Out of the mouths of babes…

Almost Dr J (ADJ): So what do you want to be when you grow up
8 yr old ADHD, ODD boy: a soldier.
ADJ: and what do soldiers do?
8yr old: kill people
ADJ: Oh. And what kind of people do they kill
8yr old: Germans.

ADJ (wtf? this kid is about 60 years too late)

ADJ: Well soldiers cant kill all of the time. What else do they do?
8yr old: push ups.
ADJ: How does one become a soldier?
8yr old: You do a lot of pushups and kill germans.

ADJ: Are there any other jobs you might like…what about a policeman?
8yr old: they are alright
ADJ: what is the best part about being a policeman
8 year old: coffee and donuts.

less than a week until match…everyone keep your fingers crossed for me

Child Psych today was a lot of kids with ADHD on vitamin R (thats med student humor for ritalin)

In true 4th year fashion, my duties are pretty much limited to watching the attending talk to the child, occasionally taking a blood pressure or pulse, and once in a blue moon interviewing the child myself before the attending.

One of the kids we saw today has some anxiety issues, and is unable to sleep in her own bed, constantly running to mommy or daddys bed (they sleep in two rooms so at least one of them can remain resting when this happens)

What, you may ask, scares this little girl so much that she feels physically unable to sleep in her own bed?

Well, she believes that an evil clown lives in her closet.

Shit, I would be terrified too.

The plan at this stage, was to use a calendar and every night the girl spent in her own bed alone like the big 2nd grader she was, a smiley face would be drawn on the calendar. Two smiley faces in a row, and the girl would receive a reward, like a trip to chuckee cheese or a movie with a friend.

She was having none of it…she didnt want to be a big girl, she didnt believe her stuffed animals would protect her, she didnt care about the reward if it meant risking the evil clown getting her.

So I suggested what always works…erm, I mean worked, past tense…for me when i was worried about clowns or zombies, or clown zombies getting into my room.

Instead of taking a stuffed animal to bed, take a baseball bat.

The Josh…repairing childrens psyches, one violent act at a time.

So a few posts back, I posted on why I love being a medical student. However, as much fun as I usually have, it’s not all sunshine and lollipops in physician training land. So in the interests of fairness, I am going to take this post to tell you a couple of things that have made my chosen career irksome at best.

1. You ARE a student. This was my number one reason why I love being a med student, and at the same time one of the things that occasionally make me throw up my hands and scream in frustration. I can’t just sign off on something harmless and have to get approval for everything. Every note I write, every physical exam I perform, everything I do affecting patient care is utterly redundant, as the resident, fellow, or attending have to go back and do it anyway for medicolegal purposes. At a certain point, you cant help but feel rather impotent. It can be tough to feel like you are making a difference when you know anything you do will have to be done over and basically is just creating more work for someone

2. Loans. I am sure you all saw this one coming. I havent added it all up, mostly because I am frightened to, but I will probably end up with about 200K in loans by the end of med school. It can really suck going through your 20′s accruing debt, living the student life while your friends are working, making money, buying homes, building up their investment portfolios and the like while I will spend the next 8-10 years of my life paying back a significant portion of my paycheck to the banks. Not that I was unaware of this going in, but sometimes I really envy my friends who graduated and started earning positive income right off the bat.

3. You NEVER stop being a student. The first week of medical school, we were all told that half of what we learn over the next 4 years will be wrong. Unfortunately we dont know which half. And sitting through 2 years of 8-9 hours a day of lectures you feel like at some point it will come to an end, and you can start DOING. But even in residency there are journal clubs, noon conference, morning reports, M and M’s. Its a great educational experience, and it is equally important to stay up to date on the latest techniques and knowledge in the field. However, it means that for the rest of my professional life I will still be attending lectures on a daily basis…and c’mon, how many of you would want to sit through an hour of lecture every day about what you work in, no matter how fascinating you find it?

4. Shit runs downhill. When beginning my 3rd year rotations, I laid out the medical student hierarchy as follows. Attending>Chief resident>resident>intern>nurses>janitorial staff>decorative plants>med student. And for the most part, I wasnt kidding. You are at the bottom of the totem pole…you know the least, you get picked on the most, and since almost everyone you work with evaluates you, you end up sticking around even when you have nothing to do. This gets better with each succeeding year, but that still doesnt make it fun.

