The New MCAT

By: Fatamah Esa

Starting in April 17 of 2015, the AAMC, which is responsible for producing the MCAT, have modified the test. According to AAMC, “ the exam has been updated to reflect the changes in medicine and science and to test examinees on not only what they know but how well they use what they know.”(Changing)  The test was last revised in 1991 and due to the enormous change in the healthcare industry the test was altered to adapt to those changes.

The MCAT is now a longer, harder and broader test than before. It has nearly doubled in terms of number of questions, going from 144 to 230 questions. The once five hour test is now approximately seven hours long. These changes of time and question length are a result of new topics that are included such as Psychology, Sociology, Biochemistry and Statistics. The MCAT has developed in a way so that it isn’t for students who cram four years of information into a three to four months of study sessions. “It is for those students who can take scientific facts presented to them and make sense of them enough to solve particular problems” (MCAT PREP). For more information regarding the content and scoring of the MCAT check out the post The Dreaded MCAT.

All of this information might be intimidating for a pre-med student, but this shouldn’t be the case if you truly feel passionate I’ve gathered some tips and advice on what will be helpful in scoring well:

• It’s never too early to start studying. Even as a freshmen everything you are learning now in general chemistry or biology will be on the test. Don’t wait till the last year and try to cram the material because that is overwhelming, especially since there are more things to know now.
• Practice, practice, practice. You cannot expect to get a good score unless you try hard to learn the material. There are many practice books to choose from like Kaplan, Berkeley, and Princeton Review (Princeton is especially good and recommended). There are also usually some MCAT prep classes located on campus (MSU does anyway).
• Instead of just memorizing the fundamental concepts and definitions as is try to understanding it logically; this will allow you to connect between the ideas in all sciences classes and therefore helping you to better reason through a problem.
• Make sure to familiarize yourself in all the needed the subjects by taking the needed courses.
• CARS or Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills doesn’t have a required course but a person who reads widely (from storybooks to the news) has a distinct advantage.
• How should you divide your time during preparation? According to MCAT-PREP, “We believe that the best preparation is one where you spend 1/3 of your time completing your review; 1/3 of your time completing practice questions to confirm your understanding; and finally, 1/3 of your time completing full-length MCAT practice tests to integrate and apply your learning under timed conditions.”

The new and improved MCAT will be more challenging than the old MCAT. However, if you follow these tips, work hard, and really believe in yourself, you can succeed.

Sources:

"Changing the MCAT Exam." Changing the MCAT Exam. AAMC, 2015. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

"MCAT 2015 Changes: Longer, Broader and Harder." MCAT-Prep. RuveneCo, INC, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 

2015.

Helpful Organization For Aspiring Dentists.

Logan W.,

Succeeding in the dental field or any other pre-professional field may seem like a daunting task, however you are not alone.  For each respective field there are professional organizations that can help students and professionals succeed.  These groups help dentists in many ways such as: planning, education advice, hold seminars, and many others.  For the dental field there is the American Dental Association (ADA).

For students specifically the ADA provides information on:

• Managing student debt
• Dental Admission Test information
• Education pathways
• And much more

Members of the ADA can get access to special rates to lessen the burden of massive student loans, they also have access to DAT test supplemental help.  Members will also have access to advisors who can help plan the next steps for pre-dental students and prepare them for success. 

The ADA is devoted to making sure that dental students and practicing professionals alike succeed and become the most skilled dentists they can.  They also provide a plentiful amount of information on all of the steps necessary to improve studies after graduation and to improve dentists private practices.

Sources:
"Home - American Dental Association." Home - American Dental Association. American Dental Association, 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ada.org/en>.

When Everything's Over

By: Patrick Ashcraft

Most people look at medical school as such a commitment. When you hear medical field you think lots of college and with that comes lots of money being spent. Some of the controversy is that paying that much money might not be worth it in the end. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans with a bachelor degree have a weekly average earning of $1,102. So for doctors to be in medical school for four years at least they are missing out on at least $57,304. These numbers aren't even considering the costs of schooling. The average cost of medical school is a quarter of a million on average.


All of those facts seem scary but once you realize what you'll be making when you have a steady job in the medical field it does not seem too bad. Most medical practicers make a very profitable living and rarely have problems with money. So in the end, it is definitely worth all of the time, effort, and money spent.


