From Burnout to Brilliance: A Medical Student's Guide to Thriving in the Academic Marathon
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
Release Date: 02/08/2024
Protecting Your Physician Credentials with Dr. Leah Houston
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
Imagine your credentials as a physician being misused, making it impossible for you to work. Dr. Leah Houston went through this identity theft nightmare. This experience led her to start HPEC, a decentralized autonomous organization of practicing physicians—essentially a digital physician guild. Dr. Houston, an emergency medicine physician turned pioneer in digital identity security for doctors, speaks with host Dr. Erkeda DeRouen on this episode about how she turned crisis into innovation and resilience. They discuss physicians' staggering administrative challenges, the nuances of digital...
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Fighting Burnout In Med School With Dr. Svetlana Chamoun
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
Burnout is real, and it’s more than just stress—it's an occupational phenomenon. Dr. Svetlana Chamoun, a cardiologist and Founder and President of CardioSeeds and host of the CardioSeeds Podcast joins Dr. Erkeda DeRouen to speak about burnout prevention and how it’s directly related to heart health and chronic disease. Dr. Chamoun is dedicated to shedding light on the mental health challenges that medical students and professionals face. Her acclaimed book Resilience in Scrubs and the upcoming Women Physician Survival Guide showcase her commitment to reducing burnout in the...
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Standing Out in a Highly Competitive Medical Specialty with Dr. Chiamaka Okorie
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
In this episode, host Dr. Erkeda DeRouen chats with Dr. Chiamaka Okorie, a recent graduate of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Okorie brings a unique perspective as an international student who excelled in the US system, acing the MCAT and building an impressive portfolio. Dr. Okorie shares practical advice for aspiring dermatologists, but her insights extend far beyond a single specialty. Tune in to learn about exploring career paths early, the power of networking, and the importance of self-advocacy. They'll delve into crafting a standout application, the value of passion-driven...
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Addressing Global Healthcare Inequities with Dr. Kim Tranquada
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
“Why wait for change when you can create it yourself?” was the driving question that inspired Dr. Kim Tranquada to explore the innovative world where telehealth meets global health disparities. Dr. Kim Tranquada, passionately known as” Dr. T”, is an emergency physician with over 25 years of diverse experience, ranging from academic institutions to the VA healthcare system. Currently, she's pioneering the Healthcare Alliance for an Equitable World, an international telehealth initiative aimed at bridging the global healthcare workforce gap. She spoke with host, Dr. Erkeda DeRouen...
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Switching Residencies to Fulfill Your Passion with Dr. Nishi Bhopal
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
“It's important to tune into yourself and really figure out what is it that you want. Being open to the possibilities and proactive about your career can lead you to unexpected and fulfilling paths.” Dr. Nishi Bhopal, a Board Certified Integrative Psychiatrist and Sleep Physician, delves into the diverse and often unexpected paths that a medical career can take with host, Dr. Erkeda DeRouen. Dr. Nishi Bhopal shares her personal journey, detailing her transition from internal medicine to psychiatry, and the internal and external obstacles she faced along the way. Dr. Bhopal's story is a...
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Balancing Med School and Relationships with Dr. Kate Mangona
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
"It doesn't matter how busy you are in life. If you don't make your intimate partner a priority, then they might as well not even be in a relationship.” Dr. Kate Mangona speaks the truth about relationships with Dr. DeRouen in this episode of Prospective Doctor. Dr. Mangona is a pediatric radiologist passionate about marriage and intimacy coaching. She also hosts the podcast Love Lab MD and brings a unique perspective, having personally encountered the challenges of balancing relationships while pursuing her medical career and supporting her husband’s journey into medicine. ...
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Forging a Career in Public Health with Epidemiologist Dr. Charnetta Williams
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
"Medicine is just the beginning, not the destination," says Dr. Charnetta Williams in an eye-opening discussion that shatters the conventional path of clinical practice in medicine. Her journey from the front lines of an Ebola response to a trailblazer in public health proves that a medical degree can be the key to doors you never even noticed were there. In this episode, Dr. Erkeda DeRouen is joined by Dr. Charnetta Williams, a seasoned professional who transitioned from the rigorous world of clinical medicine to the dynamic field of public health. With experiences ranging from direct...