5. Its hard to get time off. Now I am not talking about vacation time, though that is certainly true as well. And I am sure this will apply to residency too, but since you are constantly jumping from rotation to rotation, it’s hard to find time for basic things like, oh going to the dentist or anything else you have to schedule in advance since you never know your call schedule until that month. When you are back and forth in between states, it gets even harder…I have been waiting to have my wisdom teeth removed for the better part of a year because I cant find the week i would need to recover.

6. It strains relationships. Many people view medicine as a selfless profession, but in actuality, it’s an incredibly selfish one. We require a tremendous amount of patience and understanding from our friends and family in order to deal with our schedules and time limitations. It has certainly made dating more difficult, that’s for sure. The statistic is tossed around that doctors have a higher rate of divorce-unless they are married to other doctors-and I believe it. I think that is why the doctor-nurse relationship stereotype works so well…sometimes it feels like no one can understand you unless they have been through it themselves

7. It skews your perception of the world. I used to be well informed on art, current events, movies, literature…a whole host of topics from A to Z. Nowadays it can often seem that I have nothing to talk about but things that have happened in the hospital. I miss feeling cultured. I have started to gradually get that back, but med school really pushes you into a vacuum in some respects, and when you spend all day talking to people about their sickness, it can really make it hard to talk to people about anything else.

8. **Update from agent eric** it’s not like scrubs, er, or greys anatomy at all. Especially greys anatomy, because the people I work with have talent and brains, and spend their time treating patients not sleeping with each other.

Despite all that though, I would like to think that given the option, I would go back and do it all again. I guess I will have to check back and see in another couple years.

-Almost Dr J

On multitudinous (isn’t that a great word?) occasions, I have been asked, why did I choose to be a doctor. Whether it was friends, interviewers, application essays, it’s something everyone seems to want to know. As though I have some kind of secret monopoly on motivation not available to investement bankers, janitors, or retail salespeople.

Well I will be more than happy to go into that again at a later post (ha, you see what I did there?-go read backlogs!) but really, wanting to be a doctor is only a small part of the medical school experience. There is so much more that has made the last couple years among the best of my life, and I figured rather than trot out the same old dog and pony show you usually get, I would take the time to enlighten you as to why it’s great to be a medical student. So let’s begin, shall we?

1. First and foremost, it’s that you ARE a student. You don’t have an MD after your name. It often feels to me there’s an assumption that if you’re a doctor, you have to know everything. That “I don’t know” isn’t an acceptable response to a patient, family member or friend. The best answer you can give as a medical student, second to the correct one, is “I don’t know, but I can definitely find out.” ‘Cause see, you’re not expected to know–you’re a student!

2. You get to see patients. I know this one seems like it should be first, but remember there are at least 2 preclinical years I went through where I had no interaction with non-academics because, let’s face it, I was dumb. I mean, you spend 2-3 years just learning all these facts about health and disease and physiology and anatomy and it’s overwhelming. You know it’s important on an abstract level, but practically speaking, you can’t separate the wheat from the chaff. Until your clinical years-then you get to take your knowledge, everything that you’ve learned, and try to figure out how to make it useful and practical for a person that comes to you with a complaint.

I am still constantly astounded at the level of trust and openness people give me when I am wearing even the short coat. Asking probing, very personal questions and they are answered…sometimes they lie, but it’s just assumed on everyone’s part that some answer should be given-doctor and patient alike. AND IT WORKS! Men and women who might otherwise not feel comfortable expressing themselves–be it through laughter, tears, or anger–would open up. And people get better! And some are even APPRECIATIVE! It’s fun to say “you’re welcome” when someone is thank you for helping them. It feels even better to know that sometimes just the sheer catharsis of talking it out does a lot for some people.

3. My peers! I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of my best friends for life in medical school, to have gone through this experience with them. After all, *sings* I can’t do this all on my own, no I know I’m no superman. * Its no joke that med school is a meat grinder but having such fun, brilliant and compassionate people to suffer through it with makes it all bearable, even on the worst days. Not to mention that come match, I know I will have friends in every field of medicine, in every major city that I can turn to if I should ever have a question about anything. Can’t beat that kind of networking.

4. People like to meet medical students. (And it’s fun to have people like to meet you!) Yes yes, attention grabbing narcissism aside, after you get past that “Ooooh, a future doctor!” bit, you can easily become the life of the party with stories you’ve stolen from your rotations or quirky little medical history tips.  

