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Adventure #17: Behind the Lens
The setting was Copenhagen, Denmark, circa 2004. The weather was cold and I shook in my thin Juicy Couture jacket, but young me was determined to take as many photos as I possibly could to add them to...
View ArticleThe Ways We Fail
Soon after I began medical school, I found myself hungry for stories — despite (or perhaps because) I had essentially no contact with patients. I read pages of internet forums for people who suffered...
View ArticleCompassion in Medicine: Looking Beyond the Patient’s Illness
As a medical student in the transition from pre-clinicals to clinicals, I felt incredibly privileged to have the opportunity to interact with patients and finally be a part of the health care team —...
View ArticleMy First Code Blue
An intern, a fellow student and I are walking back from our final lunch talk. We board the ‘S’ elevators to get back to our wards, and, as we get on, a young girl is sitting on the elevator floor...
View ArticleIn My White Coat Pockets: Surgery Clerkship
Though the white coat’s role in medicine today is complex — to some, a respected symbol of medicine’s history; to others, a antiquated relic of a paternalistic past — few medical students or frontline...
View ArticleTimeless Opportunities in the Unknown
As a third-year medical student, I am confronted daily with my own ignorance. Often, while talking with patients, the diagnostic decision tree can spiral away from me becoming an abysmal labyrinth...
View ArticleLooking in the Mirror: Confessions from Inpatient Psych
In our preclinical psychiatry courses, we learn about the ideas of transference and countertransference, which is when patients project their own thoughts and feelings onto their therapists and vice...
View ArticleBlack Clouds
“Dr. C. is a white cloud, so you won’t see much with him on call this weekend,” my attending mumbled. I immediately asked what he meant by a white cloud. He gave me a withering look like he always did...
View ArticleTransplant
Day One “So, how long have you been on surgery?” “I mean … I had OB/GYN before this,” I answered in an attempt to set the expectations low without prompting the surgical residents to think I was...
View ArticleOne Call Day of Many to Come
When I received my surgery clinical site assignment for third year, my eyes widened with fear and hesitation. For part of the rotation, I would have to experience trauma surgery: the one surgical...
View ArticleBut He Was Fine Just This Morning
Morning rounds passed without a hitch. I felt the usual: limited understanding and poor clinical synthesis. The residents assured me that this was normal. After morning rounds, my team, composed of the...
View ArticleExtraterrestrial
I used to daydream that my first patient as a medical student would be a happy, reasonably healthy elderly woman. The patient would tell me I reminded her of her grandson. I would let her show me...
View ArticleI Need a Cigarette
Members of the medical community all know that patients shouldn’t smoke, but are there exceptions? During my internal medicine rotation, a wiry young man with a long, scraggly beard had decided to...
View ArticleThe “Difficult Patient”
Ten o’clock… Eleven o’clock… One o’clock… My mind was racing with anticipation the night before I began my internal medicine rotation. This is what being a doctor is all about, I thought as the hours...
View ArticleEmbracing Introversion in Medicine
My former pediatrician always had the brightest smile. She was an effervescent “people-person.” Between her and episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, I always thought that all physicians were outgoing...
View ArticleMy First Lesson from the Wards
I just finished my two month surgery rotation, and as a third-year medical student new to the wards, I had a steep learning curve. One of the things I learned the hard way, causing me to nearly cry...
View ArticleAn Encounter Cut Short: A Lifelong Lesson
Editor’s note: In accordance with HIPAA, all names and identifying details have been changed to protect patient privacy. I was starting my surgery rotation, the second rotation of my third year, on the...
View ArticleHow to Make Third Year of Med School the Best One Yet (or at Least Survivable)
In the third year of medical school, book smart but clinically naive learners are thrust into the daily routines of the hospital and outpatient clinics and are suddenly expected to assist with the care...
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My First Rotation of Third Year
Medical school is scary. Intimidating. Daunting. Sometimes I wonder how I am standing here, Already in third year, Still thinking they made a mistake by letting me in. I was born and raised in Mexico...
View ArticleTerms and Conditions
As a third-year student early in my medical training, I exist in the space between patient and physician, identifying with neither fully. This unique position allows me to learn the practice of...
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