"Memorable Moments of the First Year" by MSIH rising second-year student Chelsea Powell

Memorable Moments of First Year

First, mazel tov to the MSIH graduating class of 2016!  Although the first-years only got to know you for a few months, we appreciated your willingness to share four years’ worth of medical school wisdom with us.  It is hard to believe that our first year of medical school is nearly over, and that in three short years we will be following in their footsteps.  With 2.5 weeks until the end of year one, I’ll allow myself to indulge in a bit of reflection on some memorable moments of our first year.

 

1. “If a patient breaks her leg and you put a cast on and discharge her, but she lives on the 7^thfloor of a walk-up, you did not do your job.” 

At the beginning of the year, one of our professors stated this in a discussion on what it means to be a doctor.  This epitomizes the kind of doctor MSIH nurtures.  William Osler, the “Father of Modern Medicine,” memorably said that “a good doctor treats the disease; a great doctor treats the patient.”  We don’t fix a broken bone simply because it’s broken; we fix it because of the impact it has on the bone’s owner.  And just as a bone cannot be seen outside the context of the patient, the patient should not be seen outside the context of her environment.  This is a value MSIH embodies.

2.  “In this hospital, nothing else matters.  Everyone is focused only on how to make the patient better.” 

On a clinical rotation in the pediatric ward of Soroka, the class met with a Bedouin father whose young daughter was hospitalized after pouring a pot of boiling water on herself.  He had never been to the hospital before and was initially concerned that his identity as a Bedouin might compromise the quality of care his daughter would receive.  Instead, he was amazed at how little that mattered.  He noted that his daughter’s health care team had one goal, and that was to help her. Israel is a place of profound passions, vastly different cultures, and political conflict; confronting all of it prompts daily considerations.  Soroka is a sanctuary from all of that, a place where coexistence thrives.  Hearing this Bedouin father speak about Soroka in such a positive way reinforced my belief in the power of medicine to transcend conflict.

3. “You will make mistakes.”

In microbiology our infectious disease specialist professor often brought in interesting cases for us to analyze.  The outcome of one particularly difficult case was the death of the patient, which prompted a discussion about the potential consequences of misdiagnosis.  A sudden realization of the immensity of our future role hit us all, and a silence and palpable unease fell over the class.  Our professor sensed this, and turned from the subject of microbiology.  “Close your laptops.  Put down your pencils.  And look me in the eye.  You will make mistakes.  When you are a doctor, those mistakes have the potential to harm a patient.  You need to study as hard as you can, and be the best doctor you can be.  But when you make that mistake, you need to wake up the next morning, go to work, and continue to be the best doctor you can be.”  It was a particularly powerful reminder of the real-life consequences our actions will have, and also an important reminder that doctors are human.

4.  This moment isn’t actually a moment; it’s a series of moments.  A really exciting development is occurring for many of us, and that is how much the information in our courses is starting to connect. In pre-med undergraduate courses, biology had, for example, little connection to physics.  Now, however, we are discovering the connection between last fall’s biochemistry class, where we studied the molecular basis of G6PD deficiency, and our current focus in hematology on the anemia that results from G6PD deficiency. “Ah-ha!” moments have been happening more frequently as our understanding of pathophysiology increases in both breadth and depth.  We are just starting to fit the pieces together in this puzzle of the human body, and it is really thrilling.

5. I returned to the United States to visit my family for Christmas.  While it was refreshing to escape from the desert and the stress of final exams, I found that I soon became anxious to resume my medical studies.  In Beer Sheva I’ve created a home; at MSIH I have a life in medical school.  I’m doing what I love, surrounded by people who care. I’m excited not only about the next three years, but also about the next fifty as my classmates and I disperse and apply what we have learned in this desert as doctors all over the globe.