It's for the kids!

Kelsey Corrigan, MS1

Hello! My name is Kelsey, a first year medical student here at Duke, and I am one of the students in charge of Duke Med Elementary. Duke Med Elementary (DME) is a student-run organization in the medical school that teaches Durham elementary school students about the cardiovascular system and the gastrointestinal system through science-based educational programs. The ultimate mission of DME is to reduce childhood obesity in Durham by connecting science to exercise and nutrition, and of course to have fun while doing it!

In the fall, third grade students come to the medical school to learn about the heart. The session begins with a free Subway lunch and a lecture from two first-year medical student volunteers. The lecture teaches the kids about the anatomical parts of the cardiovascular system as well as about how the heart pumps blood throughout the body. After learning about the heart, 20 medical student volunteers assist in taking the kids through their own dissection of a pig heart! As you may be able to guess, touching a real heart is the kids’ favorite part (as well as the grossest).

The hour-long sessions are always a blast for both the kids and the medical students. We have had kids tell us that the hearts are “epic” and that we “smell like medicine”. We also came across an ambitious student who said “I am still hungry, can I eat the heart for the rest of my lunch?” (we gave him the rest of his sandwich instead). We even had superman stop by once to teach the kids about the heart! Overall, it is absolutely heart-warming to observe nine year-olds and twenty year-olds interact and teach each other.

In the spring, third grade students will come to the medical school to learn about digestion. These sessions will include a lecture as well as an obstacle course through the GI tract. I can’t wait to see the look on the kids’ faces when they realize that at the end of the GI tract course, they become poop!

In the midst of all the hard work and commitment of medical school, Duke Med Elementary has fostered a time for medical students to relax, have fun, and become involved with the Durham community. DME expands beyond the classroom by teaching children the importance of science in everyday life and showing activities that kids can do to increase their health. At the end of the day, the kids always leave with a huge smile on their face, and frankly, so do the medical students.

Making the Most of the Last Year in Med School!

Pierre Elias, MS5

Hi all! My name is Pierre and I’m a MS5 at Duke. I took two third years, the majority of which I spent in San Francisco. So let me start with this picture:

This is a watch I wear a lot of the time. The first two lines are how much of my life is left. At least that is the average calculated by putting in all my personal data in an actuarial calculator. So why the morbid gloom and doom?

Life is surprisingly short. And it’s always ticking away. I’m just one of those people who needs that reminder more often than others.

I took a second third year because I wanted to explore meaningful problems to work on, as well as doing some personal exploration. The biggest lesson was that you regret the opportunities you don’t take much more than those you do. Even when time is short and stress is high, I try the odd thing. So here are some of the things I’ve done during my last year in medical school!

Read a book by a waterfall

North Carolina is stunningly gorgeous. There’s ocean and mountains three hours from one another. I’ve taken at least one trip West towards Asheville every year. This time we stopped by some waterfalls on our hike to lounge and read. There’s even one you can slide down!

Spend two weeks in Japan

The fourth year schedule is incredibly flexible, which mean I had a few weeks with no obligations in Durham. We spent it travelling the country and enjoying incredible sights, food, and people.

Have great relationships with my mentors

The mentoring I’ve received at Duke has been the highlight of my time here. Brilliant people who take time to teach, motivate, and guide you. I’ve worked with my mentors for the past year and a half. I offered up the idea of us going to San Francisco for a string of meetings with interesting collaborators. They were happy to oblige! It was great getting to talk about important research as well as spend quality time with them.

Just be with friends

Maybe the most wonderful thing is just being in the presence of wonderful people. It’s amazing how much you grow, learn, and change during medical school. Reflecting on that with the people who were there with you is memorable. I think the best moments I’ve had over these past few years all happened at a bar or someone’s house, just laughing at ourselves.

So that’s been my experience in the last year of med school. Wouldn’t change a thing.

Freemont Rural Health Coalition

Hi! I’m Leslie, a third year MSTP student and one of the student leaders of the Fremont Rural Health Coalition.

