Boonshoft Blogs

Wow! I want to start by apologizing for being a little late on this post. Things have been flying by and I am over halfway done with my third year of medical school! I’ll give you a quick update of what has happened since my last post.

I had my pediatrics rotation for eight weeks. Four of those weeks are spent on the inpatient service at Dayton Children’s Hospital while the other four are spent at one of many various outpatient sites. I really enjoyed inpatient; I have always felt the hospital is where I belong. The rumors are true and you WILL get sick on your pediatric rotation. No matter how many times you wash your hands those bugs seem to always follow you home. It’s RSV and flu season, but I surprisingly ended up with a 24-hour case of gastroenteritis (go figure). You also have to do one week of nights while on the inpatient service. I must say I really enjoyed it. Even though the hours are longer and it can be busier than the day shift at times, I felt that it was quiet and there were not a lot of other things going on at the hospital to distract you. Maybe I can get hired somewhere where I only work nights. People have to have surgeries at night too, right?

Outpatient was also fun and I was placed at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB). I think this is one of the things that makes Wright State such a unique place to go to medical school. We have several different hospitals and they all provide a different experience. At WPAFB I was able to rotate through adolescent medicine, pediatric cardiology, development, and even the newborn nursery! Many of my classmates did not get this opportunity and I think it made learning even more fun.

In other news, and not related to courses, I was accepted for an oral presentation at a medical education conference in Columbus, Ohio that will take place this April. I have been working on this research since my first year of medical school and I am glad to see my hard work paying off. If you end up coming to Wright State and have no idea where to start when it comes to research let me know. I found myself in a similar circumstance early on.

Right now I have one week under my belt of the surgery rotation. I must say that I absolutely love it! I am at a location in Springfield where there are no residents. This basically means I am first assist on all the surgeries. As you can imagine I am having a blast! After four weeks there I will start a trauma rotation at Miami Valley. Hopefully I get to be just as involved there!

As always feel free to email me with any questions about medical school, Dayton, Wright State, or life in general. See you in eight weeks!

I’m back after six weeks of the Family Medicine rotation. Although it was relatively short, I learned so much! It is great to get some one-on-one time with a physician, something I felt was lacking during my rotation in Internal Medicine. There was a lot of outside work for this rotation but it all added to the learning experience. I definitely think having internal medicine before this was helpful, and I believe that family medicine will be even more helpful in my future rotations. I could sit here and tell you all about the rotation, but there are some other topics on my mind (and they only give me so many words to use).

Since the last time I wrote a blog our school has lost a great mentor and teacher. Dr. Elder was the teacher of our Principles of Disease course during our first year. She really went out of her way to teach us topics on microbiology and many of us felt like this was the first time we started to learn something relevant to medicine. I think the thing I will always remember about her is the way she could come up with these creative songs for remembering different antibiotics or pathogens (you try rhyming with staphylococcus aureus). At the end of our second year, our class had an award ceremony where we awarded her with the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was an honor to be able to give that to her and she even provided us with one last song! Dr. Elder was also part of the IRB at Wright State and I often went to her with questions regarding this. I remember one time asking her if I needed to make an amendment to my protocol and submit it to the IRB. She basically said, “No. Don’t worry about it. I’m the IRB chair so if there are any issues it can come back to me.” I think I speak on behalf of all of Wright State, my fellow classmates especially, when I say it was an honor and a privilege to have Dr. Elder as a teacher and a mentor.

If any of you have ever read my profile you will see I am from a small town called Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Well, to be honest, not a lot of news comes out of my town. However, recently there has been a story circulating the internet and television news about a girl named Lauren Hill who has been battling a rare form of pediatric brain cancer called DIPG.  She has started a “Layup for Lauren” challenge similar to the ice bucket challenge for ALS. She has played in her first (and we are not going to call it her last) NCAA college basketball game. She is on her own Wheaties box. She has been on the copy of a videogame. She has even received messages from Lebron James and other celebrities.  I am not listing all of this to commend her on being famous. No, the point here goes much deeper. DIPG is a cancer that mainly affects young children. Children too young to have a voice for themselves. What Lauren has accomplished is spreading the word on a tumor for which relatively little research exists. I think her goal on starting this whole ordeal has been to increase awareness and raise money for DIPG research. I can assure you she has done that, and she makes me proud to be from Lawrenceburg, Indiana. If you would like to donate to DIPG research in Lauren’s name please go to The Cure Starts Now Foundation website.

Next up for me is my Psychiatry rotation. I am kind of excited because I have never really interacted with these types of patients before.  It is another six-week rotation so I will see you again around the end of the year (where does the time go???). As always feel free to email me at bree.2@wright.edu with any questions you may have about Dayton, Wright State, or medical school in general!