Works Cited:
"Is Medical School Worth It Financially?" BestMedicalDegreescom RSS. Web. 22. Nov. 2015.

The Difficulty of Medical School

By: Dalin C.

Medical school is very tough and time consuming, for many different reasons. First, students are normally taking four classes, which does not seem like a lot, but those four classes add up to 24 credits. Since they are taking 24 credits, that means there will be a lot more material being presented in the classes.  Second, the courses that medical students take are extremely challenging. Third, medical school is very time consuming and requires large amounts of studying to succeed.

Most students find that the first two years of medical school are the toughest. They are excited for medical school and then get slammed with 24 credit hours and a lot of studying. The students have to take many challenging courses like Biochemistry and Pathology. Most students say that these are two of the hardest courses they took in medical school. Studying for medical school is a lot different than studying when a student is an undergraduate. It is a lot different because of how many credit hours and the increased amount of material. Monday through Friday, most students go from 8:00am to 5:00pm listening to lectures, going to classes/labs, and studying. From 5:00pm to 8:00pm they eat dinner and spend some free time. Then from 8:00pm to 11:00pm they study their material again. All of this may vary depending on who the student is and their courses, but on average this is how their weekdays go. On the weekends, it depends on the student if they want to study the whole weekend, half of it, or none of it. Studying is crucial for succeeding and will consume a large amount of time during medical school.

During the student's third and fourth year, it start to get a little easier. It gets easier because they start to do clinical rotations and learn basic clinical skills and general clinical information. These rotations are still very challenging and can take up many long hours of the day. Some students find themselves running on a few hours of sleep and working long shifts. During their fourth year, less time is spent doing rotations in the hospital and makes the students like a little easier. They have to take their board exam at the end of the year, but during their fourth year they can relax a little bit.

Medical school is very challenging and will take up the majority of your time. It requires an enormous amount of studying and time spent learning the material, but in the end when you save someone's life, it will be worth it.

Works Cited

"The Medical School Experience." StartMedicine.com. CRG Student Doctor Network. 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Doctors life

When you have achieved the status of becoming a doctor, you have perks that come with the job as well,  that also includes having a good paying job and helping the sick. 

Advantages of becoming a doctor are:

• Respect: A lot of doctors feel rewarded when it comes to saving peoples lives. They are respected for the work they do in the community as well as by making a difference in peoples lives.
• Income: When it comes to income, doctors are payed very heavily for what they do because of how much responsibility they have over another persons life. 
• Personal Satisfaction: Doctors enjoy providing excellent healthcare to patients because it makes them happy, when they are able to find a problem with a patient and be able to improve a patient's health. 

Not everything in the medical field is all great. There are at times where things are not enjoyable as others. 

Some disadvantages of being a doctor are: 

• Time Consumption: Becoming a doctor is very time consuming. Often times there are long periods of training and long hours making it difficult to find time for family and leisure. 
• Stress: Often, their are times where doctors see things that mentally can be challenging, such as death or very disturbing images. Doctors are also constantly paying back tuition costs for medical school as well, causing them to work harder and strain their bodies in order to provide for family and also get rid of debt. 
• Lawsuits: Doctors can face lawsuits for medical malpractice. This can potentially destroy a doctors career and credibility. 

Works Cited: 

"Advantages and Disadvantages of Becoming a Doctor." Study.com. Study.com, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Prompt #1: Asking Questions and Breaking Assumptions

By: Fatamah Esa

When thinking about the medical field, we usually picture nurses checking vital signs or drawing blood for lab tests, doctors asking the patient questions deep in thought while writing on a notepad, medical assistants handling schedule appointments and answering calls, or surgeons in the ER hard at work. There are a lot of preconceptions of the medical field but here is a short list:

• It is difficult to get into medical school.
• Being a surgeon requires an immense amount of skill and intelligence.
• Doctors come up with patient diagnosis and preferred treatment.
• Doctors and surgeons are well compensated.
• Nurses take care of patient needs such as distributing medicine, bringing meals and clean sheets, and reviewing patient’s situation/progress.
• Medical technicians help doctors’ determine diagnosis by analyzing CT scan, MRI, ultrasound results.
  
