Island Med Student

The local doggy (Jackie) that I adopted a few weeks ago was oddly stolen from me. Someone else took her and put a different collar on her. It was a very strange sequence of events, but I ended up deciding to let them have her, as they seemed to be taking good care of her. Micah and I decided that we wanted to adopt a puppy, but we hadn’t been able to find one. My birthday is coming up in one week, and tonight Micah gave me an early birthday present.

Please welcome the newest additions to our family: Klyde and Scope. Apparently, these two puppies were being neglected by their owner, and a friend of ours rescued them. They were unable to take care of them at their apartment, so they needed a home.

Klyde and Scope are just about the cutest things you could possibly imagine. Tomorrow, Micah is going to take them to the vet to get all the appropriate shots. I wish there was a Petco on the island so I could go spend one million dollars on puppy toys and treats. We’re both so happy we could pee our pants.

There’s noting I hate more than waking up to bad news. This morning I awoke to find an alarming email from our Student Government Association. According to the email, some of the fliers put up on campus by the Muslim Student Organization had been defaced with “hateful and prejudicial” messages. I can’t begin to express how much an act like this angers and frightens me.

Recently, I joined my school’s chapter of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Since I started medical school, I had been looking forward to joining PHR, as I’ve always enjoyed working with organizations that deal with humanitarian issues.

One of the projects that PHR is involved with is a campaign to mobilize health professionals, students, and members of the general public to press for urgently needed security in Darfur. Part of the focus of the campaign is to respond to the countless horrifying acts of violence against women that have been committed as a result of the war.

My school’s PHR chapter is trying to support a hospital in Congo that was set up to treat women who were raped due to the ongoing conflict in the region. The hospital provides medical care such as reconstructive surgery and mental health services to women in need. Our chapter is trying to organize a shipment of sutures and other supplies for the hospital.

We are also involved in some local community outreach activities. As part of the organization, I am volunteering at a center here in Portsmouth that teaches vocational skills to 14- to 22-year-olds who have dropped out of school. The school teaches the “kids” skills like woodworking and farming, as well as providing them with tutoring in basic math and English. Many of the “kids” are at a second-grade or below level of reading, and come from disadvantaged and troubled families. I’ve been told that some of them fail to show up for tutoring simply because they’re out trying to find food.

In addition to the vocational center, our chapter is also trying to donate mattresses to the local prison (the inmates currently sleep on cement in overfilled cells). Our PHR chapter is really trying to help both our local community here in Dominica, and the international community.

The email that I received this morning really opened my eyes. I joined PHR because I want to support the protection of human rights. It’s something that I am very passionate about, and as a physician-to-be, I feel that I have a moral obligation to support humanitarian aid. Perhaps my eyes were opened so wide looking at my local and international community that I failed to look at the community right here on campus. I guess I wanted to believe that people coming to another country to pursue their dream of becoming a doctor would not commit such an offensive act against a group of people.

I don’t know what I can do to make sure this never happens again. I want to find out who committed this crime, and scream at them at the top of my lungs, yet I know that this probably wouldn’t help change a thing. But I know that I can’t sit here and pretend like nothing happened. I am reminded of a famous quote by Edmond Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Click Here To View the Original Post on Medscape

I’ve been so busy the past few days that my head is spinning. This semester has really picked up, and my schedule is crammed to the max. Because I’m so busy (and I guess as proof as well), I thought I’d post my schedule for everyone to see. Most likely no one gives a poop, but I thought I’d share it with the world anyway (especially since I shared a lot with the world in my last post). So, if you’re thinking about becoming a med student, or (gasp) you already are one, or if you just want to know when the best time to stalk me is, here is my schedule as of late (of course I don’t always follow it exactly, but pretty darn tootin close):

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It’s time for all of you laptop owners out there to come clean, errr dirty…. Well, anyway, I wanted to admit something to everyone out there who probably wishes that I would stop admiting things to total strangers.

I like to blog on the toilet.

Okay, I said it!! And if my hunches are correct, there are probably a lot of you out there who do the same. If you’re not bloggers, you’ve probably taken the laptop to the bathroom to finish an email or maybe write a paper. Go ahead and admit it, it’s good for you!! Laptops have replaced newspapers in more than one way.

A few months ago my laptop broke, and it wouldn’t run off of the battery. This meant that my laptop was no longer mobile – I had to have it plugged in at all times for it to work. It was a very sad state of affairs, and it impinged upon my blogging-in-the-bathroom habits.

But I have good news!! I just got my laptop back from being fixed (thank you to Bob, Micah, Circus Boy and Katie), and I am proud to announce that I’m blogging from my throne at this very moment! (Crowd goes silent.)

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For any of you’s guyz out there who like to stalk my photos, I thought I’d let you know that I added some new pics that I just took today of the Ross campus. Mostly, I wanted to get some photos of the Annex. I promise that I’ll keep snapping away whenever I get a chance, and eventually I’ll have pics of the whole campus! Next up – TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION!!

