3D Printing

Written by: Madison Elliott

         3D printing in medicine is becoming a new phenomena, and is expected to revolutionize medicine. Instead of having to be put on a seemingly endless transplant lists, 3D printing vital organs can speed up the process. It has the potential to save millions of lives, both human and animal. 3D printing is the layering of any type of material, namely living cells, to form a 3D object. Additive manufacturing (AM), rapid prototyping (RP), or solid free-form technology (SFF) are also names for 3D printing. Medical uses for such 3D printing are organized into several broad categories, including: tissue and organ fabrication; creation of customized prosthetics, implants, and anatomical models; and pharmaceutical research regarding drug dosage forms, delivery, and discovery. Though there have been great advancements in this field of medicine, there are still many things that need to be figured out.

Sources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4189697/

A week in the life

By Laura Villarreal

With the wide range of different types of careers in the medical field, there are a wide range of schedules. Each physician, nurse, dentist, surgeon, etc., has their own busy routine different from that of other professions. A day in the life can be anywhere from fast paced to calm and easy. It can include weekends, late nights, and early mornings. This all depends on which profession you choose. Some have more responsibilities than others, leading to longer or shorter days. Some examples of  typical work weeks :

• Surgeon
• 50-60 hours a week not including the time being on-call
• 3 days for surgery
• 2 days of office hours, follow ups, and consultations
• Fast paced days
• Physician
• 40-60 hours per week
• Most time is spent seeing patients
• Other time is spent doing office work and being on-call
• Generally calm days
• Dentist
• Around 36 hours per week
• Almost all of the time is spent treating patients
• 4 or 5 work days
• Generally calm days
• Nurse
• 3 day work week
• 12-14 hours per day
• A lot of time spent on-call
• Fast paced, high intensity days

It is extremely important to take into consideration how your work week will look. Medical careers come with long days and long weeks. It is possible to have a family and a social life while being in the medical field.  Your goals and aspirations in life need to fit into the time spent not working, if they do not then a medical career probably will not be for you.

Sources:

http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/1/Dentist

http://www.dentalstudentbooks.com/dentistry_information.html

https://www.facs.org/education/resources/medical-students/lifestyle

https://www.thebalance.com/job-prospects-and-careers-surgeons-1736308

https://wire.ama-assn.org/life-career/how-many-hours-are-average-physician-workweek

http://www.aafp.org/medical-school-residency/choosing-fm/lifestyle.html

http://www.nursetogether.com/on-nurses-schedule

Contemplating Controversy: Euthanasia

Written By: Hyaal Wehab

   The practice of Euthanasia is the process of prematurely ending a life to end pain and/or suffering of an individual. Euthanasia branches into multiple different types from voluntary euthanasia, also referred to as assisted suicide, which is the assistance from a doctor to end an individual's suffering, to passive euthanasia, which is putting an end to somebody’s life by terminating medication that the patient uses to stay alive. Euthanasia has its many forms, and is also legal in many countries and states. Though euthanasia is a well known practice, there are multiple views and controversial thoughts on this subject.

   From the negative viewpoint of euthanasia, it is simply classified under criminal homicide. Euthanasia is not classified under homicide when it is used as a case of punishment for criminals, but many believe that euthanasia should not be legal in medical institutions, because it is therefore, classified as criminal homicide. This negative viewpoint is very religion based as well. In Christian culture, it is believed that god has a certain path for everybody, and by practicing euthanasia, it is interfering with god’s given path for an individual, and it is comparable to murder. This process not only affects an individual’s so-called “path of life”, but it also mentally impacts the doctor performing the procedure. Many doctors are emotionally and mentally drained after performing a euthanasia procedure, and they must see a psychotherapist after the procedure. It also seems that when euthanasia is legal in medical institutions, its utility is abused. It is hard to limit the process of this, or have a strict system once the law is put into place. There are many aspects that come into play in the negative viewpoint when it comes to the particular subject of euthanasia, but this procedure also has its positive contradictions.

