Tag Archives: curriculum

Rushing to Med School means Missed Opportunities (RECESS REHASH)

Share

The gods of podcasting smote our recording session last week, but at least we can enjoy this rerun. Luckily, it’s a good one!

Taking your time may actually be better for your career than rushing through it

TL;DR

  • Rushing to med school may be a good idea, but there is a danger of missing experiences that make you a better student and a better doctor. But if you’re going to do it…go hard.
  • Nutrition is well covered in the med school curriculum, but there’s a lot we don’t understand.
  • Falling off a tall stack of milk crates on purpose has questionable health benefits.

Listener (and graduating high-school senior) Stephanie called 347-SHORTCT to ask about her plans to finish undergrad in 2 years and start med school at 19. While her actual question was how she could get everything done, our question was what would she miss out on that might inform and educate her about her medicine dreams? MD/PhD students Miranda Schene and Riley Behan, M2 Eric Boeshart, and M1 Zach Shepard discuss the cons.

Another listener, Varsha, wants to know how much nutrition is covered in med school; and Dave points out a study that claims a hot dog reduces your life expectancy by 36 minutes. One more thing that reduces life expectancy: the milk crate challenge.

We Want to Hear From You

How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime  or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

Continue reading Rushing to Med School means Missed Opportunities (RECESS REHASH)

Overcoming Your Undergrad Apathy Now that You’re Applying to Medical School

Share

Good news: medical schools don’t just want perfect people!

TL;DR

  • If your undergraduate studies in a different field lacked a certain enthusiasm but you’ve now decided to pursue medicine, it can be difficult to know where you’ll stand with admissions committees.
  • Fortunately, adcomms don’t just look for perfect grades and unwavering and early certainty from med school candidates on their path to medicine.
  • We discuss a great way to fill a hole in what your school teaches–create a course on the subject!

Listener Abby is thinking about taking the prereqs for medical school, but worries that her trajectory thus far isn’t distinguished enough.  Is she setting herself up for the poor house and failure? Hear the words of encouragement and wisdom we have for Abby, featuring MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk, M4 Madeline Cusimano, M4 Emma Barr, and M4 Abby Fyfe.

We also discuss the course on Sexual Violence that Aline and her team of enthusiastic partners developed and delivered this past fall to medical students interested in learning the signs of sexual assault and the roles that students and residents can play in getting help for victims. 

And we compose the voicemail greeting you’ll hear if you call our SCP Listener Line at 347-SHORTCT, and we discuss Aline’s impending return to medical school as she looks forward to completing her PhD.

We Want to Hear From You

How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime  or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

Continue reading Overcoming Your Undergrad Apathy Now that You’re Applying to Medical School

Rushing to Med School means Missed Opportunities

Share

Taking your time may actually be better for your career than rushing through it

TL;DR

  • Rushing to med school may be a good idea, but there is a danger of missing experiences that make you a better student and a better doctor. But if you’re going to do it…go hard.
  • Nutrition is well covered in the med school curriculum, but there’s a lot we don’t understand.
  • Falling off a tall stack of milk crates on purpose has questionable health benefits.

This episode is sponsored by Enso Rings, makers of soft, safe, attractive silicone rings. Listeners get 10% off rings at EnsoRings.com using promo code SHORT!

Listener (and graduating high-school senior) Stephanie called 347-SHORTCT to ask about her plans to finish undergrad in 2 years and start med school at 19. While her actual question was how she could get everything done, our question was what would she miss out on that might inform and educate her about her medicine dreams? MD/PhD students Miranda Schene and Riley Behan, M2 Eric Boeshart, and M1 Zach Shepard discuss the cons.

Another listener, Varsha, wants to know how much nutrition is covered in med school; and Dave points out a study that claims a hot dog reduces your life expectancy by 36 minutes. One more thing that reduces life expectancy: the milk crate challenge.

We Want to Hear From You

How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime  or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

Continue reading Rushing to Med School means Missed Opportunities

How To Fix A Gap: Do It Yourself!

Share

No school, employer, or profession is perfect; and lots of times, you have to step up to fix it.

This episode’s sponsor, Panacea Financial, is having a Match Day Giveaway! Med students in the 2021 Match can enter to be one of five students who will win $500! Enter at panaceafinancial.com/matchday.

Long time SCP listener and CCOM M4 Austin Kazarian joins us on the show to talk about the personal finance course he proposed and helped create. Wait, isn’t there enough to learn in medicine? There is, but as long as med school debt is a problem, it’s important to learn how to deal with it, as well as many other financial issues that exist for new residents. Join him, MD/MBA student Gabe Conley, and M4s Joyce Wahba and Tim Maxwell for a discussion on how medical students can fix the inevitable gaps in their schools’ curricula, and why it’s important to look for a joint that’ll take your suggestions and let you lead with them (and see this article, and the Academic Medicine commentary discussed during the show). And if you want to bring Austin’s personal finance for physicians curriculum to your school, he’ll share his proposal with you to get started–drop him a DM @AustinKazarian.

Also, Dave gives the crew a news quiz. Were you paying attention these past few weeks?

We Want to Hear From You

How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime  or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

Your Gap Year Job Doesn’t Matter

Share

Listeners ask, we answer.

Photo of a subway platform gap.
Mind the Gap Year? Photo by Quaisoir @ Lil Miss QQ

A flood of listener questions this week!  It’s probably due in part to medical school application season has begun, which means medical school applicants are trying to figure out if they have what it takes…on paper.  For instance, an anonymous listener (“Meldor”) called in to find out what kinds of gap year jobs Liza Mann, Elizabeth Shirazi, Kelsey Adler, and Teneme Konne thought would allow her to keep connected to the world of medicine while she’s applying.  Of course, a gap year job like that isn’t hard to find…but is that really necessary?  We play a game to find out who can best spin any gap year job to an admissions interviewer.

Also, listener Mike returns to let us know more exactly what he was concerned about in our long-past episode in which we spoke of gun violence.  And Andrea wants to know more about what medical students learn about health disparities; given that much of human disease is about societal influences, including economic and racial divides, it turns out the answer is quite a lot.

Lastly, after hearing our recent discussion on food deserts, Erica let us  know about an organization at her alma mater, the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Brightside Produce is devoted to generating scientific results that increase yields and reduce environmental impacts of small-scale agriculture in cities.  Basically, they’re fighting inner-city hunger using science to enable urban farmers.

We want to hear from you

Hearing from Mike, Andrea, Erica, and Meldor only whets our appetite for more listener contact.  Thank you, everyone!  If you have something to say or a question to ask, call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Your Gap Year Job Doesn’t Matter