You get what you need
It was a sunny spring day in 1995, and my spirit was about to be crushed. He was our college health careers advisor, a doctor who didn’t go by ‘Doctor’. Rather, he was ‘Dean’, as in Dean of the Pre-Meds. His office was in one …
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medical students
Healthy Habits: Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk!
Some truly terrific Harvard medical students invited me and lifestyle medicine hero Beth Frates MD to give a lunchtime talk last week. I could talk about nutrition and healthy lifestyle stuff all day long, so I jumped at the opportunity! The event was organized by …
I’m So Lucky I Get To Be a Nerd
The firstyear medical students are here! Today was the first day of the Interviewing and Communications Skills course that I co-teach. Last year, I wrote about how amazing this course is: Amazing that it exists (I never had a course like this) and amazing how …
If You Can Suture, You Can Sew
I know, I know, I’m outpatient primary care, what do I know about suturing? I know I miss it. 1998. I was a medical student rotating through cardiothoracic surgery, the CABG garden. (CABG is Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, when clogged parts of the arteries of …
We Should All Be Afraid
“Oh, will you look at those numbers, they’re terrible. I’m so sorry, doctor. I’m not your model patient, anymore,” she said, as she perched on the edge of my exam table in her flimsy gown, her dark eyes bright with the sheen of tears.* “Goodness, don’t …
I Can Only Imagine
In January, 2001, as a fourth year medical student, I finagled my way onto a disaster relief team, and traveled to El Salvador with supplies and personnel to aid the areas hit hardest by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake. I had even cancelled a residency interview to be …
Back In The (Teaching) Saddle
I’ve signed on to help teach firstyear medical students how to interview patients. It’s been few years since I was involved in any teaching; five, to be exact. As soon as I found out I was pregnant with Babyboy, I decided not to re-up my …