Wow! That is the only way I can describe the last month or two of my second year of medical school. I’ll try to describe it to you as best I can, but it all still seems like one huge blur. It went by so fast and I apologize in advance if I forget to mention something.

Once we returned from spring break we had three classes that lasted for two weeks each. The best analogy for these classes I can think of is that if you imagine second year as a 2-mile race, these courses are the final lap. You are tired and don’t know if you can go on and finish the race. You don’t know why you are even running in the first place. However, you know that it will all be worth it once you finish. (Side note: I was a cross-country runner in high school, hence the running reference).

The three courses were endocrine, reproduction, and digestion. I would say there was not much of a difference between the courses except for the fact that endocrine had a quiz almost every day. While this may seem stressful, I really think it helped in learning the material. Other than that the only major stressful item for each course was the exam. The exam was worth around 80% of our grade for each of these classes. Talk about stressful!

Following the digestive exam we had approximately three days to study for a term final. This consisted of questions based on all the courses we had taken during the second semester of second year (cardio – digestion). Three days does not seem like much (and I assure you it is not), but sometimes you have to work with what you are given. Lots of practice questions later, I completed the exam.

Now comes the part that I am sure you are all wondering about: the dreaded Step 1 exam of second year. For those who are not familiar with it, it is a test of a medical student’s cumulative knowledge over the first two years of medical school. You didn’t think they would just let you learn all this stuff and then move on to seeing patients, did you?

I took my test on June 9 and had an entire month to study. While it was hard to find the motivation to keep going at times, other days I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I am going to briefly tell you how I studied for Step 1, but keep in mind everyone learns differently and this in no way guarantees you will get your dream score.

My first resource for studying was Pathoma. Pathoma consists of a series of video lectures about various pathology topics. It is a must have for all of second year so I would recommend purchasing this around July so that you can use it all year (including during your Step 1 studying). If I remember correctly our school got a discount so make sure you have the code for that before you go off buying it on your own.

First Aid is probably a book everyone is familiar with and I would highly recommend using it throughout medical school. The things in it are pertinent to first and second year. However, it is important to not use First Aid as your only study source. I liked to use it to review things I had learned in lecture and found it to be a great tool for solidifying my knowledge. Another thing to remember is that there will be things in First Aid that you do not learn in lecture and there will be things you learn in lecture that will not be in First Aid. Again, don’t rely solely on this book.

Finally, everyone needs a good question bank. I found Kaplan to be useful during the school year. The weekend before a test I would do all of the questions that were pertinent to that particular subject. While studying for Step 1 I mainly used the UWorld QBank. I cannot say enough amazing things about UWorld. This is not a question bank I would recommend using during the school year, but it is a must have for when you seriously begin studying for Step 1.

Before I knew it my second year of medical school and Step 1 exam were a part of the past. I am incredibly excited to begin seeing patients and doing more active learning in the hospitals. My first rotation is in internal medicine and I am looking forward to it. It seems like yesterday I was walking into White Hall for my first lecture and though I will not be attending the building as frequently now, it will always have a special place in my left and right ventricles.

As always feel free to contact me with any questions you have about anything you may have read or may have just been contemplating. If this all seems overwhelming at first then that is a good thing! Medical school is not easy, but I assure you that you can do it. Don’t ever give up! If you find yourself in Anatomy next year and wonder how you will ever learn all of the arteries or all of the parts of the heart feel free to contact me. I, along with everyone else at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, want to see you succeed!

Let me begin by saying that I apologize for not posting in so long. The last few months have been intense. We have had several two-week courses where the final exam in that course was our entire grade. Yes, you read that correctly. I said two weeks. I have food in my refrigerator that has been around longer than some of these classes.  Time sure has gone by quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was moving into my apartment the weekend before my first class at Wright State.

Without a doubt it was a difficult time and second year is much harder than first year. However, a recent conversation I overheard on one of my flights to see my wife really got me to appreciate the fact that I am pursuing my dream of becoming a physician.

The conversation between two girls about my age went a little something like this:

Girl 1: Oh what do you do in (city)?

Girl 2: I’m in nursing school.

Girl 1: Oh that’s awesome. Why did you choose to go to nursing school?

Girl 2: Well, I thought about going to medical school but I did not want to go to school for that long.

Let’s stop here. It is well known that medical school requires a lot of extra schooling. In fact, you will probably be learning throughout your entire life as a physician (unfortunately I cannot speak from experience on this yet so ask me again in 50 years). And trust me, while you are taking exams every 2 weeks, trying to have a social life, and just trying to be involved in extracurricular activities it may seem that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. However, I can assure you there is.

