No physicians on either side of the family here. In fact, DH was the first college grad on both sides of his family.
And in the total overkill category : one classmate was hooded by his dad, his mother and his grandfather, all physicians. (Mom is Vice Dean of Medicine at UNLV SOM and was one of featured speakers at the commencement.) Overkill but totally a major photo-op
And should probably mention in the overkill dept, another classmate is a 15th generation physician. The family legend holds that one ancestor was a samurai. The samurai was ordered to kill a local Buddhist priest because he had spoken out against the warlord who was the samuraiâs master. As the holy man was dying, he placed a curse on the samurai and told him to lay down his sword, go forth & do only good in the world. The curse said that if at least one member of each generation did not serve their fellow man as a healer/physician, the family would end. So every generation since the 18th C, one son or daughter has become a physician.
Iâd called bunk on the story, but Iâve personally seen the familyâs antique samurai sword hanging in the place of honor in their house.
@WayOutWestMom What great stories! Iâm jealous, my med school has everyone get hooded by the deans.
Without doing the math, interesting to think about how the MD students seemed to have a much higher proportion of family hooders than the MD/PhD students (on the flip side, a much higher proportion of students who bring their kids onto the stage with them - not a surprise though given weâre basically all in our 30s now).
One classmate has an MD mom and a PhD dad so they each did one of his hoods. Donât know what kind of relationship he had with his PI but I think a PhD hooding is also a big moment for the PI (itâs obviously a very different relationship than the one you have with a med school dean) and I canât imagine taking that moment away from him.
Congrats to all with their good news!!! WOWMom, your DDs are amazing! Of course, the rest of yâalls kids are awesome, too!!!
Son is finishing his medicine year and getting ready to move to MGH (rent is atrocious!)
His longtime GF (since high school!!!) is a new PA and is doing a one year fellowship at Seattle Childrens .
Fingers crossed that she ends up at Boston Childrens so they wonât be far away from each other and (I hope) Wedding bells will soon (finallly) follow!
D2 packed up her trailer and left for her new city on Wednesday. She reports for orientation June 13. Sheâs nervous but excited. Her BF has accepted a couple of temporary jobsâwith NOLS in July and a long term substitute teacher position with a local private high school until he finds a permanent position.
D1 & her hubby stopped over enroute back to the Northeast from Australia to say goodbye to D2 before she left. The AMC (Australian Medical Council) has finally decided D1âs medical degree is âfully equivalentâ to an Aussie medical degree. (That only took two years of wrangling to achieve.) But the AMC and ACEM has deemed her US specialty training as âpartially equivalentâ and not eligible for licensure. Disappointing, but pretty much what she was expecting. The good news is that D1 has been doing mini rotations at NSW hospitals and 4 of them have invited her to apply for fellowship positions with them. (Fellowship in AU = residency in US) So yep, folks, she gets to do residency all over againâŠ
And in the life is very weird categoryâshortly after D1âs began her internship in 2015, she had a patient who came in unresponsive and not breathing after an opiod overdose. It was one of the first cases D1 managed on her own as lead physician. The patient, a woman, died. (Technically she was already dead when they brought her into the ER, but D was the one to pronounce her.) D1 had the unhappy and difficult job of informing her family who were in the waiting room, including the womanâs sister who was hugely pregnant at the time. It was a very painful experience and the memory has stuck with herâŠ
âŠand apparently not just with D1. The dead womanâs sister has written a essay/memoir: âDear, Dealerâ about her sisterâs death. It was broadcast on NPRâs podcast, âThis American Life,â and published in Time magazine. (Here: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/646/the-secret-of-my-death/act-one-5 and here: http://time.com/5281371/dear-dealer-sister-fentanyl-overdose/) Thereâs a book in the worksâŠ
^^^heartbreaking story.
First day of orientation for new interns came with the very sad news that:
a) interns arenât getting paid for orientation, despite the fact that attendance is mandatory;
and
b) salaries are paid bi-weekly and the first paycheck wonât arrive until July 14.
That sucks! ^^^^^ Sonâs program re-imbursed for interns move if more than 50 miles from hospital. He used a Budget coupon! And his orientation he was paid, weird. But his 1st year pay is more than other programs in the area. More bonus then other programs he ranked. Food stipend, exam costs, travel for conferencesâŠIt all adds up. And of course housing here is cheaper than other locations.
But she is there and it has started!!! And she is in a nice part of the country.
D2 called last night. Sheâs been working surgery all week, is putting in 14+ hour days that start at 5 am. Sheâs beyond exhausted, feels totally incompetent and wondering if she chose the right profession.
Sounds about right for first week of intern year.
DD has begun her fellowship and is transitioning from about the best place to be in the summer to one of the worst, this would have been an easier switch in January.
Son has moved to Boston to begin PGY2. Momâs been busy ordering/sending stuff to him since he needed so many new thingsâŠhis bed was from his high school yearsâŠand fully looked the part. @-)
Good that many stores have their Back to College Deals going on and those beds-in-box ship easily
Question about step 1. Not sure if this is the right place to ask but didnât want to start a whole new thread.
My son took the exam few weeks back. He was studying for a year and was doing extremely well on the practice exams. When he came out after the test he was really upset. He think it was really bad and he might of failed. Is this a normal feeling after the test or heâs just being hard on himself? To put things in perspective he wanted to cancel his mcat score after the test because he thought he did badly and ended up getting a really good score. I did remind him of that but he claims that step 1 is different.
Most students come out feeling discouraged after Step 1. Not necessarily thinking theyâve failed, but
thinking they probably didnât do as well as they thought they might.
He needs to be fatalistic about the exam. Itâs done. Itâs over. He either passed or he didnât. Itâs too late to change anything.
Thanks @WayOutWestMom mom. Youâre giving me hope. I donât think he failed. He is just extra hard on himself and is a perfectionist. Also he wants to go for a very competitive specialty so needs a really high step score. We will know in a week or 2.
The passing of step 1 is pretty easy, I believe most if not all Med School students have passed the Step 1 of USMLE, what is important is how well did he do. He needs around 230 to be competitive for some better specialties. Of course, the more the merrier. Even if he gets below 230, he will still be able to match into some thing, just may not be in the location he wants.
Many students report that during/after taking Step 1, they feel sick and discouraged.
Happy to report that he got his score back and he did amazing!
The matching is going to start over again on Sep 15, good luck to all graduating seniors!
Congrats to yiue son @momworried .