Click Here to Check Out the Pics, Yo (The new ones are at the end…click the pic you want to see a sweet show)

Last night I had another one of my infamous mini-breakdowns. I came home from school, and I realized that I was bored out of my mind and hungry to boot. I could imagine the perfect solution. I needed sushi, miso soup, and sake. I could taste the soft steamed rice, colorful uncooked fish, and fresh seaweed melting into my mouth. I imagined washing it all down with the crisp, refreshing taste of good Japanese sake. My mind grew as cloudy as a bowl of miso soup. Visions of tuna rolls danced through my head. But eventually the reality hit me. There was no way that I would be eating any sushi anytime soon. I pleaded with my brain to devise a plan to escape the island by boat and find the closest island with a sushi restaurant, but it was hopeless. The reality hit me like a ton of unagi. No sushi for Kendra.

I’ve had cravings for many things while on this island, but I just ignored them for the most part. This time was different. I felt trapped. I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t acquire sushi, and I couldn’t even get off the island. The airport closes at sundown, and I didn’t know anyone with a boat. I really do love living on this beautiful island. But for the first time yesterday, I can say that it hit me that there are some things that I miss so much, that I don’t think I could ever live without: my family, my friends, and Uni, my favorite sushi restaurant in D.C. For all you people out there who do have access to the fishy goodness, please have a couple extra unagi rolls or shrimp temperas for your ghetto island lover, Kendra.

My nextdoor neighbor Ajay acquired a grill last weekend and decided to throw an impromptu party. Errybody had a blast, and we even brought our couches out on the porch. Micah took pictures the whole night, and I finally got around to stealing them and editing them tonight. For the very first time in my life, I learned how to convert color to black and white, and do all the cool edits like adjusting the shadows and contrast to make them look awesome. I love pretending like I’m a prostetional (yes, prostetional) photogramapher.

Click Here to Check out my Sweet Pics

This past week my friend and fellow med student got his decision back from the review board. He’s going to be allowed to stay in school, but he will have to repeat his first semester. Even though it means a big setback in his medical career, he’s willing to give it another try, because becoming a doctor is his lifelong goal.

Unfortunately, my friend’s story is not all that uncommon. From the looks of things around campus I can tell that a number of first semester students didn’t make it. I have already talked to a handful of students who are repeating the first semester on a probationary basis, and I know that some just didn’t come back at all.

At first blush, this might seem like our school is doing a poor job of educating its students, but I don’t believe that is the case. Like most Caribbean medical schools, my school has slightly lower admissions standards than those in the U.S. Why is this?

Back in the 1980′s, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicted that a physician surplus was on the horizon. Based on recommendations from the AAMC, U.S. medical schools began to limit their enrollment. In the meantime, more and more people were applying for medical school in the U.S. This translated into many well-qualified individuals with high MCAT scores, good GPAs, and previous medical experience who were unable to gain admission to medical school in the States.

I don’t think we should blame the admissions committees. After all, if you can only admit a certain number of students into your school, it only makes sense for you to admit the very best.

However, the enrollment limitation of U.S. medical schools had an unintended side effect. It created a market for offshore, unaccredited, for-profit medical schools. Since there were many students who still wanted to be doctors, but not enough seats available in U.S. medical schools, many offshore (especially Caribbean) medical schools began to spring up. If a student couldn’t get into a U.S. medical school, they had the option of attending a Caribbean school, and then coming back to the states as an International Medical Graduate (IMG). This obviously raises many issues and concerns about the system.

Caribbean medical schools seem to fall along a broad spectrum in terms of the quality of the education they provide, especially when compared to U.S. medical schools. But regardless of which school a student ends up attending, that student still has to pass a series of USMLE exams, and jump through many other hoops before they are allowed to practice as a physician in the U.S. So, the argument can be made that if you make it through the system, even if your medical education was from an unaccredited institution, you have still proven that you can pass the same standards required of every physician in the U.S. This is obviously a flawed argument, as many people would rightfully argue that the USMLE exams are not perfectly designed to guarantee competency, but I’ll save that issue for a later rant.

Over the past few decades, the proportion of IMGs entering the U.S. system has been steadily rising. Currently, one in four new U.S. physicians is an international medical graduate. That’s a pretty astounding number.

The AAMC recently announced that their earlier predictions were incorrect. According to their new calculations, the nation is in fact facing a physician shortage. The AAMC has called for a 30% increase in enrollment at all U.S. medical schools. So it would seem that if it weren’t for the international medical school graduates, our physician shortage would be an even bigger problem than it already is.

Which brings us back to the issue of quality. Because U.S. schools only accept the highest achievers, they end up having pretty low withdrawal and dismissal rates. On the other hand, many Caribbean medical schools have somewhat higher withdrawal and dismissal rates. I think that this is a direct result of different admissions approaches.

U.S. schools will only admit students who have proven that they can excel academically and otherwise, while many Caribbean schools are willing to accept students who have less than perfect academic records, with the caveat that they have to prove themselves.

Most students at my school would agree that they have been given an extra chance — a chance to prove that they can be incredible doctors. Unfortunately, not everyone succeeds. There are no guarantees that any school can turn you into a good doctor. It all comes back to what you put into it. I believe that if you work hard, and are truly dedicated, you stand a good chance of graduating and doing well.

