In medical school, the real lessons come at the bedside, and the most important of those come not from residents or attending physicians, but from patients themselves.

Episode 2: Patient Lessons

This week we hear a story from the University of North Carolina (UNC) - Chapel Hill School of Medicine Story Slam, themed "Idio-path: Stories of Personal Journeys." The winner that night was Brittany Papworth, a second year medical student at the time. She shared her story titled "Don't Put My Pants In the Dryer" in which she made a fitting realization that would improve her life as a medical student and that she hopes will improve her relationships with her patients.

Ep. 22: "Don't Put My Pants in the Dryer," Brittany Papworth's Story Slam

Dr. Alison Case takes us on her Midwestern advocacy road trip, from rallying around a human milk carton in Chicago to tailgating with Donald Trump in Iowa.

Ep. 26: Tales from the road, with Alison Case

To get the most out of an international training experience, future physicians have to appreciate both difference and similarity in other systems. Otherwise, there's a risk that those differences will simply reinforce biases, even unintentional ones. Pavitra Krishnamani talks us through some steps to avoid the "us vs. them" divide, as well as how to deal with typical ethical conflicts on the ground.

Ep. 27: How to end your "Us vs. Them" attitude in global medicine

Is it possible to maintain a creative life outside of medical training? Is it worth it? When M.D./Ph.D. student Lee Hong found herself drifting away from her poetry amid the grind of training, rather than give in, she wrote a poem about the challenge itself. Here, she reads from and discusses her work and the value it has brought to her in medicine.

Ep. 31: Keeping creativity alive in med school

What's it like to interview for a residency position in neurosurgery? How does it compare to interviewing in other specialties? In this episode, medical students share their experiences and questions, including tackling rumors about the neurosurgery interview process.

20. Residency interview questions and prep

After being awake 24 hours straight, where’s your head at? Will it be ready for life or death decisions? The ACGME—the accrediting body for residency training in the U.S.—first adopted duty hour restrictions in 2003. In 2011, the ACGME introduced a 16-hour shift limit for first-year residents. The ACGME also granted nearly 190 waivers to certain internal medicine and surgery programs that were participating in the iCOMPARE and FIRST trials, respectively. These trials were intended to examine the effect of longer shifts for residents. Dr. Kelly Thibert says the trials themselves were—and continue to be—unethical, and that current pressure on the ACGME to reverse work hour restrictions is misplaced.

56. Resident safety, education and the value of time

You’ve spent months on a complex research project, from conception to designing your study, to collecting data and coming to your conclusions. It’s all enormously complicated—now, explain the whole thing in 60 seconds.  In the most recent Match, fourth-year M.D. match applicants in the U.S. listed 4.7 presentations, abstracts or publications in their professional profile on average. Though the importance of those experiences may vary by specialty or even residency program, the ability to boil your project down to a quick explanation tailored to your audience is critical.

60. Present your research right

You’ll hear about the classes, the professors. You’ll hear horror stories about particular rotations. Friends and other med students will tell you all about exams. But when it comes to looking at the big picture of being a med student, there’s a lot they’ll leave out.

66. Five true things no one will tell you about medical school

Medical students at the Yale School of Medicine have recognized the need for understanding sociology and health justice as an important part in the development of physician professional identity, as well as how these principles underscore the social determinants of health that impact patient care. 

The group, in part led by Robert Rock, Yale School of Medicine class of 2017, engaged in a curricular reform project within their institution. Their commitment progressed from what began as a student lead health justice elective course to a comprehensive health justice curriculum for their medical school that's further supported by an interprofessional student group for health justice. 

Dr. Daniel Gouger, AMSA's 2017-2018 Education & Advocacy Fellow, spoke with Robert Rock on ways you can implement changes in your med school too.

73. Taking on curriculum reform at your med school

Boiling yourself down to one page may seem impossible, or maybe even a little depressing. It doesn’t have to be that way--in fact, it shouldn’t be that way. 

The personal statement is a chance to connect all of the dots. It’s an opportunity to explain your interest in medicine--and your value to it--better than a Step 1 score.
 