5. It’s easy to beat expectations. As the saying goes all you have to do to pass a rotation is show up. I don’t know if the bar was just set low, but it really seemed like doing well was pretty straightforward:

Show up on time.
Do what’s expected of you (and know what’s expected of you-this is actually harder than you might think sometimes).
Be genuinely interested. (The fake way to do this is to say “Why yes, I’m considering Neurology” when you’re on the Neurology clerkship.) But don’t be so naive to think that what you learn on rotation X will not apply to your chosen specialty. it will!
Ask questions if you can’t figure something out by yourself. (I remember on my optho rotation, we were at lunch and my intern mentioned “PORN” and I was thinking he clearly meant something else. I finally asked, and found out OOOHHH,  progessive outer retinal necrosis)
All of these rules are actually just this simple gestalt: Do not make more work for your resident and intern.

6. It’s a safe environment to make mistakes and learn. Most of my residents and attendings have been responsive and interested in teaching and education. Some certainly more than others, but it was a rarity to be around a jerk. In fact, now that I have the hang of patient care, I am usually asked, “Well, what do you want to do with this patient?” forcing me to think through things myself. I’m not always right, but it makes a huge difference that I am even asked. The best rotations were the ones where I was actively involved–that I was treated like a valued member of the team. Just feeling included means a huge deal. Even if the team was going to start cefepime whether I suggested it or not, just giving me the opportunity to respond instead of writing the order themselves was huge.

7.You can be proud of what you’re doing! I have friends who hate their jobs; I have others who don’t mind them–that they pay the bills, at least. For some people, optimizing a bottom line is probably as much a thrill as medicine, but this is mine. There’s a lot of crap we have to deal with, and plenty of reasons to complain–but that’s everybody. Cliche as it may sound, I can honestly leave the hospital dang near every day and feel that I have made a difference

8. It’s amazing to watch your brain learn. It’s a similar feeling to how I felt when my brain just started “understanding” Spanish. I was watching a telenovela at my uncle’s house in mexico city (this was way back in middle or highschool-ancient times, I know but it was salud, dinero, amor), and realized I was following it without the need to translate. Similarly, it’s almost Matrix-esque to be able to spit out the doses of morphine or vancomycin or lipitor without ever sitting down and memorizing them. You wonder, “Where the hell did that come from?” It’s just the osmosis of being around clinical medicine for long enough. (At least for me–I learn best by doing.)

I am sure there are many more reasons, but those are the biggest ones that I have been able to winnow out of my pysche. But it is not all sunshine and lollipops. So sometime in the future, I will also cover why it sucks to be a medical student.

And to all my fellow meddites out there, Grrsh, freakforjc, wenyin…did I miss anything?

-Almost Dr J

(Because everyone is asking “are you a doctor yet” or “so, did you get a job?”)

For many of my real life friends, I have dropped off the face of the planet since roughly June of 2008. For those of you stuck here in this series of tubes, I have been gone for minutes, perhaps even days at a time. At last it is time for me to fill you in on what I have been doing with myself instead of posting.

By your final year of medical school you have to decide in which specialty you want to train. It could be anything from Internal medicine to Pediatrics to Obstetrics to Surgery…you get the idea. (Except for things like Cardiology or GI, where you actually go into your field first and then subspecialize by doing another 3-5 years of training called “fellowship”…but I digress.

Picking a specialty is a lot like picking a college major…except it actually DOES make a difference because this is something you will be doing for a minimum of 10-15 years while you pay off your loans. Once you have picked a specialty, you then have to figure out where you want to do all your training. See, when I graduate medical school in June, I will technically be a doctor, but I wont actually know anymore than I do right this moment. So I go through a 3 year period called RESIDENCY where I get exposure to ideally everything so I can learn how to make medical decisions second nature. During this time, I am making decisions, but there is a safety net of older residents and attendings who have ultimate responsibility and can change my treatment plan or diagnosis accordingly.

Where you go for residency depends on a lot of factors, like reputation, location, amenities, program size, research opportunities and others. The saying goes you can pick your region (of the nation) or your specialty, but not both. I have learned this to be true to my dismay, as I initially applied for ophthalmology fairly selective to region and did not match because I did not cast a wide enough net.

The application, which I have talked about earlier is submitted through a computer program called ERAS which stands for Evil Rulers of Application Selection. It takes your grades, your evaluations, your test scores, that one time you stole susie minkins lunch money for saying you had cooties, your personal statement, everything you have done in your life to prepare yourself to get into and through medical school. ERAS then collects all this information in one place and you pay arbitrary amounts of money depending on how many programs you want this info packet sent to. Someone like me who dual applied for specialties will end up spending around $900 dollars.

