The other day, someone asked me if I could write an article
on shadowing. While I don’t have any real advice for finding
mentors to shadow besides “just asking”, I remembered an article I
wrote a few years ago about my experience shadowing a physician,
and why I thought job shadowing as a whole is important and
something every student should take the time to explore. I dug up
the article, and I hope you guys find it helpful…
I observed intently as Dr. Rutka took a deep breath before
sharing the grave news with the mother. Her son, who has had
epilepsy for years, requires brain surgery to remove a tumour that
the doctor believes to be causing his seizures. However, there are
huge risks involved, especially if the boy has a seizure during
surgery. I felt a lump in my throat as the mother hammered the
doctor with questions in a hysterical manner, clearly concerned
over the health of her son. My eyes gazed in admiration at the
powerful calm in Dr. Rutka’s voice as he consoled the mother. His
compassion for the boy and his family resonated throughout the
room. I began to wonder if I could keep the same poise and
composure if I were in Dr. Rutka’s position. I was sure it was
situations like these that make a career in medicine difficult,
stressful and often heart wrenching.
A few patients later, I watched attentively as Amro, a
neurosurgery resident, performed a routine check up on a young girl
who had brain surgery just a few months before. Although he was
still in training, Amro showed obvious passion for the long career
in neurosurgery that lay ahead. The girl’s mother watched Amro in
awe, saying, “when I think about how many lives you’re going to
save one day, I can’t help but feel inspired”. I couldn’t help
but smile and share in the special moment. It was then that I
realized in spite of the blood, sweat and tears of a career in
medicine, moments like these made everything worth it.
The opportunity to shadow a world class pediatric neurosurgeon
at the Hospital for Sick Children doesn’t come along everyday. In
the last few years, my interest in medicine – particularly in
pediatrics and neuroscience – have grown. Still, I wanted to make
sure that the health care environment was right for me. The
privilege to learn from Dr. Rutka over the current school year
comes from a career mentorship program run by Youth in Motion, a
Canadian organization striving to help shape the futures of our
youth. Youth in Motion develops and implements career mentoring
programs that connect youth with adults in their choice of
career.
“Career mentoring is a highly valuable and worthwhile experience
for youth. It enables them to explore a career field in a unique
and personalized format,” says Akela Peoples, President and CEO of
Youth in Motion. “Dialoguing with someone in the workforce enables
students to get important and relevant questions answered, provides
an opportunity to learn directly from someone who has travelled a
particular path before them and, most importantly, facilitates the
transfer of unfiltered information.”
Observing Dr. Rutka’s work has only enhanced my aspirations to
enter a career of medicine, and I now hope to work at the Hospital
for Sick Children someday. It is fortunate that this “shadowing”
experience reinforced my aspirations; indeed, I could just as
easily have detested the hospital environment. If that were the
case, imagine how dreadful it would be if I had gone through the
endless years of education and training to become a doctor, only to
realize it wasn’t the career for me!
For aspiring entrepreneurs like David Wen of Surrey, British
Columbia, connecting with the CEO of a company created a life
changing relationship. “Mentors are people who truly care for your
well being, since their success is not dependant on yours,” says
Wen, whose mentor has allowed him to witness many aspects of
business, including sales pitches. “They are like honest and
determined salespeople who do not work on commission.”
James Valitchka, already an 11 year old best-selling author
hailing from Ottawa, Ontario, believes that you can never be too
young to seek out a mentor for advice. “It’s really important to
have a mentor to talk to about life and the future,” claims
Valitchka, who has been paired up by Youth in Motion with a
businessperson and one-time author. “They keep you encouraged and
their advice can stop you from making mistakes. They share their
experiences with you and make you a better and smarter person.”
As students, you are in the midst of a journey of discovery and
reflection, trying to determine your direction in life. Like many
before you, you might feel absolutely sure that you will become a
lawyer, surgeon, web designer or teacher. At the same time, how can
you be so sure that defending criminals in court, performing brain
surgery, designing websites or teaching high school is something
you would be happy doing? The fact is you won’t know until you try.
And while shadowing won’t let you experience the job directly, you
will better understand the field.
Having career mentors becomes ever so important for those of us
about to embark on a brand new journey – the transition into
adulthood. For some of us, the distance ahead is as clear as the
sky; for others, it is a blurry mixture. There are those who have
planned their entire lives out for the next fifty years, and for
the rest of us, every thought, action and decision is perhaps
spontaneous. Yet no matter how prepared you are for the future, you
need to step in the shoes of those careers yourselves – and there
is no better way to do so than by actually learning from
individuals in the field.