Medical schools typically offer some guidance on developing your personal statement, at least in the form of a few examples or templates. As much as you like, though, it doesn’t really boil down to a step-by-step, paint-by-numbers guide. Dr. Daniel Gouger says your personal statement is the product of your unique experiences and what you’ve internalized from those experiences.

To that end, we won’t tell you what to do in your personal statement. But here are some don’ts.

76. 5 pitfalls of the personal statement: Don't be the PB&J

Your prerequisites, GPA, MCAT prep and essay answers have gotten you this far. Now it’s time to ace the med school interview. Setting your nerves aside and facing a med school interviewer--does it really all come down to this moment? How do you get ready? What should you do once you are there, on campus? What should you not do? We spoke with two experienced interviewers and experts about common mistakes they’ve seen made, how to avoid them, and what medical schools want to find out about applicants during the interview day itself.

80. Don't make these mistakes in your med school interview

The ACGME voted this year to change the rules on work hour restrictions, allowing interns to work up to 24 hour shifts with an additional four hours of transitions in care--an increase from the 16 hour shift restriction that was previously in place. How can you stay resilient going into your intern year with this change?

81. Residency work hour limits: How to deal with the increase

How can you establish and manage your online presence as a future physician? And better yet, why is that important to your future practice? We caught up with Dr. Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD.com, and a leading physician on social media.

82. Dr. Kevin Pho on social media, medicine and future physicians

Some residency programs host a social event for you to meet current residents and interns from the program before the formal interview takes place. A former program director and recent residency applicant explain what you should be looking for out of this experience, how you can use it to your advantage, and how important this interaction really is to residency programs during their selection process.

57. Make the most of "social" interviews on the residency trail

Why do program directors ask the questions they ask during the residency interview? What are they looking for in your response, and how do they evaluate the success of your answer?

We turned the tables on Dr. Tom Kuivila, Residency Program Director in Orthopaedic Surgery at Cleveland Clinic, to learn why program directors ask the questions they ask, what kinds of answers they're looking for, and how to give the right responses during the interview process. Hear how he would answer both simple and tough questions in a residency interview.

83. Interview questions asked: A residency program director answers

You’re unlikely to attend only one residency interview, and even then, it’s doubtful that it’d be right in your backyard. Traveling for residency interviews adds to the list of those hidden costs around the corner in med school, and sometimes the best way to prepare yourself is by hearing from those who did it before you.

59. Keeping residency interview travel costs down

Learn how to be a effective leader. We've all heard that leaders aren't born, they are made. But who "makes" them, and how? In this episode, Drs. Deborah Hall and Suzanne Rose explore the importance of medical leadership, starting in medical school, and how med students can improve their leadership skills.

38. Leadership is learned. Here's how

A week and a half ago, Hurricane Harvey struck coastal Texas. Even now, Hurricane Irma is slamming into Caribbean islands and will soon approach the Southeastern United States. T.J. La, student editor of The New Physician magazine, grew up in Houston and experienced Harvey both as a resident of the city and as a future physician.

84. The experience of disaster and response

Leaving your personal statement to the last minute will lead to a frantic search for the right topic and in turn, not your best work. Many of the timelines you’ll see out there place preparing for your residency application in your third year of medical school. But waiting to think about starting on your application materials until then, could mean you’re missing out on getting the most out of a meaningful experience that took place in your earlier years.

77. What you should talk about in your personal statement

Even as the definition of a “nontraditional” med student has shifted, there are outliers. Elaine Luther is one such outlier. But medical school isn't just about the medical career that follows. It is itself an accomplishment—and a statement.
Here's Elaine's story about what stood in her way, and the night that refocused her on a dream she'd been denied.

48. Story Slam: Reaching med school at 60

What have you heard about primary care? That there's "too much paperwork?" Or that you're "too smart" to go into it? Or, paradoxically, that "there's too much to learn"? In the spirit of National Primary Care Week, let's talk about the so-called stigma of primary care, and its effect on med students' career choices. Dr. Wanda Filer, a former president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, addresses the "stigma" head on--and touches on the joy a family physician can find in life-long care of patients.

