Hello Aspiring Physicians!
Summer is finally here! Hopefully you either have plans to rest during these next couple of months or you are working hard for the next phase in your medical training journey. I have been working diligently on my “Aspiring Physician Academy” Course for you all. My hopes are for it to be ready for you by the end of this summer. I am so excited to introduce this course to you. This will be the first of many courses that I would like to bring to you. This first course is geared towards the student who is interested in becoming a doctor and in the early stages of of his/her training. This would include high school, undergrad, 1st and 2nd year medical students. I also am in the process of creating a course for my advanced medical students (MS-III, MS- IV) and those medical students who are interested in pursuing orthopedic surgery. This course is unlike any other course you have taken before. This course will NOT help you study for the MCAT or your board exams – There are plenty of courses for that on the internet. This course will teach how to be successful in medical school and beyond. Remember, your patients will not care how you did on an exam. They will care about how compassionate, professional, empathetic and skilled you are. And as your mentor I want you to succeed for your patients. So stay tuned. There is a lot of fun stuff coming your way.
Summer is a really important time for medical students. Unfortunately it’s not the time to take off and head to the beach or travel. I would wait until the summer between medical school and residency to do that. Summer is a time where you get ahead, you get more experience, you can begin to network, you figure out what you want to do, etc. Summer is sometimes spent in a lab 6-8 hours a day, helping with research, studying for MCATs or Step 1/COMLEX exams. It may not seem like fun but trust me this is where you get ahead of the game. This is where you get that extra letter of recommendation. This is where you get that extra few months of clinical and research experience. This is where you can add a couple more pearls to your resume. This is where the admissions committee will look to see how motivated are you to become a doctor. So let’s talk about some summer activities that you can entertain to help you get ahead.
Research is biggie. I have a lot of medical students that ask me what can they do to enhance their resume with research. You have to be realistic when it comes to research projects. In reality you only have 2-3 months to complete a project. My advice would be to either jump on a pre-existing project or do something simple like book chapters, chart reviews, case reports etc. Most of the projects that I give to my medical students are something easy like introduction write ups on some of my case reports. That way they can get something published and have their name on it in only a couple of months. If you are struggling to find where or whom to ask, look at your local hospital, maybe a clinic or even a university that has ongoing research projects for students. Remember you don’t have much time because once you are back in your 2nd or 3rd year of medical school there is really no time to finish up loose ends on your research projects. So the key is to ask around early, start and finish a project within a couple of months.
Shadowing. Maybe you have completed a lot of research projects from your undergrad years and really looking for more clinical experience. Then my advice is to shadow, shadow and shadow. For example if you are interested in Emergency Medicine then email or even walk into an ER and find out how you can shadow, observe, or scribe. Now that COVID restrictions have been lifted there are plenty of opportunities for you to get into a clinic and shadow. This is where you can figure out what specialty you like and helps you get LORs for that specialty. When I was in college, I was able to shadow physicians in clinic for a couple of hours a week and it was the best experience. And I would shadow different doctors as we all have our strengths and you will be able to pick up some great pearls.
Take some classes. Maybe you ask why would I want to take more classes during the summer. Sounds awful, right? Well hear me out. Take some courses that you may not get exposed to in your normal curriculum. Take a class in suturing, knot tying, CPR/BLS. With the pandemic era there are so many online courses that have opened up and are available and frankly will continue to be available for you. There are a TON of online medical school courses. Maybe you are a little uncertain about your physical examination techniques or medical terrminology. Summer is a great time to hone your skills in those areas that you consider to be weak.
The point is that summer is the perfect time make your resume or applications stronger. It’s the perfect time to make yourself better at everything because trust me once you get on your medical training journey those “free” times will become less frequent. So use this time wisely.
As always keep your head up and keep grinding. Your success is my success!
Sincerely,
Your Med Mentor
