May 21

Reflecting on My First Year of Med School

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Med School BlogIt’s pretty difficult to believe, but in a couple weeks I will have survived my first year of medical school. It has certainly been a tumultuous ride. As I look back on it I can’t help but be impressed with the volume of knowledge I have managed to consume in less than 12 months. Don’t get me wrong, there is a veritable mountain of information that I haven’t quite found a place in my brain for yet. Most days I feel like an idiot who is barely managing to hang on to the fragments of information that fly past me. I have to actively remind myself that I’m a whole lot more knowledgeable than I was when I started.

It’s really easy to lose sight of that last point. There is so much to learn that it really seems impossible to even process it all. This has been a year of learning to accept that I cannot learn it all. My shortcomings have seemed ever more present than my successes. School has been pretty much non-stop and I have felt sort of behind since about the first day. But the reality is that I have learned more than I ever … view full post »

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May 17

From 1st Year Med School to Residency: A Reflection

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Med School Blog

Photo credit: By lumaxart (EbonyG00052_LuMaxArt) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) or CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Graduation day is almost here; as it creeps closer, I can’t help but reminisce about my first few days in medical school. I prepared hard my entire life; worked hard, played hard, but nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of medical school. I remember constantly questioning myself as to whether I had made the right decision. All of my friends who were initially pre-med students, had, at some point in time, changed their decision of entering medical school in exchange for a career in Pharmacy. As I sat in my medical school lectures, I was inundated with more information than my mind would allow me to process at once. At that moment, I remembered regretting my decision to pursue a career in medicine. It seemed to me that as I studied 24/7, my friends were out having the time of their life. I remember how I missed multiple events and occasions because I had to study for upcoming “tests” or because I was so far away in another city. I couldn’t help but feel a tad bit jealous at that point.

As I entered my … view full post »

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May 16

Signs and Symptoms of Your General Surgery Rotation

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Med School Blog

Photo credit: By Superbass (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

1.     Your laundry consists of a pile of socks and underwear, since you’ve been wearing scrubs six days out of the week.

2.     Every time you hear a beeping noise of any kind, you immediately leap to your feet and start looking for your pager.

3.     You are torn between desperately, desperately wanting coffee, and desperately, desperately nervous about having to pee while in the OR.

4.     At least 50% of your meals consist of granola or energy bars that you cram into your mouth between rounding and surgeries.

5.     On an especially early morning, a patient in alcohol withdrawal tells you that you “look like crap.” (Thank you for that one, sir.)

6.     You wonder why you’re so hungry at 10am, and then you realize that it’s because you ate that granola bar at 4:10am.

7.     When recalling an event that happened yesterday, you mistakenly think it was two days ago, because you’ve been at the hospital for so long during the interval that you think it can’t possibly have just happened yesterday.

8.     You’re shocked to see someone else arriving at the hospital as … view full post »

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May 15

Chief’s Weekly Case 7

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Every Wednesday, our own Dr. Niket Sonpal will share a sample case question and answer explanation to help you master the cases you need to understand to succeed on your boards and on the wards. Learn about the important USMLE Step 1 cases you need to understand with Chief’s Weekly featuring Dr. Niket Sonpal.

Join Dr. Sonpal as he shows you just how to tackle a very difficile problem and how to treat it.



Med School BlogDr. Niket Sonpal is the 2013-2014 Chief Resident at Lenox Hill Hospital – Northshore LIJ Health System and the co-author for the best selling Master the Boards: USMLE Step 2 CK and Master the Boards: Internal Medicine. He’s written over 75 scientific publications and co-authored Kaplan Medical’s newly developed Step 2 High Yield course. He has spoken and presented at over 14 national and regional conferences on his research and is a regular participant in Kaplan presentations to medical students, graduates, and residents. Dr. Sonpal is also the chairman for the development of a National Consortium of Chief Residents and will be leading the upcoming “In the Trenches” weekly case series on Quantia MD. After chief residency he plans to pursue a fellowship … view full post »

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May 14

I’m a U.S. International Medical Student

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Med School Blog

Photo credit: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/tommcd09/created_cards

By Willie Carter

Study Break or Distraction?

As of this writing, there are exactly twelve calendar days until my end of term medical school exams. And, for some reason, I cannot seem to stay focused on the task at hand. Mixtures of emotions ranging from excitement to burnout have taken over me. Excited because I will be completing my first term of medical school really soon; and feeling some form of burnout was inevitable in my opinion. Notwithstanding, I am looking forward to the long anticipated, well deserved, and much needed break that lies ahead. Wait. As I think about it, maybe the word “break” is a bit of a stretch here. Perhaps looking forward to the distraction is a better word choice. While there will be no daily lectures to attend, the work will still continue in one form or another.

