When I was in elementary and middle school, my mom used to tutor me in math all the time so that I would have a solid foundational understanding of the topics I was learning. I wasn’t the fastest learner and my mom would usually have to go over concepts multiple times before “it clicked.” I was always appreciative of my mom’s patience with me so when I got to high school, I tutored my friends in math and biology. I got great feedback from my friends and a number of them told me that I would make a good teacher in the future. Since then, I have always enjoyed teaching and I try my best to be as patient with the people that I tutor as my mom was with me. Furthermore, teaching and tutoring helps me realize the concepts that I understand in depth and those where I only have a surface level of understanding. During medical school, I have had two major opportunities to teach. The first was a Musculoskeletal Anatomy Project that I completed with 2 other classmates for Dr. Julie Bishop. During the summer between M1 and M2 year, Dr. Bishop wanted help with improving the MSK anatomy component since it is the most intense out of all the blocks. With the help of a graduate anatomy T.A. along with 2 other classmates (the three of us were the leaders for the orthopedic surgery interest group) created dissection videos and high resolution PDF prosection guides (with labeled and unlabeled images) of the upper limb, lower limb and entire torso. Additionally, we put together a master list of all of the anatomy structures that could be tagged in the practical and we delivered a “Tips and Tricks” presentation to the M1s on their first day of MSK. The project took us from June to October and all of us put in a lot of effort. Since I cannot publish cadaveric images, here is a page from the anatomy structure list.
Master Anatomy Structure List MSK-1hi2vtv
It was immensely rewarding to use the knowledge that the three of us had learned from our MSK block to put together a product that can help future M1s for many years to come. The second opportunity that I have to teach is through ultrasound. I wanted to learn ultrasound because I felt that it was a perfect combination of technology and medicine as well as a hands-on skill that had to learned and practiced. Towards the end of my M1 year and through the subsequent summer I spent a lot of time modeling for upperclass and resident level ultrasound sessions. I was learning a ton every day and towards the middle of the summer I (as a med 1.5) was able to teach some new residents how to use ultrasound. During my M2 I helped to proctor for Trinity – a course for M1s to learn cardiac, aorta and fast scans. Over the following years, I got more involved with ultrasound and my knowledge base expanded. I am now going to be proctoring at OSU’s UltraFest on 2/25 teaching medical students from the Midwest point-of-care ultrasound. Here is a picture of me from last year’s UltraFest!
Additionally, on March 27, I will be giving a national presentation at AIUM teaching medical students from the entire U.S. about the structure and function of an ultrasound interest group. In a few years, I went from knowing nothing about ultrasound to being able to give a national presentation. Peer to peer teaching has been meaningful to me and it has helped me grow as a teacher as well as thinking of ways to improve teaching strategies. CEO 5.4. Going forward, I want to continue to advocate for the teaching of point-of-care ultrasound in all levels of medical education. Additionally, since I will most likely work with medical students in the future, I will strive to create positive learning environments for them. There have been times when I experienced “the culture of medicine” and I do not feel that I need to pass it on because I was treated that way.