Whether specialists make too much money depends on whom you ask.Policy expertsIf you ask policy experts, most of whom are progressives, they will say "yes, of course, specialists make too much money." Too many specialists making too much money spoil the national health care broth.Just look at any other country, especially countries with government-run systems.Specialists there make one-half of what our specialists bring home. Look at their total ...
Posts tagged Medical school
Online physician professionalism, a medical student opinion
Recently we saw a flurry of discussions about online physician professionalism, the merits of being anonymous, and teachable moments. As a newbie I'm trying to figure this out. But I need to be more mindful of the filter bubble - a self-imposed bias by preferentially linking to people and things we agree with, thus unwittingly trivializing reasonable alternatives.I've just had 3 "Uh-oh" moments:
- Right after the #hcsm Twitter ...
Cancer in the gross anatomy lab
"I just want to learn the abdomen and the pelvis", I thought to myself, while staring at our donor's metastasized body. Nothing looked normal, tumor was everywhere, and for the 4th lab my group looked at each other, looked at the lab steps, and concluded it was going to be "just another day where we just ... found what we could find and did ... ...
5 easy steps to become a better medical student
I recently had quite a long conversation with a college senior that was just accepted into medical school for this coming fall.As a rising fourth year medical student myself, I would like to think that I have navigated the waters of academia and figured out both efficient paths to success and avoidance of roadblocks and setbacks. ...
Practical advice for medical students starting clinical rotations
Here's some advice to think about before starting clinical rotations during the third year of medical school.Don’t sit in the back of the planeThe basic sciences are important to learn the vocabulary and grammar of medicine. Clinical rotations are different – it’s where you actually learn to be a physician. If you use the analogy of learning to fly, ...
Why medical students should be closely observed with patients
I went off to medical school thirty-seven years ago.For the era, I went to what folks regarded as a very progressive place. It had a curriculum that was quite revolutionary for the time. Among other things, we started having interactions with actual patients during our first year, rather than the third year, as was traditional then.These days many, probably most, medical schools ...
Would free medical school be enough to save primary care?
Medical school should be free.That's an argument made by physicians Peter B. Bach and Robert Kocher in the New York Times.This isn't a new concept. I've discussed whether medical school should be free for students who choose primary care. And, for some in the country, it's already happening. Like at Case Western Reserve University, for instance. The ...
Doing the physical exam for the first time as a medical student
Armed with tools I have never used or seen before I entered a physical exam practice room for the first day of learning.Having finished history-taking practices last semester, we were now beginning a new chapter, learning to take a head-to-toe physical exam. Before class began, we were told to read a book and ...
How medical students are key to innovating in medicine
Why does health care seem to lag behind other industries in innovation?There's a temptation to manufacture reasons that don't necessarily explain why health care has not seen the kinds of revolutionary changes evident in industries from computing and telecommunications to music and retail? People routinely marvel at how easy it is to manage their bank account these days, but they don't appreciate continuing to wait hours in their doctors' offices, ...
Getting into residency: What medical students need to know
by James LambergWhen medical students are applying for residency positions, what do program directors care about most? This may become the ultimate question for many students on clinical rotations.Thankfully, publications exist to help answer this very problem.Unfortunately, many students are not aware of this published information. In a 2005 article from Medical Education Online titled “Residency Selection ...
Transitions of a first year medical student
by Kristine CasalThe moment you get accepted to medical school, you never really think about how everything is going to be different. You figure everything’s going to stay the way they are, with the exception of the inevitable long and laborious hours of studying day and night. You don’t think about how much time you won’t have ...
The difficult road to becoming a doctor
On May 15, 2011, 147 students embarked on their careers as doctors as they graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. One student, Jenny Rowland, who will pursue a career in Radiology and continue her training at Penn, shared her personal thoughts and emotions as she prepared to graduate.by Jenny Rowland, MDI’m not a typical PennMed student.I’m 31 years old, and I ...
Going through Netter’s to teach medical students pelvic anatomy
I recently had the opportunity to go to the anatomy lab and help the first years go through the pelvic anatomy. What a blast! There is nothing like dissecting a cadaver to tune up one’s surgical anatomy skills, and helping young eager medical students through it is a great experience.Prior to going into the lab, I spent many hours going through Netter’s atlas to brush up on the anatomy so ...
The science of getting into medical school
An excerpt from Med School Admissions Secrets.by Jason SpearsThere are currently 134 allopathic medical schools in the United States and you need to select approximately 20 schools.You are not going to randomly pick, instead there is a system to getting into medical school.The first step is ranking schools in the following manner:
- Top-tier/Dream Schools
- Competitive Schools
- Safety Schools
Medical school starts with anatomy lab
When does medical school officially begin? Is it when you are given your white coat? When you sit through your first orientation activity? When you listen to your first lecture? Or when someone first mistakes you for a doctor?While medical school commencement is truly is an amalgam of all of these things, the answer to this question is ...
A tough disposition is required to endure physician training
The Theresa Brown furor has got me thinking. To be honest, I don’t think the doctor’s apparent offense was really that bad. I remember giving and taking worse.When I was at medical school and in specialist training, there were senior doctors and nurses of legendary temper and bad disposition. Tiptoeing around them, and working to their satisfaction, however unreasonable, was an accepted part of the job. But the ...
Why doctors should pursue another degree
Becoming a doctor is a long and arduous process. Between taking pre-med courses, taking the MCAT, applying to medical schools, matriculating, then taking test after test after test until you take the big one (USMLE Step 1) before which you did questions all day long for weeks from a good USMLE question bank ...
Medical students asking a patient about death
Like any kid who always wanted to be a doctor, I went to medical school to learn how to help people. Just wearing the white coat during orientation week had people looking at me differently, expecting me to know something more than I did just a week before. One of my classmates was even asked for ...
Why medical students should go through a psychiatry rotation
"Psychiatry consult, returning a page,” she said, cradling the phone between her left ear and left shoulder. Digging around in her pockets, she eventually pulled out a half-sheet of paper that wasn’t already covered in barely legible writing and boxes marked with Xs. Her right hand clicked the pen and prepared to write.
“Hi, this is Cardiology,” the male voice on the phone said. Doctors tend to lose their names when they ...
Bereavement related depression and consoling a new widow
I am really enjoying my geriatrics rotation.Although my attending preceptor is primarily a geriatrician, and practices deep in the heart of retiree central in southeast Florida, he also sees some patients who are younger. I took a history on a patient who was younger than me today, in her early thirties.She started off complaining about insomnia and headaches, and then said ...
