reading, and publish it somewhere. “Write a paper”? Was he kidding? In his free time, he was going to write?
During my Step 1 dedicated study period, I remember looking at these visual comparisons of an early version of First Aid and the most recent edition and feeling righteous indignation bubble up inside me. The former was thin and worn and tattered while the latter was thick, hefty, solid. Hundreds of pages longer, the newest edition felt impenetrable and impossible to commit to memory, expanding yearly with new minutiae to scrutinize.
The hospital room is / fair, square, sterile — / by its vapid / medical posters / and lusterless hospital tools.
Ruchica Chandnani, Class of 2024 at the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine, contributes this poem as an in-Training writer and current managing editor of the publication since 2021.
2020 was a tough year for all of us (and 2021, and 2022…), but it brought me closer to the medical humanities. The pandemic was the reason that I began to write.
Columnist
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
Neha Deo is a fourth year medical student at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, MN class of 2023. In 2018, she graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with Distinction. She enjoys working out, keeping up to date on high fashion culture, and spending time with friends. After graduating medical school, Neha would like to pursue a career in dermatology and engage in global health education and research to create opportunities for Fijians like herself.
Navigating Different Relationships in Medical School
It can be difficult to balance relationships with medical school -- not just a romantic one, but also those with our family and friends. With this column I hope to show a more vulnerable side of the challenges that come with balancing medical school and maintaining our personal relationships. If you are reading this and are feeling the same, just know you are not alone!
