The Short Coat Podcast

Logan wrote in to comment on what we call ‘box-checking,’ the idea that med school admissions committees only want applicants who’ve done all the best activities and lots of them, and that applicants must participate in activities that “stand out” if they want any chance of getting in. Co-hosts Nick Lind, Aline Sandouk, Emma Barr, … Continue reading the activities Admissions Committees Love to See → The post the activities Admissions Committees Love to See appeared first on The Short Coat.

[Would you like a FREE Short Coat pin made by Dave’s own two hands? Share an episode of SCP online and email a screenshot to theshortcoats@gmail.com!] Listener Christy has several years as a South Carolina emergency department nurse under her belt. But for a while now, she’s been planning to change careers, with her sights … Continue reading Applying: Your Experience Is A Bonus, If You Can Tell The Right Story → The post Applying: Your Experience Is A Bonus, If You Can Tell The Right Story appeared first on The Short Coat.

[This episode is brought to you by Pattern. We hope you’ll check out their disability insurance offerings for docs at http://patternlife.com/partner/shortcoat.] As many of us are, The Short Coats–including this week’s M1 co-hosts Nathen Spitz, Maddie Wahlen, and Caitlin Matteson–have been gazing into their cracked crystal ball to discover the new shape of medical school … Continue reading More Signs that Med School Will Be Different This Fall → The post More Signs that Med School Will Be Different This Fall appeared first on The Short Coat.

[This episode is brought to you by Pattern. We hope you’ll check out their disability insurance offerings for docs at http://patternlife.com/partner/shortcoat.] Doctors and medical students often have an identity based on perfection and infallibility.  Often it that identity comes from their own expectations of themselves, and sometimes it comes from external sources.  Whatever the source, … Continue reading This Student’s Shame is Changing Our Curriculum → The post This Student’s Shame is Changing Our Curriculum appeared first on The Short Coat.

This episode is brought to you by Pattern. We hope you'll check out their disability insurance offerings for docs at http://patternlife.com/partner/shortcoat. Are Zoom interviews the future? They could be, if some sort of magic doesn't intervene in the course of the pandemic. Meanwhile, everyone has a love-hate relationship with video conferencing, and Dave fears that those on the sharp end of the interview may not have the technology and skills to shine brightly. So, with the help of Brandon Bacalzo, Sahaana Arumugam, Nathan Spitz, and Claire Carmichael (all M1s who, like you, are in the thick of virtual everything right now), we collect our thoughts on how you can remove the distractions and subconscious biases that could sink your interview. What advice would you give for virtual interviews? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime or email theshortcoats@gmail.com! We need to hear from YOU! The post Crush It In Your Zoom Interview appeared first on The Short Coat.

Moving to a new place can be daunting–but it’s an amazing opportunity! (This episode is brought to you by Pattern Life. We hope you’ll check out their disability insurance offerings for docs at http://patternlife.com/partner/shortcoat.) Listener Noodles (not her real name) is planning to go to med school in a new state, perhaps. What’s it like, she wondered, moving to a new state for med school? And Lex Turesboreme is back to ask how MSTP student Miranda Schene and M1s Brandon Bacalzo, Maggie Jakubiak, and Kenzie McKnight deal with an inevitable part of med student life–their families’ medical questions. Got a question we can help with? Call 347-SHORT-CT or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. We’ll talk about it on the show! This Week in Medical News: A Texas nursing home medical director has decided it’s a good idea to do what he’s calling an “observational study” of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine on his elderly patients with COVID-19. And we can’t help but discuss the president’s thoughts on disinfect

Policy is not sexy. I mean, it's not saving lives, or curing disease, or making groundbreaking discoveries. But it isn't a stretch to say that policy is as important as any of these, because politicians are making decisions about health and healthcare that affect millions of patients and their physicians. The laws they come up with determine what you can do for your patients, how you practice medicine, how you get paid, what kinds of care are legal or illegal, and much, much more. Seems like something doctors should pay attention to, perhaps even get directly involved with. M4 and future surgeon Sarah Eikenberry got a glimpse of the process as the first student to take the Carver College of Medicine's new advocacy clerkship. Think you know how a bill gets passed? You might be surprised to know that Schoolhouse Rock didn't tell us the whole story. Her self-assigned project for the clerkship was to get a bill passed in the Iowa state legislature to include the Stop The Bleed campaign in public education

