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General Advice

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On Life

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  • Do not ignore your health. Seek professional help when needed. Take the time to figure out what works best to improve your physical and mental health.​

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  • Try not to compare yourself too much to people (I know, easier said than done). Everybody’s journey is different and too often colleagues don’t share the whole story of their struggles or privileges, so you end up comparing yourself to an idealized version of them that is not accurate.​

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  • Unfortunately, the medical path can be filled with people that are toxic so until you know you can fully trust someone take some things they say with a grain of salt. For example, many students will lie about their grades and say they did extremely well to bring you down. Others will say they haven’t started studying for an exam to give you a false sense of confidence. Others might go as far as to give you erroneous information (wrong deadlines, exam dates, etc). So feel free to distance yourself from people that do not bring happiness to your life even if it will take time for you to find a friend or group of friends you feel truly at ease/comfortable with.

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  • During university explore courses and activities that go beyond “medical things”. Explore hobbies you truly enjoy. They can provide life skills that’ll stay with you forever or you might even realize that you’d want to pursue something else outside of Medicine.

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Academic advice

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  • Always be respectful to patients. You have the unique experience of being in contact with them often at their lowest. Remember all the socioeconomic and psychological aspects that play a role in health; you often will not have the full story unless you make the proper effort to find out. If you are judgemental or mock patients I do not think the clinical aspect of medicine is for you.​

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  • Read the relevant chapter and lectures related to your upcoming clinical rotation. It will help you benefit the most from it since you will have a grasp of most of the basic concepts.​

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  • Unfortunately, not everybody has a mentor to guide them, so:

    • Look up what is needed for the next step and work towards it (ie when getting into pre-med what is needed for medical school admissions, when getting into medical school what is needed for postdoc jobs/residency, etc).

    • Try to find faculty that could support you in your journey and to whom you can communicate your goals to.

    • Reach out to alumni or students from years above you and ask for advice or what they’re journey was like. Most of them would be happy to help (some would even make a website to share what they’ve learned! *wink wink*).​​

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  • When exploring which specialty or career pathway you enjoy the most, you might encounter opposing comments and misconceptions around them. Some erroneous comments I’ve come across or overheard: “Radiology is boring”, “general surgery only deals with feces”, “surgeons are arrogant”, “it’s not a field for a woman” “but how will you have time for family?” “Dermatology is easy, that’s why I want it”. Sometimes it will be hard to not let those comments affect you so reach out to someone in that field whether in person or online and you will see all those myths debunked.

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Insightful Resources

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  • Dr. Dimitrios Tsatiris shares some beautiful insights and reflective ideas; you can follow him on Twitter and through his website.

  • You can check out Yale University's Coursera "The Science of Well-being" by Dr. Laurie Santos. The course explores some ideas related to human happiness & productivity.

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