Updates on an Exciting Month!

Daniel Hale Williams Pre-Medical Honor Society at UVA

It’s getting harder and harder to post frequently, but I’m still here! The past month has been a complete whirlwind, but I have enjoyed every last bit of it :-)

My most notable experience this past month was being invited to the University of Virginia to be a keynote speaker for the “Path Toward the White Coat” event hosted by the SNMA MAPS chapter Daniel Hale Williams Pre-Medical Honor Society at UVA. It was an amazing experience being able to connect with some of the organization’s pre-medical students, and their hospitality was top-notch. They showed me their beautiful city and campus, and even took me on Monticello and vineyard tours. I was impressed by the students, and it was a great reminder of where I used to be. I was happy and honored to offer my advice and be a part of a great program. Thank you, UVA!

Not a doctor yet, but thankful for the invite!

As for rotations, when I last left off, I was just finishing up my Family Medicine / Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (FM/OMM) rotation. Since that time, I completed an ambulatory internal medicine (IM) rotation, and I am currently on an inpatient IM rotation that includes pulmonology, critical care, and some outpatient care. The patients are definitely a lot sicker on this rotation, but I am really enjoying the experience. My preceptor allows me to see all the new consults and do charting on my own, so the autonomy is a plus. It forces me to develop good assessments and plans, and I like being involved with patients from day one. I am also rotating at three hospitals in the northeast Georgia area, and while the drive is a bit far, it’s actually one of the best commutes I’ve had so far. I just have a straight 40 minute drive in the morning with virtually no traffic, so it’s quite enjoyable. Definitely beats sitting in up to two hours of traffic when driving towards the Atlanta area! Plus, the hospitals are in pretty scenic rural areas and I just love the country feel (and the super sweet tea in the cafeteria!). The picture below is the view from a patient room in one of the hospitals I am in…Sooo pretty!

Gorgeous view from hospital room

In my last post, I wrote about recently completing my COMLEX Level II – PE exam. I am happy to say the results are in, and I passed!!!! Sooo happy to have that over with and now it’s on to the next one. Right now, I am registered for COMLEX Level II – CE on May 8^th, but I am considering pushing it back a few weeks if I can find a testing center that isn’t too far away. I’m 27 days away, and I’ll be missing a few days of study time this week due to the SNMA AMEC conference, so if my practice scores aren’t where I want them to be in about a week or so, I have no problem taking more time to study.

Study Grind!

This week, the biggest thing on my plate is the Student National Medical Association’s Annual Medical Education Conference (AMEC). On Friday, I will officially become National President of the organization, and I am sooooo excited! I can’t wait to re-connect with our members, attend awesome workshops, and present my executive agenda. A lot of hard work has been put into making this conference a success, so I’m looking forward to another great conference and an exciting new year. So for those of you who will be in attendance this week: don’t be afraid to say hello when you see me and I look forward to seeing you all right here in Atlanta!

See you in Atlanta!

Register Now for SNMA AMEC 2017!!!!

The Annual Medical Education Conference of the Student National Medical Association is about a month away, and I am super excited!!!! It will be at this conference where I finally end my elect year and become National President of the organization, so I can't wait to share what I have planned for the year with everyone in attendance.

The deadline for regular registration ends tomorrow, and then the prices go up, so if you haven't registered yet, click HERE and do so today! Plus, the hotel is selling out fast, so be sure to reserve a room if you haven't already done so. We will have many great workshops and speakers including my inspiration Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, as well as neurosurgeon Dr. James P. Chandler, just to name a few. The schedule is super packed, so feel free to click HERE and check it out if you would like to see it for yourself.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Atlanta, and I hope you all are having a fantastic week!

Family Medicine, “Dirty 30” Celebrations, and Another Board Exam Completed

I can’t believe it has been more than a month since my last post!!!! Life has been ridiculously busy and there has been so much I wanted to share with you all, but not enough time to sit down and do so! I’m even super behind on emails and comments, but I'll make it a priority to get through everything by the end of the week. Tonight, I’ll try my best to do a quick recap of everything that you all might have missed, and include what I consider to be the most important highlights :-)

Best Birthday Cake Ever!!!! (Yep, it even tops my 27th cake)

For starters, I recently celebrated my birthday and officially joined the “Dirty 30” club. I think I celebrated every night the entire week of my birthday, which was rough considering I started a new rotation, but sooo worth it! I partied alongside Cam Newton (technically he was just sitting in the same section as me in the club, but I’m still counting it LOL), was surprised with the most amazing cake ever, and even got a chance to enjoy a Sips Under the Sea event one evening at the Georgia Aquarium. Thirty feels awesome and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the decade has in store!