    Euthanasia is classified as a crime coming from the outside view, but coming from an individual's point of view, it may have its positive aspects. One of the main reasons why many support euthanasia is because, individuals have the right to die, and the right to choose. Death is inevitable; it is a part of life. People fail to realize that death is a part of having human life, therefore there is no crime in euthanasia; death occurs at all times, in many ways, and humans are given the right to determine the course of our lives. Individuals are born with the right to make our own decisions, and if a person decides that they want to go through with the process of assistive death, then that is their own decision, and nobody may stop them. Along with a person making their own decisions regarding their life, one’s decision to undergo euthanasia does not harm others. A part of human nature is for all people to have different views and interests, but a subject such as euthanasia regards only an individual and their decision; it does not pertain to public decision nor discussion. All reasoning behind the positive viewpoint of euthanasia is valid, but perhaps the most important is that, euthanasia saves lives. Laws regulating the process of euthanasia has cut the number of procedures without patient consent in half. Now that their are laws to regulate this, doctors must receive a patient's consent before they undergo this procedure, which saves the lives of those who do not want to undergo euthanasia, rather than being forced into it back in older times.  

   This contradiction between Euthanasia is simply caused by one aspect; death as a whole. Those in agreement with the negative aspects of euthanasia simply do not support this medical process due to the precious nature of life itself, and they do not find it fair to end anybodys life unnaturally. Those on the positive side do see the beauty of life, but they are in agreement with the idea that individuals have the right to the course of their life, and to make their own decision regarding their life. This idea of whether euthanasia should be legalized or not is all based on the idea of death; is it immoral? Should god’s course of life be interrupted? The answers to these is more a matter of one's views and opinions, but no matter the view or opinion, euthanasia will always be a large topic of controversy in medical institutions.

Euthanasia Debate

Arguments against Euthanasia

Top 10 reasons Euthanasia should be legal Everywhere

Under-appreciated Medical Positions

Written by Alex Reddy

When I tell people I aspire to be an orthodontist, I most frequently receive a surprised look and an awkward silence until is it broken by a common phrase, “well you'd be just perfect for that”. Out of my own experience, I believe many professions in the medical field are very under-appreciated. Now I understand that orthodontia is classified more as a dental profession then medical; However, I’ve noticed very similar responses for many of my friends who aspire to be some particular medical students.

Like orthodontia, some jobs are just thought of less then others or not as well known to the job industry. When brought to our attention, many of us do not realize how important these jobs truly are, or how big of an industry these jobs are apart of. Many professional medical positions are often under-appreciated. Diverse professions like nurses and anesthesiologists are so important to the medical field but are often quickly looked over by outsiders. A nurses importance is often dampened by the massive amount of attention there more well known partner, a doctor, attracts. Another group of medical professionals that are often under-appreciated are anesthesiologists. Anesthesiologists lack of popularity stems from a different reason than nurses. It may have a little to do from a partner like doctors who are far more popular in society; However, they are more often under-appreciated for the fact that their field is not as well known as other medical fields. Anesthesiologists have the important job of putting patients to sleep before an operation and waking them up after an operation. Similar to nurses who do a variety of important jobs, anesthesiologists do not receive enough credit for what they do.

Overall the purpose of this post is to draw attention to the lesser known medical professions. If interested in entering the medical field, I urge you to look at some of the under-appreciated professions and dive into the plethora of jobs the medical field has to offer. I believe that every job is unique and important in its own way, and without the under-appreciated jobs, we would be missing a large part of our medical field.

Sources:

http://time.com/3006511/under-appreciated-professions-invisibles-zweig/

https://www.sokanu.com/careers/anesthesiologist/

Pediatrics Overview

By Laura Villarreal

The past couple weeks I have really considering what I want to do with my life. I know I want to be a doctor and I know I want to work with kids. My big question was, which career will give me that? I don’t think I am cut out to be a surgeon or work in a big hospital. I don’t like to be rushed or feel stressed. I have a lot of ideals for my perfect workplace that have to be balanced realistically. The number one obvious choice for a future career is a pediatrician. Pediatricians are generally located in doctors offices. They provide general care for children with health issues while collaborating with other health care providers to insure full quality care for each child. Being a pediatrician requires 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 3 years completed in a residency program. Pediatrics also has many sub specialties within itself. These sub specialties will require another 3-4 years in a fellowship. I feel that something within pediatrics will be the right fit for me.

