Opinion

Opinion

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - 11:01

Mama M: Hopeless and Harried

I am early into my third year med-school clinical rotations now, and I am embarrassed to say that I am still so much more than overwhelmed. There is so much to know, and it is not all just “medicine.” That’s hard enough, but no one really prepared us for the rest of “real life” getting things done on the wards: I am always getting lost in the hospital. There are always new forms for everything you order. I am supposed to text-page certain people and numeric-page others. Some forms you have to hand-carry to radiology or the lab, others you have to get in by 11 a.m. or else forget about it. Some consults that I call can be very rude and intimidating and make me feel terrible for my ignorance.

Opinion

Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - 22:48

Mama M: Living a Lie

By Mama M

There's all this talk about how the biomedical workforce is shifting, and there are not enough academic jobs to accommodate all the Ph.D. students currently being trained. PIs, however, are not traditionally supportive of students who want "alternative careers," partly because they don't know how to support our career development in these directions, and they don't want these pursuits to take time away from lab. I don't even want to do research after I graduate, but I'm afraid to tell my thesis committee. On the one hand, I want to tell them because I don't want to waste my time in pursuit of high-profile publications that I don't need. But what if this changes how they view me, and they don't want to waste their time guiding a student who doesn't want to do research?

Opinion

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 22:15

Proposal: Postdoc Debate Do-Over

By Matthew Cook

Hope springs eternal. Even for postdocs.

Opinion

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 22:11

Is UCSF “Thinking Creatively About Postdocs?” A Report on the Roundtable Discussion

By Bryne Ulmschneider

The much-publicized “Thinking Creatively about Postdocs: A roundtable discussion with Keith Yamamoto and Gregory Petsko” featured two well-respected scientists who have devoted time, energy and attention to addressing institutional problems affect

Opinion

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 15:31

Mama M: Torn Between Two Worlds

By Mama M

I shouldn't admit this, but I started medical school mainly because I wasn't sure what else to do. What I really wanted was to be a writer, but I knew it was hard and impractical, and I figured I could just do it on the side while making a living as a physician. I've been doing a bit of freelance and having some success. It's getting harder and harder to convince myself to stick with medicine in light of that. What do you think? Should I stay or should I go?

Opinion

Wednesday, September 24, 2014 - 16:52

Professional School: A time to do what is important to you

By Akshay Govind

Less than one month after I started dental school in 2004, my father suffered a heart attack, and it was determined he would need quadruple bypass surgery to treat the impaired blood flow through his coronary arteries.

Opinion

Thursday, May 15, 2014 - 12:10

Is it Time for a Pub on Parnassus?

By Angela Castanieto

UCSF students are currently in the thick of qualifying exam season, a time both of stress and of celebration when it is all over. Looking back at when I took my exam at Parnassus, it would have been nice to have a place to grab a quick beer on ca

Opinion

Thursday, May 1, 2014 - 13:04

15 Things That Pass for Normal Among PT Student... That May Seem Strange to the Rest of UCSF

By Ilka Felsen

1. Watching people walk, and critiquing every possible gait deviation. 2. Noticing someone’s posture before the color of his or her eyes. 3. Exuberance over finding pants that are professional enough, but allow full range of movement and bending. Same goes for shoes. 4. Working out during lunch, and eating during class. 5. Demanding a stretch break every hour, as part of our professional values.

Opinion

Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 12:40

UCaSeFiles: Clinical Cases from the UCSF Wards

By Theresa Poulos

Welcome to UCaSeFiles, a column in which short case vignettes are submitted by UCSF medical students, residents and attendings based on the stories of real patients seen on the wards, with eac