The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

The HONEST guide to medical school, featuring real students from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine–skip this show if you’d rather not know (and hate laughter)!

When should med students trust their school…and when should they push back?

This episode is sponsored by Panacea Financial, a division of Sonabank, member FDIC. Panacea is banking for medical students, built by doctors.

Med students sometimes find it difficult to trust their school will get them through this ordeal of learning medicine. Sometimes you’re taught things that seem less than useful. Sometimes your professors or administrators don’t seem to understand what’s at stake for you. Sometimes the rules and procedures are puzzling. When should you trust the system, and when should you push back? To help him with this topic Dave talks to M1s Rick Gardner, AJ Chowdhury, and Eric Boeshart; and M4 Holly Conger. They discuss times when trust was warranted (turns out the Kreb’s cycle really does have clinical applications), and when to push back if something needs fixing.

Plus, Dave and the crew visit the saddest place on the Internet to practice answering real medical questions: Yahoo! Answers.

The medical student’s jobs may be less than sexy, but they’re important.

Medical students are both learners and an important part of the teaching hospital labor pool. Recently, Dave realized he doesn’t actually know–what are their actual jobs? And how do they find out what they are?

In general the job is to both learn medicine and be helpful. There are many tasks that belong to no particular person, and students can take advantage of this by being there to jump in and take on the job. Whether it’s getting that cup of water or calling another hospital for a patient’s records, someone’s got to do the unsexy stuff. By taking on that task that no one else has time for the student frees up a nurse, a resident or an attending for the more complex tasks. Like teaching! Perhaps as important, that student has an opportunity to demonstrate their can-do attitude and get that all important positive comment on their evaluation to show their prospective residency programs as they apply for jobs.

M3s Nick Lind and Emma Barr, and M4s Holly Conger and Joyce Wahba join Dave to share what they’ve learned, and show that even if you’re not the brain of the operation, even if you’re just a kinesin dragging your vesicle around a cell in between the hospital’s toes, the least glamorous task is a lifesaver to someone.

Which take on medicine is best for patients and provider mental health?

Dave and the gang–including M1s AJ Chowdhury and Alex Belzer; M4 Holly Conger; and MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk–take a look at the prevalent idea that medicine is a “calling,” somewhat like religion is for many. That’s an imperfect analogy, but there are parallels. People talk, for instance, about the sacrifices, the altruism, the service, and the requirement that doctors be at all times upstanding and display exceptional integrity. This view has some obvious benefits for the profession, including that its practitioners are laser focused on being the best physicians and people they can be.

But that view of physician-hood carries with it a lot of weight. When medicine is viewed as a calling, being a physician may become one’s primary identity. And when perfection remains frustratingly out of reach, the risk is that you’ll come to view yourself as a bad person and not as a doctor who is still learning. At least, that’s what Dave worries, but is it true?

Plus, Holly brings us up to date on life as an M4, especially her search for a residency position.

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The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

When should med students trust their school…and when should they push back?

We Want to Hear From You

The medical student’s jobs may be less than sexy, but they’re important.

We Want to Hear From You

Which take on medicine is best for patients and provider mental health?

We Want to Hear From You

Related Podcasts

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Stay Connected

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

When should med students trust their school…and when should they push back?

We Want to Hear From You

The medical student’s jobs may be less than sexy, but they’re important.

We Want to Hear From You

Which take on medicine is best for patients and provider mental health?

We Want to Hear From You

Related Podcasts

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