Tag Archives: Nathen Spitz

Who Decides We Have Enough Evidence to Stop Debating?

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Questions lead to experimentation, which leads to evidence, allowing for conclusions, and then–voila!–practice.

  • Equipoise was a new word for Dave, Mitch, Nathen and Riley. Jeff explains that it describes a state of equilibrium at which debate on a topic is no longer required, and factuality has effectively been achieved.
  • But in science, that state has time and again been upset by new ideas and evidence that initially seem wrong. So, who decides whether the debate is remains open, or has gone on long enough?

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Trust Means Everything

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Without trust, medicine doesn’t work.

  • M4 Nathan, M1s Trent and Leon, and MD/PhD student Aline talk about the nature of trust–what it really means, how we trust ourselves and others, and what it means when it’s lost.
  • Trust is, after all, the thing that makes much of society possible–it’s the belief that people do not only what’s in their own interest, but what’s in the best interest of other people.
  • Medicine is a perfect domain to explore trust, given what doctors ask of patients and what patients ask of doctors.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

No matter where you fall on any spectrum, we want your thoughts on our show.  Do you agree or disagree with something we said today?  Did you hear something really helpful?  Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to?  We’ll be sure your ideas are heard by all–leave a message at 347-SHORTCT (347-746-7828) and we’ll put your message in a future episode (use *67 to be an “Unknown caller”).

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How We’re Preparing for Residency Interviews

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What do residency programs really want to hear about?

  • M4s Nathen and Zack, M3 Rick, and MD/PhD student Riley offer their ideas on prepping for residency interviews and the questions they’ll probably be asked.
  • Dave offers up an ‘educational’ improv exercise to help them prepare.
  • Premed listener Emily was told that Family Medicine is a dead end…by her mom who is a Family Medicine doc! That’s not really the case, is it?

[URL template for episode https://media.blubrry.com/theshortcoat/podcast.uiowa.edu/com/osa/CHANGETHIS.mp3]

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

No matter where you fall on any spectrum, we want your thoughts on our show.  Do you agree or disagree with something we said today?  Did you hear something really helpful?  Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to?  We’ll be sure your ideas are heard by all–leave a message at 347-SHORTCT (347-746-7828) and we’ll put your message in a future episode (use *67 to be an “Unknown caller”).

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How Climate Change will Change Medicine

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Physicians of the (all-too-near) future will face new challenges

  • Iowa College of Public Health Professor Peter Thorne visits with M4s Nathen and Zack, M3 Rick, and M2 Chirayu to look at what climate change means for doctors and patients in the future.
  • As seas rise and weather events become more and more severe, there will be changes to the kinds of conditions and people that physicians will treat.
  • Garrison writes in to ask us about a med school that just wants 90 credits and an MCAT–is it too good to be true?

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

No matter where you fall on any spectrum, we want your thoughts on our show.  Do you agree or disagree with something we said today?  Did you hear something really helpful?  Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to?  We’ll be sure your ideas are heard by all–leave a message at 347-SHORTCT (347-746-7828) and we’ll put your message in a future episode (use *67 to be an “Unknown caller”).

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Monkeypox: a National Health Emergency

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Have we learned anything from HIV or COVID?

  • M4 Nathen, M2s Noah and Shana, and MD/PhD student Aline discuss the new epidemic of “Monkeypox,” and try to discern if our country has learned anything about how to respond to emerging diseases.
  • A BMC Medical Education journal article shines some light on the best (and worst) study techniques med students use to drink from the firehose.
  • Dave asks his co-hosts to celebrate an incoming class of med students by PIMPing each other…while wearing mouth spreaders.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

No matter where you fall on any spectrum, we want your thoughts on our show.  Do you agree or disagree with something we said today?  Did you hear something really helpful?  Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to?  We’ll be sure your ideas are heard by all–leave a message at 347-SHORTCT (347-746-7828) and we’ll put your message in a future episode (use *67 to be an “Unknown caller”).

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Recess Rehash: Med Schools Hate When Students Have Jobs. Some People Take the Risk Anyway.