58. The stigma and paradox of family medicine and primary care

Med students get pretty serious about the resources they use to study. What goes into making some of these tools? In this episode, med student Sarah Smith spoke with the founders of OnlineMedEd, Dr. Dustyn Williams and Jamie Fitch, about the videos and other resources they put together to help medical students.

85. Behind the scenes with OnlineMedEd

You’ve spent months on a complex research project, from conception to designing your study, to collecting data and coming to your conclusions. It’s all enormously complicated—now, explain the whole thing in 60 seconds.  In the 2016 Match, fourth-year M.D. match applicants in the U.S. listed 4.7 presentations, abstracts or publications in their professional profile on average. Though the importance of those experiences may vary by specialty or even residency program, the ability to boil your project down to a quick explanation tailored to your audience is critical.

Are you being taught how to help patients understand all of the overwhelming medical messaging they’re getting? Though the way that medical students are taught has changed gradually over the past century, the way patients learn has lurched forward. Arguably, the modern physician’s job has changed accordingly. The question is whether the physician will be ready for that job. Dr. Rishi Desai found himself on the leading edge of creating useful health information for patients and future physicians alike. Today, he’s the chief medical officer of Osmosis, a learning platform for medical students, where he is one of the people outside traditional medical education helping to shape the way medical students actually learn.

54. Beyond soundbites and snack tips: Today's patient and health literacy

Have you ever advised a patient to eat healthy and exercise, then hit up the McDonald's drive-through on the way home from work? Maybe it’s time for a wake-up call. Hear from one student who had a wake-up call while driving down the highway with a cup of curly fries, and how she made a fitting realization that would improve her life as a med student and she hopes will improve her relationships with patients.

22. Don't put my pants in the dryer

It no longer seems impossible, or even unlikely: What happens if your medical center itself comes under attack? Have you thought about your role? What would you do? What should you do? Would you have time in the moment itself to weigh ethical considerations, personal safety and protocol? Probably not. In this episode, we get an inside look at a training exercise preparing health care providers for an attack on their own institution, and learn about the bioethics of just such a situation.

50. Shots fired: Rehearsing for disaster

As a physician, you won’t be able to solve all of your patients’ problems. Some of those problems, especially systemic ones, will remain just out of a doctor’s reach. In this episode, we learn how to extend that reach. 
When it seems like medicine isn’t enough, that caring for patients goes beyond the scope of your abilities as solitary provider, or that the problems facing your patients are deeper and more entrenched than medicine can possibly address, those thoughts can be demoralizing. It may even make you question medicine as a career choice. 
But you aren’t the first to come to that realization, and today we have some concrete advice for you from Dr. Leana Wen, commissioner of health for the city of Baltimore.

69. What to do when medicine falls short

Biases in medical training are affecting medical students, but many--including you--may not appreciate that it’s happening. Fixing the problem won’t be easy, but some trainees themselves are working to address pervasive bias in medicine from the ground up. For the students trying to intervene, the first step in addressing bias in medical training is getting everyone to recognize how deeply--and sometimes subtly--ingrained it can be. Medical students Tehreem Rehman and Jes Minor started the Systemic Disease project. Among other goals, the project aims to gather stories from those exposed to or victimized by bias in medicine to start a conversation and increase awareness. To learn more about the Systemic Disease project, visit their website at http://www.systemicdisease.com or follow @systemicdisease on Twitter. You can also find Tehreem (@tehreemrehman) and Jes (@jes_minor) on Twitter as well.

45. Fighting bias with storytelling

Medical training and practice will be hard on you, and on your peers. Surviving the stress takes preparation and awareness. 

We'll hear how one medical student used self-care to prepare for her transition to medical school, and AMSA's Rebekah Apple explains the importance of resilience and some steps for building it up.

78. How to strengthen your resilience, get ready for residency

AMSA ad lib is the American Medical Student Association's podcast, bringing together the intimate perspectives of medical students and experts on topics ranging from specialty selection and personal finance to technological developments in medicine's near future.

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