jackhenson

Late April update…

Fair warning: I’m writing this post under the influence of a strong dose of ibuprofen. I just had my wisdom teeth (all 4!) taken out on Monday. Everything seems to have healed up nicely, with only a little residual pain.

I cannot believe that my postbacc studies begin in less than 30 days! I’m incredibly excited and nervous about the opportunity to focus on my premed studies. While waiting for classes to start up, I’ve been trying to get “in the zone” by reading. Some of the medical-related books I’ve recently read include:

The Intern Blues by Robert Marion.

On Call: A Doctor’s Days and Nights in Residency by Emily R. Transue

How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman

I highly recommend them all. What attracted me to these books (specifically the first two), was the subject of medical internship. Internship is the first year after medical school, where freshly graduated med students work at a hospital as an actual doctor in a specialty of their choice (pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, etc.). Internship is typically known as one of the most challenging times of a young doctor’s life, due to the amount of information that they are expected to know, number of patient cases they are required to work, and long hours they must dedicate to their new profession.

Up until about a year ago, I never really had an idea of how much doctors must sacrifice for their profession, especially in their post-med school years. Family time. Social time. Heck, any leisure time at all is scarce between shifts during internship and residency years. This is definitely not the cushy, high-paying, high-status job that some people believe it to be. And given that Obamacare makes it through the Supreme Court, doctors will only continue to face even more paperwork, more patients, longer hours, and less pay. In other words, make sure you REALLY want to be a doctor before applying to medical school!

Here we go postbacc!

I’m one (super) small step closer to my MD dream: I’ve just been accepted to a pre-med postbaccalaureate program! (And the only one I even applied to, thank God I got in!) This program will basically allow me to take all of the science prereqs that all premed majors must take, condensed into one year (a summer + 2 semesters). Sounds ridiculously hard? Absolutely. But the rigor of the program is supposedly a good preparation for medical school. So bring it on!

I’d also like to take a moment to emphasize how important a good recommendation is to any application. I’m so thankful to be the recipient of two great letters, courtesy of one of my undergrad professors and a doctor that I currently work with at the local volunteer clinic. Thank you, thank you!

Okay, now back to studying the basics of chemistry…

And so the journey begins…

Hi, my name is Jack. I’m a recent college graduate currently applying for a pre-medicine post baccalaureate program. In college, I majored in media and journalism, so the “medicine scene” is a completely different ballgame for me. For the past few months I’ve been volunteering at the local Volunteer Clinic, which provides health care to the working uninsured. At the clinic, I spend most of my time assisting with x-rays and updating patient’s health charts. From countless hours of medical school admission research, I know that I’ll need to actually shadow a physician at some point, so that’s my next step.