Sips Under the Sea at the Georgia Aquarium...Drinks, fish, and no kids!

As for rotations, I finished my family medicine rotation last month, and I really enjoyed the experience. It made me feel a lot better about writing notes and presenting patients, and it was nice being a part of a dually accredited MD/DO program with some residents who had graduated from my school. I also got the chance to do and observe a couple of procedures, so that made me happy.

Having fun with the FM residents and attendings

This month I am on my Family Medicine / Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (FM/OMM) rotation, but my preceptor doesn’t really do any OMM, so it is basically a repeat of family medicine in the outpatient setting. I’m definitely not complaining though, because we see at least twenty patients per day, the pace is non-stop, and I am learning a ton! Plus, I had the chance to do OMM during my rotation last month, so I don’t feel like I am missing out on anything. The cases have a lot of variety, I am constantly looking things up, and I am pretty sure I have a solid list of ICD-10 codes memorized at this point. Today, he even let me do two I&D procedures back-to-back since he is fully aware of my love of surgery, which definitely makes up for the 10+ hour work days with only five minute lunches with the drug reps if I’m lucky.  

COMLEX Level 2 PE = Complete!

I think the final update on my list is the completion of my COMLEX Level 2 PE medical board exam. This is the physical exam portion of our boards where we get eight hours to see 12 patients, do their physical exams, and write up SOAP notes on them. This is a requirement for graduation, and for osteopathic medical students, the exam is only offered in Philadelphia or Chicago, so I made my way up to Philly a couple of weeks ago and took my exam. I won’t know the results for a few months, but I’m hoping it went well. I immediately starting thinking about all the mistakes I made after taking the exam, but hopefully I passed and now I'm ready to move on to the next one. The bright side is I only have one more board exam to go during my medical school career, and I got the chance to explore my school’s main campus and FINALLY eat a philly cheesesteak!

Visiting PCOM's main campus for the first time

I think that sums everything up! Right now, I’m finishing up the last week of my FM/OMM rotation and then next week I start my Internal Medicine Ambulatory rotation. Right now, I need to go study for Friday’s OMM COMAT exam, but I hope everyone reading this is having a great week! I’ll try my best to not go so long without posting next time, but you can always keep up with me through my Instagram pics and stories (@LSUsweetheart). Until next time! 

A Post for the Pre-Meds: Low GPA? Low MCAT? There’s Still Hope!

A couple of people recently contacted me freaking out about the new AACOM Repeat Policy Coursework change that was recently announced, and it prompted me to write this post. I’ve always been transparent about the fact that I had extremely low undergraduate GPA and MCAT scores when applying to medical school, but outside of the MCAT, I never actually revealed how low my actual GPA was. I think now would probably be a good time to reveal those scores and explain why I think this new policy change is something that really shouldn’t be stressed about in the grand scheme of everything, especially when it comes to applying to osteopathic medical schools.

My AACOM GPA

My AAMC GPA

I graduated from my undergraduate institution with a 2.2 GPA and over 150 hours. No amount of retakes was going to raise my GPA above the 3-point-whatever GPA that everyone thinks you absolutely need to have when applying to medical school. Additionally, my school had a rule that you could not retake a course that you received a C or higher in, and the main reason for my low GPA was the fact that I made a lot of C’s in my courses. It was an absolute requirement to retake any course with a grade of a D or lower, and I will admit that I did have a few retakes in there. Additionally, I entered into college with a low GPA to start because I attended a full-time joint enrollment honors program at a university during my senior year of high school, didn’t take it seriously, and later found out that any and all college coursework would be included in my application. As you can see above, I barely scored above a 2.5 on my AACOMAS application with the retakes included, and my AMCAS GPA was absolutely abysmal! My graduate GPA was a huge saving grace for me (my GPA was higher when I graduated, but at the point of my application it was as listed), but even with that included, my AACOMAS GPA only went as high as a 2.7.

