The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

Listener Valerie's pre-med advisor still haunts her years later, despite a stellar recovery from academic disaster.

We got hammered by anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers on our Instagram. Will our response get the same result?

The co-hosts and Dave celebrate the upcoming Valentines Day observance--can we guess what our SOs and parents think of us, Newlywed Game style?

Standing up against health misinformation is great, but will it help people understand?

TL;DR

* Folk rock god Neil Young and others have removed their music from Spotify, which hosts Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast over his COVID and vaccine discussions with deniers.

* Does that actually accomplish anything, or is it too late to win over the hesitant?

* We play Kiss, Marry, Kill: Medical Specialties Edition.

Some very famous musicians have told their labels to pull their catalogs from Spotify over it’s hosting of Joe Rogan’s podcast, which often includes discussions with vaccine and COVID deniers. This has renewed the discussion over Internet media’s role in shaping public discourse on important life-and-death topics. But M2 Eric Boeshart, M1 Mallory Kallish, M3 Ananya Munjal, and MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush aren’t convinced that it’ll persuade many to adopt a more expert-influenced approach to their health. (Note: we discussed this prior to Rogan’s response, in which he promised to include more experts on his show).

The crew also plays a game of Kiss, Marry, Kill: Medical Specialties edition.

We Want to Hear From You: How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime or email [email protected]. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

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You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to [email protected]. We love you.

Music provided by Argofox. License: bit.ly/CCAttribution

DOCTOR VOX – Heatstroke: youtu.be/j1n1zlxzyRE

Catmosphere – Candy-Coloured Sky: youtu.be/AZjYZ8Kjgs8 ;

Hexalyte – Wandering Hours: youtu.be/FOAo2zsYnvA;

Whether it’s a class assignment, a personal statement, or a scholarship essay, students are often commanded to reflect on their experiences.

Reflection is can be a useful part of understanding what you are becoming. But what that means and how to do it are frequently not well defined.

Our M4 co-hosts discuss whether their fears about the residency application process were well-founded or just wheel spinning.

Listener Riley wants some suggestions on experiences that will help him grow while he pursues his path to medicine.

We discuss some comments from YouTube on female urologists and male patients.

That leads to a discussion on why hospitals default to environments for their adult patients which are downright icky.

If your undergraduate studies in a different field lacked a certain enthusiasm but you’ve now decided to pursue medicine, it can be difficult to know where you’ll stand with admissions committees. Fortunately, adcomms don’t just look for perfect grades and unwavering and early certainty from med school candidates on their path to medicine.

We discuss a great way to fill a hole in what your school teaches–create a course on the subject!

Most people don't see themselves as partners in success, but as hired hands. Doctors are employees, too, and have similar issues with their employers!

30% of administrators reported losing physicians during the pandemic. Either an exit from healthcare or a mass shift of physicians from low-engagement jobs to higher engagement positions may have already begun.

The Short Coats discuss what a great job for a doctor might look like.

TL;DR

Medical school is all-consuming, but sometimes you need to take time to deal with the slings and arrows of life.

Don’t be afraid that you’ll jeopardize your career by taking a leave during medical school. Better to do it before your situation causes harm to your test scores or grades.

A Brown University study finds that schools are failing in their diversity goals for admitting URMs.

We’re on a holiday break, but we’ll be back next week. Until then, enjoy this rerun.

Poking around on Reddit’s r/medschool, Dave found a rather desperate message from an M3 who’s life is collapsing around him–death, marriage troubles, family illnesses, and all at the same time. so much so that Dave fears their progress might suffer. Is it time for what a military commander might call a “tactical retreat?” Note: Dave isn’t really sure of the technical definition of a tactical retreat, but let’s just say it’s about stepping back and conserving your resources until the situation becomes more favorable to your goals. It’s a metaphor, go with it.

And co-hosts Aline Sandouk (MD/PhD), Nicole Hines (M1), AJ Chowdhury (M1), and Miranda Schene (MD/PhD) discuss the disappointing news that medical schools have made negative progress in attaining diversity goals for students underrepresented in medicine, despite years of effort.

We Want to Hear From You: How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime or email [email protected]. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to [email protected]. We love you.

Music provided by Argofox. License: bit.ly/CCAttribution

DOCTOR VOX – Heatstroke: youtu.be/j1n1zlxzyRE

Catmosphere – Candy-Coloured Sky: youtu.be/AZjYZ8Kjgs8 ;

Hexalyte – Wandering Hours: youtu.be/FOAo2zsYnvA;

Among the many choices med students make is between community medicine and academic medicine.

TL;DR

Doctors who practice community medicine make more than academic physicians (sometimes lots more).

As it often does, the question of which to choose depends on which aspect of each you can live without.

The co-hosts also visit with Santa, because Dave’s been naughty, to answer pop quiz questions on holiday crimes.

Santa Claus is on hand for this episode to help listener Josh with his dilemma: which life should Josh choose, that of a community physician or an academic physician? As M4 Emma Barr, M1 Matt Engelken, MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk, and M4 Madeline Cusimano see it, there’s lots to consider. For instance, do you want to teach and do research? Do you want to make a lot of money? What kind of patient population do you want to work with?

Plus, Santa gives the co-hosts a pop quiz on weird holiday crimes.

We Want to Hear From You: How’d we do on this week’s show? Did we miss anything in our conversation? Did we anger you? Did we make you smile? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime or email [email protected]. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!

You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to [email protected]. We love you.

Music provided by Argofox. License: bit.ly/CCAttribution

DOCTOR VOX – Heatstroke: youtu.be/j1n1zlxzyRE

Catmosphere – Candy-Coloured Sky: youtu.be/AZjYZ8Kjgs8 ;

Hexalyte – Wandering Hours: youtu.be/FOAo2zsYnvA;

If you want to be an author on a publication, you’ve got to be open with your lab about your goals. Go into research with the aim of improving your skills, and know exactly what skills you want to work on. Some kinds of research are easier to do and get published in medical school.

Our expert looks at the mistakes that can keep you from landing your spot in med school. Give the admissions committee what it needs to assure them you want this more than anything, and that you’ve done your homework. When is the right time to apply? When YOU are ready. Don’t rush it, because whether you’re successful or not in finishing med school, a bad decision will affect you for many, many years.