  

As an introductory textbook for the medical field, I choose Introduction to the Health Professions to examine how useful it is as a resource. Part one of the book, which is six chapters, wasn’t very helpful in the sense that it diverted from the topic of discussion, which is an intro about the medical professions. Instead the book talked about impact of technology on field, an overview of healthcare reform, costs and how one can pay their medical expenses (Medicaid & medicare) and historical events that had impacted health care such as High Deductible Health Plan and history of infectious diseases.

Part Two of the book spans nineteen chapters and this where the book really dives into the topic. Each chapter talks about a specific profession the first being doctors. It gives you an insight about the common perceptions of being a doctor and the realities of what it actually is. I found the book to be extremely helpful because it gave an introduction of not just the medical field but it broke it down to provide information for all professions in the medical field, which is extremely helpful. I think this resource or book is nice resource for those looking into the medical field and looking to pursue a career in the field. I

Sources:

Stanfield, Peggy, Nanna Cross, and Y. H. Hui. Introduction to the Health Professions. Sudbury, MA:

Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012. Print.

Anesthesiology

By: Patrick Ashcraft

Anesthesiology is a very vital branch in the medical field. Anesthesia is used in before, during, and after surgery for putting the patient to sleep and taking care of pain. There are three different categories of anesthesia, they are: general anesthesia, regional anesthesia, and local anesthesia.

General anesthesia is where you are completely unaware of any feelings or pain while asleep and have no recollection of anything that goes on. This is often given through a gas mask or through a vein which would be an IV.

Regional anesthesia is where the doctor injects medicine into a "cluster of nerves" of the area that has to be operated on, while given this anesthesia you may be awake or given medicine to put you to sleep, but no matter what you don't feel pain or sensations of the area.

Local anesthesia is where the anesthetic drug is injected into the location that is requiring the operation, this is usually not an operation that you are asleep for.


Works Cited:
An Overview." Anesthesia Overview & Information. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Dental School Preparation

Logan W.,

Every undergradueate student who desires to attend some form of graduate school understands the importance of their preparation.  Applying for dental school is no different, it is a very tedious and meticulous process.  For pre-dental students in Michigan there are two different schools in state; University of Michigan and University of Detroit Mercy's Dental schools.  Both have different areas of concentration for applying students so required perquisites must be fulfilled for the desired school.  University of Michigan's average acceptance GPA is 3.46 while Univeristy of Detroit Mercy's is 3.6.

There is not a required undergraduate major for incoming students but it is preferred that they are in a science focused field.  For the DAT (Dental Admission Test), both schools have an acceptance score average of 20.  The test is scored from 1-30, there are multiple sections that are added together to provide a composite score.  Satisfying all of these requirements are crucial to be admitted into a desired dental school.

Sources:

"Dentistry." Dental School. Michigan State University. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Wentz-Graff, Kristina. "Marquette University's Dental School Faces Potential Rival in Central Wisconsin." Milwaukee Wisconsin Sentinel. Journal Sentinel, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

"What’s a Good DAT Score?" Grockit. Grockit Inc. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://grockit.com/blog/whats-good-dat-score/>.

Traits of a Quality Surgeon

By: Dalin C.

Surgeons have to possess skills that are very important to becoming a quality surgeon. The most important asset of a surgeon is being well educated. I am not sure how one becomes a surgeon without a good education, so this one is a given. Another one of those skills is being the leader of the team. In the operating room, a surgeon has many people that help him or her, and he/she has to be able to lead those assistants so nothing goes wrong. One of the most important skills or traits is being able to communicate with your team. Since you have to lead your team, you will have to be able to communicate with them. Also, a surgeon has to be able to speak with the patient after their surgery is complete.

There are many challenges of being a great surgeon, but one that really stands out is being able to think quickly, make the right decision, and act quickly on that decision. Surgeries are very safe now-a-days, but there is still a chance something can go wrong. If something does go wrong, they have to be able to think quickly, make the right decision, and act quickly so nothing does goes wrong. These skills are just a few traits that make a surgeon truly great.