Leslie Chang, MS3/MSTP

Once a month, three first year medical students and two third year medical students embark on an adventure to Fremont, NC. I hadn’t heard of Durham before I interviewed at Duke, let alone Fremont. Well, in case you’re like me, Fremont is a rural town with a population of about 1300 located an hour and a half from Durham, NC. Every month, these five medical students make the journey out there to provide free care for patients under the supervision of an attending. Working at Fremont is a unique experience for both first and third year medical students. First year students have the opportunity to experience primary care in a rural setting and practice taking vitals, leading the patient interview and physical examination, which is quite a bit of independence and responsibility this early in their training! I had the opportunity to go last Saturday and as a third year student, I took on more of a teaching role – guiding the first year medical student through the patient interaction. It was a really cool experience because just 5 months ago, I was still learning how to measure a HgbA1c from the resident. But last Saturday, I was walking the first year medical student through her first HgbA1c measurement! 

In addition, I’ve gone behind the scenes and learned more about the practical aspects of what it takes to run a clinic on a tight budget and how much simple tests like HgbA1c costs. I’ve also caught a glimpse of what it was like living in a rural area such as Fremont, NC and the challenges in providing healthcare to those with minimal access. But the best part is that all care is student-provided with ample opportunity and most importantly, time, to hear the patients’ stories and perform thorough physicals. I’m thankful that I was able to participate in this opportunity to serve and lead through Fremont! 

Global Health as a Fourth Year!

Jessi McDade, MS4

Hi! I’m Jessi, one of the MS4’s here at Duke. I was lucky enough to organize a whole month-long rotation in Mwanza, Tanzania this past fall where I was working closely with Duke Pediatric Neuro-oncologist Kristin Schroeder taking care of children from all over Tanzania who have cancer.

Instead of writing a sad post about some of the realities of medicine in Mwanza vs Durham, I thought I would talk about how my trip came to a close. For my last weekend, only two days before I left the country, Kristin and I took a two-day safari together to Ngorongoro crater and Tarangire National Park. Now, one thing you must know about me before truly understanding this story is that besides having a pretty deep love of all animals, I LOVE cats. Every kind of cat. Especially big cats. So naturally, going on safari was something I was thrilled about.

Kristin (right) and myself (left) on top of Ngorongoro crater, Tanzania

Our first day was honestly a little bit scary because our Jeep broke down on the side of a very steep hill, and on the other side of the hill were two lions. This may not sound scary to you, but if you imagine yourself in a Jeep with no windows, a big hole in the ceiling, three humans, and three large boxes full of snacks for said humans, you could see why two wild lions might think that our Jeep was just a cage full of defenseless cat food. Needless to say we were fine, but we did not end up getting a very close view of any lions that day (maybe for the best).

On our second day, I had the incredible opportunity to see a ton of animals I had never seen in person: giraffes, baby elephants, hyenas, baboons. I was already pretty satisfied with my entire safari experience. And then BAM – we turned a corner and there were three other safari vehicles parked on the side of the road with every person in those three cars pointing to one side and looking like they were over-the-moon about something. One thought and one thought only crossed my mind: LION. And sure enough, there was a lion. And another lion. And actually eight lions, all in one place approximately 10ft from our car. Then one of the lions sauntered on over to our car, as if attracted to my cat magnet aura, and just leaned on our car, laid down and took a nap. Oh. My. Gosh. Happy tears literally streamed down my face. They are such majestic animals – so deliberate and thoughtful about their movements, so ginormous… and so, so sleepy.

A photo I took of three lions in Tarangire national park.

We sat in our Jeep and watched this pride of lions for over an hour and a half. This was one of the best experiences in my life. It’s hard to explain fully how different seeing these animals in the wild was than seeing them in a zoo or even in a wildlife reserve. I was lucky to have been in the right place at the right time, just watching a pride of lions yawn, groom themselves, nap, re-situate, cuddle, or stare at me staring at them.