ShareThis
Sometimes I read advice online for medical school admissions
from medical students that I think is fundamentally wrong. Of
course this would seem counter-intuitive - how could
someone be wrong about advice if they got in?
Consider a game of rock, paper, scissors (yah yah, how many
times have I used this example now?). Imagine your opponent is
playing scissors. Now also imagine that you’ve never played the
game before, so you enlist the help of a friend who has. This
friend has defeated this opponent before and tells you to play rock
because it worked for him last time. If you listen to him and play
rock, you’ll win too. Great.
But what if your opponent decides to play paper
instead? Of course your friend comes along and again tells you
to play rock because that’s what he did last time and it worked for
him. But if you play rock, you’ll quickly realize that it doesn’t
work this time. So what went wrong, and how could your friend win
at this game but fail to help you this time?
Short-Term Success does Not Necessarily Equate to True
Understanding
Read the rest of this entry »
ShareThis
If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you can probably guess
what my answer is. But to me, the answer itself isn’t as important
as understanding how we get that answer, because it is only by
knowing the process of finding the answer that we will be able to
answer similar questions correctly in the future.
In short, the answer is pretty clearly a no,
despite what many frustrated applicants might think. Comparing the
medical school admissions process to a lottery is not only an
insult to the intelligence and efforts of medical school admissions
committees, but it shows a problematic perspective to the process
overall.
Why this is problematic
Read the rest of this entry »
ShareThis
You’d think that with classes now over and the next three months
free, I would be blogging a lot more. That’s what I figured too,
but unfortunately, I’ve been under the weather the past few days.
Don’t know what it was, just felt very weak, but I’m feeling a lot
better today and I am pretty sure whatever it was has passed.
This past week, final marks were slowly put up, and of course I
was worried about Molecular Biology 2, which I’ve talked about
several times here before. I ended up with a C+ in
the course. I was happy that I passed the course (so that my
medical school spot isn’t revoked), but I was a bit disappointed
because that meant I didn’t do any better than 76 on the exam. I
guess I was also a bit disappointed because this is the lowest
course mark I think I’ve ever gotten in school. But that’s alright,
there’s a first for everything.
The sick thing is how that mark would’ve affected me if I were
applying to medical school again next year. That one mark would
have brought my GPA for this past year to a 3.66, and would
basically have made me ineligible to apply to Ottawa. It just goes
to show you the importance of being consistent when it comes to
grades in the medical school admissions process. It also makes me
appreciative of the medical schools that take into account that
sometimes you’re just going to have a few bad courses, and that one
or a few bad courses should not destroy a person’s chance of
becoming a physician.
Med School Prep
So once you get into medical school, you don’t just click accept
and then wait until September for class to start. There is of
course the acceptance form. You also have to submit a request to do
a police check and take a CPR course.
You also need to get your immunization record checked by a
physician to make sure you’re up to date with all of your
immunizations, such as for Hepatitis B, because you will be working
with many patients and staff at hospitals very soon. So I went to
do that yesterday at my local clinic. My appointment was scheduled
for 2:30pm, and I arrived there at ~2:15pm, maybe even a bit
earlier. I finally saw my doctor at maybe 3:40pm. Needless to say I
was a bit frustrated - then again, I can’t really say I’m surprised
as I think waiting that long is quite common at a lot of busy
practices.
One of the things I’ve always vowed to do if I became a
physician was to make sure my patients were given their
appointments at the times they were promised. I will be pretty
disappointed if I end up making people wait a ridiculous amount of
time and find no way around it. I know it’s going to happen
sometimes, and it might be unavoidable, but it does seem a bit
ridiculous at some clinics.
ShareThis
I was once asked in an interview to talk about an accomplishment
I was proud of. Prior to the interview, I had come up with a list
of practice questions and what my general approach to them would be
- the “accomplishment question” was one of them. I had planned on
mentioning my TD Canada Trust Scholarship because of it’s prestige,
the hard work it represented, and how it has allowed me to continue
doing a lot of my volunteer/non-profit work during university
without worrying about having to pay for my education. But as soon
as I was asked the question, I decided to change my mind and pick
an experience that I had spoken about before, but had not planned
on using as my answer for this type of question.
