Amsa Ad Lib

You’ve completed an international elective or global health experience; so, what’s next? Explore how you can maximize the value of that experience and what next steps you should be taking upon your return with Dr. Joseph C. Kolars, Senior Associate Dean for Education and Global Initiatives at the University of Michigan Medical School.

It’s a ritual so common among medical students that it would be cliche--if it weren’t so solemn. For some medical students, the experience of anatomy lab--when the medical student first pulls back the shroud on a body donated for study--marks the boundary that separates physicians from lay persons. For some medical students, it’s their first tactile exposure to the magical inner workings of the human body. For some, it’s a first shared team experience, working together with colleagues just met. Though much of the experience of anatomy lab is relatively similar across medical schools, for each individual, that first moment is a unique one.

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, they may be leaving out the social and emotional sides. Here are five true things no one will tell you about medical school.

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.

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. Corbb O’Connor, one of AMSA’s Applied Match Preparation, or AMP, program coaches shares how to get started early to craft an impactful application.

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.

Medical school is traumatic at nearly every stage of training. The resulting wear and tear on medical students has lasting, detrimental effects. One of those is substance abuse. Does it have to be this way? What are the factors that contribute to substance abuse among medical students? From ineffective feedback to the stress of the residency Sorting Hat to the toxic, corrosive nature of the physician ego, Dr. Daniel Gouger--AMSA’s Education and Advocacy Fellow--walked ad lib’s Pete Thomson through some underlying causes.

Medical school comes at a high cost; are you ready to take on thousands debt? Maybe you don’t have to. In fact, you could leave with none at all. Joining the armed forces is one way to have your medical school paid for in its entirety, but what’s the trade-off? AMSA ad lib sat down with Aaron Saguil, MD, FAAFP, LTC (P), USA, MC. Dr. Saguil serves as the Associate Dean for Recruitment and Admissions at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine—America’s Medical School—in Bethesda, Maryland, and shares the pros, cons, and why it may or may not be the right fit for you.

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.

For rising fourth-year medical students, the whirlwind of the residency application and matching process is about to kick off. It's time to get those ducks in a row. Your career is about to get real. And one of the first formal steps is getting all of your application materials into the MyERAS system. For those not yet familiar with it, the Electronic Residency Application Service, or ERAS, is the system most U.S. residency programs use for a centralized application system. It includes tools for letters of recommendation, filtering programs to apply to, responding to messages from programs, and even scheduling interviews when the time for that comes. MyERAS is the portal that applicants themselves use for their information and materials. And June 6 is when it opens for residency applicants aiming for the 2018 Match.

Med school admissions isn't just about GPA and MCAT scores anymore. Applicants have to explain how medicine is a good fit for them, and vice versa. But how do they convey that in their application and to a medical school admissions committee? We talk to admissions expert Dr. Gary Rose.

Last Friday, Dr. Vivek Murthy was abruptly replaced in his position as the U.S. surgeon general. In this episode, we look back at the inspiring words of one of the youngest surgeons general. As the 19th Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Murthy worked to educate the general public about their own health. But drawing on his own background and lessons from his personal journey, he offered sage advice at AMSA’s 2015 convention to medical students about overcoming challenges they’ll face in training, the value of their youth and enthusiasm, and the importance of taking risks.

Don’t think you’ll be affected by addiction? If you’ve spent any time on the wards, you’ve almost certainly heard disparaging comments about patients suffering from substance abuse disorders—you may have even made some of those comments yourself. Next week there’s a chance for you to learn about better ways to frame this disease, from which physicians themselves are far from immune. The AWARE week is a collaboration between AMSA’s Medical Education team and Community & Public Health team, with the goal of shedding light on addiction and recovery. In November 2016, the surgeon general released a report on addiction in the United States and declared the opioid epidemic in the United States a public health crisis. The training medical students receive on addiction varies widely by institution, and the AWARE week aims to offer some direction for medical students to find more information appropriate to their level of knowledge of addiction.

Balancing medical school and advocacy work is difficult--how can you find the time to change the world when you're busy making your clinical rounds or studying for the USMLE? AMSA's Chief Executive Officer Joshua Caulfield spoke with AMSA National President Dr. Kelly Thibert about things you can do and ways you can make a difference, all while keeping a successful balance between your medical school workload and your extracurricular activities.

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.

Discrimination in health care settings sets barriers for LGBT individuals to receive proper care, which leads to significant health disparities in the LGBT community. And one of the biggest barriers LGBT individuals are facing is the lack of trained providers. How can you learn the proper patient care techniques in your medical training, especially if it's lacking from your med school's curriculum? This week is National LGBT Health Awareness Week, and Benjamin Brooks with the National Coalition for LGBT Health joined us to discuss why LGBT health is important and how you, as a provider, can help reduce the existing disparities in health care delivery. Since its creation in 2000, the National Coalition for LGBT Health has advanced the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals through advocacy, education, and health services research. Learn more about the Coalition and its programs at www.healthlgbt.org.

As overseas clinical experiences continue to grow in popularity and importance, how do you choose the right one? Are you considering the ethics of the program? If not, you should be--medical schools and residency programs are watching. Hear from Dr. Jessica Evert of Child Family Health International on how students can evaluate programs beforehand and what you can do if involved in an ethical dilemma on the ground.

You use designed objects constantly. Chances are very strong you are using one right now, as you listen to this episode. Have you taken a moment to consider where design in medicine succeeds? And what happens when it fails? If design in medicine and health care doesn’t interest you, you may not have taken long enough to consider how important and far-reaching it is. Devices, systems and processes can all be designed. And too often, they haven’t been well-designed. That leaves a lot of room for physicians—and even medical students—to involve themselves in improving how things work in health care.

For fourth-years, it all comes down to a single moment. The Match Day ceremonies that will cap off next week at campuses across the country are the end of a long journey for fourth-year medical students. Along the way, they made some huge decisions about themselves and their careers. On Friday of Match Week, they'll get their envelopes. Here's what that's like.

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.