medical student

Recess Rehash: Bropocalypse 2017

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bropoalypse

[Dave had the flu on recording day, so we’re posting this awesome episode from the recent past.  Enjoy!]

Dave found himself hosting with another group of women, so what better time to talk about #MeToo and the powerful people being taken down by their sexual harassment and abuse of their less-powerful victims? Erin Pazaski, Hillary O’Brien, Laura Quast, and Liza Mann weigh in on why this seems to have staying power in the news cycle, and why it seems to destroy some powerful men and not others. Plus, since this is a group of friends who, through med school, have come to know each other well, Dave challenges each to answer questions as their friends would.

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A Few Practical Thoughts for Dealing with Death in Medicine

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dealing with death

Death is an unfortunately common event in the field of medicine. How do you deal with it? How do you keep from dwelling on it, letting it shape your practice, making you too calloused or too emotional? These are important questions to think about as you begin your journey in patient care.

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Dealing with Subjectivity in Clinical Rotation Evaluations

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surgical specialties

One of my friends recently got back her evaluation from a rotation she had just completed. These evaluations, paired with the rotation’s shelf exam determine your score on that particular rotation. Therefore, these evaluations can be pretty important, especially if that is the field you plan to pursue. She looked down the column of various grading parameters and found that while she had received a satisfactory grade, it was not what she wanted. She called me the next week, crying into the phone about how she would never be able to fulfill her dreams because of this evaluation. Now, this may seem crazy to those who are not in medicine, but especially with mounting stress and increasing responsibility, the smallest things can tip people off. Meltdowns like hers are definitely not unheard of, and I have come close to having one myself. It’s hard to be a third year medical student, and the subjectivity of these grading systems that can exacerbate that.

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Med Student Parents, Part 2 | Plan for Debt but Don’t Worry

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This time, a mom’s point of view.

On our last show, we fielded a question from Courtney who wants to go to med school but is worried about being a mom and a med student. We got one dad’s perspective then, and now it’s time for mom. Dr. Maya Lopez (CCOM MD ’04) was another non-trad entering school with a supportive husband and a few bundles of joy. She told Eric Schnieders, Tucker Dangremond, and Sanjeeva Weerasinghe how she dove headlong into med school, how she and her husband (along with a village) made parenting and med school work for them.

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How Med Student Parents Make It Happen

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Can you be a parent while you’re in medical school?

Listener Courtney, a 26-year-old mother of three wants to know if her med school dream is even possible.  Obviously this is a two-part question since there are both moms and dads to consider, so we’ll have a mom on a future show to help.  But first, Gabe Conley, Marissa Evers, Joyce “Spicy” Wahba, and Kaci McCleary invited 2004 CCOM grad Dr. Tom McNalley on the show to represent the dads.  Tom was 39 with three kids of his own and a wife who was working towards her PhD when he entered med school.  We’ll find out how they did it.

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Q&A with Benjamin Stobbe, Executive Director of Clinical Simulation

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Chris Diem

Ask any doctor, in any specialty and of any age, and they will remember their training in medical school. It is full of learning, new experiences, new friends, and major strides in both personal and professional development. With so many changes, dozens of obstacles in each student’s life must be confronted and overcome. Fortunately, medical schools have extraordinary people who devote their time and talent to guiding and supporting medical students through their four years. This column interviews these people at medical schools around the country to help students learn more about the resources they have available during their years in school.

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The Power of Listening: What I Learned From My Trip to Rwanda, Africa

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listening

I woke up abruptly from my jet-lagged sleep surrounded by a bed net, two fans, and the smell of the DEET bug spray I had applied before going to bed. One of my team members was knocking on the door, saying that a large group of women was already outside the hostel where we were staying and had been waiting for us to come out. I was surprised to find out they had been coming every morning, anticipating our arrival, but I also realized how different this place had already become in my mind.

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Tales from the Clinic: from Theory to Practice

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There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

Kylie Miller and Issac Schwantes take a break from their fairly new clinical duties to let Gabe Conley and Erik Kneller know how it’s going working with actual patients. What unexpected things have they learned? Were their professors really correct when the said that arcane bit of information would actually be useful in the real world? Were their fears (whatever they were) realized? Would they rather grandma puke every time they broke wind, or have a shingles outbreak whenever they get a passing grade or better in medical school? Dave assures them: these are the questions listeners want answers to.

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Refusing to Treat: A Collision of Medicine and Conscience

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Do doctors need protection from having to provide treatments they don’t believe in?

During Human Rights Week at the Carver College of Medicine, we heard some hard truths from national news commentator, human rights activist, and podcaster Angela Rye. In her speech to the College of Medicine, she clued white people in on what black Americans face every day in 2017.  She also pointed out that Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech was just the beginning of his activism.  Meanwhile,  Mackenzie Walhof, Joyce Wahb, Claire Casteneda, and Gabe Conley discuss the department of Health and Human Services announcement that it would be forming a department to protect doctors from having their religious rights infringed. Do doctors need protection so they can refuse to treat as a matter of conscience?  Or do they self-select what they do and don’t do by where they practice and what they specialize in?

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A Creeping Eruption

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A 40-year-old male presents to his family physician with a pruritic, erythematous lesion on his foot after returning from vacation in coastal Brazil a week earlier. On examination, a serpiginous, slightly elevated tunnel can be seen on the lateral aspect of his left foot. He is otherwise well, but mentions that the intense pruritus is disturbing his sleep. Which of the following treatments is the next best step?

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Checking the Boxes: Should You Give Up Your Job To Do Research?

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Sometimes the requirements aren’t required.

Annie wrote in to [email protected] to ask Kaci McCleary, Erik Kneller, Gabriel Conley, and Marissa Evers if she should give up her 10-year job as a radiology tech so she’d have time to do research before applying to medical school. As is often the case with these kinds of questions, the answer is no! But maybe yes. In some cases.

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Quiz of the Week: Painful urination, a swollen knee, and eye pain—what’s the cause?

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A 31-year-old female presents to the emergency department with a two-day history of pain on urination and discomfort in her left knee and heel. She also complains of right eye pain, which is exacerbated by reading and bright lights. She recently recovered from a gastrointestinal illness two weeks earlier, but is otherwise healthy. Examination reveals a swollen left knee that is warm to the touch, and tenderness at the insertion point of the left Achilles tendon. Her right eye is red, and she has direct and consensual photophobia. Cells and flare are noted in the right anterior chamber on slit lamp examination. Based on this patient’s probable diagnosis, which of the following cutaneous manifestations is most likely?

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Making Clerkships Work

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Are clerkships a grind, or a boon?  It’s up to you.

The second-year students are moving from the pre-clinical curriculum to the clerkships this week. This transition is exciting—after all, seeing patients is what they’ve come to medical school to do, and now it’s finally happening.

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