Instead of the TD Scholarship, I decided to talk about
June 29, 2006. It was 9 a.m., and I was at City
Hall in downtown Toronto. I was also really, really tired. I was
tired because the previous day was a big day for me. Not only was
June 28 my 18th birthday, but it also ended up being the day of my
graduation and high school prom (yah, my high school was weird that
way). Needless to say, June 28 was a really big and exciting day
for me, but also a very tiring one.
So why did I need to be up at so early the day after my
birthday, graduation, and prom? The previous fall, my friends and I
started a Make Poverty
History student banner that was signed by students in over 30
schools and university campuses in Southern Ontario. June 29, 2006
was the one-year anniversary of the Live 8 concert, and so there
was a Make Poverty History press conference held at City Hall to
commemorate the event, as well as remind world leaders to put
issues of poverty on the agenda for an upcoming G8 meeting. To
celebrate the work of all the students involved, we were given the
opportunity to present our banner at the press conference.
Part of that presentation involved me giving a speech about the
banner. It was a really cool experience, especially the chance to
share the podium with the likes of Gerry Barr (past-chair of Make
Poverty History Canada), Steven Page (of the Bare Naked Ladies),
and Toronto Mayor David Miller. The reason why I was proud of that
moment was more than because it culminated the achievement of our
banner campaign. It was a great personal achievement for myself -
if you had told me four years before when I started high school
that I would be at that podium a day after turning 18, I would
never have believed it. That wasn’t the person I was when I entered
high school - I was much too shy. For me, that moment also
represented the personal transformation I went through in high
school as I opened myself up to more experiences, and for that
reason, I was very proud of myself.
Telling Stories
Read the rest of this entry »
ShareThis
I have a fantastic science academic advisor / counselor who has
helped me a ton since I started the biomedical sciences program at
York. Pretty much every time I was paranoid and had a question
about something, she was always there for help, support, and
advice. You honestly can’t do anything on your own, and if you
really think you can, I think you’re underestimating the support
you’re probably getting from the people around you.
When I told her I got accepted into medical school, she
suggested that I might be able to still get a 3-year bachelors
degree. I am currently in a 4-year biology program, and while I
don’t have enough biology credits for a 3-year biology degree, I
had heard before that getting a 3-year general science degree might
be possible if I got in this year, though I really didn’t expect
anything. Anyways, she told me last week that she’d get my academic
record checked to see what would be possible, and I got this
awesome email today:
Hi Joshua,
We’ve taken a look and you are eligible for the BSc (no
major)…
So that’s cool. I wanted to be a York alumni, so that’s great.
Also, I had the option of possibly getting into this year’s
convocation, but I decided that I’d rather do it next year with all
of my friends. My name won’t be in the booklet if I do that, but I
don’t really care about that!
What’s the deal with cumulative exams?
Read the rest of this entry »
ShareThis
After reading Medaholic’s great post on why grades
are the most important component of the medical school admissions
process, it got me thinking about how important the non-GPA/MCAT
components actually are. And the more I think about it, the more it
seems like they are significantly less important than most people
realize.
Now, let me make sure there’s no confusion by saying that I do
think things like extra-curricular activities, community
involvement, travel experiences, hobbies, etc. all have a huge
amount of value. But I think their value lies much more in how they
help you personally develop and grow, and not so much in really
affecting your chances at getting into medical school to the degree
that your GPA and MCAT scores do.
And yet it seems to me that a lot of students see to have the
perception that you need to have a resume that is a mile long in
order to have a shot at getting into medical school. Because of
this, some students take on way too much and completely exhaust
themselves day in and day out. Not only do I think this is bad for
the student’s mental and physical health (and that doing something
solely for the sake of applying to medical school is something you
will probably regret), but in terms of the medical school
admissions process, it’s really unnecessary. And worse, some
students take on so many non-academic activities that it seriously
hurts their academic performance, without realizing that GPA is
always the first step in the medical school door.
Granted, I can’t speak for all medical schools, since there are
17 in Canada and I only know about the Ontario ones. So while I
don’t want to make any generalized claims, what I will do is
analyze four of the medical schools in Ontario whose admissions
process I do know a decent bit about, and the role non-academic
components actually play. And from there, you can come to your own
conclusions (though it’s pretty obvious what I think).
McMaster University
Read the rest of this entry »
ShareThis
Cliff notes for those who just want the raw results: I was
accepted to the University of Toronto and McMaster University, and
was waitlisted at Queen’s University.
As you all already know, I got into medical school on Friday!