Works Cited

"Section I: Surgical Traits." American College of Surgeons. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

What to expect in Emergency Medicine

When working with the field of emergency medicine you are bound to see many different things and mentally need to have the ability to handle them. You are expected to work 10-12 hour shifts, see maybe even a dozen of patients every shift with all different types of reasons on why they are there in the first place. When working you may or may not have to help stabilize patients mentally and allow the right conditions for you to operate and check out the patient in a fashionable time to ensure their health's safety. The long shifts with heavy case loads will cause stress on the doctor who is examining patients on a constant bases. The physician will have to also document everything about the case, just the patient documentation alone could potentially add to a much larger workload and stress. 



Working in this medical field requires physicians to not only have physical endurance but also mental acuity and be able to keep their mind clear in stressful situations. 

          

"Physicians in the emergency department take a medical history, examine the patient, decide which tests to order, make a differential diagnosis (determining, when symptoms are similar, what the disease or condition is), determine treatment and decide whether to admit the patient to the hospital or treat him and send him home."- ExploreHealthCareers.com

Works Cited:

 "ExploreHealthCareers.org." Emergency Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.                           

<                  http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/158/Emergency_Medicine>.

            First Choice Emergency Room. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.fcer.com/>.

Prompt #6 Evaluating Sources

By: Fatamah Esa

For this week, I decided to pick out a fascinating article in Medical News Today (MNT) and evaluate it. As you may well know, there are many people around the world that are suffering from paralysis whether it be from a serious injury, illness, or genetic condition. They are living in a world where they are constantly limited by their wheelchair and unable to live a normal life. So far, scientists haven’t found a way to cure paralysis; however, Italian neuroscientist Dr. Sergio Canavero thinks he has finally come up with the perfect cure, a head transplant.

In his project he calls HEAVEN-GEMINI, Dr. Canavero hopes to perform the world’s first head transplant in 2017 on 30 year old Valeri Spirindonov. The procedure is estimated to cost $11 million and take approximately 36 hours for 150 surgeons and nurses to complete. "We're going to remove one head under deep hypothermia and reinstall it on a new body" Dr. Canavero told MNT. The recipient’s head and donor body will be in hypothermia mode for 45 minutes so as to prevent any neurological damages that may be caused by deprivation of oxygen. The hardest part of the whole process is spinal cord fusion or attaching the head to the donor’s body. If the surgery is successful, the patient will then be placed in a coma for 3-4 weeks to ensure minimal neck movement and allowing time for “the new nerve connections to fuse together”.

Valeri Spirindonov will be the first human in history to undergo head transplant surgery

Dr. Canavero is following in the footsteps of Dr. White who had previously did a head transplant on a monkey (which actually worked surprisingly for a while but then the monkey died nine days later because the immune system rejected the head). I don’t know if Dr. Canavero will be able to pull this off because this procedure is very different from the normal heart or kidney implants.  Many scientists certainly agree that this project will not be successful, many even calling Dr. Canavero “nuts”. I am sceptical about the success of this procedure but I guess we will have to wait and see. If it is a success, it will certainly transform the lives of people in paralysis or even transgenders.

Sources:
Whiteman, Honor. "The First Human Head Transplant: 'it Will Be a Success'" Medical News Today.    
           MediLexicon International, 15 Oct. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

Nursing Standards

By: Patrick Ashcraft

To be a nurse there are some characteristics that are pretty important to have. A big one is communication skill; nurses are probably the person you talk to the most when you're in the hospital getting treatment or just information. Another characteristic that is greatly important is being emotionally stable. Being a nurse you see a lot of traumatic events and gross things, you just have to deal with a lot of suffering of some of your patients and sometimes even death. Nurses also need to have great interpersonal skills; this means that you are able to communicate greatly between the doctors and the patients and working well with everyone.

Being a nurse does take school but these are things that aren't taught in school. Becoming a nurse also takes some time outside of the classroom learning practical everyday nursing characteristics and actions that are a crucial part of everything working together smoothly.


Works Cited:
"Top 10 Qualities of a Great Nurse." NursingLink. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Dental salary

Logan W.,
When most students choose what they want to do when there are older, they often look at the average salary of their desired occupation. For a dentist, according to Salary.com the median income is $151,447 ("Dentist Salaries").  This is a seems like a good salary at a glance but after factoring the amount of money and time that has been spent on dental school, this may not be a great salary.  According to Salary.com, dentists in the 90th percentile earned greater than $200,000 which seems more realistic for a salary of a hard working dentist ("Dentist Salaries").