With that being said, I was still able to gain an acceptance into medical school, so it just goes to show that some schools really do more than just screen based on numbers. There are both MD and DO schools that will look at the last 30 or so hours of your coursework and only focus on that as your cumulative GPA which will still give an advantage to students taking post-bacc or graduate coursework. If you have been retaking courses and were counting on the DO grade replacement policy to help you get an acceptance, I wouldn’t give up hope. As stated on the AACOM website: “Osteopathic medical schools may continue recalculating and weighing applicant GPAs per their established admissions practices. The scope of this policy change is limited to the AACOMAS verified GPA calculation.” To me, this pretty much means schools will continue to look at applications in the same way as before, although now they might have to make a few adjustments. Just focus on continuing to improve both your GPA and overall application, and everything will work out the way it should in the end. Also, if you are applying to DO schools, keep in mind that the majority of them tend to focus on the entire applicant and not just the stats, which is a major reason why I applied. If every other part of your application is stellar, but your GPA and MCAT scores are lacking, just be able to explain it and prove that you would be able to excel in medical school despite your shortcomings.

My MCAT Scores

Speaking of the MCAT, this post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t throw that in here as well. I know there is a new MCAT with a completely different scoring system than there was when I took it, but as you can see (and also as I previously mentioned HERE) my scores were even low with that! I was seriously a true underdog when it came to applying to medical school, but my passion wouldn’t let that stop me from pursuing my dreams.

To those of you applying to medical school, I think it is extremely important to avoid the negativity and continue to push hard and work towards achieving your dreams. I remember reading posts on SDN that said someone with my stats (and especially a single mother) would never make it through the first year of medical school or pass their board exams, and now I am sitting here as a third year medical student who not only made it through my first two years without any major issues, but managed to pass the first part of both my MD and DO board exams, and to date, I have not received less than an honors evaluation (with some final grades as high passes after the shelf exams LOL) on any of my clinical rotations. I say this not to brag, but to be a source of encouragement and inspiration for those of you who have the dream of becoming a physician, but do not think it’s possible. I still have another year and a half to go, along with more upcoming board exams (please pray for me!), but even I have the faith that if I continue to do my best, keep the faith, and push through, everything will fall into place as it should. I’ll end here, but I truly hope this post helped motivate, inspire, and put some of you at ease.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dream and live the life you've imagined" - Henry David Thoreau

SNMA January 2017 NLI Recap – Dallas, Texas

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Student National Medical Association’s National Leadership Institute (NLI) and Third Quarterly Board of Directors meeting which took place in Dallas, Texas. It was sponsored by the American College of Emergency Physicians, and like every NLI, it was a very productive and enjoyable experience.

One thing I was not expecting was for Dallas to be so cold! It was actually 24 degrees and snowing when I landed on Friday, which was way colder than Atlanta was that day. Despite the freezing temperatures, the trip started off with a reception and evening meetings not too long after I landed. The next day was filled with guest speakers with topics ranging from understanding your personal brand to setting S.M.A.R.T. goals and developing leadership skills. We also attended a discussion on “setting a vision that others can follow” with Dr. Stuart Flynn, the dean of Texas Christian University School of Medicine (accepting its first class in 2018), and it was interesting getting his take on board exams and effective learning environments for medical students.

For me, the best part of this NLI was having the opportunity to present my 2017-2018 executive agenda to the SNMA Board of Directors. This has been something I have been working extremely hard on over the last few months, and I was excited to unveil it and receive great feedback. I’ll be equally excited when I get the chance to present it to the general SNMA membership at our annual medical education conference that will take place April 12-16, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia (registration is now open for all those interested!).

But to keep things short, I really enjoyed myself this past weekend, and it has me completely ecstatic for the year to come. SNMA leadership works very hard to make sure all of our membership is supported, and it is always nice when we are able to come together and discuss our progress and goals. If you are a pre-medical or medical student who has not joined SNMA, then I suggest you do by clicking HERE, because it is an amazing organization! That pretty much sums up my weekend though, so I hope everyone reading this has an awesome week :-)