New Year's Step 1 Boards Study Pack Give-A-Way!

In an effort to continue de-hoarding my house, I've decided to give away some of those big fat medical books that crowd my bookshelf. So in hopes that other medical students read my blog, I'm giving away a Step 1 Boards study pack. It includes.....

First Aid for the USMLE Step 1













First Aid Organ Systems













Kaplan USMLE  Step 1 question book












All you have to do to qualify to win is join my blog, leave a comment on this post, and tell me why YOU deserve these books. Studying for boards sucks, and if you could save some money on study material then hopefully it can relieve some of the stress!

Deadline is January 31st.

What's in Your White Coat?

The infamous white coat. That which separates doctors from the rest of the world. If you go into medicine for the sole purpose of donning this status symbol, then clearly you're in the wrong profession. Most doctors hate even wearing the thing. It's bulky, thick, uncomfortable.... it makes you sweat way more than you should and the weight of it causes neck and back aches like you wouldn't believe. So what's so special about a white coat? Well, nothing really. What's really special is what's in it.

As I was going through my bag of "doctor" stuff that I usually bring with me to work, I pulled out my white coat. It's a short one, of course, since I'm still a medical student. Real doctors get to wear the long ones. Anyways, after noticing that it was quite dingy and needed a good bleaching, I started to take everything out of the pockets. I noticed that I carry A LOT of stuff in my white coat. And because I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seat in suspense, I'll tell you what I found.

Pocket Medicine. I recently got this for Christmas. It's basically the bible for any physician doing an inpatient rotation. Need to know which drugs to give a patient in heart failure? It's in there. How about the diagnosis and treatment of Rocky Mountain spotted fever? Yep, you can find that too. Why I waited so long to finally get this is beyond me, but I'm sure I will get ample use out of it next month on rotation.

White Coat Clipboard. This thing is pure genius. It's a clipboard that folds in half and fits quite perfectly in your white coat pocket. I've seen residents and students everywhere I go with these things and decided to scour every office supply store in the state for one. Luckily, one of my best friends who is quite savvy at finding stuff on the internet found that one company actually has a monopoly on these things. A few weeks later I got a nice surprise in the mail and now I have one of my own! Perfect for taking notes on rounds.

ACLS card. In the hospital you certainly never know when you're going to hear the words "code blue" come over the intercom. That's when I go running. The only way to get good at running a code is to watch them. And on the off chance that I get to participate in resuscitating someone, it's good to have a cheat sheet of drugs and protocols for when you're brain gets overloaded. Every doctor has one of these in their pocket. Trust me.

Stethoscope. Usually it's around my neck, but occasionally it's in my white coat pocket. No brainer.

iPhone. Quite possibly one of my greatest tools. I'm sure most of you have a smartphone and, like me, completely rely on it for everything and anything. The best thing about my iphone is all the great medical apps that I have. Most importantly being Epocrates, where I can look up every single drug and dosage that there is. Also, my Medcalc which allows me to calculate any medical formula I may need. Not to mention just having internet at your fingertips. The biggest problem is, trying to not be glued to your phone. I make it a rule to never take my phone out in front of a patient and to only use it for medical stuff when I'm working.

Maxwell Quick Medical Reference. Another small pocket book of must-knows for any physician. I use it mostly to quickly check normal lab values and to see what needs to be included on admitting orders or discharge summaries.

Odds & Ends. Chapstick, mints, plenty of pens, notebook of important things I learn, Luna bar, patient list. All very important.

By now you probably think that I couldn't fit anything else in there! You'd be surprised. By the end of the day I end up with random things like alcohol swabs, gloves, masks, more pens, tons of notes, those little plastic pieces that go on the end of an otoscope..... I know it's a lot, which is why wearing the darn thing is so uncomfortable just due to the sheer weight of it all, but quite honestly I don't know what I'd do without it. If I didn't wear my white coat, I'd have to carry a backpack.... or a fanny pack, which is definitely a no-no!

For all my doctor friends out there, I'll ask you. What's in your white coat?

Happy Holidays!

Well even though I was apparently on Santa's "nice" list since I got so many amazing gifts this Christmas, I was actually pretty naughty because I haven't written much this month! But I'm sure anyone can attest that December is such a stressful month. And where I was already so busy with my residency interviews, preparing for Christmas made it that much more difficult to sit down at the computer for more than five minutes and come up with something productive to say.

In the midst of all my interviews, I had to prepare for Christmas. First order of business was to attempt Black Friday shopping for the first time. I've never done it before, but I thought since now we have a child to buy for and I don't exactly have that doctor salary yet, we should try to score some deals. I dragged my poor husband to Toys R Us Thanksgiving night. My secret plan was to wait until the store opened at 9pm, then just hop in line as the people were piling into the store. What I didn't plan for was that they only allowed so many people in at a time. So we waited. Outside. In the cold. For an hour and a half.

