This video is made possible by Away.
Hi everyone!
It is Wednesday.
I have a new block.
In the last block, I did my medicine sub-i and this block I'm doing my EMS elective for
the next four weeks.
And for EMS elective, I'm gonna be doing a bunch of ambulance ride alongs and I'm gonna
be observing both BLS as well as ALS.
I have a few of those coming up.
I also have a bunch of interviews coming up.
I know I talked a little bit about my interview process, in the last video.
A lot of you guys had really good questions, and I wanted to kind of address them.
So a lot of you guys asked about sort of the general process of "match" and residency interviews.
So the way residency applications work... is towards the end of your medical school
career, so sometime during the very end of 3rd year or the very beginning of 4th year
you send out your applications.
Most people only apply to one specialty.
I know somebody asked if I'm only applying to emergency medicine.
I am!
I would say the vast majority of people end up applying to only one field.
The reason being that, when you apply to these programs, you have your personal statement,
you have your away rotations, you have your letter of recommendations.
All of these are geared towards the specialty that you wanna go into.
So it's kinda hard to prepare for more than one specialty because you're gonna be writing
about why you wanna go into emergency medicine or why you wanna go into surgery or why you
wanna go into internal medicine.
You're also gonna be doing things in your medical school career to show that, that's
the field that you're interested in.
So for example, for me, I did a bunch of away rotations in emergency medicine, kind of 1.
to experience what's it is like at different hospitals 2. to show the different programs
that that's the field that I wanna go into.
Also reason number 3.
being that I needed recommendation letters from specifically designed for emergency medicine.
So it would have been very difficult for me to apply to more than one specialty.
For the most part, people apply to what's called categorical residencies, meaning you
go directly from medical school into the field that you're gonna be specializing in.
So from... going from... doing directly from medical school to emergency medicine.
Or directly from medical school to general surgery.
There are certain specialties that require you to do one year of either transitional
year or a preliminary year of either medicine or surgery.
Those are things like ophthalmology, dermatology, I think anesthesiology and a few other specialties
that require that you do a separate year of training before actually starting to study
anesthesiology or dermatology or ophthalmology.
Aside from those specialties, most people apply to just one type of specialty and that's
the field that they wanna go into.
There are also questions about sort of the interview process and what's it's like.
I honestly can't speak for all the other specialties but for the most part, from my experience,
and from what I've heard, emergency medicine interviews tend to be pretty relaxed and pretty
conversational.
You get asked for things like: what do you like do during your free time, tell me about
yourself, why do you wanna go into emergency medicine.
Kind of just basic questions.
I've heard that in other specialties you get what's called "pimped" on patient cases, sort
of like the medical knowledge.
In emergency medicine, they don't do so much of that which is nice because you're not really
being tested for medical knowledge when you go for interviews.
I think that should come from your standardized test scores and you know, you're still a student
so you still have a lot to learn.
I feel like the most important thing in the interview like I mentioned in the previous
video is for the program to get to know you as a person and get to know who you are outside
of these scores and the numbers that you have in your resume and your applications.
So those are sort of the more commonly asked things on the interviews from my experience
and from what I've read online and from other people.
People also asked me what other people bring to the interview.
So I wanna show you guys what I brought to my interview.
This is the bag that I brought.
This is kind of a plain grey shoulder bag.
It's big enough to fit this folio.
This is a folio that I got from my alma mater when I graduated.
It's from Barnard.
Basically has a notepad, and there is a little slot for you to bring in your CV or your resume,
and little slots for business cards and things like that.
Honestly, a lot of brought these but there is really no use for this other than it makes
you look a little more professional I guess, so you can carry your resume with you in case
you wanna look over right before your interview.
I think as a general rule of thumb, it's nice to have something to write in like a notepad
or like a pen or something just so that if anybody gives you any important information,
you can write that down, if you get in touch any residents, or any program directors who
wanna give you their e-mail address, or their phone number or for you to ask more questions,
you can write that down.
I brought my pencil case, I brought my wallet.
And most places will give you breakfast and lunch or at least some light refreshments
so you probably don't need to bring like snacks or water bottles or anything.
You can if you want to.
I brought a little thing of mints just in case.
But aside from that, that's really all I brought me to the interview.
Like I said before, same thing with the outfit, I wanted to have something kind of plain bag.
I didn't wanna bring anything flashy.
I also didn't wanna show up in like backpack so I wanted something just kind of nice enough
and doesn't stand out too much.
So that's the bag that I brought.
So the next question somebody asked was for me to describe the match process.
It's a little nebulous.
I don't know exactly how it works but I have an idea of how it works.