"More nurses, less death"

Written By: Hyaal Wehab

  A large problem that many medical services are facing today is a shortage of staffing in medical institutions. One of the largest fields of medical work is nursing, but it also faces many issues in its staff numbers. This week I am writing about an article regarding the positive impacts and support that proper staffing brings to medical institutions.

  A study in 2004 compared the staffing in hospitals in California and New Jersey. The numbers of nurses in hospitals located in California was much higher compared to those in New Jersey, and from this research they have concluded that just by having a relatively high amounts of nurses staffed, nurses tend to love the profession more and feel less burnt out. Not only does it help prevent nurses from feeling burnt out, but it also reduces the number of deaths and creates better income for patients. Since the patient to nurse ratio tends to be very uneven, it is hard for the staffed nurses to tend each patient with the same intensity due to the amount of energy they need to put in for each patient, and they feel very burnt out the more patients that they have to tend. The study claims that, if New Jersey had the same numbers of staffed nurses that California has, the death rates of their patients would decrease, and also decrease the amount of nurses that are “burnt out”. As the research continued, studies showed that when nurses cared for fewer patients, they were able to devote more energy and attention to each, which created better outcome for the health of their patients. After seeing the positive income of this study, many different states began to follow in California’s foot steps, and began creating specific staffing ratios, or staffing plans for nurses to create a better income not only for their patients, but also a healthier lifestyle for nurses. These ratios would ensure that nurses reach their patients on time for medications and check ups, and they are not overwhelmed. When these actions were taken, patient outcomes were much better when nurses began caring for fewer patients at a time.

  Staffing of nurses continues to grow into a larger issue as time goes on, beginning form the understaffing of professors in universities, and the competitive nature that most nursing programs hold. Students are not able to take these courses, which leads to the understaffing of nurses in hospitals. After reading this article, it is clear what impact that accurate staffing will bring to hospitals in many states. My questions are, how can the issue of staffing be fixed? Since the understaffing begins in universities and nursing programs, how can universities re-evaluate their requirements to reduce the amounts of understaffing? This article helped bring the issue of understaffing to my attention, and will hopefully bring this issue to the attention of many other individuals pursuing this field.

Article: More Nurses, less death

Evaluating Sources

Written by: Madison Elliott

The article I found this week was about bioethics and health and human rights. It explained bioethics as the study of the controversial issues arising with the recent advancements in healthcare technology and capabilities. Health and human rights was explained in a more abstract manner but I gathered that it basically outlined a person’s right to accessible and affordable health care.  In other words, the right to health. The article talks about how many people confuse law and ethics and use the two synonymously. It claims that health and human rights are being misguided through its ambiguity. Because there are so many gray areas, it's difficult to distinguish between right and wrong in some situations. For example, should an elderly person with a severe degenerative brain disease who cannot remember who they are with no familiy be euthanized? Some would argue yes, while some would argue no. But it is impossible to regulate something that has yet to be defined.

Its the Season for Sickness

Written by Alex Reddy

As summer comes to an end, we all recognize the substantial drop in our atmospheric temperature. We usually notice that the leaves begin to fall and that most neighborhood critters tuck themselves away for the winter. Among the many other changes during fall, I tend to notice the increase of illness among my friends and family. For as long as I can remember, I have always fallen ill in Autumn. As a college student I know that illness is always prevalent; However in the recent month, I’ve tend to notice that the majority of the students around me seem to be sick. So I ask myself, why is this? In this blog I’d like to share some common beliefs as to why we are more susceptible to falling ill in Autumn.

As a student located in the midwest, most of us know from experience that during fall the average temperature can range from anywhere between 40 degrees to 60 degrees. This alone can be a major red flag. After being accustomed to the warm summer heat for so long the cool temperature fluctuations of fall can actually cause some physical harm to the body. After reading up about falling ill in Autumn I stumbled across this quote, “In a study published this month in the journal Family Practice, researchers demonstrated for the first time that a drop in body temperature could in fact bring on a cold” (Lulic). This is scientific proof that the change in atmospheric temperature has a negative effect on your body. As we get our first glimpse of Autumn, this initial change in temperature effects our immune system so that it doesn't work as efficiently causing us to fall ill more easily (Lulic).

