Tag Archives: medical education

Hot Takes: Med School Edition (Part 1?)

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These might be very bad ideas…but we’ll talk about them anyway.

  • Riley leads a discussion with Jeff, Levi, and Katie of unpopular opinions about medicine and medical education.
  • Anki sucks! Gap years should be mandatory! All clerkships should be optional! 8th graders should review scientific papers!
  • We don’t know about you, listeners, but the co-hosts enjoyed this discussion so much you can look for a part 2 in December!

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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Continue reading Hot Takes: Med School Edition (Part 1?)

SCOTUS Changed Med Ed As We Know It with Dr. Abby hardy-Fairbanks

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CONTENT WARNING: We’re discussing a controversial subject. The opinions expressed are not those of the University of Iowa or any other institution. Listener discretion is advised.

We try to predict the future of medical training in light of the fall of Roe V. Wade

  • Dr. Abby Hardy Fairbanks, medical director of Iowa City’s Emma Goldman Clinic joins co-hosts MSTP students Madi and Riley, and M2s Mao and Tyler to help us understand how the recent SCOTUS decision striking down abortion as a federally protected right will affect their training.
  • The changes may extend beyond OB-Gyn training to affect other specialties…as well as the trust that confidentiality brings to the doctor-patient relationship.
  • Also, Dr. Hardy-Fairbanks talks about the advocacy roles physicians can take on, from state-house lobbying to voting to just being there for their patients.  

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”).

We want to know more about you: Take the Listener Survey

Continue reading SCOTUS Changed Med Ed As We Know It with Dr. Abby hardy-Fairbanks

How Med Students Would Change Medicine

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There’s plenty of change needed.

  • Dave asks his co-hosts to discuss the things they would like to change about medicine and medical education, if (when) they could.
  • A study in JAMA Pediatrics finds one reason students of color may drop out of med school: mistreatment.
  • Dave fiddles around with AI text-to-image software. Can his co-hosts guess what the AI was trying to create?

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”).

We want to know more about you: Take the Listener Survey

Continue reading How Med Students Would Change Medicine

Quality over Quantity: Clinical Experiences and Volunteering in COVID Times

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[This episode is sponsored by Panacea Financial, a Division of Sonabank, Member FDIC. Please support our sponsor by visiting https://panaceafinancial.com/]

The Short Coats have begun livestreaming their recordings in our Facebook group (most Fridays at noon central–join us and be a part of the show). Listeners Garrett and Isaac wrote in with questions about the clinical hours schools want from their applicants. How important is the number of hours, asked Garrett, and what changes in that number are schools making in COVID times? Lucky for you, gentlemen, MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk, M3 Emma Barr, and M1s Alex Belzer and AJ Chowdhury are on the show to suss it out for you. Plus, we provide some suggestions for alternatives if the usual activities just aren’t available to you. And livestream viewer Cierra asks how we think this year’s experiences will change medical education. Did we learn new things about how to deliver medical education? Are students less prepared than they would otherwise have been?

A couple shows ago, Dave indulged himself in a rant about Americans’ seeming inability to follow best practices for spreading COVID, basically saying those folks are wimps. But a recent editorial in MedPageToday.com makes him reconsider his delivery.

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!

Freezing Development to Help Care for the Disabled (ft. Dr. Ryan Gray)

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The amazing Dr. Ryan Gray, host of quite a few of the pre-med focused podcasts over at mededmedia.com (of which we, of course, are a member), joins Maddie Mix, Hillary O’Brien, Nick Lind, and Kyle Kinder as guest co-host!   Which is good, because we start with a rather difficult topic: should the parents of a profoundly disabled child–who will never be able to care for herself in even the most basic of ways–be allowed to ‘freeze’ her development so that she remains physically six years old if it will enable them care for her at home?

Plus, with the news from our own University of Iowa that surgeons often prepare for surgery by watching YouTube, Dave subjects Dr. Gray and his co-hosts to a YouTube-based health topics pop quiz.


Buy Our Merch and Give At The Same Time

You care about others, or you wouldn’t be into this medicine thing. Our #merchforgood program lets you to give to our charity of the semester and get something for yourself at the same time!

This Week in Medical News

The decline of rural emergency rooms has gone so far as to create a new kind of telemedicine.  Crazymothers (no, that’s not a slur, that’s what they call themselves) want us to stop calling them anti-vaxxers.  And month-long birth control may become achievable if you can swallow a six-pointed star about 2 inches in diameter.

We Want to Hear From You

So, what’s up with you? Tell (or ask) us anything at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Freezing Development to Help Care for the Disabled (ft. Dr. Ryan Gray)

Med Student Parents, Part 2 | Plan for Debt but Don’t Worry

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This time, a mom’s point of view.

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Photo by j.reed

On our last show, we fielded a question from Courtney who wants to go to med school but is worried about being a mom and a med student.  We got one dad’s perspective then, and now it’s time for mom.  Dr. Maya Lopez (CCOM MD ’04) was another non-trad entering school with a supportive husband and a few bundles of joy.  She told Eric Schnieders, Tucker Dangremond, and Sanjeeva Weerasinghe how she dove headlong into med school, how she and her husband (along with a village) made parenting and med school work for them.

To top it off, we got another question from Clovis (not his real  name) who was worried that he’d either have to join the military or sell all of his internal organs to afford medical school…unless we could come up with some other options for him.  CCOM debt counselor Chris Roling had some good news (not to mention advice) for him.

This Week in Medical News

The medical education world is humming with the news that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has reversed a long-standing prohibition against students contributing to patients’ medical records.  Boring?  Maybe, but it’s going to change how clerkships are done and the ease with which students make the transition to residency in the very near future.

