Real MD

Our Real MD students recently held their annual fall storytelling event, which always takes place in my backyard. The weather was perfect. This is a live recording, so you’ll hear the shuffling of storytellers, the audience, and even the crickets singing. The theme this year was self-discovery, and it was a magical night.

Storytelling helps us build community and resilience as we share open, honest experiences around this theme. Before we dive into the backyard stories, I want to share one of my own. It is a story I told this summer in DC to a group of MS2s from across the country at the RISE conference. It is about storytelling and how it began here, but also about discovering who you are and holding on to that truth.

Greg Memmott (Pediatrics) is a second year medical student who is already matched into pediatrics as part of an early match program called EPAC at the University of Utah. Greg and I have worked together in RealMD over the past two years and presented at conferences about how to start leadership programs during medical school. Like everyone else, Greg’s journey includes unexpected twists and turns. Holding onto values instead of specific titles outcomes or activities is a central lesson from our conversation. Wisdom like this comes out of his struggles with health and specialty exploration process. Often, we can get defensive in the fight with external forces, life circumstance, and forget to listen to the inner voice. Asking yourself questions like, What is it that I really want out of my life and career?, Do my pursuits match my values? After talking with Greg, I am reminded that it is helpful to frame identity formation into a process of letting go of rigidly held professional expectations, being more open to the journey, and connected to internal values. 

In this episode, I interview second year medical student, Emily Hill, who cohosts her own podcast called Women in White Coats. What started out as a means to explore medicine as a premed has turned into interviews with over 30 women who are physicians who have taken all sorts of journeys, navigated uncertainty, navigated tragedy, dealt with imposter syndrome. and found passion in their careers. The lessons learned are really powerful reminders that we are more resilient than we think and that the end goal is not to be a physician, but to find passion both within and outside of medicine and that will carry us through. For those interested in hearing more of these wonderful impactful stories, make sure to follow Women in White Coats. 

The poet Rilke has a well known poem about living the questions during life’s journey rather than seeking or expecting the answers to unfold in a predetermined way. A fundamental aspect of navigating a career in medicine. In this episode I am joined by guest host and second year medical student Palepoi (Poi) Gilmore. We had the chance to interview Dr. Jake Robson, a Gastroenterologist at Primary Children's hospital. In addition to being a course director of doctoring, he is also the faculty director of Echo Canyon House which is also my house. In this conversation, we ask Dr. Robson about the House model and his role. Most importantly we talk about the idea of living the questions on the road to becoming a physician. We talk about grit in the face of failure and navigating uncertainty. We talk about building community and having mentors who are willing to ask powerful questions instead of telling us what they think we should do. This episode is strong reminder that we do not have to have the answers but need to have space during medical training to find and live the questions. 

In this episode the tables have turned and I had the privilege to be interviewed by second year students and RealMD facilitators, Elise Vandamme and Poi Gilmore. We talk about my journey into academic medicine and how RealMD and the RISE conference came to be. A central message about knowing yourself being the foundation of leadership development came through. I wasn’t expecting to see such a strong theme run throughout my non-linear career path. This episode serves as a reminder of the value of talking through your experiences and learning more about who you are with trusted colleagues. Knowing yourself will help you lead. 

Welcome to Season 6 of the RealMD Podcast! In this episode Tom & RealMD Podcast editor Cael Campbell discuss what's to come this season.

Recent grads, Trisha and Marina met at the University of Utah as undergrads and became fast friends during medical school. There is something to be said about finding just one person who is in the trenches of shared experiences and when the layers of life inevitably bring on challenges, that friendship provides much needed support and encouragement. I have enjoyed watching Trisha and Marina’s journey together always watching out for each other and leading together. Now that they have moved on to residency, we take a minute to reflect on their time together. All of this reminds me of a quote by Irish poet and essayist, David Whyte:

"The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self: the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.”

The humble beginnings of RealMD began with our student leaders identifying speakers they felt could share their personal journeys into medicine authentically. Over the years, these sessions have covered a wide range of physician experiences. The talks are powerful and vulnerable. Students have told me countless times how impactful it is to hear from physicians in a space that makes them feel like they can overcome their own struggles, find their higher purpose in medicine, and not forget who they are in the process. In an effort to show and not just tell what these sessions are like, there is one speaker who has been with us from the very beginning, Dr. Dale Hull. He recently came back to talk to our students. His story encapsulates the RealMD message about life’s journey not going as planned and finding the resilience to overcome. Please go to a quiet place and listen to this phenomenal talk, “When Change Chooses You.”

Dr. Dale Hull is a 1985 graduate of the University of Utah School of Medicine. This was followed by residency training in Ob-Gyn through the University of Utah. He was in private practice for ten years in the south part of the Salt Lake valley until his injury in 1999. He currently serves as the co-founder and executive director of Neuroworx, a non-profit therapy clinic for individuals with paralysis. Dr Hull has been active in the University of Utah School of Medicine Alumni Association serving as its president from 2014 to 2016. He was the School of Medicine commencement speaker for the class of 2019 and was honored as the Utah School of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus in 2022.

With Mother’s Day happening this month we wanted to do something special. In this episode, I am joined by guest host, Dr. Jenn Handrop. As a mother who just finished her doctorate, Jenn’s research hits very close to home. At our medical school we have more mothers and parents almost 30% compared to the national average of about 6%. Dr. Handrop takes a closer look at how mothers are navigating medical school, what the challenges are, what support looks like, and how we as a school (and medical schools in general) can do a better job supporting mothers. We are joined by three amazing medical student mothers, two second years and one third year. They are all in clinical training and fighting the good fight to have families and also pursue their dreams of becoming physicians. They also hold leadership positions in a group called WEWILL. I will let them introduce themselves. I want to thank this amazing group for taking the time to have this important conversation. The bottom line is we have work to do, we can do more to support mothers in medicine!