Another reason we may see a spike in illness during fall also has to do with dropping temperatures. As the weather gets colder many of us seem to make our way indoors more often bringing us in a closer proximity with strangers. This can happen in a variety of places, the most common for college students being a bus. Unfortunately, the cool temperatures of fall cause us to come in contact with others more often. This plus a depleted immune system is the main reason we find ourselves falling ill more often in Autumn then any other season. I thank Fall for bringing colorful leaves and pumpkins, but will always despise its nasty sniffles.

source:

Lulic, Miron. “Why do I seem to get sick every fall?” 5/4/2013. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-I-seem-to-get-sick-every-fall

Gender Stereotypes

By Laura Villarreal

In this week’s research, I looked at a very well known bias that men are doctors and women are nurses. As a woman aspiring to be a doctor, I am aware that I will face this stereotype every day. Starting off my freshman year of college, I have already experienced someone with this mindset. My chemistry teaching assistant, who is also my chemistry learning coach for the program I am in, automatically assumed I was a pre-nursing major and started talking about other girls that he helps too. I wasn’t offended but it was weird to me that he just thought that I was pre-nursing.

Even though women make up 50 percent of medical school students, people still make these assumptions. A study by Livescience says that when asked to pair the names Jonathan and Elizabeth with doctor and nurse, the people are more likely to pair Jonathan with doctor and Elizabeth with nurse. I feel like this discourages women to become doctors. Why go through years of medical school to get an M.D. when you won’t even be recognized for it in your workplace? I think nurses are a vital part of any hospital, but doctors go through more training and schooling so they should be recognized for it.

     Subconsciously, I still make the same assumptions between men and women. I think it has to do with the way nurses and doctors are portrayed. In Halloween stores, there is always “sexy nurse” costumes for women and “hot doctor” costumes for men. I have never seen costumes vise versa. I also think about the television show M.A.S.H. from the 70’s I used to watch with my dad when I was younger. It was set in South Korea during the Korean war and it was about a mobile army hospital. Most of the men characters were doctors and the women were nurses. At that time, there were more male doctors and more female nurses. I think that evolved into the gender stereotype we see today, even though it is not true anymore.

Information found on;

http://www.livescience.com/55134-subconscious-stereotypes-hard-to-budge.html

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/assuming-the-doctors-a-he/?_r=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M*A*S*H_(TV_series)#Recurring_characters

Recognizing Significance

Written by Alex Reddy

Modern medicine is one of many impressive advancements upon us in the 21st century. It is both widely agreed with and disagreed with, and is used in a variety of different ways. Modern medicine is used to cure diseases, halt diseases, prevent diseases, ease symptoms, and even help in the diagnosis of certain illnesses (TeensHealth). Personally, I am a huge advocate for modern medicine and I am very thankful that the medical field devotes a large portion of its time to the discovery of new types of medicine. In this blog Id like to recognize the significance of the medical field and discuss how it continues to make such a large impact on our everyday lives.

The professional medical field is made up of a variety of very important positions; However, In this blog I’d like to focus on one group of positions that I view as the most important. The research and discovery of new types of medicine is only made possible through the hard work and efforts of the medical field. A recent discovery, found through research at University of North Carolina School of Medicine, uncovered some new possible ways to treat Crohn’s disease. Without continuous research in the medical field we wouldn't have made this discovery. Crohn’s disease is a long-term condition that causes inflammation to the inner lining of the digestive system (Nichols). Crohn's disease requires many surgical procedures and without proper treatment, is deadly.

Fortunately enough, parts of the medical field have been continuously laboring over research in order to help find new solutions and treatment options to Crohn’s disease and many others like it. Without the proper research, we would have never gotten as far as we are today. Dr. Shehzad Z. Sheikh stated, "The one-treatment-fits-all approach doesn't seem to be working for Crohn's patients,” (Nichols). Therefore, a team of medical professionals familiar with the field came together in hopes to find a better treatment method. Aside from this singular case, the medical field works to help make all of our lives more enjoyable when we fall victim to illness. I believe that this is a great and specific example of how important the medical field is to all of us.

