Month: February 2024
Navigating Science Policy as a Medical Doctor: Strategies for Engaging Beyond the Clinic
By Sewar Banimusa, MS3 In the realm of healthcare, the influence of medical doctors transcends the boundaries of clinicalsettings. Beyond diagnosing ailments and administering treatments, there lies a realm wheremedical professionals wield the power to shape policies that profoundly impact the health andwell-being of entire populations. Engaging in science policy empowers medical doctors toharness their expertise and advocate for evidence-based solutions to pressing health challenges. Science policy encompasses the intersection of science, technology, and society - guidingdecisions that affect research funding, healthcare delivery, public health initiatives, and regulatory frameworks. For physicians, involvement in science policy represents an opportunity to contribute to the greater good and drive positive change beyond individual patient interactions. Navigating the landscape of science policy can seem daunting at first, but there are numerous opportunities to start navigating your passion. Here are some ways to start your science policy career: Joining professional organizations dedicated to health policy...
Tackling Imposter Syndrome by Embracing Failure
By: Rachel Akers Failure is something I’ve become intimately acquainted with throughout my career. I’m not alone in this. We can all recall instances in our professional lives where things haven’t gone our way, and we’ve failed to reach the expectations set by our educators, mentors, colleagues, families, or ourselves. Failure can be painful, embarrassing, and even harmful for those in the medical profession, and it’s not easy to talk about with others. As students transition to residents and eventually become attending physicians, our understanding of failure changes in tandem with our values. New responsibilities like parenthood, caring for your own aging parents, repaying gargantuan loans, and being directly in charge of patients’ well-being supersede the worries of passing exams or confidently blurting out a wrong answer. Regardless of the nature of a mistake or the level of training you’re at, failures shouldn’t be seen as something shameful to hide...
Mindfulness as a Tool to Build Confidence
By: MaryAnn Ulasi I spotted a number 5 on the concrete street. By number 5, I mean the stage of a particular “bug” that was made famous by the swarm that landed in NYC last year. Its growth curve is visualized in order of the clockwise circuitous pathway of a quarter; it reminded everyone what they were looking at. As I continued to gaze at the nymph stage of the dead lanternfly with its mangled red body, crushed under spotted black and white wings, I was sucked into a moment of time that I rarely experienced - the present. It was gross and painful, and the exposure was a little too much for real life. After all, for most of us, real life is not the present but rather the past or the future and the irony is hardly ever obvious to us. I certainly have been guilty of living...