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Showing posts from 2019

Manuel, matched in ophthalmology from Mexico

Here's our first participant, thanks for sharing Manuel! Tell us about yourself: where are you from? What specialty are you applying to?  My Name is Manuel Paez, I'm from Mexico, I applied to Ophthalmology via SF Match and Preliminary surgery/preliminary medicine via ERAS Why did you decide to come to the US? I have family members in the U.S, and as a result I have visited it since I was 4 years old... I love the U.S culture of hard work, competitiveness, and the quality of life people can have. At what point in your career are you situated (just graduated, resident, already an attending)? I completed an ophthalmology residency in Mexico, and did a dual clinical/research fellowship in Ocular Oncology in Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, FL. Right now I'm a practicing Ophthalmologist in Mexico.  How did you prepare for the Steps? How much time did you need? For Step 1: I read the Kaplan lecture notes and did both the Kaplan QBank and Uworld Qbank

Share your experience!

I think one of the hardest things in this whole process of applying for residency, was the feeling of loneliness. I did not know anyone who was doing nor had done something similar previously. I would like this to be a place where former applicants could share their experiences (without needing to write a whole blog about it) and newer applicants could read different stories and maybe reach out to other people applying to similar specialties or from the same country. Kind of a mini mentorship program! So if you're interested please send me an email at elisa.pichlinski@gmail.com with your story and I'll publish it here. Let me know if you're willing to share your name and information contact or you'd rather be published with a pseudonym. Here are a few questions you can start with for inspiration: - Tell us about yourself: where are you from? What specialty are you applying to? Why did you decide to come to the US? - At what point in your career are you situated (jus

Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU)

On to my next rotation: the MICU! Might be a little biased since this is what I want to do with my life, and undoubtedly my favorite rotation. The team structure is fairly similar to wards except there's no med students. Depending on the hospital we're at, we might have a Q4 or Q6 day off structure. I've only done one rotation so far but I don't expect my second one to be very different. My day usually starts around 5:00-30am (The world belong to those who wake up early!). I review night events, which are more frequent than in wards rotations, vitals, labs etc. prior to go see my patients. Teaching rounds start at 8am, ideally you have seen all your patients and written all your notes. On rounds, the post call team presents the overnight admissions and we all get some teaching from our wonderful ICU faculty. Then we go round on our patients with either our attending or the fellow. Meanwhile we attend urgent matters as they arise and we also answer codes in the hospi