Sources:

Nichols, Hannah. "Crohn's Disease: Discovery of Two Subtypes Could Lead to Better Treatments." Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 14 Oct. 2016. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

"Understanding Medications and What They Do." TeensHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health. The Nemours Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 20

Male Nurses

Written By: Hyaal Wehab

   In my post last week, I talked about the issue based on the pay difference for male and female nurses. Thought field of nursing is mainly dominated by females, men seem to be payed more than women, but it turns out that men face more challenges and discrimination than women do. My post this week will be about an article, written by Julie K. Poliafico, regarding the large gap in the gender ratio in this profession, and the hardships that male nurses face in this industry.

   Florence Nightingale was the first woman to identify the modern form of nursing to this day. Although Nightingale played a large part in the evolution of nursing, many of nurses before and after Nightingale’s time, were men. Most of the male nurses at this time put their own lives at risk to perform the profession that they love. During the time of the Civil war, multiple men not only worked as nurses in the army/ navy corps to tend to those wounded or affected by the bubonic plague, but they also worked as soldiers to serve and protect this country. Their service was honored and appreciated by many, but by the end of the war, there was a large decline in the population of male nurses, and Florence Nightingale was part of the influence behind this. Ever since this time, it seemed as if it was much harder to keep men in the field of nursing, and to even influence them to join. Nightingale had great intentions and did believe that equality between the voice of men and women was very important, but she never mentioned the presence of men in the field of nursing, which was offensive to most men in the field, hence the fact that a large majority of the field, in her time, was made up of men. The decline of men in the field of nursing was not only influenced my Nightingale’s lack of inclusion, but also due to the discrimination that they faced by many. Since nursing was seen as a profession of care and compassion, men were looked at by many as “unmanly” or they were automatically classified as a homosexual due to their profession in such a female-dominated work force. Due to this, by the 1900’s, men were not able to be a part of the army/navy nursing corps nor were they accepted by all nursing schools; only a few continued to admit men. Of course, as time went on, this changed. Between 1992 and 1996, more men began pursuing professions in the field of nursing, despite the “unmanly” image and discrimination towards their gender. Now in present time, nursing admittance is not an issue for men anymore, but many men still fear being seen as “unmanly”. Although the number of men increased, it did not make it any easier to persuade the men to stay in nursing. Most men that attend nursing school to receive a BSN (Bachelors of Science in Nursing) end up dropping out, or failing out of nursing school before they even complete the required course to receive their degree. Many men tend to ditch nursing school due to the discrimination and challenges they face, but there are still very few that push through and fight through the challenges.

   In the United States, about 5% of nurses are men. This is not a large fraction compared to the amount of women in this profession, but it still recognizes the amount of men in this field, despite the discrimination. Many men that have stuck through this to receive their degree have said that they feel isolated due to the lack of male peers and figures around them. Although male nurses have said that they get along really well with most of their female colleagues, they still feel that they are excluded based on their gender. For example, many male nurses are not assigned to work with female patients due to the idea of making women “uncomfortable”, but female nurses are almost always assigned to male and female patients, which makes male nurses feel that they are not included. Two courts actually passed rules which allowed hospitals to not hire labor/ delivery room nurses, or prohibit male nurses from being in the delivery room due to the patient feeling more “anxious”. After doing certain studies, female patients have said that they do not find any difference in being examined by a male or female nurse; most women actually prefer being examined by male nurses. Male nurses also feel that they are overlooked when it comes to leadership opportunities simply because they are men. Due to the rates of discrimination that these men face, the American Assembly for Men in Nursing (AAMN), founded in 1971, was created to recruit more men into nursing, and provide support for men already in the field of nursing.

   Male nurses should be appreciated more due to their large contribution to the field of nursing. Male and Female nurses should work together to create an even larger, positive impact in this profession. After reading this article, I really appreciate the men in this field but also realize that there should not be discrimination in this profession, or any profession, because when people can come together, disregarding the gender, they create a larger impact. The only question that I really have is, how can the discrimination of male nurses based on their gender, come to a stop?  There will always be others that will firmly believe in this discrimination, but for those that want to put a stop to this, how else is it possible? I strongly believe that male nurses should be treated just as equal as female nurses, and vice versa.

