Category: Pre-Med

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What To Do Before Starting Med School & Residency

What to do before starting medical school is one of the most commonly asked questions I hear from students about to begin their first semester of medical school. It’s the same question that I wrangled with after graduating medical school before starting my internal medicine residency. Here are my top three things to do with your last remaining days of freedom before starting medical school or residency.

 

 

Travel

Before starting residency I explored Thailand for two weeks and my only regret is that I didn’t stay longer. Traveling is a source of sustenance for the soul that can never truly be satiated. Traveling pushes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to grow as a person. You learn a lot about yourself when you remove your familiarities and submerge yourself in another culture and society. Who knows what a few weeks in another country will do for you. Go get lost so you can find yourself.

 

 

Nothing

As a resident we average one day off per week each month. That means we get, at minimum, four days off per month and sometimes that’s exactly what you get. So during residency, when you finally have free time on your hands you are often forced to be productive despite your zeal to just stay in bed and sleep all day. You have groceries to buy, laundry to fold, and an apartment to clean. Not to mention that research project you’re working on because you want to go into a competitive specialty. The work never stops. And after medical school you think your days of studying are over but  step 3 and your specialty specific board exams always loom in the background. So if you want to sit and do nothing before you start medical school or residency then go sit and do nothing. You earned it and you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone.

 

 

Work

Med school is expensive and residency doesn’t pay too well so it certainly won’t hurt if you can muster up some extra cash while you can. I worked as the most overqualified AP bio tutor prior to starting residency. A friend of mine worked at our medical school as a standardized patient. A colleague of mine worked as a scribe in the emergency department. There are opportunities out there if you seek them out. Ultimately everyone’s financial and social situations are unique and you may not have the luxury to choose to work or not, let alone go on a vacation. For instance, the extra money I earned prior to residency helped me pay for my vacation while my friend who was a standardized patient used his money that he earned to pay for step 3 while my colleague used his extra money to pay for his kid’s braces. So work if you can but don’t overdo it. You don’t want to squander these last few weeks of sanity and freedom if you can afford to.

 

 

Take USMLE Step 3

Okay this is residency specific and should only be performed if you have so much extra time on your hands that you can do the aforementioned (1) Travel, (2) Nothing, and (3) Work and then still have more free time before starting residency. I would not advise anyone to take step 3 in lieu of traveling or doing absolutely nothing. Step 3 isn’t a particularly difficult test in my opinion. However, it is difficult to find the time and energy to study for it during residency. So do yourself a favor and if you have the time and money to take step 3 then register for the test, finish UWorld, and take it already (more detailed post on how to prepare for step 3 and when to take it is in the works).

 

 

What did you do the summer before medical school or residency?

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Premeds: How To Shadow Like a Boss

July 1st marks the beginning of intern year for residents but they aren’t the only new faces in the hospital. The summer months are also the perfect time for premed undergrad students to get into the hospital for summer shadowing experiences. Shadowing experience gives premed students valuable clinical experience. Not to mention it’s essential to any medical school application. You probably have heard this before, or at least I hope you have, but in case you haven’t here’s how you can get the most out of your shadowing experience in the hospital.

Pursue what interests you, be curious, and ask questions
There’s nothing more refreshing than a young mind excited to learn. Your vigor makes it fun to work with you and a positive attitude makes me want to teach you more. You need to help me help you learn by actively asking questions so that we can direct your learning experience. It also further shows that you are actually interested in the field of medicine. So screw the cat- be curious and ask questions.

Put away your phone
Like it or not, people assume you are texting when you are on your phone. I’ve been victim to nurse technicians and attending physicians reprimanding me for ‘being on my phone’ even though I was actually researching information pertinent to our patient. Many people don’t mind when you quickly Google pertinent topics but rather play it safe than sorry. As a guideline keep your phone in your pocket and instead carry a small pen and pad with you in the hospital. Write down what you don’t know and Google it when you go home.

Don’t fall asleep
It happens by accident more often than you think. You finally get to sit down on a comfy couch after a long day on your feet in a comfortably warm room. Someone starts lecturing and their voice soothes you into slumber (Its like they want you to fall asleep!). Fight the urge and stay awake.

Look the part
You don’t need to wear a suit and tie but you should look presentable. When in doubt always overdress than underdress. You can always loosen a tie or take off a jacket but it’s hard to cover up your sneakers. In general, don’t look like you just woke up. At least put a comb through your hair before you show up. These are common sense things but it seems that common sense isn’t so common.

Be respectful
Medicine is an intimate art. People discuss things about themselves that they don’t tell anyone else or things that most people just straight up don’t want to know. So remember to treat your patient with respect and dignity regardless if you’re talking about their bowel movements or their cancer regiment.

Find a mentor
Much of what I just mentioned is about how you are perceived by your patients and the doctor you are shadowing. Instead of trying to conform to how others want you to act you should set your own standard that you hold yourself against. The best way to do this is to find a mentor who you want to be like when you’re a doctor. I’ve found several. I look up to an ICU/trauma surgeon who is able to apply mechanistic knowledge of disease processes to treat his patients, a cardiologist able to diagnose diseases with the use of his hands and stethoscope alone, and countless other individuals whose personal attributes I have grown to value. These attributes, like having a vast knowledge of medicine and the ability to apply that knowledge, won’t last unless you want them to. They are life long personality traits that you have to start developing now. So find someone who motivates you to be a better you and start the process towards becoming a physician today.

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Pre-meds: Do what it takes to get into medical school

I sit at my home in New Jersey as I anxiously await my 6am flight two days from now that will take me to the Caribbean island of Dominica where I will begin to take my first steps in the journey of becoming a doctor at Ross University School of Medicine.

 

Many people attempted to discourage me from continuing on the path I started on. Doctors I shadowed would warn me of the daunting hours, how much medicine has changed over the years, and how you can make more money in other fields for the amount of time you put in. Even my undergraduate pre-med guidance counselor at Binghamton University told me, on several separate occasions, that I simply did not have the grades to get into medical school. And these people were right…sort of.

 

It is true that medicine is changing. And you can more than likely make more money in business or in banking. And at the time, I did not in fact have the grades to be accepted into medical school. I am here to tell you that can get into medical school, even a stateside school, if you want it badly enough. This isn’t to say that your past mistakes will vanish into thin air- that ‘C’ in organic chemistry isn’t going anywhere. What you can do is affect your future. Show that you remember your mistakes and learn from them.

 

Likewise, I try to forget the people who attempted to dissuade me from medicine, but remember the people who accepted my decisions and encouraged me along my path. The one doctor I spoke with at a high school graduation party of a mutual family friend who highlighted that, “It doesn’t matter how many rejections you get, because in the end you only need one acceptance”. Or my parents who pushed me to apply to that reach school after explaining, “I’m not doing myself any favors by rejecting myself before even applying”.

 

I am here to give you a pat on the back and a kick in the ass. I had to take the MCAT twice and had to apply to twenty-eight medical schools, but all it took was one acceptance to make it all worthwhile. If you have explored medicine and have decided that it is the path for you, don’t let anyone discourage you from it. Own it and do whatever it takes to succeed. It is what I intend to do starting September 3rd on my first day of class down in Dominica.

As seen on @KevinMD