We Want to Hear From You

Do you have worries we can soothe (or stoke)? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.  We’re ready to give free (and perhaps even good) advice!

Continue reading Med Student Parents, Part 2 | Plan for Debt but Don’t Worry

The Value of Coaching in Medicine.

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achievment photoCoaching is an integral part of sports, it’s often used by corporate executives, and even helps people manage ADHD.  But until recently coaching wasn’t something physicians used to achieve their goals.  For this show, Mark Moubarek, Aline Sandouk, and Amy Young talk with Georgetown University faculty member Maggi Cary and Georgetown student Jack Penner.  Dr. Cary is a certified coach specializing in leadership coaching for healthcare professionals. But a serendipitous acquaintance with Jack lead to him becoming a client.  Recognizing its value for him as a student–in dealing with the so-called hidden curriculum and impostor syndrome, among other things–they have put together a  pro-bono arrangement for twelve Georgetown student with area coaches.  These relationships have allowed students to address areas of concern for them without the fears they may have in reaching out to faculty or peers, such as raising red flags or competitive issues.  It has also allowed them to get some of the individual attention they may be missing in education systems that are focused more on mass production of doctors.  And as medicine itself moves away from the idea that the doctor is the captain of the ship and towards a more integrative model of cooperation between medical professionals, more doctors are excited about learning leadership, management, and even surgical skills that encourage and value the input of their teammates.  Dr. Cary and Jack also help us consider an idea sent in by listener JW–that burnout among physicians might be addressed by adopting a less martyred approach to their work in favor of understanding that “it’s just a job.”

Listeners, share your thoughts with us on this episode and ideas for future episodes.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page for a question to consider every week.

Continue reading The Value of Coaching in Medicine.

Recess Rehash: The Ultimate Taboo: Medicine and Suicide

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Photo by JoePenna

[With Thanksgiving late week, we didn’t record a new episode.  Enjoy this rerun, instead!]

Just hours before a new crop of medical students are to be welcomed into the world of medicine, Kaci McCleary, John Pienta, Aline Sandouk, Mark Moubarek, and Lisa Wehr confront one of the most uncomfortable topics in medical education: resident and student suicide.  Among doctors, suicide rates are much higher than among the general population.  The long hours, high pressure (from both one’s internal monologue and from outside sources) to succeed, fear of public humiliation regarding one’s shortcomings, isolation, inadequate supervision, the stigma against mental illness, the career penalties faced by those who admit to unwellness, and more, all contribute to the problem.  Institutions also have a difficult time addressing incidents of physician suicide effectively, as they try to walk a tightrope strung between respect for the privacy of the deceased, the needs of colleague survivors to talk about it, the desire to avoid adverse publicity.  Meanwhile, the work does not stop. The only breaks are a moment of silence, a visit with a grief counselor, or an “open forum” to discuss one’s feelings.

Fortunately, the culture may be changing to allow for more discussion, prevention, transparency. Institutions like the University of Iowa and Harvard University are adding counseling capacity, student groups to support struggling peers, and a greater openness to acknowledging without shaming the fact of mental illness among physicians.

We need validation. Leave a review: iTunes

 

The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine; nor do they reflect the views of anyone other than the people who expressed them.  If you have feedback on anything you hear on the show, positive or not, let us know.

Reversing Pavlok, and What You Can Learn From Your Bike Wreck.

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Photo by EliPongo

After listening to our recent show that featured a review of a wrist-worn device that you can shock yourself with to punish you for engaging in bad habits, listener Paulius drops us a line to ask what Amy Young, Corbin Weaver, Aline Sandouk, and John Pienta do to reward themselves when they do the right things.  Like watching YouTube videos of people doing things well.  Or turning your life into a video game. Next, Amy attempts to learn some sort of lesson about clinical medicine as a result of her recent nasty bike wreck, aside from, “Being in a nasty bike wreck isn’t at all a good idea.” And Dave’s fear of someday ending up on YouTube video recorded while he recovers from anesthesia leads to a discussion on online privacy.
Continue reading Reversing Pavlok, and What You Can Learn From Your Bike Wreck.

The Ultimate Taboo: Medicine and Suicide

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sad photo
Photo by JoePenna

Just hours before a new crop of medical students are to be welcomed into the world of medicine, Kaci McCleary, John Pienta, Aline Sandouk, Mark Moubarek, and Lisa Wehr confront one of the most uncomfortable topics in medical education: resident and student suicide.  Among doctors, suicide rates are much higher than among the general population.  The long hours, high pressure (from both one’s internal monologue and from outside sources) to succeed, fear of public humiliation regarding one’s shortcomings, isolation, inadequate supervision, the stigma against mental illness, the career penalties faced by those who admit to unwellness, and more, all contribute to the problem.  Institutions also have a difficult time addressing incidents of physician suicide effectively, as they try to walk a tightrope strung between respect for the privacy of the deceased, the needs of colleague survivors to talk about it, the desire to avoid adverse publicity.  Meanwhile, the work does not stop. The only breaks are a moment of silence, a visit with a grief counselor, or an “open forum” to discuss one’s feelings.

Fortunately, the culture may be changing to allow for more discussion, prevention, transparency. Institutions like the University of Iowa and Harvard University are adding counseling capacity, student groups to support struggling peers, and a greater openness to acknowledging without shaming the fact of mental illness among physicians.

We need validation. Leave a review: iTunes

 

The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine; nor do they reflect the views of anyone other than the people who expressed them.  If you have feedback on anything you hear on the show, positive or not, let us know.