Before coming into medical school people jokingly told me that I’m going to have to study for the rest of my life. I didn’t really understand what that statement meant until about a week into My M1 year when I realize just how much information I would have to take it on regular basis. What’s interesting is that I don’t remember exactly when but I reached a point in medical school where I realized that there is something that I should always be doing or studying or reading. I came to the conclusion that I was going to have “homework” for the rest of my life whether I liked it or not. However, it is easy to get wrapped up in the volume of information that is needed to successfully pass medical school. I needed balance in my life in order to cope with the stresses of medical school. I grew up playing tennis since I was 10 years old and my tennis career peaked when I was on the varsity team during my junior year of high school. It didn’t take me long to understand that my shot at Wimbledon was never going to come so I just transitioned my tennis game to more of a recreational one. Tennis is a lot of fun – it’s a noncontact sport where you can get a great cardio workout while you’re at it. During my undergrad years I would always play tennis during the summers on the courts right by RPAC and I continued that into medical school. I would either play with my friends or whomever I could find on the courts. The extracurricular activity that I am most proud of though is my dancing. I started out ballroom dancing in undergrad and transitioned from ballroom to Latin social dancing specifically salsa merengue and bachata. It doesn’t seem likely that a small nerdy Russian Jewish kid would get involved in Latin dancing but it has turned into a passion of mine. Surprisingly Columbus has a large salsa dancing scene and I have been dancing almost once a week for the past six years. I absolutely love going to dance and it’s amazing to see how many interesting in educated people I can meet while dancing. I have danced with attendings, residents lawyers, people with PhD’s and others. Dancing has been a way where I can completely let go of my stress. If I have a difficult week in the hospital I know that I can go dancing either Friday or Saturday night and I can completely dance the week away and start fresh. During my month for studying for step two CK I even found a practice partner and in a period of a month I practiced with her for almost 2 hours every day and I was able to elevate my dancing skills. All in all, tennis and dancing have brought me the balance that I needed to successfully get through medical school thus far. Here’s a picture of me dancing.
What was extremely helpful was that I had both of these hobbies developed prior to entering medical school which shows the importance of having a routine. When I was stressed and needed relief, I had skills that I can rely on and I was able to quickly destress myself without having to develop new hobbies or interests. One of my goals in residency is to make sure that I am making time for myself because that keeps me grounded as a person. I want to make sure that I continue to play tennis when the weather permits and I want to make sure that I go dancing as often as I possibly can. CEO 3.4b.
My time in medical school has also taught me the meaning of “life-long learning.” Life-long learning can be both retrospective and prospective. The retrospective aspect comes through reading and literature review while the prospective component is fulfilled with answering clinical questions. I learned about evidenced based medicine and how applying it can greatly help patient care. Through the CAT project of AMRCC, I learned how to think through and synthesize the evidence available to me. CEO 3.2. Here is my CAT project.
For the prospective component, my group’s HSIQ project is about using correct tidal volumes for patients during surgery. It is established that a safe tidal volume is about 6-8cc/kg when someone is on a ventilator. My group is looking at a random sample of GI surgery cases to see how many anesthesiologists used a safe tidal volume and if our intervention can increase that number CEO 3.1. My goals during residency and for my career are to always remain inquisitive and make sure that I stay up to date with current literature.