Denialism

Category: Education

  • NYT Helps in Typical Rape-victim Smearing

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    MarkH
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    We should have predicted this when we discussed the UVa Rape story in Rolling Stone last week, it was just a matter of time before people would start suggesting the central figure in the story, Jackie, might be fabricating. I would be surprised if this response did not occur, because sadly it is so typical.…

  • Choosing a medical specialty

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    MarkH
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    It’s that time of year, 4th year medical students (like me – kind of) are choosing their future careers and starting to interview all over the country in their residency programs of choice. I’ve been notably quiet – subsumed in work, study and applications – but I am catching up on writing about the clerkships…

  • A pregnancy boom at a Massachusetts high school

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    MarkH
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    Surprisingly, it’s not due to the horribly misguided abstinence education nonsense. In fact, I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around this one. As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies–more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic…

  • 2 weeks of General Medicine

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    MarkH
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    I’m sorry I’ve been buried the last couple weeks, as I’ve just started my general medicine rotation. Today is my post-call day, which means I get to sleep in and then study all day long. The fire hydrant of information is cranked open full bore again, and the shelf exam for medicine is supposed to…

  • Open letter to the People of the great state of Florida

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    MarkH
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    Dear Floridians, Greetings, and an early “hello”! I’m heading your way at the end of the week to spend my tourist dollars, and I can’t wait to see you! But first, some important business. Your representatives in the Florida House have just passed a so-called academic freedom bill. I strongly recommend a deep suspicion on…

  • Finally Free

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    MarkH
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    At long last I have finished my surgical requirements. After 12 weeks of nonstop surgery rotations, despite enjoying it thoroughly, I’m ready to try something else for a while. Or at least I’m looking forward to waking up at 6AM rather than 4AM for a few months. It seems like such a small difference, but…

  • Some skills in medicine are harder to teach

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    MarkH
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    Teaching facts is easy. Medical students eat facts like Cheetos, and regurgitate them like…well, use your imagination. Ask them the details of the Krebs cycle, they deliver. Ask them the attachments of the extensor pollicis brevis, and they’re likely to describe the entire hand to you. Facts, and the learning of them, has traditionally been…

  • War Games!

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    MarkH
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    One of the problems with medical education is that while you are intellectually trained to deal with medical problems and emergencies, actual experience with how to respond to emergent clinical situations is difficult to teach and usually only comes with experience. Further, real clinical experts make medical decisions almost by reflex. You see this in…

  • Things that suck about medical school

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    MarkH
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    My least favorite thing? Being constantly ill. Of the eight weeks or so I’ve been back, I’ve been sick for about four of them. I managed to get by the first three or four weeks cold-free through neurotic hand-washing before the current cold circulating the hospital got a whack at me. It was a pretty…

  • Trauma

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    MarkH
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    I’ve almost come to the end of the core 8 weeks of my surgery rotation (4 more weeks follow in electives) and am currently working on the trauma service for another couple days before taking exams. I don’t have a great deal to say, the hours stay long, the medicine remains interesting etc. I’m enjoying…