Tag: medical student lifestyle

Kimberly Ku (2 Posts)

Editor Emeritus: Former Medical Student Editor (2012-2013) and Former Resident Editor (2013-2015)

Wayne State University School of Medicine

My name is Kimberly Ku, and I am a member of the Wayne State University School of Medicine Class of 2013. I graduated from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor with a double major in biology and anthropology. Since the start of medical school, I have been a fervent advocate of patient safety and quality improvement, founding the WSU Chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as well as the WSU SOM student organization, Wayne IHI. Through the IHI, I have written multiple quality improvement projects, including a grant award-winning project at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. I work closely with WSU's Vice Chair of Medical Education as well as many other faculty to promote greater patient safety and quality improvement mindfulness in the clinical curriculum of both the WSU SOM and the residency programs at the Detroit Medical Center.

Outside of patient safety and quality improvement, I contribute widely to authorship and co-authorship of clinical research projects at the DMC. As a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, I am a strong believer of volunteerism and dedicating spare time to the creative arts. I am applying for an Internal Medicine residency program with specific interest in Oncology/Palliative Care. I also plan to pursue an MPH or MBA after residency in order to incorporate public policy/business management into my work as a future academic physician.




Choosing Internal Medicine: Reflections from a Graduating Medical School Senior

Published by Kimberly Ku

“Leadership is taking responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty.” Marshall Ganz The first time I heard one of Marshall Ganz’s lectures, I was astounded. His topic that day was leadership in social movements and was informed by his work experiences, including his contributions to the civil rights movement under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ganz used his examples to outline five practices of leadership that we …

Transitioning Onto the Wards as a Third-Year Student

Published by Valentina Bonev

The transition from the second to third year of medical school is like moving from adolescence to adulthood. Your first two years are relatively simple and you have few responsibilities beyond studying. Then, you begin third year and not only do you have to study, but you have to take care of someone else’s health. Most of the transitions only require a minor adjustment to your daily activities. For instance, you’ll finally be able to …

Vegetarian Feasting in Guatemala

Published by Madeline Haas

In the summer vegetables are plentiful, but I find that it’s not always obvious how to get the most out of them. Two summers ago, when I had a community-supported agriculture share and more vegetables than I knew what to do with, I found myself making some pretty inedible vegetable soups and longing for more substance. In previous years, I’ve been enamored with the same corn, tomatoes and salad every night. This summer, I’m in …

Choosing Family Medicine: Reflections from a Graduating Medical School Senior

Published by Jocelyn Mary-Estelle Wilson

Family medicine is not something I selected once and took for granted. In contrast it seems that family medicine is a path I chose in the past when I studied public health, am choosing as I begin residency, and will continue to choose as I grow into the physician I desire to be. As with any weighty decision, the act of choosing family medicine along with the events that follow reify this career path thus far …

Choosing OB/GYN: Reflections from a Graduating Medical School Senior

Published by Nikki Nametz

I guess you could call me a late bloomer. I certainly wasn’t one of those people who had known since receiving their Fisher Price doctor bag at age five that they would one day grow up to be a pediatrician. And when I started medical school four years ago, I still didn’t have the slightest clue what type of physician I would ultimately become. In making my third year schedule, I became acutely aware of …

Bacteria and Chocolate Buttermilk Shakes

Published by Madeline Haas

Once again, it was on day four or five of mapping out microorganisms on a giant flowchart that I was struck by an idea that zoomed me out to the scale of human history. On our bodies live bacteria and viruses that we refer to as “normal flora” and with whom we happily coexist. In an oversimplified model, when humans interact with a new organism for the first time, either our immune systems kill it, …

I’m No Super(wo)man. Just Give Me a Wand.

Published by Jennifer Yang

In case you were wondering: Yes, the title of this column is a shameless display of my love for the television show, “Scrubs”. Multiple real MDs have affirmed that “Scrubs” is more true to life than all the other medical television shows — which I can only take to mean that I won’t be judged too badly if I ever yell “Eagleeee” in the middle of the hospital while running in slow motion toward my best …

Test Week, Stress Week

Published by Madeline Haas

In contrast to the idealistic chatter of last weekend, my mind lately has been in a bacteria-laden fog that perks up only in reference to pathogens or vectors. These days it’s fungi and caffeine that make me happiest. There has been a lot of caffeine, and around the house, each of us has just made our favorite lazy, unhealthy comfort food: Hamburger Helper, ramen and Annie’s mac and cheese. We could not have planned it better had …

Babies and Eggs

Published by Madeline Haas

One of the things that I love about science is that you can be immersed in biochemistry and anatomy when suddenly you stumble into something very moving, and you realize that you are at the crux of life and death. Take this preface to a lecture on growth hormone, delivered by a very old man with a thick Czech accent: When you get to the delivery room you will understand what a miracle it is …

A Med Student’s Guide To The OR

Published by Valentina Bonev

The OR is exciting for some, scary for others, and boring for the rest. No matter what you think before going into the OR, there are a few things you need to know to enhance your experience. 1. Show up on time to the procedure. It’s awkward introducing yourself in the middle of the procedure while the surgeon’s head is down and is intensely operating. 2. Find out the type of procedure before attending it …

A Cure for the Heart: Mushroom Swiss Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Published by Haritha Sishtla

The year is winding down, and our classmates are getting ready to spend their time at home…studying. Unfortunately for us second-years, the next six weeks will be spent with our noses in First Aid, memorizing each and every word as we study for the most important exam of our careers: Step 1. While most of us will be at home studying for the summer enjoying mom’s home-cooked food and having our laundry taken care of, …

Happiness Within: Work-Life Imbalance

Published by Andrew Petersen

From the first day of medical school orientation, we have been advised to maintain a life outside of the walls of the hospital and to continue our own hobbies and interests. This often feels overwhelming among the endless classes, exams, clerkships and applications, not to mention extracurricular activities. We all want to be a model medical student, battling our desires to be a good friend, husband, wife and person. I find medicine to be an …

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.