• Summer Break Is Over

    “Oh no! I only have one month of summer break left!?!” *insert some additional whining here* I had this realization multiple times in grade school around this time of the year. Now with only two weeks of break in total, I find myself whining about having “only 35 hours of…

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  • ENT Resident Research Day 2011

    Last Friday, several members of the ENT-erest group attended the ENT Resident Research Day at the Methodist Hospital – Baylor Med Neurosensory Center. There were eight 10-15 minute presentations (4 basic science, 4 clinical) done by the residents followed up by a fantastic lecture on “outcomes research” by a distinguished…

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  • Second Year of Medical School in Retrospect

    Second Year of Medical School in Retrospect

    This is my last post as a second-year medical student (MS2). :shock: The first six months were spent completing the basic sciences, but over the last six months, I’ve finished rotations in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry while also doing ENT research in April. I wanted to write a post summarizing…

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  • Finished With Psychiatry

    The consult/liaison psychiatry service at Ben Taub was pretty busy through June, but I worked well with my three incredibly awesome teammates to get the job done. :-) The oral exam last Thursday was a friendly reminder of how short a 30-minute presentation really is – I felt like I…

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  • The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Illness

    Tomorrow afternoon, the last 20% of my psychiatry rotation’s grade will be determined based on my ability to watch a 30 minute videotaped patient encounter, prepare a presentation, and then orally deliver the case with an accurate differential diagnosis and treatment plan.

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  • How To Properly Utilize A Medical Interpreter

    How To Properly Utilize A Medical Interpreter

    I took four years of Spanish in high school and consider myself to be more-than-conversational in the language, but when it comes to especially emotional topics like discussing abuse or suicidal ideations, I prefer to use a translator to ensure that I word everything appropriately.

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  • Last Day of Psych at the VA

    At 4:45pm on Friday afternoon, I left the VA after four works of working in the outpatient psych clinic. I was privileged to have an extremely insightful and approachable attending who motivated me to grasp the basics of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment and empowered me to ask questions.

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  • Insomnia and Sleep Hygiene

    Sleep changes go hand in hand with common psychiatric conditions like depression and mania, but before jumping to drugs to help you catch some Z’s, psychiatrists try to understand an individual’s “sleep hygiene” – the personal habits and environment associated with sleeping.

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  • Depressive Disorders

    Depression is the most common psych condition I’ve come across during my time at the Veterans Affairs hospital. It permeates all age groups and has etiologies ranging from the loss of a family member to uncertainty about the future; in spite of this tremendous variability, two things seem to always…

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