Usually by October/November you have begun to hear back from programs you applied to with a couple dates they are available to interview. You then have to schedule everything like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle with no edges and all one color pieces. You’re constantly balancing booking programs with trying to group them regionally, so you’re not flying back and forth across the country all the time. Because yes, you are paying for this yourself.

So you fly to these different programs and interview, which I have been occasionally updating to tell you about. You usually get some bagels or fruit in the morning, then a powerpoint slide show about the residency program, why its unique and a chance to ask questions. In fact, “what questions do you have” is the most common question you will hear and it is usually in your best interests to have one every time. You will interview with 2-3 faculty or residents , and then get lunch, a tour of the hospital, and sometimes a social event to meet the residents outside of a hospital setting.

And did i mention you are paying for all of this yourself? Airfare, meals, hotels-all out of your rapidly dwindling loan money (because I dont get any more loan checks after this year, I will actually be earning money, however little). I was extremely fortunate and had friends in every city I interviewed (special thanks to JESS, WARD, WENYIN, WENDY, KENNY, ARI, and TED-for the places to stay, the meals, and just the company in general-I owe you guys) but the process has still been pretty expensive.

So by this point, I have done all that, taken and completed my Step 1 and Step 2CK and step2 CS (my licensing exams, so the only thing standing between me and an M.D. at this point is time and a place to actually practice.

Now to the Match part of it. By getting an interview to a place at all, you kind of have a potential job offer. It works like this: the med student (that’s me) ranks all the places he interviewed. The residency programs (that’s all 16 or so hospitals who interviewed me) ranks all the candidates they interviewed. Then a big computer program (in my head a scantron machine the size of the sears tower) MATCHES everyone up.

The match favors the resident so:
if two programs rank you #1 but you rank program A higher than program B, you go to program A
if program A ranked you #30, but program B ranked you #2 and you ranked program B higher than A, you go to B

So in the end you are supposedly put where you most want to be. And most people tend to end up at one of their top 4 choices, though of course there are those who end up at their 10th or 12th choice or worse yet, dont match at all and have to do something called “The Scramble”. I chose not to scramble for the one ophthalmology position in the entire country because I took a long hard look at myself and decided I would be happier doing internal med at a hospital of my choice than toughing out 4 years in Indianapolis to train in opthalmology. Lets hope I dont have to do a post explaining how the scramble works for the regular match.

Everyone finds out where they match this year on March 19, 2009. The results get revealed at noon east coast time, 9am west coast, and so on and so forth. And then, July 1, you start your internship. You are contractually obligated to go wherever you match, so from now until febuary 17th, every medical student (who ISNT in optho anyway) is poring over our RANK LISTS to decide where we most want to be

But once that is done, I am basically just amping up my thumb twiddlin’ muscles.

Hope that answered all the questions I dont think you guys have. The next few posts I will try to work on in the midst of making my rank list will be my favorite and least favorite things about med school.

And if there is anything else you want to know, just leave a comment or send me a message, because this is the last ask a medical student post I will be running. Next time I run an open Q and A, almost Dr J will be completely Dr J

-Almost Dr J

Once again for kicks and giggles, I am enrolled in a medical ethics course…as such, I am obliged to read up on the principles and post discussions in response to current events.

Seeing as how this here web-thingy has turned rather often toward the medical in the last couple years, I figured I would give you all the opportunity to take medical ethics with me if you are so inclined, and I will try to post some of the discussions I initiate here…I encourage you to respond with your thoughts, as I will provide you the same materials available to me

dont worry its a pass/fail course, so you only have to be 51% ethical…

lets see how we do, shall we?

My next interview is coming up on thursday, so I thought I would do a few more questions to prepare. So enjoy yet another glimpse into the mind of yet ANOTHER neurotic med student

1. If you could be any cell in the body, what would you be and why?

I would be a red blood cell. As an rbc, I would be able to travel my entire world, and although I could never be sure where I may end up, my skillset would ensure I would be a welcome guest to whatever environment I may find myself in. Action, Adventure, a taste of danger-what if the body I was in started bleeding-I would be an rbc astronaut! And as a red blood cell, while I would serve a vital role in my community, I would still be well aware that are plenty of others just as talented as me and equally able to do what I do, so I wouldnt let myself get too swelled with pride and burst.

