Becoming a doctor through the eyes of a medical student

Becoming a doctor through the eyes of a medical student
The journey continues with Molly Brazil in the quest to achieve her MD dream

Medical school is not just learning about anatomy, disease processes, physical exams and all the other information doctors need to know to be competent health care providers.  A large part of my education is professional development and exploration, which is just a fancy way of saying “figuring out what I like to do.” In a few years I’ll look back at all the things that sparked my interest and have to decide which one to make my career.

Interest Groups are one of the many ways my school, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), facilitates and inspires a medical student’s curiosity. And there are more than I can count, each with a very different focus; everything from pediatrics to wilderness medicine to orthopedic surgery.  Since I’m not yet sure what field of medicine I will pursue, I signed up for almost every Group!

The sheer volume of emails I get from these Groups is cumbersome to digest but it provides awesome exposure to a wide variety of fields.  In just the past two weeks I explored scuba diving emergencies, learned how to administer flu vaccines and practiced using an ultrasound machine.

The ultrasound training, something I signed up for on a whim, was the coolest thing I’ve done so far. Working in groups of three, medical students had an hour and a half to ultrasound each other.  With our instructor’s help we looked at kidneys, shoulders, wrists, knees and even our hearts!  It made the anatomy we’re learning in lecture literally come to life.

I saw tendons moving, blood pumping, and a colleague’s mitral heart valve opening and closing!  How many people can say they’ve seen the inner workings of the heart?  I will never forget seeing the valve fly open and closed on that little screen.  This is why I wanted to go to medical school in the first place.  Being able to practice clinical skills and work with patients is what makes sitting through eight long hours of class every day entirely worth it.

Stay tuned for future Molly blogs in the coming weeks…