MedEx Day Three

Today was a full day of very interesting and important presentations! We first heard a presentation on the do's and dont's of social media, which was a very important reminder because we tend to forget how our actions and posts can have negative consequences in the future/in the proffessional world. We also learned how to write thank you notes, which reminded me of the importance of sending thank you messages to providers after shadowing them! We were also able to gain clarification on shadowing oppurtunities from Mrs. Cassandra again, which was extremely helpful as I was originally confused about the process of things like finding scrubs in an off campus office. I was also able to alert issues with my scheduling, which was crucial! She also stated the importance of the doctors showing us everything, regardless of what it is, as she says it is important that we have the full grasp of the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am a little intimidated by the fact that I have never been in a hospital setting before and I might have a rude awakening, but I realized through her talk that coming to terms with what working in a hospital entails in truly the best for me. If I see all sides of what a healthcare looks like, I can fully determine if it is right for me before it is too late.

After this, we started a presentation on how to be proffessional from our tier leaders. Although I am pretty experienced with writing proffessional emails, it was super helpful to gain interview tips through the use of EARS. For someone who finds it hard to think when important uestions are being asked of me, it was comforting to know that an interview could still go well if I take the time to say "hold on a second" as I think of an answer instead of jumping right in. I've always felt like I had to know the answer right away, but this is not the case!

After lunch, we heard a lecture from Dr. Gary Jones, a pharmacist. He knew lots about the practice of pharmacy and how to achieve it, so even though I'm not sure that I would be interested in pharmacy, it seemed more reachable than I originally thought. I had no idea that it would be possible to apply to pharmacy school after only two years of an undergraduate degree! With a degree in Genetics, it may be possible to go to pharmacy school if I ever wanted to in the future as I have most of the prerequisites completed already! However, I feel like it may be too chemistry based, which I am not as interested in.

We then worked on our resumes, which was extremely helpful as I needed to edit mine based on college activities and statistics! I also realized just how concise resumes need to be, and that mine was far too long. Hopefully I will be able to add more to it in the future! I also worked on creating a LinkedIn account during this time period, which I realize could be very useful, and I have been wanting to start one for a while. Overall, it was a very productive time. After this, we learned about diversity and inclusion, as well as discussed it's importance. During this time, I got up the courage to answer one of the questions, which I felt was a major improvement from my timidness in Tier One!

After our DEI discussion, Dr. Carlos Zayas talked to us about his journey to a career as nephrologist, as well as what the work entails as a transplant specialist. His research was very interesting on the glomerolus, and his story was very inspiring as I had no idea that he had beaten cancer three times! He even discussed some of the other medical specialties, their patient interactions, and their work life balance. He stated that a pathologist has a good work life balance, which confirmed even more so my interest in it, as well as the fact that it has less patient interactions. I aspire to make a major impact on patients through procedures like a biopsy on a tumor, even without them ever having seen me! I feel like this is something truly special, even if there is not as much patient interactions.