2. What are you most scared/worried about next year?

The amount of trust and faith total strangers will be putting in me and how I am going to live up to that. As it stands right now, xangaland, I am a 4th year medical student. Everything I have learned up to this point about diagnosing, treating, and interacting with patients is going to be my base level of knowledge when I start residency in July. To reiterate: in the one month between when I graduate in June and when I start residency in July, there is ABSOLUTELY NO magical ritual that confers on me all the arcane knowledge of doctoring…what I know now is what I will know then, and I am terrified on occasion that it wont be enough at some crucial moment. If someone gets worse or dies because of something I did wrong, I will feel bad, but at least I can attempt to correct myself for any future attempts. If something happens to somebody because of something I didnt even KNOW about…well, thats going to be much harder for me to deal with.

3. If you were not in medicine what would you be doing?

This is an easy one: going to culinary school and opening my own restaurant. Probably a greek/mediterranean style tapas bar. As an aside, this also includes my plans for retirement, minus the going to school part-I have had quite enough of that thank you very much

4. If you were going to die in 5 minutes, What would you tell someone about yourself?

I was born with a taste for adventure, and I am leaving the same way, what I learned during my time here is the risk is always worth it, you will regret more of the things you didnt do than the things you did. I took care of both my family and friends-I never found time for anything, instead I made time. And If I achieve even a measure of happiness in the next life that I did in this one, then I have lived my life right

-Almost Dr J

Guess who learned how to resize photos?

Fun in The Diabetes clinic today where I am spending the next two weeks doing ambulatory care

Obviously Entitled Woman: Hi, I’m a longtime patient of Dr G’s
Receptionist: Yes?
OEW: She usually sees patients on tuesdays, right?
Receptionist: Yes, she’s in clinic now. We’re pretty backed up today
OEW: I need to know if I could slip in to see him this afternoon
Receptionist: Probably not, as we are fairly busy. *looks at appt book* We might be able to fit you in next month
OEW: (in wink wink nudge nudge super secret spy tones) It’s just that I’m very concerned and I thought I should try and get in while I can, before socialized medicine happens. I’m used to be able to see my specialists right away. I’m very concerned
Receptionist: well we are still full today, but I think you have time since any kind of socialized care wont be able to be implemented for several years at least.
OEW: Well, then, single payer. whatever. Anyhow, I want to see her today, before the socialism

I have since decided to work this little gem into my everyday phrasing as soon as possible and I encourage all of xangaland to join me.

Just let me finish this post. before the socialism
I’m heading out to the bar to grab a drink before the socialism!
Woo boy am I beat. I guess I better go to bed early. before the socialism
When do you want dinner? before the socialism!

isn’t that fun? I totally wanted to respond, I’m sorry, the socialism started this morning. Instead of an appointment you are required to report to city hall to turn over all of your income above subsistence level. While there, you’ll also be assigned a gay spouse. Have a nice day, comrade!

My first interview was very relaxed and laid back, a practice run if you will. This is most likely because it was an interview for my school’s program, and as such I could be reasonably sure that I do not highly want to go there, and equally sure that I have a fairly decent chance of getting in if all else fails.

That said, I got all suited up and entered the same hospital I have spent the last year working in not as a lowly grunt to be scutted out, but as a potential future employee to be woo-ed (kindly use shakespearean pronunciation, just for the hell of it). I went up to the medicine department office, picked up my itinerary for the day and proceeded to the conference room where I met the other two gentlemen interviewing that day with me.

A brief glance at the sheet revealed the names of the faculty interviewing us, and I almost laughed at the irony. I was going to be interviewed by the same attending who had been in charge of my sub-internship team in september. What were the odds? I figured it might be someone I knew, but that exact attending, who not only knew my weaknesses intimately, but was well aware that my primary interest lay in a more competitive field and this was my backup plan?

Well, poop.

First thing he said upon entering the room was basically, hey what are you doing back here? He then directed the majority of the orientation to the other two interviewees, briefly telling them that if you had any questions, they could also ask Jason, who was well accquainted with the program.

By Jason, he meant me. One month working with the guy everyday, and he still cant remember my name. It’s not like it’s a difficult name either. That aside, he actually was very cordial to me through the whole process.

As for the actual interview, I didnt have too many questions to ask because I am familiar with the program, unlike with future interviews where I will have prepared questions I would like to know more about. This was mostly useful for the fact of revealing to me what aspects of my application could be brought up on future interviews- which I now know will include my reasons and time in the masters program, and my board scores.

Beyond that, I went to noon conference and said hello to some of the other residents who I had worked with, and I skipped out early on the tour portion of the hospital given that I am quite familiar with the layout.