Unfortunately, I was out almost the entire day so I didn’t get the
time to write much in depth. So for those of you interested, I
wanted to give a little rundown on how the whole day went.
The night before, I had stayed up till about 2 am before finally
just giving up and going to bed. Originally, I figured I would be
full of anxiety and would end up staying up all night long - but I
wasn’t as nervous was I thought I would be. In all honesty, I
didn’t really feel that anxious until I woke up yesterday morning
around 6 a.m.
Medical school offers are one of those things that take a really
long time. The admissions process itself starts way back in
September, and if you’re fortunate enough to be offered an
interview, you don’t find out your status until mid-May. And if you
consider that many people begin thinking about and preparing for
medical school years in advance of that, and some times you end up
applying multiple times, the journey can be quite long and
strenuous.
I can’t really remember what I was thinking at 6 a.m. But I
remember getting out of bed, and checking my email just for the
heck of it. I had left my laptop on overnight with my email open so
I could check right away in the morning. Of course, I didn’t expect
to see anything at that time. Everything I had read and heard
pointed to the emails coming no earlier than 8:45am or so. And just
as expected, there was nothing there yet. So I proceeded to try and
go back to sleep, planning to just wake up at 8:00am and check
again. But I ended up twisting and turning in bed, genuinely
nervous for the first time about this. To be honest, I was actually
more nervous the hours before I got my MCAT score back - the
thought of having to study for that beast of a test again is the
most scary thing ever in my opinion.
In any case, around 6:45am I still couldn’t sleep, so I decided
to go surf the web for a bit. Like I said, my email had been open
since the night before, and I had to collect myself for a bit. And
staring back at me, in bold font against a white background like
any new message in Gmail, were the words:
University of Toronto - Congratulations
Read the rest of this entry »
ShareThis
So I was rolling around in bed at 6:45am, and decided to check
my email just for the heck of it….
May 15, 2009
Dear Joshua,
Congratulations!
On behalf of the University of Toronto Faculty of
Medicine, I am delighted to extend to you an offer of admission
into the first year of the Doctor of Medicine Program in
2009-10.
An offer package, including your official offer of admission,
will be arriving through regular mail shortly.
Didn’t get any other emails yet (since it’s so early and I don’t
think anyone was expecting something at this time), but at this
point, everything else is gravy as UofT (at least at this point) is
my top choice.
Thanks again to everyone for their support! Will be back later
tonight or tomorrow to post all the details from the day, how I’m
feeling, etc.
ShareThis
So I find out whether I get into medical school tomorrow. To be
fair, unless I’m outright rejected, I could still get in sometime
this summer off the wait list, though the longer it goes into the
summer, the less likely I’ll probably get in.
I’m actually not feeling anything right now. Anxiety, nervous,
excitement, etc. there really isn’t much going on inside. There’s a
little bit of course, but my heart is not racing and I’m not
spending the entire day thinking about it or anything.
I actually think I felt more nervous the days leading up to when
interview invites were coming out. Maybe that’s because I could
still control my chances then, and now I really can’t do anything
but wait. Before, I thought I was going to be really anxious
tonight and stay up the whole night wasting time because I couldn’t
sleep, but now it looks like I’ll just go to sleep after all.
While emails will go out tomorrow morning, there’s no set time.
I think most schools send out acceptances around 9-10am, and
rejections/waitlists soon after, but there is still a lot of
variability in terms of time within there. I think the latest I’ll
leave for school is 9am, as I still have class at 9:30am, so it’s
going to be funny if I suddenly get all my emails at once right
when I check at school. I would actually prefer to get all my
emails at once, so that I only have to experience disappointment
once, or any disappointment might get offset by good news.
In any case, going to spend the rest of the day celebrating and
having fun (though I’m not really sure what I’ll be celebrating if
I get rejected everywhere=P). After class, my friends and I plan on
getting some drinks, and then heading over to see the new Star Trek
movie. Trailer for that looks pretty sick, and it’s been getting
great reviews, so I’m looking forward to it.
After that, my family is planning on taking me out for dinner,
obviously assuming I will be getting in tomorrow…
I’m not really sure if I’ll find the time to post tomorrow
morning when I find out (I’ll obviously try and at least post
something quick), hopefully I will be able to post something.
Before I sign off tonight, I just want to thank everyone who has
followed along during my progress this past year. Thanks for all
your support and kind words, and hopefully I can make you all proud
tomorrow =)
ShareThis