Mini-Reviews: Medical Non-Fiction

I like to read medical non-fiction. Not textbooks, but the kind of book a layperson with an interest can read, and someone in a medical profession may also enjoy, and learn from. There are three important things I look for in these books: Contributes to the non-medical reader’s understanding/interest of their health and/or bodies in

End Of Internship

This morning, I finished my post-intake ward round, said a few unceremonious goodbyes, and walked out.

And off I went.

On the Ethics of Treating Ebola (or refusing to)

The topic has come up among our students too. We train at one of the nine South African hospitals that are to be the first port of call for suspected Ebola cases. What would we do if we actually had a confirmed case? Would we, as students, treat them? Mostly we think we would not (right now… read on).

Dear Doctor, From A Med Student

Dear Doctor I’m writing to ask you please to not do that thing. You know what I’m talking about. It’s a Saturday morning, or the middle of the night on an overnight call, or whatever: it is a time of day that nobody wants to be working. And we are working. Maybe we are working

Presenting a Patient: Lessons from Alice in Wonderland

It is my last week of Internal Medicine, which means several tests, portfolios, and an OSCE. Gotta admit, Internal Med has been harder than usual this year, and I was shaking like a leaf before the exam began today. As you can see, I survived. It actually went reasonably well, so now I just have

PSA: Coronary Artery Disease Sucks

As you may recall, I was on Cardiology Week recently. Despite the hard work, it was really quite rewarding. We have a fantastic Cardiology Unit, and it shows. Anyway, because our country has a smorgasbord of infectious and lifestyle diseases, the majority of what we dealt with was acute coronary syndromes. One day in the

36 Hours On-Call: For Reals

My school doesn’t allow students to be on duty for more than 24 hours at a time. The few times that a doctor has expected me to stay beyond 24 hours, I have always pointed out the rule and if they disregarded it, reported it. Because, seriously. But for some reason, we have one week

Patients Say The Darndest Things

It was a rough night on Internal Medicine call yesterday. Medical Emergencies was overflowing. At one point, we had thirty patients in the passage, because the beds were full. We had more patients requiring ventilation than we had ventilators. It was chaos.

Book Review: Seven Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them

Infectious Disease is interesting. In fact, I would wager that it forms at least part of the backbone leading to most medical students deciding to study medicine, regardless of whether or not they end up enjoying ID. Seven Modern Plagues by Mark Jerome Walters investigates seven diseases causing havoc today. He looks at the circumstances that

Elective Extravaganza: Internal and ED in Malaysia

Here is a little something different for Elective Extravaganza: what happens when you realise you chose the “wrong” thing for your elective? Aziza Aini (a fellow blogger, click on over) is a third year medical student in Malaysia who, during her second year, did an elective in Internal Medicine. Although she enjoyed it, she realised