Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: clinical rotations

  • Furniture of bones

    D. Brendan JohnsonMinneapolis, Minnesota, United States “Would you like the new patient?” My senior resident offered me the next admission, a patient being stabilized in the emergency department after a suicide attempt. As a fresh medical student in the beginning of my clinical education, I quickly said yes, plucked up my courage, and went to…

  • Medical school final exams: playing the odds

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden I had finished eighteen months of clinical rotations at an American hospital and was back at my medical school in Belgium to take final exams. I checked in to a small hotel in the center of town and settled in for two weeks of last-minute cramming. I was going to take five…

  • Early lessons

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Finally, it was my first day in a US hospital after studying medicine in Europe for five and a half years. A medical education at the very old and renowned Belgian university at which I studied lasted seven years. The school let its foreign students return to their home countries for the…

  • The pandemic: A medical student’s perspective

    Saira Elizabeth AlexHouston, Texas, United States As medical students, we eagerly await the start of clinical rotations since the first day of school; we anticipate building memorable connections with our colleagues and patients. This is an account of my days as a medical student, three months into clinical rotations, during the COVID-19 pandemic. I write…