Guest blog post by Anza Zahid, M.B.B.S. Mentoring is a valuable skill in academic medicine and is essential for guiding and shaping careers of the next ...
“How long have you been doing this for?” I was so conflicted about having to answer this question. I was taking the phlebotomy course, a one-week experience that demands ...
By Cynthia Chweya The onset of second year is abrupt and finds many first year students remaining undifferentiated multipotent stem cells at this stage of ...
By Kevin Shim As I sit down to write my thesis I have spent some time thinking about the differences between graduate school and ...
By Erin Bolen No matter what level of education you are at, the first day of a new school always brings both nerves and ...
by Jennifer Dens Higano We recently finished our first full block of medical school! Arriving on the first day was nerve-wracking. Pushing open the ...
This is our final blog post of the year. Please see the editor's note at the end of the post! by Reese Imhof My wife and I made the move from New York to Rochester last spring. She was fortunate and landed a job in her field at Mayo Clinic right away, which gave us a reason to move sooner rather than later. We were both born and raised in the New York metropolitan area and felt a strong connection with our roots. While it was a difficult decision to leave New York, we have absolutely loved this past year at Mayo and living life in Rochester! Here are my top reasons why I love Rochester, MN and how moving from New York to Rochester has been for me.
by Mitch Obey This entry begins with graduation just a few weeks away, and I cannot help but find myself reflecting upon the journey. The inaugural day of medical school orientation was nearly four years ago now, and it would be entirely cliché to say it feels like it was just yesterday. But the truth is that it honestly feels like a lifetime ago. And yet I still remember the finest details of that day, down to the very breakfast I ate and the suit I wore. Anxiously I approached the old limestone steps, marking the entrance of the Mayo School of Medicine’s Great Hall. There I stumbled upon two other students, my classmates-to-be, who were taking pictures and making memories of that special day. We introduced ourselves, then took a deep breath, and together pushed open the doors to the next four years.
by Andrew M. Harrison Does the patient with 11 out of 10 pain deserve empathy? The most contrite answer is probably "every patient deserves empathy". However, the first time I was faced with a patient in 20 out of 10 pain, I found my empathy waning as I typed "no acute distress". As an aside, I have long wondered what this term means. I type it so much. I suspect this phrase lingers because it reduces the internal angst of clinicians, but perhaps they simply have more empathy than me. On January 18, 2017, I attended Mayo Clinic's 5th Annual Education and Technology Forum: Discover how to improve your teaching through learning analytics. Held across all 3 of Mayo Clinic's campuses, I found myself uneasy after this 3.5 hour session, as I wandered the desert of Phoenix. Eventually the source occurred to me. Perhaps I missed it during my many trips to the bathroom. Perhaps I missed it as my attention waxed and waned, but I never heard the word empathy spoken.
by Editt Nikoyan There are a lot of amazing opportunities that come with being a Mayo medical student. One of the aspects that has really made an impression on me is the school’s dedicated focus on student wellness, and I attribute a lot of that to the Student Life and Wellness Committee and their generous Student Initiated Wellness Activities (SIWA) grants. That’s a mouthful, but basically these grants fund activities related to improving the well being of the class, whether it is physical, emotional, mental, and/or spiritual. So far, our classmates have come up with some pretty cool ideas. To name just a few, we’ve done weekly yoga sessions to help de-stress, local escape rooms to help us bond in the beginning of the school year, and cross-country skiing with the second years as a fun outdoor winter event. We even get funding for our Baking Committee to bring treats to class to celebrate our birthdays.
by Reese Imhof Being married in medical school has its challenges along with its advantages. My wife Nicole and I had our wedding less than a year before I entered Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. We’ve known each other since our senior year of high school and we lived together in New York, where we are both from, before making the move out to Rochester, Minnesota. Nicole works at Mayo Clinic as a licensed clinical social worker, specializing in mental health and psychotherapy. Sharing the experience of being a part of the Mayo Clinic family has brought us closer during a time when being in a relationship sometimes feels quite difficult due to the demands of studying, class schedules, and other responsibilities that come along with medical school.
by Sydney Larkin Greetings! Exhausted, post-anatomy first-year here! I’m here to give you some insight into Anatomy, our block structure, and how most of us feel about Mayo’s mandatory lecture policy. Real talk for a second: I’m currently at home in Cincinnati lying on the couch and cuddling with my cat by the fire. It’s snowy and cold out so I’m happy to be relaxing and writing this post under my big, fluffy blanket. Ha! My little brother is still at college taking finals until Wednesday, but at Mayo Med we get the whole week off! One of the best things about Mayo is how they structure their selective weeks – which is how this whole blog and couch situation is made possible. I’m currently using this week to shadow surgeons at home and recharge after a difficult week of Anatomy finals. One of the many reasons I chose to come to Mayo was the flexibility that they offer in their curriculum for career exploration. While I was nervous at first, I have really enjoyed living my life in a blocked schedule. This means that we learn one subject intensely for 6-8 weeks and then have a “selective” week that can be used for anything we wish. Many take vacation to recharge their minds and bodies, while others use it as a chance for career exploration, shadowing, learning practical skills, doing research, or even going abroad!