                                                                         (Fig. 1.)
Some of the factors that will effect the income of a dentist are; whether he/she runs their own practice, level of education, specialization, number of employees, area of practice, etc..  So depending on those factors, average salary can very from dentist to dentist.

Sources
"Dentist Salaries." And How Key Factors Impact. International Business Machines Corporation. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.

Fig. 1. "Welcome to Lake Forest Pediatric Dentistry." Lake Forest Pediatric Dentistry. Lake Forest Pediatric Dentistry. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.

Internships

By: Dalin C.

An internship is another step to obtaining a medical degree and practicing medicine. In the student's last year of medical school, they are expected to apply for a postgraduate internship in their specialized field. In these internships, they get to work hands-on practicing medicine under direct supervision. Applying for a postgraduate internship is very difficult and it can take many months to be accepted into a program.

When the student gets the internship, they will be working hands-on practicing medicine in their specific field. An internship is very hard and requires a lot of work. Students find themselves working up to 16 hours a day, and often exceeding 60 hours a week. If the student decides to continue into their second year, they might find themselves working 24-hour shifts, and exceeding 80 hours a week.

Except for all this work, many interns find that they learn more in their internship than they do in all of medical school. This is because they are finally getting that hands-on experience and are actually practicing medicine.

Works Cited

Webb, Dan. "What Comes After Medical School?"Gap Medics. Gap Medics, 8 Feb 2012. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.

Common Fears with Becoming a Doctor:

Each and everyday living your life you have fears that stop you from doing things. In some professions you also occur fears with just the process of becoming that person in a specific profession. When it comes to becoming a doctor their are multiple fears already coming into the field. Some of these fears are economical as well as mentally commenced on your own.

One of the most common things heard about the medical field is the amount of schooling one will have to go through in order to become a certified doctor ready to tackle the field. Medical schooling including undergraduate schooling is roughly around 10 to 12 years of school which includes residency. It can also vary especially with the career in the medical field you are trying to pursue. One thing to keep in mind during this time is strictly how much it will actually be worth it in the end. Yes, you are in school for a good amount of time, but look at what comes with that. You have job security, we are in constant need of doctors in the medical field because people will get sick and need help tending to, the more the merrier.

With becoming an emergency doctor as well, you have a decent income of an average around $270,000. Compared to other jobs that are not in the medical field, that is a lot of money. You not only will be receiving a descent income, but also have the ability to pay off the loans used to get through medical school in the first place. Yes, it will take you some time and planning out to pull yourself out of debt from school, but thats not as big of a threat when you will make enough money to cover all of your school costs in a reasonable time.

These are just some of the common fears, but it is shown that sure putting some time off in order to complete schooling to become a doctor maybe a time consuming but in the end you are receiving an education that most people don't have the opportunity to have, making money, and also most importantly making a difference in people's health, making sure they live their lives as healthy as possible.

Works Cited:

"My Road To Becoming A Doctor | Enjoy The Journey." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO1EO1ffTZA>.

"$1 Million Mistake: Becoming a Doctor." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/1-million-mistake-becoming-a-doctor/>.

What's The Big Deal?

By: Patrick Ashcraft

You may ask yourself, why is the medical field so important in todays society, or what would happen if the medical field did not exist. These are some important aspects of when, why, and how the medical field changes our lives. 

The medical field has been said to have originated in the ancient Greek civilizations, and since then, it has become gradually more and more important into what it is today. The amount of areas of medicine you can practice is far more than anyone could think; the different branches would take a while to read and list every single one, especially with the sub-categories that would even go under each of the major ones. 

To put it in a straightforward way, without the medical field, we could possibly all be dead. That sounds extreme, but it is a true way to think about it. Different types of diseases, cancers, and medical issues are some (but not all) curable to the point where it does not wipe out all of humanity by now. The advancement in medicine is truly fascinating as you look at all the other things that we can now do with machines and computers just by clicking a button. 

The medical field is in almost everything we are associated with, whether we know it or not. Whether it's government medical aid that is given to families that can't afford personal doctors, life insurance, health benefits at your job, various types of emergency services and more, you truly can't look anywhere without seeing the medical field in effect. 

Works Cited:

"Uthscaco2012." Thoughts on the Importance of the Medical Field. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.