After all the waiting and freezing, we finally got in. "Hooray! Time to shop!" I thought. My idea of Black Friday shopping fun soon sizzled as we realized we could barely even move around the store. Not to mention, all the toys on our list weren't even on sale! We seriously paid full price for almost everything. And the only reason we did it was because we waited outside for so long that we felt stupid leaving with nothing. I guess I should have done my homework ahead of time to find out what was on sale and what wasn't. Well, I had the last laugh when I went back last week and had a bunch of the items price adjusted for their later sale price. Bwahaha.

Next on my list of must-do's this holiday season was to get Killian to take a picture with Santa. Last year worked out well. He didn't cry at all, and we got a good picture. This year was a much different story. We traveled all the way to the Burlington mall since I've heard they have the "king" of all Santa's there, and boy was he a good-looking Santa. He might as well have been Freddy Kreuger though, because as we inched closer and closer towards him, Killian clung tighter and tighter. And even though the scary fat man in the red suit offered him a candy cane, he still screamed bloody murder when I tried to sit him on his lap. No picture.

It was soon time for my parent's annual Christmas party, which is the most anticipated event of the year.  My cousin dresses up as Santa and hands presents out to every kid there. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get a picture with Santa since he'd see all the other kids interacting with him and not freaking out. He didn't cry, but couldn't stop touching Santa's beard long enough to get a great picture. I finally gave up and decided to just enjoy the party.

Then Christmas came! This year was Killian's second Christmas. Last year was memorable because it was his first, but this year was even better because he could actually understand it a little more. My husband and I went a little overboard picking out Christmas gifts for him this year, but it was all worth it to see the excitement Killian had when saw the riding pirate ship sitting under the tree or unwrapped his Rock Star Mickey. Of course "santa" (and the grandparents) spoiled the crap out of him, but I think he just as much enjoyed being around our families and all the attention he got.

I feel so incredibly lucky right now, not because I finally got a Kitchenaid mixer, but because I have a healthy, happy family that I got to spend some extra time with this month. Then next month it's off to another rotation doing inpatient medicine. I'll be sure to have lots of stuff to blog about once I'm back in action playing doctor. Anyways, I hope all of you enjoyed your holiday, whether it's Christmas, Hanukah, or Kwanza. All that really matters is spending time with family and remembering the things in your life that make it all worth it.

Hi, my name is Maria. I want to be a resident at your program.

"Hi. My name is Maria. I'm from UNECOM. It's an osteopathic school in Maine. Yes, there's a medical school in Maine." I can't even tell you how many times I've had to say those words over the last few weeks. Residency interview season has officially kicked off. If you happen to be in a hospital this time of year and see a small group of people being herded around, all dressed in black or navy suits with a deer-in-headlight expression on their faces, then that's me and a bunch of other exhausted, freak-out med students. We're the interviewers.

Each interview is kind of like going on a mini vacation. You get put up in a swanky hotel or bed and breakfast. Well, most of the time. There was one hotel that I stayed at where I'm pretty sure I saw a hooker check into as well. You get your fair share of free meals. The night before each interview the residents either host a dinner at their house or take you out to dinner so that you can get to know them better and ask questions about resident life. It's been a really great way of hearing candidly from the residents about how they like the program and most importantly, how happy they are. What I'm finding out more and more is that the resident dinners are actually one of the most important parts of the whole interview process because these are the people you will spend the next couple years with, and it's good to see if you mesh well with them.

The interview day itself isn't much different program to program. You get up early, meet at the hospital or clinic, have a brief intro, interview, free lunch, then tour. Usually there's three or four interviews with a mixture of residents, faculty, and the program director. The best thing about interviewing for a family medicine residency is that the interviews are a lot less stressful than if you were going into a more competitive field. They're usually more of a conversation, rather than being grilled about your credentials or being pimped with medical questions. Usually I leave the interviews feeling pretty good about myself because I have to repeatedly talk about my accomplishments and what my good qualities are. And hopefully I've made a good enough impression so that the residency director, faculty, and residents all would like to work with me in the future. 

You may not think so, but going on interview after interview is quite tiring. It takes a lot out of you trying to sell yourself and being upbeat all day long. You meet so many people, who's names I can barely keep straight. You're constantly being asked questions like "Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?" or "What are your faults?" and my favorite "Do you have any questions for us?" Most people like to prepare for interviews by practicing answering questions. For me, I thought it was counterproductive to do so. I never wanted my answers to come across as rehearsed or cookie-cutter. Besides, the last decade of my life has been preparation for this. If I don't know the answer to "Why did you want to become a doctor?" by now, then I'm clearly in the wrong profession.

The thing is, even though I'm the one being interviewed, I'm actually interviewing them as well. Sure, I'm lucky to get any sort of job really, but I'll be committing the next three years to a residency program and I want to make sure it's somewhere I'll fit in, get a good teaching experience, and become the best doctor I can be. Not to mention, I have to consider what's best for my family. Is the program family-friendly? Is there good childcare in the area? Will they be flexible if I have an emergency at home? I've always said that being a doctor, as important as it is to me, is just a job. My family is my life. So I need to be somewhere that promotes that same mantra. Which is a big reason why I'm going into family practice to begin with. We're families treating families. And hopefully you find a good enough residency program where the people you work with become your family as well...... I could only be so lucky.