"My strength is getting bigger!" my 6-year-old patient exclaims, proudly beaming and admiring her own hands. Behind her, a small child is toddling up a play hill that has been painted to look like a winding road using a modified walker, and another child is shooting baskets on one foot from a balance beam. My patient... Continue Reading →
Discussing disabilities with Spanish-speaking families and patients
This week I've spent countless hours poring over English-Spanish dictionaries and Medical Spanish for Pediatric Medicine as I prepare to take the Bilingual Fluency Assessment for Clinicians (eBFAC). As a pediatric neurology resident, I paid particular attention to the neurodevelopment and neurologic vocabulary as these are the words I anticipate needing most often. To my... Continue Reading →
Quality of life.
This was a hard week on the surgical ward. We lost a patient last weekend, and although I was introduced to his case later in his course of therapy and had limited interactions with him, his passing has complicated the narrative I have always told myself about medicine and my career as a physician. In... Continue Reading →
Resiliency in Medicine, Part 1: Enduring medical school while a loved one is sick.
Medical school is hard, I think that's been fairly well-established. So when I started my first year of medical school, I was fully expecting late nights, jam-packed days, and based on the nearly universal analogy, I was expecting to be "drinking from a fire hydrant" for the next 4+ years. To some extent, those of... Continue Reading →
Control and Comparison: Thoughts from a Recovering A-type Medical Student
This summer passed quickly and quietly, and we came back to medical school far less enthusiastically than we did last year. Within days of starting, second year proved to be a bizarre coalescence of didactic monotony, quasi-clinical applications, anxiety-provoking spiels about board exam preparation, and discussions of rotations that are just close enough to excite... Continue Reading →
To the Pre-Med Students Who Feel Discouraged
I remember the phone call from my college advisor the summer before school started, asking me if I was sure I wanted to be Pre-Med. "You know, less than 10% of students stay pre-med, especially girls. It's just too hard. You'll waste a lot of time, and have to start over when you drop out.... Continue Reading →
9 Surprising Ways Recruitment Prepares You for Medical School Interviews
When I joined a sorority my freshman year of college, I was expecting to meet life-long friends, get involved on campus, and go to fun date events. Nothing could have prepared me for the emotional roller-coaster that was formal recruitment, but I survived and matched with a sorority that was a great fit for me.... Continue Reading →
To my anatomy lab donor.
I’m praying for you. I’m praying that you are feeling joy, peace, and contentedness. I’m praying that you are surrounded by people you love. I’m praying that you are not in pain, nor are suffering in any capacity. I praise Jesus for you. I praise Jesus for your heart of compassion. I praise Jesus for... Continue Reading →
Volunteering with Vive Peru (Clinical Medicine Program)
A lot of you have asked me to write about my experiences at Vive Peru, so here is a general overview of the program, my experience, and my thoughts! I spent a lot of time comparing volunteer programs -- I was looking for an organization that promoted sustainable action within under-served communities, and a location... Continue Reading →
Well With Kristen Noelle 