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Trading Music for Medical School
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
Dr. Sujin Lee, an immigrant from Seoul, Korea, initially moved to the United States to pursue a music career. After obtaining her degree, life had a different plan for her: marriage, motherhood, and a surprising yet fulfilling pivot to the medical field. In this episode, Dr. Lee speaks with Dr. Erkeda DeRouen about this journey, the challenges, and the triumphs of changing careers, balancing life as a medical student with being a mother, and the advantages of entering medicine from a non-traditional background. Her insights are not just motivational but are also peppered with practical...
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Premed Success and Med School Applications
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
Navigating the Medical School Admissions process is a different journey for everyone, and with the process constantly changing, the road to becoming a physician is not always easy. Luckily, , Director of Advising Services at the Health Professional Student Association and Editorial Board Member of the Student Doctor Network is an invaluable resource. In this episode of Prospective Doctor, Dr. Chuck sits down with host Dr. Erkeda DeRouen to discuss how he and his organization provide aspiring health professionals the insights they need to navigate the intricate pathways of healthcare...
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Tech for Her: Revolutionizing Women’s Health
Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)
While everyone’s journey into medicine is unique, it may not be unconventional. But those are the ones that bring an incredibly fresh perspective on carving one’s own path. , an OBGYN Hospitalist, Laborist, and co-founder of FemInnovation is one of those unconventional paths. Having started as a psychology major with no science background, she ventured into medicine a bit later than her peers, navigated through a post-baccalaureate pre-med program, and engaged with Alzheimer's patients before pursuing medical school at Georgetown. Her multifaceted career, including stints in academia,...
info_outlineDr. Erkeda DeRouen talks to Dr. Sejal Desai, a family medicine physician with over 20 years of experience with a board certification in obesity medicine. They discuss how medical students can navigate their med school journeys and the feeling of burnout, work-life balance, and the three things she wished
- [00:00] Introduction
- [03:19] A Med Student’s Life Journey
- [05:44] Navigating Burnout
- [11:44] Three Things Dr. Desai Wishes She Knew Before Starting Out
- [17:45] Is Work-Life Balance Possible?
- [21:04] What Dr. Desai Would Change About US Healthcare
- [22:47] Parting Thoughts
Navigating Burnout
Dr. Desai dislikes the word “burnout” especially in medicine where physicians are just simply told what to do. She believes that it’s important for med students to take some time, focus on themselves, and figure out what it is that they really want. She cites Jay Shetty, a motivational speaker, and the concept of “dharma” as an important learning, which is all about figuring out our place in the world and using our gifts to make a better place. From this, it’s important for medical students to take some time and re-evaluate their where and why to help them navigate their eventual path and career.
Dr. Desai’s Advice in Retrospect
Dr. Desai shares three things she wished she knew before starting out her career as a family medicine physician: first is that bedside manners matter more than grades. Grades are important, but they are not everything, especially when patients care more about how attentive and honest doctors are and not what grade they got in medical school. Secondly, medicine is not just about helping patients but also administrative work such as documentation, labs, and imaging to name a few. Managing your time according to this is crucial to prevent being overworked and overwhelmed. Lastly, she realized how big of a role lifestyle plays in disease. Almost all diseases are related to four things: nutrition, physical activity, quality of sleep, and stress levels. If we learn and fix this early in life, we can fix a lot of health problems in the long run.
Work-Life Balance
Contrary to popular belief, Dr. Desai believes that work-life balance is achievable. She suggests paying attention to three important things when it comes to work-life balance. First is communicating well and setting expectations with colleagues on time and schedules, second is delegating tasks, and the last one is scheduling the downtime such as personal hobbies and self-care.
Reach out to Dr. Sejal Desai via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and her website for more details about her work.
To learn more about how MedSchoolCoach can help you along your medical school journey, visit us at Prospective Doctor.
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