Looking back at myself I knew nothing about Rocky Mountain spotted fever or how Imatinib works. I entered medical school with a relatively clean slate ready to absorb whatever knowledge came my way. Here I am 1.5 years later and I am astonished at all of the things I have learned. I overheard one of our professors mentioning how many new words we have learned since beginning medical school (it is somewhere in the 1000s) and I was astonished. It seemed impossible in the beginning but now I can have everyday conversations about how Imatinib blocks a receptor tyrosine kinase. That sounded a lot more awesome in my head but you get the idea.

My advice to anyone (including this girl if I would have met her in time) is to not let time factor into your decision to come to medical school. As a medical student you will constantly be experiencing delayed gratification, but if you truly love the things you are learning (as many of my classmates and I do) it will all work out in the end. There may be times you feel like giving up (totally normal) but the key is that you and all of your classmates are in this together. If you have any questions about what medical school life is like or need some encouragement because you don’t know how you will ever be able to make it through all the things I describe in this blog please do not hesitate to email me at bree.2@wright.edu. Happy holidays!

So second year has started and I figured I should write something before I no longer have the time to do so. That is a joke…I think.

The summer between first and second year is a time when people do a variety of things. Some do research while others do shadowing. Still, others do more personal things like getting married. I did all three. Was it a busy summer? Of course. Was it worth it? Definitely.

I used to work at the Center for Integrative Research on Cardiovascular Aging in Milwaukee before going to medical school. Since my wife was in Milwaukee this summer and she was very adamant (as was I) about spending it together I decided to check out the possibility of working with them again. They welcomed me with open arms and gave me a short project to do involving amyloid and atrial fibrillation. Seeing as how I am interested in cardiothoracic surgery I felt like this would be a very worthwhile experience.

I was also fortunate enough to take part in a program called AHEC. Basically, I worked with family medicine residents and physicians in Milwaukee. I interviewed patients and performed basic physical exams. I even diagnosed a pneumonia! As a medical student you are allowed to get excited when you tell someone they have pneumonia and you are correct. Just don’t show this excitement in front of the patient. This was a great experience and it really allowed me to see what it is like to be a family practice physician. I had always wanted to go into surgery so I thought I would use this as an opportunity to explore other fields. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the program but I cannot see myself doing that every single day. I need to be using my hands more.

Many of you might be asking if it is difficult to plan a wedding while in medical school. You bet your sweet bippy it is (if you come to Wright State you will get that reference). However, it was all worth it in the end. I would like to thank my wife for putting up with my countless hours of studying while she was looking for invitations or making decorations. If you want to get married during medical school it is definitely possible with the help of a wonderful fiancé!

As you can see I had a very busy summer. Second year started two weeks ago and we have two exams next week. If you don’t hear from me in a while don’t worry. I probably haven’t died. I’m just consumed by the experience that is second year!

So a lot has happened since I last wrote a blog over a month ago. I’ve gone to tons of club meetings (who doesn’t enjoy free food?), completed CaTOS, and even learned first-hand why it is important to warm a stethoscope before placing it on a patient’s chest or abdomen. As I sit here on spring break (yes, you get a spring break in medical school) watching college basketball, I find it is a good time to reflect and share my thoughts with you. Apologies in advance if there are any grammatical errors but I have not used my brain since my CaTOS final 5 days ago.

One piece of advice I would give to anyone entering medical school is to make time for yourself to continue to do the things you love to do. If you are someone who doesn’t normally study non-stop all day do not change that just because you are in medical school. Don’t get me wrong. You will probably have to study much more in medical school than you did during undergrad but that does not mean you cannot have a life. If you see your classmates studying all day at school it might be a little intimidating. I know it was for me. What you need to remember, though, is that everyone learns differently. For me, that means studying but never missing an episode of the Walking Dead or Dexter on Sunday evenings.

You may also think that you are alone and the only one who has fears about the upcoming exam over 1,400 pages of notes. I assure you that EVERYONE feels that way. If you are accepted to Wright State you will have the opportunity to take a class called Healer’s Art. The class meets in small groups once a week for six weeks. You will talk to your classmates about some very deep stuff. I used to think everyone else was so confident with their studies before I took this class. However, I learned I was not alone and made some friends in the process.

The final piece of advice I have for you is to go to as many club meetings as you can. You do not have to be president of seven organizations, have three research projects going on, and work a part-time job while in medical school. That is not the point I am trying to make. What I am saying is that you should go to these meetings to open up your eyes to new fields you may not have had an interest in before (or to change your mind about the ones you WERE interested in). There are organizations for every specialty and attending is also a great way to meet faculty. If that is not enough incentive for you, these meetings usually occur around dinnertime and have free food such as Chipotle and pizza.

I know my blog can be comical at times (at least I hope) but these points of advice should be taken seriously. You are going to feel like you are going insane sometimes. However, all of these things should help you maintain your sanity when you just want to give up looking at the difference between simple columnar ciliated versus simple columnar non-ciliated epithelium at two in the morning.