Nursing's Gender Gap

Top of the Line Medical Schools

Written By: Madison Elliott

Considering that I will eventually have to apply and attend medical school, I was curious to know what the top ones are in the United States. I thought that maybe they would be different than what everybody knows are the best undergraduate colleges (mainly the ivy leagues!), but I was wrong, a lot of them are part of this list as well. In the article I found here, it lists the top medical schools in the country for more research based schooling. The ten schools that fall at the top of this list are Harvard University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California - San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University, Columbia University, Duke University, Yale University, and New York University. Only three out of the eight Ivy League schools are on this list which may come as a surprise to some, but most of the other five fall shorter below these ten schools.

A lot of people don’t know what makes a top medical school actually a top school, the name of the school is just well known for being a “good” school. Don’t worry, I am also in this same boat, so I am here to tell you why! I decided to look into the number one medical research school, which is Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, to understand why it is known as being such a prestigious school. To start off, their acceptance rate is a whopping 3.7%, which is fairly low. Whether the reason being for this is the large number people that apply here, about 6,113 to be exact, or whether it be that they are just that picky about the graduate students that they accept, that is a hard percentage to beat. On top of that, to really even be considered an option for acceptance into HMS, you must have outstanding MCAT scores. Harvard’s average score for this standardized medical test is about 37 out 45 points. This is one of the highest averages for this quite challenging test in the United States. These are just a couple of the reasons that Harvard Medical School is known for being so top notch. I can’t even imagine what the course load is like once you get to the inside of HMS.

Sources:

• http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings?int=af3309&int=b3b50a&int=b14409
• http://medical-schools.startclass.com/l/24/Harvard-Medical-School

Gender Differences in the Medical World

Written by: Madison Elliott

As most people know, there is often an under representation of women in many job fields that are deemed “masculine” such as engineering, math, and science based jobs. This week I have found an interesting article that discussed this gender stereotype in the medical field, and how women in the field have not advanced as well as the men in the field have and the inequality between the two genders that comes with this.

First off, I think that women are mistreated from the beginning in most fields. It is seen in things like unequal pay between men and women and also in the gender that holds a majority of authoritative positions in most fields, which is men as well. Even when narrowed down to specific different fields, there is still a difference in genders, and there is no difference in the medical field. I would say that one of the most known stereotypes in this field is that women are thought of as nurses and men are thought of as doctors. Often people will make that assumption and mistake a woman who is a doctor as the nurse and vice versa. This just shows that men are usually just assumed to have the higher standing position in the workplace.

Many times there are occurrences when a woman physician’s, not a nurse, opinion is even discredited or not even taken into account. Even when women have a leadership role in the field, in medical or all others, they are treated as if they are less.

Sources:

https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2012/12/02/gender-stereotypes-in-healthcare/

Wage Gap between Male and Female Nurses

Written By: Hyaal Wehab

  This week, I decided to look into wages of Nurses, and it led me to the issue of pay inequality between men and women. Recently, research has shown that the wage gap between male and female nurses continues to grow as time continues on. Studies specifically show that men make about $5,000 to $10,000 more than women annually, which leads to higher financial struggles for women rather than men, due to the fact that nursing is one of the largest, female dominant occupations in health care.

  Inequality in wages is not a new issue brought up in our society. In fact, it has been around for multiple years, and no matter how many laws or movements are issued, this issue of uneven pay continues to grow. It is surprising that an inequality in pay is an issue in nursing especially since it is currently the most female dominant field. Multiple theories have emerged from this issue; Are men simply better at negotiating promotions and raises? Do men receive higher pay because they are less likely to take off time to take care of their families and young ones? Questions like these require further analysis, but as of right now it seems as if these would be the reasoning behind the unequal pay between male and female nurses, because the gap in pay is not by coincidence, nor is it random.

  After reading this article, my main question is, why is there a wage gap? Nursing is a female dominant occupation compared to the percentage of males in the work force, but even if this is the case, what is the point of having an unequal pay rate? Whether male or female, every nurse is doing the same job and serving their community in the exact same way. It is understandable if an occupation of higher degree receives higher pay, but if they are in the same exact field, equal pay should be mandatory for all employees whether they are a man or a woman. Along with this, my next question is, how can this be fixed? Though this is a large issue brought up in this field, it seems that there is no set way of resolving this issue. Next week I will look further into the issue on the wage gap and the male to female ratio of nurses.

