A new year is upon us! Fresh beginnings bring a revitalized energy to refocus our … Read more
‘Tis the season! It’s finally my favorite time of year! Everything fills me with warm … Read more
Over a decade ago, I was seated in the emergency department with a colleague when … Read more
It’s your biggest dream and quite possibly your biggest fear at the same time. Your … Read more
10-24 hour shifts. Call days. Night float. Step prep. Away rotations. The nature of medical … Read more
In my previous article, “Division of Labor: How to Keep a Household Running While Your … Read more
Congratulations on getting accepted to medical school! Becoming a physician is a long and tough journey, and you may not be able to get by using the same methods that helped you succeed in undergrad. To maintain control while drinking from the “fire hose” of medical school, you’ll need to make sure you do these four things:
By Amy Rakowczyk, SDN Staff Writer
One of the biggest challenges that arises during medical school is actually all of the non-medical school “stuff”: namely, household duties and chores. How much help can you expect from your spouse in this regard, and how will you divide up the duties?
By Amy Rakowczyk, SDN Staff Writer
Congratulations! You are now officially a Medical Spouse. This is a highly rewarding, and also a highly challenging role. You’ve undoubtedly heard that “medical school is hard” and that there is a lot of studying and exams ahead. Your spouse is about to embark upon a completely new path, and you as the spouse, are along for the ride. This article is here to help you understand what’s in store so you can prepare yourself for the next two years!
I knew residency was going to be hard. I had anticipated the long hours, weeks in a row without a two-day weekend (which, in an attempt to see the glass as half full, I have come to call vacations), and the mountain of new knowledge I would need to master. None of this came as a surprise and I was braced for them from the day I showed up for orientation. However, I’ve found that residency comes with a whole set of challenges I did not expect. If anyone had told me about them in med school, I guess I wasn’t really listening (or, more likely, was too preoccupied trying to figure out my patient’s acid/base situation by the time we rounded to take much notice). For each of us, these unexpected challenges in residency are likely to be a little different, stemming from our own strengths, weaknesses and pet peeves. Here are some of the difficulties I wasn’t expecting:
As I enter the thick of studying for board exams, I’m reminded even more every day to stay calm, grounded, and keep my head clear. This is the last semester of my pre-clinical education (I can’t believe how time has flown!), and I’m caught in a balance of staying positive about that as well as juggling my hours of studying for board exams. I’ve experienced just about every emotion in the past few weeks, but one of them has always been there lurking underneath the surface: the feeling of being overwhelmed. I’ve touched on this multiple times before, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to stay mentally stable and sane through the medical training process! I have found myself slipping these last few weeks as I try to “do it all”, so I had to reach out.
Republished with permission from here. Note: Interview conducted by medical student editor Evan Torline. Sometimes … Read more
Physician burnout is a widely discussed topic among practicing physicians and public health researchers. Many studies have been done showing the implications of burnout on patient satisfaction, career satisfaction, and care outcomes. A few studies even try to measure the dollar cost of burnout to society. However, very few articles appear to address the impact of physician burnout on one very important demographic in medicine: future physicians. Future physicians, such as residents and medical students, are molded by the doctors who come before them. The prevalence of physician burnout is likely to affect the outlook future physicians have regarding their own careers and the possibility of them experiencing their own burnout as well.
Background
Physician burnout in the United States is becoming more common. According to one recent study, roughly 45% of physicians reported feeling signs of burnout, an increase from 39% in a study conducted in 2013. Put another way, nearly 1 out of every 2 physicians has experienced burnout or will in the future.
I’m sorry, I can’t—I have to study. These are words that have become so routine to me that I barely have to think about them before they come out of my mouth. Ugh, how has it become so reflexive? I was worried that this would happen, at least in the first two years of medical school when I would spend more time with my computer and books than with actual people. The sad thing is that whenever I have a free second, it’s not really a free second because I just find myself wondering if I should be doing something at the moment instead of thinking about making plans with friends I never see anymore. And these are not only the friends I’ve made this year. Sadly those I neglect most are generally the friendships I’ve cultivated over many years.
What made you decide to write your new book, Doctored? What were you hoping to accomplish?
When I was growing up, my mother wanted me to become a doctor. She told me, “I want people to stand when you walk into a room.” When I started my first job as a cardiologist, I realized I had been isolated from the changes occurring in medicine. I was a fellow in cardiology; I was learning about the human body, the heart, the physiology, and the therapeutics, but not about the culture of practice. I was shocked to see how unhappy many of my colleagues were. The unhappiness wasn’t just about paperwork, patients going on the Internet, malpractice, the usual things you hear about – it was a deeper, more existential problem. The problem was the systems of medicine didn’t allow them to be the kind of doctor they wanted to be – the same kind I wanted to be. When I entered medical school, I had this fantasy that I was going to reform the profession somehow. I didn’t know how, but I thought I would, somehow. When I got out, I started seeing physicians who were unhappy. I think their unhappiness was a response to this loss of ideals. I think a lot of physicians have had to compromise their ideals because of a diseased system. That’s why I wrote the book. I wanted to write about it and put it out there.
Professional school is hectic. Very hectic. Most programs require the dedication that is equivalent to … Read more
As a first-year medical student only a few weeks into gross anatomy, I still have … Read more