Cowboys and Pit Crews.

- Atul Gawande delivers the commencement address at Harvard Medical School. Anyone interested in medicine should read this.

My Article on Men’s Health for Student Health 101.

-This is the only way I know to link to it. You can get to it by clicking on the icon for Men’s Health Checklist at the bottom. It’s not life altering work, but it is cool to see my own work published somewhere besides this blog.

Want a Better College Experience? Start Your Own Independent Project.

-Pre med blogger Ryan offers up some unique advice for college students. Also, congrats to Ryan on the new writing gig!

An International Service Corps for Health

-An interesting idea that needs to be fleshed out a bit. Would you be interested?

That’s all for now. More posts to come soon, it’s amazing how much writing I can get done in the summer!

I need some quotes!

Student Health 101 liked my last article and it which will be published in June. You may recall I asked for your help with that article a while back, thank you to those who responded!

My next article is about fitness and nutrition tips to get the year started right, to be published in September. Here is what I’m curious about:

What are the biggest challenges for college students to eat healthy  and exercise?

In your opinion, what are the best ways for college students to get exercise?

Do you feel that your fellow students take nutrition and exercise seriously? Why or why not?

If you want to help me out, answer any or all of the questions and write to me either by email (steve at mdjourney.com) or use my contact form. Please include your name, university and year in school.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. A recap of my first year is on it’s way soon, I promise.

I’m back working as an ER Scribe for a few shifts before I head off to medical school. I actually found myself missing work when I was on my little excursion to Peru. Just a little. It’s good to be back to work and I’ve found the scribing is just like riding a bike, it all comes back to you.

Most of all it just makes me excited to be a real doctor some day. That some day being about four years away now.

Anyway, here are some links I’ve found recently that are relevant to the Pre Med Journey:

-Thanks to Hack College for discovering that Amazon is offering Amazon Prime free to students for a year. That’s free two-day shipping on most stuff from Amazon, pretty cool! Check out this link to sign up for Amazon Student.

-Another classic post from Cal Newport at Study Hacks titled “Treat Your Mind As You Would A Private Garden.” There are plenty of parallels between tending a garden and nurturing your mind and he makes some interesting insights.

(Sidenote: I just picked up Cal’s book “How To Become A Straight-A Student.” So far it’s awesome, look forward to a full review soon.)

-Trent over at the Simple Dollar reveals one of his biggest financial mistakes: Using excess student loans to finance an unnecessary lifestyle during college. It may seem common sense to some people, but when thousands of seemingly “free” dollars are staring you in the face it can be difficult to turn them down. Don’t make the same mistake Trent did.

-I recently joined Premed Network, an online community for pre meds. While it is still fairly new, a significant number (over 1,400) of people have already joined. You can see this site is brimming with potential and I’m excited to see where it goes. Check out my profile here.

-The Memoirist over at A Med School Memoir talks about his first week during the third year of medical school. A nice glimpse into a med student’s life, although his experience so far is a little discouraging.

Hope July is going well!

Greetings from Lake Titikaka, Peru where the elevation is a cool 12,500 feet. I´m getting out of breath just typing this!

Seriously though, here are some great links related to the Pre Med journey:

-Cal Newport at Study Hacks probes the problems associated with multi-tasking and being hyper-connected. Bottom line: Multi-tasking makes it harder for you to focus on one task, even when you´re not multi-tasking.

-Jae Won Joh writes a compelling argument against using letter writing companies. Basically you´re much better off saving your money.

-Mohammed at Pre Med Hell explores the decision of picking a major as a pre med student. I essentially agree with the premise that you should major in what you´re interested in. However, if that means double majoring to fulfill the pre med requirements, I would be careful.

-Speaking of Pre Med Hell, did you see my guest post over there about the importance of quality sleep? If not, you should check it out. Look forward to more articles where I explore some scientfic research related to student matters here at Pre Med Journey.

That´s all for now. I´ll be back in the states soon, responding to emails and comments will happen more promptly after that!

Check out my guest post today at Pre-Med Hell.

It’s about the importance of sleep, not just quantity, but quality of sleep and how it effects your grades.

I cannot confirm it’s posted today as I’m starting the trek to Machu Picchu! Check the next couple days if it’s not up today.

According to rn-to-lpn.net this blog is one of the top 99 blogs for pre med students to read. Wahoo!

While I’m shooting for something better than top 99, I’ll take what I can get. : )

Look forward to more posts in the near future- I’m finally done with all my secondar applications and for various reasons should have more free time in the next month or so.

Do you find Premed Journey helpful? Spread the word, tell your friends, post helpful articles on your own blog, etc. Think I can improve the site? Send me an e-mail (sam (at)premedjourney.com) and let me know your thoughts!

Apparently, physics really can save lives.

I found a great new blog written by a student who is doing post-bac pre med requirements. The author’s name is Mel and her writing skills far surpass my own. She has a goal of losing 35 pounds and getting a 35 on the MCAT by the end of the year.

The blog serves as a sort of journal of her progress, and I’m grateful for the effort she puts into it as it is an entertaining read.

Check it out here:

http://35and35.wordpress.com/

Good luck Mel, I hope you achieve you goals and look forward to reading about your adventures along the way.

Today, links to some great medical blog posts. A common theme ties them together: the darker side of medicine. I think it’s important for pre med students to try and understand the whole picture of practicing medicine.

The first post comes from Kim at Emergiblog. Burnout occurs across all careers but I think it is especially important to be wary of in health care. Kim says,

I had stopped looking patients in the eye. I was spitting out standard responses instead of listening to what my patients were saying. I was expending the bare minimum of energy required to complete tasks.

I was doing; I wasn’t caring.

And I was burnt.

Check out the rest of the post here.

Next, I want to highlight a series of posts by Whitecoat at Whitecoat’s Call Room. Starting a couple weeks back, Whitecoat started outlining the story of his own medical malpractice trial. What he delivers is a surprisingly gripping account of a crazy process. Read the disclaimer here, then check out the first four posts in the yet to be finished series.

Post 1. Post 2. Post 3. Post 4.

Here’s a quote from the first post,

After reading through the chart, I remembered the patient. Nice older fellow who was laughing and joking with the staff when he first came in. I also remembered the patient’s daughter. As soon as she arrived, she began questioning everything we did and everything I ordered. I remember asking her if she had any suggestions for her father’s care. She wanted him transferred to his regular doctor at a hospital across town. By the time she made that request, he was already in shock and we couldn’t transfer him. That made her even more upset. Fortunately, because of the daughter’s animosity, I documented that chart very well.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the series!

Check out this story, written by a med school student.

Gives you just a taste of some of the crazy stories that happen while practicing medicine.