medical students
Prioritizing Palliative Care in Surgical Management
During my third year rotation, I experienced the terror of an anastomotic leak. This patient had previously had a resection of his colon cancer and had undergone chemotherapy. Three weeks later, he was coming in with respiratory distress and was urgently taken to the operating room for an anastomotic leak. The surgery was done in two parts. The edematous bowel, of which some was resected, did not allow for a complete closure of his abdomen. Having never seen a Bogota bag before, I watched in amazement as we took him back to the ICU, sedated. The next day, the procedure was completed, his abdomen closed. He remained in the surgical ICU for weeks, receiving treatment for complications that seemed to change every day. He remained on the service after I left my rotation, and months later, I saw that he had passed. Throughout his postoperative recovery, I had gotten to...
Lessons About Healing After Hurricane Harvey
By Jackie Olive I hail from the foothills of Los Angeles County, where natural disaster comes in the form of forest fires and droughts. Having lived in Houston for over four years for college and now medical school, I’ve learned that disaster here comes in practically the opposite form. Hurricane Harvey was the first significant tropical storm that I have experienced. Initially, my colleagues and I hadn’t predicted the magnitude of the devastation that our city and neighboring Texas coastline would ultimately face. I remember we first became worried when we heard of friends who were leaving town and grocery stores that had completely empty shelves. We later became shocked when we couldn’t leave our homes because the water levels had dangerously risen and cars had been deserted in the middle of streets. The immediate aftermath of the hurricane was devastating, as homes were destroyed, families relocated, and stress levels...
Hand ties & Heartbreak: My Experiences as a Puerto Rican Surgical Residency Applicant during Hurricane Maria
By Mariela Martinez News channels have been flooded with images of the devastation caused by hurricane María in Puerto Rico. There are numerous stories about the damages to the health system, infrastructure and economy of the Island. Yet, have you wondered what it was like for Puerto Ricans who experienced this devastating storm? I am a medical student from Puerto Rico and this is my story. Hurricane Maria made Landfall in Puerto Rico It was 4:00am and I was wide awake for the fourth day in a row. My mind filled with despair as images of the beautiful island I call home were replaced with destruction. I made another frantic attempt to call them one more time. No success. Calling my loved ones had become a stubborn attempt to restore some normalcy in my life and to re-establish a sense of balance, to pretend this disaster never happened. I was...
So you want to be a Surgeon in the United States? 6 Tips to Succeed as an International Medical Graduate (IMG)
By Sristi Sharma Congratulations! Your ambition of becoming a surgeon in the United States has finally brought you to this country. You have left your family, your life and everything behind to train in an environment that is completely new to you. You know that you have a steep learning curve ahead of you-be it clinical, personal or social. So how do you navigate this new phase of your career? There are unique challenges that come with being an IMG in the States. Here are 6 tips that will help you become the best surgical trainee you can be: Be good…no excellent…at what you do! Know your subject inside out and practice your surgical skills . Challenge yourself to learn more everyday. There is no substitute for hard work, and as a foreign medical graduate you will have to work even harder to prove yourself everyday. Learn the system: Do...
How to Maximize your CV in Medical School
By Faith Robertson The curriculum vitae (loosely translated from Latin as “Course of life”) is a concise overview of your experiences and academic achievements over time. As a medical student, you will often be asked to provide a CV during applications for awards, grants, and scholarships, and on sub-internships for your specialty during 4th year rotations. Starting this document early on, and updating it periodically during your medical school journey, will not only help you prepare for those last minute grant opportunities, but also elucidate where you can continue to improve. The rules for outline style and content are inexact, but we will briefly discuss pertinent points on how to Reorganize, Reevaluate, and Revive your CV. 1. Reorganize Your CV should be easy to read. Period. A study published by The Ladders (2012) tracked the eye movements of 30 professional recruiters as they reviewed job applicant’s resumes and online profiles....
AWS Day of Service 9/9/17
By Simin G. Roward Being a medical student is challenging: between studying, rotations and research, it seems there isn’t enough time for everything. Often, it's easy to lose track of why we chose this profession in the first place. Community service and engagement are put on hold amidst other pressing responsibilities. The goal of the AWS National Day of Service is to designate a day on which medical students from all over the country would come together with residents and attendings and make service to others a priority. The members of AWS are compassionate, humanistic leaders, who chose the field of surgery because of the ability to make lasting improvements in people's health and to provide a vital service to communities. These positive characteristics were exemplified in last year’s AWS National Day of Service event, where students nationwide provided much needed services and donations to their community. These service events...
My First Delivery Was My Own: A Medical Student’s Journey into Motherhood
By Grace K DeHoff, MS III I had my first child in November of my 2nd year of medical school. My husband and I tried to plan for a winter break baby but were surprised a little earlier. With plenty of open communication with my school, an unbelievable support system in my husband and my classmates, and more multitasking than I ever knew was possible, I had my child and was able to return to school full time after two weeks off. I was able to make up the missed work over Christmas break. The experience taught me a lot about why so few women decide to have children during medical school. Unfortunately, the alternative to waiting until after residency leaves many women delaying pregnancy to their their late 30s to 40s. Complication rates, infertility and genetic disorders all increase with increasing maternal age. This leaves female physicians with a...
How Medical School Turned Me into a Runner
By Hilary McCrary, MPH Prior to medical school, I considered myself athletic but never a runner. I could not run more than a few miles without an overwhelming sense of discouragement. When I began medical school in 2013, I found myself surrounded by individuals that had been running most of their lives. It was inspiring that people were able to juggle the demands of school and still properly train for a half or full marathon. Before long, I had set my first goal of running a half marathon. This race took place during my second year of medical school, which for me was the most academically challenging year with USMLE Step 1 looming in the distance. I was lucky to have a group of classmates that became my running buddies. We called ourselves the “wolf pack”, meeting after studying to run on the local river path. I found that training...
The History of the Match and the Perspective From One Medical Student’s Journey
By Hilary McCrary, MPH Throughout all of medical school, I always looked up to the current fourth year students. They seemed so seasoned and prepared to make the transition from student to doctor. The fourth year of medical school is also highly anticipated, as it is what medical students perceive as the first time they are solely focusing on their chosen career and traveling across the country for either away rotations or interviews. Now that I am towards the end of this process, I have had time to reflect on all of the components that go into the Match and what is takes to get there. The Match process was created in 1952 as a way to address concerns related to institutions offering a spot for residency training earlier than other competing institutions.1 This previous design put pressure on applicants to accept multiple appointments, as positions were typically offered over...
The Greenberg Spike: How speaking out on implicit bias and gender equity in surgery continues to trend
By Marissa A. Boeck When #ILookLikeASurgeon went viral in August 2015, many expected a short lived hashtag. Yet Dr. Caprice Greenberg, the president of the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS), has shown the conversation on diversity, inclusion, and equity in surgery is far from over. During the recent AAS and Society of University Surgeons (SUS) 12th annual conference in Las Vegas, Nevada around 2,000 medical students, residents, fellows, and attendings gathered to network, mentor, collaborate, and discuss academic surgery. Despite the abundance of stiff competition, the AAS Presidential Address “Sticky Floors and Glass Ceilings” by Dr. Greenberg stole the show. All those packed into the large event hall immediately knew the focus: women in surgery. This subject continues to be pertinent and necessary to discuss despite many notable advances, such as both the current and incoming presidents of the AAS and SUS being female. Yet Dr. Greenberg steered the conversation...
