Resident physician in need of your help!

[rachmoninov3]

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I am a family medicine intern physician, and I will be speaking to a group of about 50 students from one of the local high schools who are engaged in a health careers academy. I am interested in hearing what you think would be good to hear about early in the morning (this talk is scheduled for 0730).

I'm giving this talk b/c I worked my way through undergrad and medical school as a nurse's aid (one of the things these students will be certified as when the graduate from HS), and find that it was a great way to pay for my school, keep my loans low, and not live on raman every night.

In addition to the basics of my background, why medicine is still an awesome career choice, and what it takes to get there, what else would you like to know? Would doing something more hands on, like rollplaying a code blue be interesting?

It's been 15 years since I was a HS freshman and boy do I need your help!

 

[FCMike11]

Just a thought relaying the info that you should undergad in what you are interested in/possible alternative career. Not that you have to biochem, biology etc. An that not so relevant to crank your loans up( think you touched on this) going to a presitgious undergrad to impress med school, that its more about the numbers. Also itd be great to touch on what your resume was and what the kids should start working on to polish their application (ec's etc). Hope this helps, let me know

 

[I'm No Superman]

We had a few med students come to our class last year and talk, so I imagine that some of the questions that were asked in my class are good topics to pick.

1: why medicine
2. What did you do in college to help prepare you for med school
3. The MCAT- how you studied, if you know a thing or two about the new MCAT maybe talk about that.
4. A bit about the admissions process.
5. How would you describe your med school experience
6. What you liked most/least about med school.
7. A bit on healthcare reform-how it will affect you/others.
8. Talk about your residency.
9. Very general overview of the match process -what residencies look for in applicants.
10. Why you chose FM, what you like/dislike about it.

I think the mock code would be cool but I think it would take up a lot of time if you have to cycle through to let everyone participate, unless time isn't an issue. Maybe a demonstration of a code would work better.

Hopefully that will help, it's basically a list of things that I would ask if a resident came to speak at our class. Good luck!

 

[CeeEstee0]

This is so nice of you, I hope it goes well!

I would probably ask you about health care reform, and how recent policy changes affect you in general. Maybe futile care, although it is by no means a 'light' subject. How much time do you have?

 

[rachmoninov3]

This is so nice of you, I hope it goes well!

I would probably ask you about health care reform, and how recent policy changes affect you in general. Maybe futile care, although it is by no means a 'light' subject. How much time do you have?

I've got about one hour. Here's my thoughts:

1. Why it's so awesome that they are interested in this. It will allow them to live on their own, pay for school, get a feel for medicine/nursing, and give them the ability to go to college even if they decide that healthcare isn't for them. (For those reading this, I highly recommend going the CNA or EMT, or even Associates degree in Nursing route while in undergrad). Besides keeping your loans low this will give you soooooo much experience, I still remember hypokalemia (low potassium) and how it effects acid/base balance and cardiac muscle from a patient I took care of as a CNA while studying for my MCAT.

2. Why medicine is still a great job---I am never bored. Family medicine in particular--in one day I can be managing a critically ill patient in the ICU trying to solve what's causing his respiratory failure, then go and see a kid in the ER, rehydrate him and he perks right up, then go up to the labor deck and deliver a kid--possibly even in the OR via C/S, and all in two different languages!

3. That I was a CNA long before I was an MD, and what I did to get through undergrad, medical school, etc. Nights/weekends/agency and you can definately make over $20/hour). To become a doctor you need just as much stubborness (if not more) as you need IQ.

Those three things take about 20 minutes without questions. Don't know if I should do a mock code first (get people up to rollplay...a 19 yo victim struck by lightening, his uncle who calls 911, the paramedic, the nurse, xray tech, physician, pharmacist, etc).
Also, these are freshman students who haven't taken CPR so I want to keep it simple.

 

[CeeEstee0]

As cool as a mock code would be, will it eat up a lot of your time? It might be hard to explain to the student their various roles quickly, while still keeping it fun and fast-paced.

 

[FCMike11]

Maybe just a cpr situation, a full mock code would be too much. Also you were CNA and made over 20/hr? How/where? Im an RN, in Texas new grad RN starts out at 20/hr

 

[SDsequence]

I always like the "day in the life" stories so maybe you could talk about what a typical day in the life of a med school student is. Maybe how it was during the first two years and then how it was during clinical rotations.

 

[rachmoninov3]

The $20/hour was a base of like $14 with night and weekend dif. thrown in.
And I'm not doing a full mock code with rythm recognition or drugs/electricity, just a basic CPR, got IV fluids, etc.

Thanks for all the great replies! I go on tomorrow so hopefully I won't be a total dope (but I probably will)!