Dave wants to help his co-hosts–M1s Nathan Spitz, Cody West, and newbs Chris Halbur and Eli Schmidt–in their journey to physician-hood, so he puts on his medical educator hat and visits Yahoo! Answers.  He also discovers that when discussing his complaint with the doctor, he wants to be the crudest possible kind of patient. Senorina … Continue reading the crudest patient → The post the crudest patient appeared first on The Short Coat.

Dave asked listeners what they’re doing to help out in the time of COVID-19 and got some responses back to talk about.  These things, whether big or small, directly related or tangential to this public health crisis–even if it means staying at home–are all part of an unusual effort among the people of the world … Continue reading What We’re Still Doing, What Brings Us Joy → The post What We’re Still Doing, What Brings Us Joy appeared first on The Short Coat.

(For the first time ever, we did the show with all five hosts in different places,  and it shows.  Forgive the scratchy audio in some places. We’re working on it, and hope you can look past it this time.) In this time of social distancing, The Short Coats reluctantly step back from their education and … Continue reading Podcasting from A (social) distance → The post Podcasting from A (social) distance appeared first on The Short Coat.

There's no doubt that the global pandemic of COVID-19 has caused much human suffering.  And for those people around the world who are the worst affected, know that you have our deepest sympathies.  No one should have to go through this.   Nevertheless, something compelled Dave to think about the ways that society might change as a result of the pandemic...in some ways, perhaps for the better; in others, perhaps things will just different than were before.  Either way, co-hosts Eric Boeshart, Kenzie McKnight, Michael Gardeau, and Nathen Spitz try to look into the crystal ball a bit.   Next up, the crew answers some listener questions.  "Lex Turesboreme"  wants some advice on using lectures wisely when attendance isn't required.  And Soon-to-be-Dr-Ray is looking for some perspectives on which school to enroll in: the DO school or the MD school.  We're on it, friends! And Dave takes the opportunity to put on his fake medical educator hat to give a pop quiz on historical epidemics. The post Covid-19 could change

Choosing a specialty is far too important to rush it, so keep an open mind on day one of med school. The post Why you’re better off on day one not knowing what kind of doc you want to be. appeared first on The Short Coat.

Emotions are difficult to ignore. Especially when those emotions are telling us to ACT NOW! That's what listener Jordan from Texas is fighting as he happily gets an acceptance from his backup, with no word from his dream school. Should he commit now? Should he sit tight? Co-hosts Brandon Bacalzo, Michael Gardeau, Jessica De Haan, and Cody West (All M1s) share their experiences and advice for Jordan. And Dave continues his quest to learn all he can about his med student friends with a game of Would You Rather. This Week in Medical News: What if transplant patients could introduce their immune systems to a friend who broadened its horizons and eliminated the need for anti-rejection meds? The National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art will help remove and preserve your tattoos after you die. And the first observed case of bladder fermentation syndrome. We Want to Hear From You: How's med school application season going for you? Did you experience any interview trail weirdness you want to s

Academic medicine--in which a physician works at a university and may have research and/or teaching duties in addition to patient care--is but one of the fulfilling options available to medical students. What's that lifestyle like? That's the question an anonymous listener (who we'll call Dr. Piledhigh Erandeeper) wanted our help answering. Fortunately we have Miranda Schene and Sahaana Arumugam (both in our Medical Scientist Training Program) on hand to tell us--including co-hosts M1 Brandon Bacalzo and M2 Mason LaMarche--what they know about this career option. Plus Dave puts his co-hosts through a game of Doctor Forehead, featuring some of the more interesting oddball medical stories he ran across prepping for this week's show (see the next section for those links). This Week in Medical News: The President's new budget could be another nail in the coffin for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Mayo applicants get acceptance letters that the institution later had to rescind, causing one of the d

How the huge change the USMLE has made to Step 1 might affect medical education and your strategy for applying to residency. The post Step 1 is Pass/Fail. Now what??? appeared first on The Short Coat.