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Perhaps no school would recommend working during med school, but plenty of people do it.  

[We’re on a break! But we’ll be back with a new episode on August 11, 2022. Enjoy this re-run!]

TL;DR

  • Sometimes, you just don’t want to take that extra loan money.  One option: a part time job.
  • But that is risky–the time you devote to that job could have been spent on studying, and perhaps could decrease your chances at those competitive residency programs.
  • But there are medical students who make the choice to work, and some jobs might even help your chances.
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Eliza wrote to us at theshortcoats@gmail.com because, as an older, married medical student with a young child in an expensive city, she wondered what our thoughts were on students who work during medical school.  We invited her on the show so M3 Nathen Spitz, M4s Abby Fyfe and Nick Lind, and M1 Grant Stalker could find out more about her choice to work as a therapeutic yoga teacher, and discuss some of the equity issues surrounding work during medical school.  And Nathen offers some ideas about paying jobs that can actually be a benefit to medical students in their academic lives.

We also discuss the Biden administration’s new mental health-focused initiatives, especially those focused on healthcare workers, as outlined in the president’s state of the union address. 

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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 Recess Rehash: Med Schools Hate When Students Have Jobs. Some People Take the Risk Anyway.

Tall Testosterone Tales for the Toxic testicle Troops

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A silly documentary about the decline of men.

TL;DR

  • A man in Germany takes 90 for the team to sell vax cards
  • Tucker Carlson’s new documentary seems to sell a bizarre vision of the decline of male supremacy.
  • Dave has an alternative idea for composing residency personal statements.
Background: screen capture from The End of Men, Fox News.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

No matter where you fall on any spectrum, we want your thoughts on our show.  Do you agree or disagree with something we said today?  Did you hear something really helpful?  Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to?  We’ll be sure your ideas are heard by all–leave a message at 347-SHORTCT (347-746-7828) and we’ll put your message in a future episode (use *67 to be an “Unknown caller”).

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NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE MEANINGFUL, Y’ALL.

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The Meaning of Purposelessness

On This Episode:

Join this week’s co-hosts M4 Madeline Cusimano, M3 Nathen Spitz, M3 Mason LaMarche, and M4 Ananya Munjal for the show!

  • Facing a content-free episode, we discuss what medical students do when they’re avoiding purpose and meaning (ie., they want to just have fun).
  • We discuss a more nuanced view of work-life balance in medicine than is usually discussed (referenced: this Medscape article).
  • Madeline challenges the gang to play 5-second rule, Medicine Edition.
  • Bonus: As many tangents and asides as we can fit into an hour.
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Background: https://www.flickr.com/photos/89396956@N00/

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!
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Lessons from the Wards: what Future Residents Need to Know (Ft. Dr. Abbey hardy-Fairbanks)

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TL;DR

  • Abbey Hardy-Fairbanks is an OB/Gyn who often works with expectant moms who use drugs.
  • Future resident MDs: this episode features some of the many things she’s learned about meeting patients where they are, practicing medicine without judgement, and understanding what she and her clients can and cannot accomplish in the moment.
  • Approaching patients with an open heart from the first moment, even when their lives are outside society’s mainstream or approval, can mean the difference between losing them for good and them coming back to see anyone for more help.

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!
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Criminal Charges for Medical Mistakes: A Bad Idea?

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Medical errors are an unfortunate and sometimes tragic fact of life. Jailing nurses without addressing root causes compounds the tragedy

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  • Nurse RaDonda Vaught faces jail time for an error that killed her patient, and the crew discusses what they learn and know about dealing with medical errors.
  • While Vaught (convicted later on the day we recorded this episode) made some pretty terrible errors that justifiably ended her career, her employer bears responsibility, too…but so far is getting off without meaningful consequence.
  • Threatening jail for nurses who make medical errors isn’t going to help attract people to the profession, especially when their employers create conditions that lead to errors.

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!
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Continue reading Criminal Charges for Medical Mistakes: A Bad Idea?