Although I agree that admitting the very best students to a medical school makes sense, I can’t help but feel that many well-qualified people are falling through the cracks. If a prospective student takes the MCAT and passes their pre-med classes, and if they truly believe they can make it through medical school, don’t they deserve a chance?

I’m not saying that we should open the flood gates and let everyone in, but I think that we should try to avoid being so elitist that we close the doors to qualified students who are willing to work just as hard as everyone else. In the case of my friend, he is certainly going to have to prove himself this semester. And he just may go on to become an amazing doctor someday.

Click Here To View the Original Post on Medscape

So far, I’ve really enjoyed my first week of this semester. It’s really nice to not have to figure out how to learn all over again. I finally found a method of studying that seems to work for me, and I’m hoping that it will carry me through this semester. It’s also been really fun to meet all the new first semester students. I’ve talked to many students who had read my blog, and if any of you are reading this now, I wanted to thank you for letting me know that you enjoyed my site. It’s awesome to hear that it’s been helpful to even one person out there.

Today I went to an informative meeting held by the Physicians for Human Rights chapter at Ross. I hadn’t really heard much about PHR until today, but after doing my research, I’ve realized that it’s EXACTLY the type of organization for which I’m interested in doing volunteer work. It’s an international organization that has all kinds of humanitarian effort projects underway.

I’m going to be a volunteer at a local school in Portsmouth. It’s a vocational school for 14 – 23 year olds who have dropped out of school for one reason or another. The school teaches them vocational skills like woodworking and farming, as well as basic reading and math. I’ll be volunteering every week as a reading and math tutor to one student. The illiteracy rate in Dominica is quite high, and many of the kids are at a second grade or below level in reading and math. Some of the kids have very sad stories, and many of them are struggling to even find food. I think this will be an amazing experience for me, and I can’t wait to start volunteering!

I wanted to thank everyone for the outstanding response to my last blog entry about a doctor having a pink mohawk. I really do appreciate all of the comments and when reading them, I began to ponder what it means to truly “be yourself.” I first thought about the analogy of children versus adults. When we’re born, we are truly raw, imaginative, wild bundles of energy. Yet as we age, we learn the social mores of adulthood and we eventually accept what our parents and society teach. We conform to most of the expected rules and we stop coloring outside of the lines. We dress and behave in a way that our peers will accept. It’s a natural progression of growing up. Eventually everyone finds his or her place along the spectrum of conformity.

Last night, I was listening to music by one my favorite bands. It occurred to me that I really enjoyed their older albums, recorded on an independent label, as opposed to their newer albums, produced after they signed with a big label. Their newer music sounds much more bland, monotonous and less intense. This seems to happen with many popular artists. Sometimes they end up creating music that appeals to the mainstream audience, and conforms to the expectations of their record label, because they are motivated by the promise of money and fame. I’m not saying that it’s their fault, or that this happens with all artists. Many musicians still find a way to keep their unique sound and also make their record label happy.

A few days ago, I decided to adopt a stray dog that I found here in Dominica. At first, she didn’t care if I offered her love or food — she wanted to remain wild and untamed. But over the past few days, she’s started to learn her name and come to my house when she’s hungry, and she now proudly sports the pretty red collar that I gave her. On some level she’s realized that she’d rather have the comfort and security of an owner than face the harsh realities of living on the streets of Dominica. But she still has her original spunk — she hasn’t gotten used to walking on a leash and she still likes to escape and roam the streets at night.

You may have noticed my new photo. A few days ago, I randomly decided to shave off all of my hair. Since my hair has (oddly enough) become a topic of discussion, I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that I didn’t change my hair for any special reason. I haven’t necessarily “sold out,” I was just inspired to begin this semester with a fresh start. In the past, I have frequently changed my hairstyle and color based on inspiring moments, so I predict that I’ll likely grow it out into something new and funky in the future.

At this point, I’m not sure how “wild” my hair will become. I’d like to think that it would eventually become a perfect balance between my artistic longings and what my future patients and colleagues will accept. After all, my hair is simply one of a million creative outlets that I treasure.

I hope that one day I can become an amazing doctor, and I would never want to do anything that would scare or intimidate a patient. But the question still remains — at what point is it necessary to hide your own personal creativity for the good of patients? Isn’t creativity an important prerequisite of being a good doctor? I believe that the ability to “think outside of the box” is what separates the “good” doctors from the “outstanding” doctors.

My guiding principle in life has always been a sense of balance. To perceive the world in black and white is to miss out on all the fun in between. In fact, most doctors would agree that a balanced life contributes to health and happiness.

One of the commenters seemed to find it odd that I would sport a mohawk, when it was the trademark of the Mohawk American Indian tribe. Well, I actually have an American Indian (Blackfoot tribe) heritage on my mother’s side. In that vein, I’d like to wish all of you a happy new year and one free from “koyaanisqatsi” which is the Hopi word for “life out of balance.”

Click Here To View the Original Post on Medscape