All in all, this helped to make me feel far more prepared for future interviews. It wasnt as scary as I thought it would be with me sitting there and a good cop/ bad cop interviewing team with spotlights and interrogations. It was also good to have the behind the scenes view hearing one thing about the program from the hospital staff and knowing another from personal experience working there-It helps to remind me that just like me, the programs will be putting their best foot forward even if it means glossing over certain details that could change the other’s mind.

Thanks for all the good wishes everyone-I will continue to keep you apprised as the process continues.

So tomorrow is my very first residency interview. Allow me to briefly explain how this process works for those of you not in the med school machine

Earlier this year I decided what specialty of medicine I wanted to go into. I registered for the NRMP (more on that later) and filled out my ERAS (electronic residency application service) and my CAS (central application service) mostly because I am dual applying for specialties to cover my bases. This entailed basically uploading a transcript, a resume, and endless personal statements. I then chose all the schools I wanted this information to be sent out to

People choose schools for many reasons-some choose sights well known for research, or associated with excellent programs in their specific specialty, others choose by region hoping to stay close to home, or conversely far from it.

I still dont much care for research, so I opted to apply by region focusing mostly on the cities I have grown up or lived in-New York Chicago and Southern California. Along with a few Isolated programs in Philly, Miami and other coastal places.

Anyway, the schools all receive your info as soon as you submit it to ERAS or CAS. Then you go out and get letters of recommendations, exam scores and a photo because as I have stated before, nobody wants an ugly doctor . These also get uploaded and sent out to programs as they come in to the central office. Finally in november the school sends out a deans letter with an overall evaluation of your performance while enrolled-outstanding, superior, good or competent.

Many programs wil wait until receiving this deans letter before deciding whether or not to offer you an interview, but not all. Some will start contacting you right off the bat and you then have to coordinates dates and times, and places to stay. All of this on your own dime btw. So an intelligent applicant tries to schedule as many interviews in the same region as close together as possible as well as find many friends (IRL or xanga-hint hint ) willing to put up said applicant for a night or two.

Anytime you receive an interview from a program, that is a potential job offer right there. A hospital may receive 500 applications, interview anwhere between 25-100 applicants, and then select between 4-20 depending on the competitiveness of the specialty. If you are interviewed you have already made it past the hardest screening process.

Most of november, december, and january are spent zipping about the country from one hospital to another trying to see where you might be happy spending the next 3-5 years depending on the length of your specialty. Then in february you rank all the programs you interviewed at from where you would most like to go to where you would go if you have to. Similarly, the programs rank you from the student they want on their wheaties box to the one who they will take if every other applicant were to suddenly die of arsenic posoining (not that I am advocating anything, but stranger things have happened)

Then a giant computer program looks at both lists and somehow “matches” you all up. This program actually works in the students favor, as it is designed to place you at the highest ranked program you want. So if your number one program ranked you as last, and your number two program ranked you as 10th, but your number three program ranked you 1st, you get matched to your number 3 program. Rank lists tend to be fiercely private and frequently changed right up until they are due. I have not yet decided whether or not to make mine known, but if I do it would only be at the level of a protected post, so any of you interested will have to message me separately if you want to up your stalking of me to the next level.

So how does the interview process go? Well usually you get a tour of the hospital, an introduction to the director as well as some residents who happen to be handy and the questioning begins on both your parts. Most programs include lunch, and some offer a night out with the residents to get to know them in a less formal setting. For that one day the hospital turns into a used car lot-everyone will say pretty much whatever they think the other side wants to hear to put them into a shiny new cadillac residency.

Anything and everything you have mentioned in your application could come up, from research you have done to hobbies or previous work experience to speaking with a native speaker of a tongue you have claimed fluency in. Really its anybodies guess.

I have collected a host of these questions from friends and those who have gone before me, and just for the sake of forcing myself to think about it, I will be sporadically posting with some of these questions and their answers. No solicitation of your internet services is required, but if there is anything you would like me to further clarify by all means please ask-the better I am prepared for each interview, the more likely I can get bumped up on the schools ranklist

After all, all I have left to rely on now are my good looks and charm. And while the good looks may be debatable (gosh I miss my beard) when it comes to charming, well phrases such as “the pants off” have been known to apply.

So wish me luck, because tomorrow the last phase of my medical school career begins.

Oh yeah, and my next rotation starts again on monday, so patient stories will probably make a reappearance too at some point in the near future

-Almost Dr J