Like Mother, Like Doctor is a blog written by Linda Brodsky and her daughter, Dana Greenfield, about the journey of becoming a doctor.
Like Mother, Like Doctor »
Hi, Mom. Hi, ether. On my first clinical rotation, I did step into a whole new world. And while I’m back to real life, I definitely brought a little part of the wards back with me. But I also left a little part of my former self there, too. For better or worse, these past few months have been some of the most intense (and the most rewarding) of my life. I wish I could write one blog entry that could capture how much I’ve learned or what I saw, but that would be impossible. Instead, I’d like to share a few reflections on, and a peek into, the very privileged world of hospital medicine.
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Dana is finishing her surgical clerkship this week. Has it really been eight weeks? It went by so fast. Well at least for me it did. I don’t know about Dana, because she has surfaced for air (and some time talking on the phone) only a few times during these past several months.
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What’s a clerkship? It’s the first educational experience when a student doctor spends her days (and nights) involved entirely in patient care. Each clerkship is based on a major area of medicine—pediatrics, general surgery, surgical specialties, obstetrics/gynecology, internal medicine, psychiatry, and in some schools neurology and family practice medicine.
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Yes, getting the basic science in is important. But (some of) the most valuable skills I gained from my college education included learning how to think, write, and critically engage equally with texts and the world outside of the college gates. And BOTH biology and anthropology taught me these. Inside the lab—a place all pre-meds will face at some point or another—I took part in curiosity, scientific inquiry, and how ‘facts’ about the world around us are made.
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Our friend Rosalee Washington asked, “Should I major in something that has to do with science if I want to become a doctor?” This is a really good question. Do all doctors need the same skills? The same talents? Have a certain personality?
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From the SATs to the MCAT and the Boards exams, I’ve been a career student. Tests have become a way of life, in a way. (Is that sad?) From multiple-choice to essay to true/false to oral exams, tests have been the predictable pacemakers of my career from high school through college, from college to medical school and graduate school.
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I have only one more test left in med school!
Well, I should qualify that: it’s the last test of my pre-clinical years. (The first two years are called pre-clinical because we don’t see much of the clinical side, because we don’t really know too much.) So, for two years we sit mostly in lectures, labs, small groups, and the library, learning the basics of human biology and illness. The cycle is predictable: three weeks of cramming, test, repeat. In our last block Life Cycle (our curriculum is organized by topic or organ system), we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
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No one likes taking tests. Unless you are really well prepared and know the answers to all of the questions. And then it can be fun as an affirmation of your hard work, perseverance, and mastery of the material.
My first big, important, life-changing test occurred in the 8th grade. The DATs—tests to help you figure out what career you might be good at. Don’t remember what the “D” stood for. On this 6 part test, I scored in the 99th percentile in spatial relationships, mechanical thinking, ...
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This blog, Like Mother, Like Doctor, was created in response to questions asked by Talking Science’s 2009 summer intern, Rosie Washington. Her project: to search for answers to her dreams. She contacted me after reading my blog and with help from executive producer, Ann Marie Cunningham, and the essential input of my daughter Dana Greenfield, this blog was born!
So while Dana is off with younger sister Becca exploring the beauty of Big Sur, CA, during their winter break, I will tackle the first of the many great questions ...
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School let out a week ago, but my life is still quite busy. Especially with singing in the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. We have numerous holiday concerts in Oakland, the South Bay, even the San Francisco Jail. To keep up the momentum and energy, before every concert we ‘circle up.’ This means that the entire choir—all 50-60 of us—in our teal, purple and gold robes joins hands in a circle while our director leads us a pre-show pep-talk-like prayer. Any member who’s going through rough times—cancer, ...
