Vesica

It’s a funny thing… one becomes rather accustomed to the constant going, going, going of the clinical year. I awoke this morning on the other side of the shelf exam unsure of what to do with myself. My next rotation’s schedule is not yet in hand and so it seemed rather gunnery to unsuspend any…

No clinical obligations and no board preparations this weekend. I decided to enjoy a slow day as those are a bit hard to come by as of late. A morning on the balcony with coffee, catching up on works from my favorite essayists, a quick tennis match with a friend (OK, I lied… we did…

Another shelf examination in the books. The usual story of some easy giveaways, some questions made so nebulous in an attempt to avoid buzzwords that the answer is equally nebulous, and a few questions that you have to tell yourself “surely this is an experimental question…” The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) was established…

There are many times in clinical practice where a student discovers that a problem handled in a complex way in practice problems and lectures is handled in a rather simple way in the real world. The opposite is probably true as well although less frequently (probably by virtue of all things feeling complicated for a…

Reflecting today on mentorship. Clinical training brings with it exposure to all varieties of mentors and their particulars. Some weeks and services present the opportunity (?) to work with as many mentors as there are days of the week. My favorite remains the mentor whose voice is the calm in rough seas and the compass…

Considerations when pondering a neonatal circumcision: “I’m going to pee. If the universe is bigger and stranger than I can imagine, it’s best to meet it with an empty bladder.” John Scalzi in Old Man’s War

First day in the newborn nursery. Bilis, red reflexes, IVIG, circs, caputs. So much of the hospital is seeing someone in the autumn of their life. It feels warm to be in a part of the hospital where the patients get to see their spring. + I made the first step towards learning how to…

So it begins. Inspiration for the blog comes from a Humans of New York interview with a man who introduced the concept of a “personal curriculum”. I read this during college and was deeply impacted by the idea of a purposeful, self-directed inquiry separate from formal study – learning for the sake of learning. The interview has…