For me, once final exams are complete, I will travel back to the U.S. to do a Family Medicine and an Internal Medicine clinical observership in an effort to gain more clinical insight and to solidify (from a clinical perspective) concepts I have learned in my basic science classes this term. After the observerships, I … view full post »

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May 10

Choosing a Specialty Part 1: What the Dean Won’t Tell You

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Med School Blog

Photo credit: I, Satyakamk [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The most common question I encountered along the interview trail was, “Why do you want to be a surgeon?” It’s a completely fair and necessary question, but I can’t say that my simple canned response provided the whole truth. I would answer by talking about how I enjoyed working with my hands, how good it felt to have instant gratification in patient care, and how I liked the team spirit of the operating room. The personal statement accompanying my residency application summarized those points convincingly. Of course all of that is true, but there are a few other factors that went into my career choice that are a bit too sophisticated to communicate in a concise essay or succinct interview response.

In this two-part post, I hope to demonstrate some important considerations when choosing a specialty. I applied to medical school, at least in part, because I’m a “people person.” I can think of patients I took care of during each clerkship who moved me – who reminded me why I had chosen this path. I can just as easily recall the residents and attendings on … view full post »

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May 09

Physical Exam Findings: Hoping and Praying That the Attending Hears What I Hear

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Med School Blog

Photo credit: אלישע בר-מאיר [CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

This morning on surgery rounds, I presented my physical exam findings to my attending. And as he listened to my patient’s heart and lungs and checked the incision site, I had a realization: I wasn’t filled with fear and dread that his findings would be different than mine.

For the first half of third year, I would fervently pray that my physical exam findings matched those of my attendings. “What do her lungs sound like to you?” I would frequently ask my residents, anxiously awaiting their responses. “Do you hear crackles? I think I hear crackles, but I’m not sure.” Every time the staff would do a physical exam, I would have to actively keep myself from biting my nails to see if they noticed the same things I did.

In a way, I feel like I’ve finally made it – I can hear crackles. I’m not saying I’m going to catch every heart murmur or notice slightly decreased breath sounds, but if someone has pneumonia, I’d like to think I’ve got a shot of noticing it on my own. I’ve finally seen enough patients that I can recognize the most … view full post »

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May 08

Chief’s Weekly Case 6

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Every Wednesday, our own Dr. Niket Sonpal will share a sample case question and answer explanation to help you master the cases you need to understand to succeed on your boards and on the wards. Learn about the important USMLE Step 1 cases you need to understand with Chief’s Weekly featuring Dr. Niket Sonpal.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure on this episode of Chief’s Weekly.



Med School BlogDr. Niket Sonpal is the 2013-2014 Chief Resident at Lenox Hill Hospital – Northshore LIJ Health System and the co-author for the best selling Master the Boards: USMLE Step 2 CK and Master the Boards: Internal Medicine. He’s written over 75 scientific publications and co-authored Kaplan Medical’s newly developed Step 2 High Yield course. He has spoken and presented at over 14 national and regional conferences on his research and is a regular participant in Kaplan presentations to medical students, graduates, and residents. Dr. Sonpal is also the chairman for the development of a National Consortium of Chief Residents and will be leading the upcoming “In the Trenches” weekly case series on Quantia MD. After chief residency he plans to pursue a fellowship in gastroenterology and continue … view full post »

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May 07

Things to Do to Prep for Medical School: Part I

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Med School Blog

Photo credit: David Anstiss [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

One of my best friends is starting medical school this fall. And she is SO scared. I don’t blame her. It is pretty scary. But for those of you about to start medical school, remember when you were about to start college? Remember how scary that was? For those of you still in college, remember how scary the first day of high school was? Well, you got through it, and you’ll get through this too.

I started medical school not too long ago, and yet I am already surprised by how much I’ve learned. Sure, I mean textbook stuff, but I also mean in terms of how much I’ve learned about myself and about the whole process. That said, I don’t know if I’m quite in the best position to give the best advice (check back in ten years please…or fifty) but I do have some suggestions for those of you thinking about medical school. Here’s some of the stuff I’ve told my friend.

Things to do before you get here, Part One: College Edition

In COLLEGE:

Run for the hills – I kid, I kid! But seriously, if you haven’t … view full post »

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May 03

Call Nights on Surgery Rotation

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Med School BlogI’m on call for surgery, and the other med student and I have taken over the call room.

There are only two of us, but you’d think we were a crowd of eight. We have somehow managed to spread our things over all four beds, filled the room with empty coffee cups and chocolate wrappers, and leave our shoes scattered all over the floor. If anyone else happens to need the call room tonight, we will simply have to tell them that they are out of luck, because it is full of our crap. It’s taken on the tone of a slightly resigned and forced slumber party.

We have the good luck of having our weekend call night together, which makes it slightly more tolerable. The chief resident assured us, when we signed on at 6pm, that she would only call us for something interesting or if a case went to the OR.

We are both fervently hoping that nothing interesting comes up. And certainly that nothing goes to the OR. Because let’s face it, all I want to do on my call night is attempt to sleep.

Our hopes were dashed slightly when the R1 – first year resident… view full post »

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