Most of all it just makes me excited to be a real doctor some day. That some day being about four years away now.

Anyway, here are some links I’ve found recently that are relevant to the Pre Med Journey:

-Thanks to Hack College for discovering that Amazon is offering Amazon Prime free to students for a year. That’s free two-day shipping on most stuff from Amazon, pretty cool! Check out this link to sign up for Amazon Student.

-Another classic post from Cal Newport at Study Hacks titled “Treat Your Mind As You Would A Private Garden.” There are plenty of parallels between tending a garden and nurturing your mind and he makes some interesting insights.

(Sidenote: I just picked up Cal’s book “How To Become A Straight-A Student.” So far it’s awesome, look forward to a full review soon.)

-Trent over at the Simple Dollar reveals one of his biggest financial mistakes: Using excess student loans to finance an unnecessary lifestyle during college. It may seem common sense to some people, but when thousands of seemingly “free” dollars are staring you in the face it can be difficult to turn them down. Don’t make the same mistake Trent did.

-I recently joined Premed Network, an online community for pre meds. While it is still fairly new, a significant number (over 1,400) of people have already joined. You can see this site is brimming with potential and I’m excited to see where it goes. Check out my profile here.

-The Memoirist over at A Med School Memoir talks about his first week during the third year of medical school. A nice glimpse into a med student’s life, although his experience so far is a little discouraging.

Hope July is going well!

Seriously though, here are some great links related to the Pre Med journey:

-Cal Newport at Study Hacks probes the problems associated with multi-tasking and being hyper-connected. Bottom line: Multi-tasking makes it harder for you to focus on one task, even when you´re not multi-tasking.

-Jae Won Joh writes a compelling argument against using letter writing companies. Basically you´re much better off saving your money.

-Mohammed at Pre Med Hell explores the decision of picking a major as a pre med student. I essentially agree with the premise that you should major in what you´re interested in. However, if that means double majoring to fulfill the pre med requirements, I would be careful.

-Speaking of Pre Med Hell, did you see my guest post over there about the importance of quality sleep? If not, you should check it out. Look forward to more articles where I explore some scientfic research related to student matters here at Pre Med Journey.

That´s all for now. I´ll be back in the states soon, responding to emails and comments will happen more promptly after that!

It’s about the importance of sleep, not just quantity, but quality of sleep and how it effects your grades.

I cannot confirm it’s posted today as I’m starting the trek to Machu Picchu! Check the next couple days if it’s not up today.

While I’m shooting for something better than top 99, I’ll take what I can get. : )

Look forward to more posts in the near future- I’m finally done with all my secondar applications and for various reasons should have more free time in the next month or so.

Do you find Premed Journey helpful? Spread the word, tell your friends, post helpful articles on your own blog, etc. Think I can improve the site? Send me an e-mail (sam (at)premedjourney.com) and let me know your thoughts!

The blog serves as a sort of journal of her progress, and I’m grateful for the effort she puts into it as it is an entertaining read.

Check it out here:

http://35and35.wordpress.com/

Good luck Mel, I hope you achieve you goals and look forward to reading about your adventures along the way.

The first post comes from Kim at Emergiblog. Burnout occurs across all careers but I think it is especially important to be wary of in health care. Kim says,

I had stopped looking patients in the eye. I was spitting out standard responses instead of listening to what my patients were saying. I was expending the bare minimum of energy required to complete tasks.

I was doing; I wasn’t caring.

And I was burnt.

Check out the rest of the post here.

Next, I want to highlight a series of posts by Whitecoat at Whitecoat’s Call Room. Starting a couple weeks back, Whitecoat started outlining the story of his own medical malpractice trial. What he delivers is a surprisingly gripping account of a crazy process. Read the disclaimer here, then check out the first four posts in the yet to be finished series.

Post 1. Post 2. Post 3. Post 4.

Here’s a quote from the first post,

After reading through the chart, I remembered the patient. Nice older fellow who was laughing and joking with the staff when he first came in. I also remembered the patient’s daughter. As soon as she arrived, she began questioning everything we did and everything I ordered. I remember asking her if she had any suggestions for her father’s care. She wanted him transferred to his regular doctor at a hospital across town. By the time she made that request, he was already in shock and we couldn’t transfer him. That made her even more upset. Fortunately, because of the daughter’s animosity, I documented that chart very well.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the series!

Gives you just a taste of some of the crazy stories that happen while practicing medicine.