Two weeks ago, a medical student contacted me to seek some career advice. I was prepared to offer my usual reassurance and support, but the advice he was seeking was different. He asked, “Should I take a year off to pursue an internship with a public relations firm?”...
You look down at your notes, organized perfectly from the Subjective information down to the Plan, and feel your palms sweating. Your heart starts to race, your breathing becomes heavier and more laborious. You feel the collective gaze of the clinical staff –...
In my experience, Networking has been neither familiar nor comfortable to most medical students. In my second year I attended a lunch lecture on Leadership, and when the topic of networking arose a first year asked, “isn’t networking kind of like using people?” That...
Back in the 80’s, when I was a kid, we talked about what we wanted to be when we grew up. We talked about being a doctor, and what that would entail. Back then the image was of a person taking care of patients in his or her own practice, and on Friday’s...
At our medical school in Utah, we have first year medical students take an inventory of their strengths using StrengthsFinder, an instrument developed by the Gallup organization. Out of the the 34 talent/strengths of the instrument, the most common one among students...
A few years ago, I was commuting into work. A radio program was on the air where it talked about the process of learning. It asked the question: Most of us drive every day. Does this ‘practice’ of driving make us better drivers? The answer for me, and I...
