The OSA Insider

Imagine that you start medical school knowing exactly which field you want to go into. You line up your mentors and your research projects in that field. Whenever you shadow a physician, it’s in that specialty. Eventually, you start your 3rd year of med school, and you tell everyone what you want to do. And then - you change your mind. You fall in love with a totally different field. What do you do? In this episode, we hear from two recent SOM grads, Dr. Mia Wessel and Dr. Beita Badiei, about this exact scenario. They share how they pivoted, what went into those decisions, and how to choose a specialty more broadly as an M3.

One of the most commonly asked questions about life and medicine is: “When is the right time to start a family?” It’s such a good question, and there’s no single, one-size-fits-all kind of answer. In this episode, we’ll get to know a student who has been juggling parenthood and medical school with great skill and grace. Olivia Torre, a 4th-year medical student who got her PhD before coming to medical school, is the mom of an adorable toddler named Emilia. In this episode, Olivia shares all about becoming a parent while in medical school: how she handles the various responsibilities, how being a parent has enhanced her experience of medical school, the most valuable help and support structures she’s leaned on, and what advice she has for any student wondering if or when to start a family.

We all know about the medical school curriculum. But what about the hidden curriculum, or how students learn about the unspoken culture of medicine through everyday, informal interactions? In this episode, Dr. Sandra Quezada and Dr. Sarah Dubbs explore the hidden curriculum with some examples, chat about whether the hidden curriculum can be positive or negative, and offer guidance on how students can best navigate the hidden curriculum and thrive within it.   References: 1. Lawrence C, Mhlaba T, Stewart KA, et al. The Hidden Curricula of Medical Education: A Scoping Review. Acad Med. 2018 Apr;93(4):648-656. PMID: 29116981 [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5938158/]. 2. Bandini J, Mitchell C, Epstein-Peterson ZD, et al. Student and Faculty Reflections of the Hidden Curriculum. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2017 Feb;34(1):57-63. Epub 2016 Jul 11. PMID: 26566929 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26566929/]. 3. Martimianakis MA, Michalec B, Lam J, et al. Humanism, the Hidden Curriculum, and Educational Reform: A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis. Acad Med. 2015 Nov;90(11 Suppl):S5-S13. PMID: 26505101 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26505101/]. 4. Hopkins L, Saciragic L, Kim J, Posner G. The Hidden Curriculum: Exposing the Unintended Lessons of Medical Education. Cureus. 2016 Oct 25;8(10):e845. PMID: 27909633 [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5120972/] 5. Kalter L. Navigating the Hidden Curriculum in Medical School. AAMC News. Published July 13, 2019. Accessed December 10, 2024. Link [https://www.aamc.org/news/navigating-hidden-curriculum-medical-school].  6. Freedman D. The Hidden Curriculum. NYU Langone Health Hub. Accessed December 10, 2024. Link [https://nyulangone.org/news/hidden-curriculum].

The path to becoming a physician - and then working as one for the rest of your career - can feel like a highly regimented road, with little room for side journeys. A new book called Improvising Adulthood: What I Wish Someone Had Told Me makes a bold claim: that adult life is a lot like an improv show, where you make one choice, and then another, and then another, and you get to change direction at any time. The author of this book, Amanda Hirsch, wants us to feel empowered to shift ourselves out of auto-pilot and question the scripts we feel we must follow. Amanda is our guest for this special episode in which we explore how her book applies to medical students in particular. There are three copies of her book in our OSA, so please feel free to stop by and borrow a copy!

We are always looking for great suggestions of people and topics to cover on this podcast. So when a few people suggested an episode on our school’s Wellness Committee, we were thrilled to sit down with M4 Nicol Tugarinov and M3 Nycole Hidalgo, both of whom sit on the Wellness Committee, to learn all about what this group is and how it helps promote and support medical student wellness.