Turkish listener Ali would like to come to the US for residency and to practice medicine someday, so he wrote to us to ask us what we knew about how that works. Co-host Nadia Wahba happened to visit Turkey a while back and blew our minds by letting us in on a little secret: that in the city she visited, there are public parks full of well-cared-for pets you can visit and play with. Also, Dave subjects the gang--which also includes MD/PhD student Miranda Schene, M2 Jenna Mullins, and M3 Brendan George--to a game of Great Minds Think Alike: Med School Edition. This Week in Medical News: A Florida resident calls the cops after they receive what the suspect is a box of Novel Coronavirus (now named Covid-19 by science) from China. And how an AI alerted some agencies and businesses early to the pandemic, before it blew up and just a day after a now-deceased Chinese ophthalmologist tried to warn his med school classmates. We Want to Hear From You: How are you? Tell us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, or email theshortcoa

What does Rosanne Cash have to do with science or medicine? Sure, the American pop, folk, country, and roots rock legend isn't technically a scientist. But it was surprising for us to learn that Rosanne Cash has the soul of one within her, with its arms spread comfortably around her musician and poet souls. When the University of Iowa's Hancher Auditorium reached out to the College of Medicine to let us know she'd be putting on a concert and might be interested in coming to speak on a panel, we had to dig a little deeper to find out about the connection. Rosanne was diagnosed in 2007 with Chiari malformation, a disorder of the skull which puts pressure on the brain and causes the cerebellum to protrude into the spinal canal. It's an incredibly painful, debilitating problem that is usually diagnosed in children, not in a woman in her 50s. Her doctors gave her all sorts of diagnoses (some with a dose of condescension), until she diagnosed herself. Even then, it took finding the right doctor to believe her

Listener Salutes McGee (not her real name) is planning on med school after her tour of duty. What hard-won skills, she wonders, will transfer to medicine? And Krystal writes in with her med school debt worries. Will she need to plan to pay off $600,000 all in? No need to fear, Krystal and Salutes, because M4s Liza Mann, Derek Bradley, Jessie White, and M2 Abby Fife are here to soothe your fears and answer your questions. Dave quizzes his co-hosts on medicinal booze. And And Dave heard from University of Maryland medical student and Elisabeth Fassas that she'd written a book published by Simon and Schuster's Kaplan arm just before she started medical school last fall. So as a bonus, he asked her for some tips on how you can set yourself up for a successful pre-medical experience from the very beginning. Pick up her book, Making Pre-Med Count, at your favorite bookseller. This Week in Medical News: For the first time, lab-grown heart muscle tissue has been transplanted into a human patient. And never mi

Listener Joseph starts medical school soon, and wants to know how to manage his new life as an M1. Luckily Kylie Miller, Kalyn Campbell, Marissa Evers, and Erica Henderson (all veteran med students) can help, Joseph--bottom line, studying is paramount, but there are keys to success you need to remember. Plus, we visit Yahoo Answers for some real-life health questions, including a couple that got Dave thinking about his own embarrassing problems. This Week in Medical News, Radiologists have begun to re-think something they've been doing to protect patients since the 1950s. The NIH and many others aren't doing what they're required to do with their research data, leaving important data unreported. And for the first time, drug company executives have been sentenced to jail time for their roles in opioid addiction. We Want to Hear From You: Got a burning question for us about med school, being a doctor, or literally anything else? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. Do all three!

When listener Celebi Jigglypuff (yes, that's a pseudonym) reached out to ask whether we felt taking Step 1 after a year of clinical rotations (as some schools require) was a good idea or not, we were prepared to sink our teeth into that and have a normal show, too. But then, University of Iowa College of Education PhD student Andrea Ash happened to reach out to us because she's been looking at Step 1 as a class project and was surprised about what she was finding. Everything from residency programs using scores for an unintended purpose to a cut score far below the averages that students were obtaining to officials snarking about students who should be studying rather than having lives outside of med school. And thus, Dave's plans for the show were subverted for the greater good--a discussion on much of what's wrong with this important exam that can affect a medical student's dream specialty choice. Is all hope lost if you score less than average for a given specialty? Certainly not! These are averages.