So basically, when you apply to these programs during your medical school during 4th year
or something, some programs will give you an interview, and not all of them.
You go to these interviews.
They're evaluating you but you're also evaluating them to see if you're a good fit for their
program.
Of if that program is a good for you.
And then you're supposed a make ranked list of the program that you like.
So you make a ranked list and the programs also make a ranked list of the applicants
that they liked.
And I think there is a computer process that's takes both list into consideration and then
matches you into the program that you're supposed to go to the following year.
So that's like the nutshell of how the match process works.
Match day is basically this big national day where all the US medical students find out
on the same day where they're gonna go residency.
It's supposed to be like a big day of celebration and all that.
So that should be exciting!
That's coming up in March.
I'll maybe try to vlog that day so you guys can find out where I'm going to... maybe.
So that's pretty much the Match process.
I know there is a lot involved.
There's the application process, interviewing, ranking and then Match Day and it's a whole
big process but it's very exciting and you find out where you're gonna spend the next
as short as 1 year to as long as 5 plus years of your life doing your residency.
So it's very very exciting.
So, I hope that kind of answers all your questions about the Match process and residency interview
process.
I'm trying to remember if there are any other questions.
I will check back with more questions.
So I just finished dinner and now I'm doing some reading for my EMS elective.
So EMS stands for emergency medical service and basically consists of all the EMTs and
the paramedics who ride in the ambulance and pick patients up and provide some care.
So the reading that I'm doing is basically all the protocols that's been written for
certain cases like sepsis or cardiac arrest, or hypotension, congestive heart failure and
there are all these protocols written by medical directors.
I think it varies from state to state but there's basically protocols on what to do,
what drugs to give, how to transport patients, and things like that.
So I just wanna familiarize myself with all these things so that hopefully I'll see some
cool things tomorrow and for the rest of the month and I'll be able to jump in with what
I'm supposed to do.
Technically I'm supposed to observing mostly so I won't be doing anything, I won't be intubating
anyone, I won't be starting lines, but I heard that sometimes the paramedics will let you
do some minor things so I think it's just a good idea for me to know what's going on
so I'm just gonna read up on everything and I will check in with you guys later.
So it's getting late, I have to go to bed soon because tomorrow I have a 7am-7pm shift.
So I wanna make sure I get plenty of rest for that.
But before I end the video, I wanna tell you guys a little bit about today's sponsor, Away.
I wanna tell you guys about their product.
So Away is a luggage company and they use high quality material.
They use German polycarbonate and they offer it at a much lower price compared to other
brands by cutting out the middle man and selling directly to you.
You can choose from a variety of colors and sizes.
They have four different sizes, they have the carry-on, the bigger carry-on, the medium
or the large.
The one that I have is the bigger carry-on.
The suitcase itself has a lot of cool features, like I said it's made of German polycarbonate,
which is very light but very strong and impact resistant.
The interior has patent pending compression system so you can actually compress all the
stuff that you packed so that it fits and you can zip everything up.
It has four 360 degrees spinner wheels and it has TSA approved combination lock built
in to the top of the bag to prevent theft.
Another bonus is they have a removable, washable laundry bag so that you can separate the dirty
clothes from the clean clothes.
Something cool about the carry ons and the bigger carry on that I haven't seen on any
other luggage is that they have this charger that's built into the luggage itself so you
can charge all your cellphones, tablets, kindles or anything else that you can power with a
USB cord.
The luggage comes with a lifetime warranty so if anything breaks, you can send it over
to them to fix it or they'll replace it for life.
The luggage comes with a 100 day trial so you can live with it, travel with it, and
then if you decide it's not for you you can return it for a full refund.
There's free shipping on any way order within the lower 48 states and the carry-on sizes
are complaint with all the major US airlines so you can take it with you on the plane.
And if you're in New York City, or visiting New York City you can actually visit the away
retail store and check out all the luggage in person.
So this is the luggage that I used for my away rotation last month.
I have the bigger carry-on like I mentioned and it fit everything that I need while I
was at the hospital.
Probably my favorite feature was the laundry bag so that I can put all my laundry in there
in will be separate from all my clean clothes.
I didn't have to bring a separate plastic bag or a laundry bag. to put all my dirty
clothes in.
So if you guys are interested in trying out the luggage, you guys can go to awaytravel.com/strivetofit
that's awaytravel.com/strivetofit and use the promo code "strivetofit" for $20 off your
purchase.
So I'm gonna close the vlog now.
I Hope you guys enjoyed the video.
Let me know if you guys have anymore interview related questions and I'll try to answer them
in the next video.
I will see you guys next time!
BYE!