Article 1

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Exploring communication, prompt 3.

By Laura Villarreal

    

This week I got to interview Dr. Rawn Bosley. He is a dermatologist in Okemos for Doctor’s Approach Dermatology. I got the pleasure of hearing him talk about his career and how he got to where he is now. I learned about his journey from college to his medical school to his residency and now to practicing medicine. He was very nice and was more than willing to answer the questions had for him both throughout his lecture and afterwards.

I first asked him about how he writes about his field. He told me he has written articles about health issues in different magazines. This impressed me because one of my own misconceptions of doctors was that  they did not do too much writing after schooling. I then asked him if there was any misconceptions he has noticed that people have about his field or medicine in general. His response was very interesting to me. He told me that he comes across many people who believe that after people become doctors they are the ones who call all of the shots. That the doctors have the absolute final say in all things medicine. In reality, there is a medical hierarchy of authority. The person who is at top is the one who makes all of the final decisions for what the people in his or her practice or hospital do. My final question asked him how he dispels these misconceptions. His response was that he just talks to them. Much like he talked to me and the other students that came to hear him speak. He talks to them on a person-to-person level to really make them understand why he has to do the things he does.

It was really a pleasure to meet Dr. Bosley. I wish i would have had more time to ask him more in depth questions. I learned many new things from him about my chosen field. I also learned that the most efficient way to communicate in this field is to talk to just someone. Not on a doctor to patient level, because that’s intimidating, but on a person-to-person level, because it is easier to get your point across.  I look forward to going to one of his talks again sometime in the future.

Does Doctor = Success?

Written by Alex Reddy

As a society that praises the successful, we often hear it a lot, “Oh he's a doctor? How nice!” It’s natural for people to be drawn to a successful partner, and it just so happens that in todays era most people are drawn to monetary success. In our current day and age doctors are widely known as the most successful among us all. Many students go through countless hours of schooling and put their best foot forward in order to achieve this title of success. However, aside from the majority of people who believe that money is almost equivalent to success, there are also some don't link success with money. Therefore, if money didn't rank our success, would doctors still be considered successful?

In this Blog I’d like to discuss a few key arguments against the notion that doctors are successful; However, I’d like to follow up my arguments with key reasons why doctors are successful in all ways. This way, as the reader, you can decided whether you believe that doctors are successful or not.

About 18,000 students graduate per year in the United States with a degree in the professional medical field (Association of American Medical Colleges). This number is only a fraction of the original students who began a medical program. Many believe that so many students are unable to follow through with their career goals because they must lack of true devotion to the field, and it’s true. A large portion of these students drop out from the lack of interest in the field they pursue. It’s also true that many students have a goal to become a doctor not because they have a lifelong wish to help people, but more because they have a lifelong wish to get rich. Now this statement alone could cause one to argue, “if it weren't for the money, doctors wouldn't be successful.” However, you'd be happy to know, almost all of these students driven strictly by monetary success drop out of the medical program.

Fortunately, the route to graduate with a doctorate diploma is so rigorous and challenging, only the most passionate students graduate to become a doctor. Therefore, although some people may claim, “Their only in it for the money,” its more likely the doctor genuinely enjoys his/her job. To get through what seems like endless years of schooling, one must be very dedicated and passionate to the position in mind. Along with the rigorous schooling, many of us would agree it would be very difficult to hold all the responsibilities of a doctor without genuinely enjoying it. Overall, it seems to me that majority of the doctors in the medical field hold their position not for the monetary benefits, but because being a doctor is something they have worked for and dreamed about almost all their life. Achieving a long term goal after many years of passionate hard work, this to me sounds a lot like success.

What’s your opinion on doctors? Do you believe most people who become doctors are strictly in it for the money? Or do you believe most doctors have a genuine interest and passion for what they do? Leave your comments below!

Sources:

"Table B-2: Total Graduates by U.S. Medical School, Sex, and Year." Enrollment, Graduates, and MD/PhD Data. Association of American Medical Colleges, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 201