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The past week I’ve been meandering down the interview trail hoping to avoid death by dysentery along the way…ugh…wait…wrong trail.<\/p>\nThe past week I’ve been meandering down the interview trail hoping to avoid death by dysentery along the way…ugh…wait…wrong trail.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, I really have been traveling around Central Texas the past week for residency interviews and along the way the most commonly asked question has been:<\/p>\n
Most often the question has been posed with genuine interest and good intentions, but it has been occasionally paired with a single raised eyebrow and skeptical tone. Both reactions I understand and both are great reasons for me to address the question here. Would it be appropriate to refer someone to a URL mid-interview?<\/p>\n
No? Oops…maybe I really have been in the blogosphere too long.<\/p>\n
So, here are the 6 best reasons I can come up with on this half-cup of coffee I’ve had:<\/p>\n
I initially started writing in this blog 2 years ago (holy wow, have I really been typing random rants and information for two full years?\u00a0You people are so tolerant.) because I felt like medical school had sucked the creativity out of me. I can’t paint or draw (except those awesome stick figures<\/a>\u00a0cursed with Streptococcus agalactiae and Pseudomonas), so naturally blogging was my only option.<\/p>\n I feel like I have a\u00a0perspective\u00a0to share that would’ve given me hope as a pre-med. I wanted to write about whatever we might sit down and talk about over coffee. I wanted to show that a work-life balance was not impossible for a woman in medicine and I wanted to share my experiences. Everyone doesn’t go to medical school, but a lot of people seem to be genuinely interested in our experiences here, particularly those considering a career in medicine. This feeling to share the possibility of balance in medicine became even more urgent after seeing that everyone was\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>promoting<\/a> the\u00a0fact\u00a0<\/strong>that it is possible.<\/p>\n I feel like I’ve now written ad nauseam about the utility of hearing people’s stories…feel free to hop on over to\u00a0“Following Patients On Twitter…”<\/a>\u00a0or “What Medical School Doesn’t Teach Us”<\/a>\u00a0for my take on learning from patients online.<\/p>\n We have this unique opportunity to share information on things we are passionate about and know to be evidenced-based, like flu shots and how they’re safe in\u00a0pregnancy<\/a>\u00a0or the fact that\u00a0endometriosis is related to infertility<\/a>. Though I don’t blog in this manner too often at this point in my career, I do plan to share more health information in the future (you know…when I’m really a doctor and stuff).<\/p>\n The bottom line is our patients are going online to find their health information and, in my eyes (and the eyes of some awesome health bloggers like SeattleMamaDoc<\/a>) that means we have a responsibility to be online with them.<\/p>\n Make no mistake, friends – maintaining a blog is no easy feat. It’s a fun and interesting endeavor, but it does take some time and patience. I’ve enjoyed seeing Mind On Med evolve into what it is today and I’m excited to see where it’s headed in the future. I love the challenge of putting my thoughts into words and of designing and orchestrating the back end of the blog. It’s exciting to see what posts get a lot of chatter on the Twitters (usually\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>the posts I expect) and it’s fun to hear others opinions on what I have to say.<\/p>\n#2: Before medical school I worried…about work-life balance, about studying, about family.<\/h3>\n
#3: Our patients are online…and they have so much to teach us.<\/h3>\n
#4: Our pateints are online…and they have a right to reliable information.<\/h3>\n
#5: It’s a fun challenge.<\/h3>\n
#6: I get to learn from people I never would’ve met if I wasn’t online.<\/h3>\n