Life at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
“Let us know if you need anything,” I said to my patient as I hurried toward the door. With many more patients to see before heading down to the OR, morning rounds are kept short and concise. “Doctor,” she stopped me before I opened the door, with a slight tremble in her voice, “thank you […]
For a person who hates mornings and switches into night shift without issues, nights are a blessing. Typical night shifts as a resident on general medicine services start at 6 p.m. to relieve your day team, and finish at 6 a.m., at which point your lovely colleagues return to let you take a break. My […]
Since the onset of the COVID pandemic, over 350 million people have been infected [1]. Early on, it was recognized that COVID symptoms, outside the most extreme of cases, typically lasted two weeks. However, some who suffered a non-hospitalization-worthy or “mild” case of COVID found themselves plagued with symptoms spanning beyond that period. Neurological symptoms […]
There was a new vaccinator in the clinic, a first-year medical student hovering nervously in the corner of the room. “Have you done this before?” I asked. She shook her head no. All around us, noise echoed off the tiled walls and wood floor of the elementary school gymnasium, the indistinct hum of voices, scrape […]
I was a two-year medical student when our university in Iran decided to teach us how to perform some clinical skills through different stations with moulages and models. We had some medical equipment and devices in each station, and we had to choose and use the right ones. We were very excited and ready to […]
Planning my move to Baltimore City, I persistently scoured the yearly lists of the “most dangerous cities in the United States” and found myself perpetually disheartened by Baltimore’s seemingly continuous success in topping that list. Friends and acquaintances who had previously been to Baltimore did not help either. Many made it their responsibility to warn […]
As a third-year medical student in my mid-20s, there are many privileges associated with youth that I take for granted. In the winter of 2021, however, I elected to spend several weeks pursuing a rotation in geriatric psychiatry. I spent hours talking to older patients — in clinic, over the phone, in the inpatient unit […]
My move from Dubai to Baltimore was a new chapter in my story, with a beginning I equate to the opening scene of The Devil Wears Prada. I walked through the aisles of stores and markets the way Anne Hathaway rushed across the busy and endlessly discoverable streets of New York City to start her […]
We searched on Petfinder and put in more applications for dogs than I had for medical schools. We wanted to find a small, older dog that might need a quieter home without other pets or children. As first-time pet owners, we did not hear back until a local rescue organization posted Archie. He was gray, […]
In moments of stress, grief and despair, we often turn to close friends and family members for support and guidance. Their advice often parrots positive quote Instagram pages that advise you to “have a better attitude,” “focus on the positive” and “choose happiness.” While usually well-intentioned, these responses can garner feelings of further guilt and […]