I tried to bring this feeling back with me to Durham when I returned for what turned out to be the busiest time of med school – residency interview season. I look back on my time in Tanzania as a time where I was always present. I was there, in the moment, more than I have ever been before. I was feeling every feeling to the fullest, be it devastation over the loss of one of our patients, fear over the legitimate possibility of being lion lunch, or gratitude that the universe granted me this special opportunity to meet so many incredible souls halfway across the world who I may never see again. Neighbors, friends, taxi drivers, patients, doctors, expats, total strangers - and even lions – touched my life and changed my future direction.

The Coffee Guide

At the risk of coming across as a cliché coffee lover that incessantly talks about coffee to any and all disinterested listeners, I’ll be writing about my favorite coffee spots in the hospital.  For the record, I do love coffee and drink quite a lot of it (ask my TBL group from first year- I drank enough to make my eye twitch for a month once), which makes this quite possibly the only topic I am a legitimate authority on.


Valentine Esposito, MS2

MS1 year at Duke Med is amazing because you can stream many of your classes and you always know your schedule for the day, which allows you to plan for when and where you get your coffee.  My MS1 move was to bring an XL Dunkin to class in the morning and then grab coffee from NOSH’s Jo Rae Café in the TSCHE for the afternoon.  As an MS2, my XL Dunkin days are behind me since I can’t chug that much coffee before prerounds and that kind of fluid intake is prohibitive on certain rotations (looking at you surgery).  Anyways, I am getting by, but there’s a bit of strategy involved….

When I have less than five minutes to go grab coffee:  This all depends on the time of day and where I happen to be in the hospital.  If I’m at Duke North, my first step is to check the line at Starbucks.  If and when the Starbucks has a really long line, I’ll go to the Duke North cafeteria.  Even when the cafeteria is busy, you make the coffee yourself and the cashier lines move quickly, so it is almost always a safe bet.  If I’m in Duke South, there’s a Seattle’s Best stand in the cafeteria there that seldom has a line.  The cafeteria in the Duke Medical Pavilion (right near Duke South and TSCHE) also has a self-serve coffee station, but the cashier lines can be pretty long.  Make friends with the cashiers at the DMP- if the line is crazy long and you shoot them desperate look, they sometimes will just let you quietly leave with your coffee in hand and sanity in tact.  If I happen to be in TSCHE, it’s Jo Rae Café every time- the line can be long, but it moves, I promise.

When I want a really big cup of coffee:  Anywhere that serves coffee in the Starbucks venti cups (Duke North Starbucks, DMP cafeteria, Duke South Seattle’s Best).

When I need to drink a cup of coffee in under 5 minutes:  I’m a hot coffee purist, but some time sensitive situations call for iced coffee that you can chug the second you get it- I’m talking about when you have to go watch a procedure or intake a new patient and it’s not okay to have a cup of coffee in hand.  It happens and you need a plan.  You can get iced coffee from the Duke North Starbucks (again, presuming the line isn’t too bad).  The better move is to get iced coffee from Jo Rae Café since their iced coffee is made from a really strong concentrate.  Jo Rae serves their iced coffee over coffee ice cubes, so make sure to say hold the ice cubes (they are however adorable and amazing and totally worth it for times when you have time for them to melt and yield the full benefit there).

When I want the best coffee: NOSH at Jo Rae Café!  Jo Rae has the best coffee in the hospital, but what keeps me semi-jogging there all the time is their amazing staff!  The Jo Rae staff is incredibly friendly and really looks out for us medical students.  They always know when our exams are and which rotations we are all on.  I’m a huge dork and think it is the coolest thing that they know my “usual” (which comes in handy during the lunch rush), but I think it is even cooler when there’s no line and I get to chat with the staff about their days and rock out a bit to the 80’s Pandora station they always have playing.   Duke Med runs on NOSH at Jo Rae.

And there you have it, your Duke Med coffee guide.  As a disclaimer, if any of this seems overly neurotic or aggressive, it probably is and I made no apologies for my lifestyle choices.