Stethoscope ✔️

Scrubs ✔️

Patagonia ✔️

The unofficial intern uniform…

In about 4 months I’ll be a 4^th year, whew…deep breath in…10,9,8,7…..then deep breath out.

I plan to complete 7 electives in various subspecialties in Pediatrics along with electives in rural health, research and academic medicine. I was really excited about going home for a Peds Sub-I at UM/Jackson 😍. I would get to go back to where it all started, get advising from my first mentor from the UM Motivation program along with further advisement, mentorship and hopefully the opportunity to work alongside none other than Dr. Reynolds, THE purpose coach and productivity expert. However, VSAS came to a halt starting today 🛑….for 2 weeks no medical students or medical school/residency programs will be allowed to access the system. So what does that mean for away rotations? There might not be any. Or, if there are, it will be later on in the year.

Some schools have already stopped their VSAS process indefinitely for the year, with no away rotations being offered until January. I’m ready to adjust my electives if need be but the thing that is going to impact students the most is the AAMC timeline for VSAS and ERAS. With no immediate changes, we have to really get started on personal statements, LORs and the works right about…now lol.

I’m trying not to stress about it too much because what will be will be. I just have to do my part to accomplish the goals I have set for the things that I can control.

Check out my Prelim 4^th year schedule below:

Peds EM/Urgent Care 🚑

Peds Sub-I UM/Jackson 👩🏾‍⚕️

Peds Adolescent & Young Adult STDs ☔

Research 🏥

Academic Medicine 👩🏽‍🏫

Rural Medicine (South Georgia & Dominican Republic) 🌳–>🌴

Child Health & Social Determinants in Ghana 🇬🇭

*I want to complete an elective in Child Abuse & Forensic Science 🔬too!

Here’s why:

Peds EM/Urgent Care 🚑

Out of all of my rotations thus far the top 2 would be pediatrics and surgery…yes surgery. Pediatrics for every reason why I decided to go into to medicine and the passion for my patients and families along with my comfort of working in that environment (children, residents, attendings, nurses, staff…everything!) was just confirmation for me. Surgery had the most interesting cases and I had the opportunity to work with my hands. I realized that I really enjoyed doing procedures on the Trauma service and in the OR. Pediatric emergency medicine has a nice combination of both. Hopefully, a month of PEM will help me decide if I just want to go into Peds or Peds EM. Either way I could still decide while in residency.

Peds Sub-I UM/Jackson 👩🏾‍⚕️

I want to experience working and learning at home, back where it all began…..que the dramatic opening music. LOL. I would like to go home a serve the same community I grew up in and I really enjoy working with a diverse patient population along with the ample opportunities to provide medical care abroad. UM/Jackson has a URM program for URM’s accepted into away rotations so they can receive advisement while applying to residency. I have awesome advisors and mentors at my home institution but this program’s advisor is none other than my pre-med advisor, Dr. Symes. He has been advising me through every stage of my career and it just feels right to have him with me along the way while applying to residency. Above all, just imaging being home with my family to live and work brings me so much happiness. You miss so much while you’re away for school and I would love to spend the next stage of my medical career at home….but only if that is the best option. Although I miss home I’m still trying to remain open but if I fall in love…I fall in love. 

Peds Adolescent & Young Adult STDs ☔

This is the part of Peds that really made me enjoy adolescent medicine. Maybe it’s because I have experience teaching middle and high school students but I just feel so comfortable working with adolescents and talking about their health. Sexual health is so IMPORTANT! It’s not talked about enough and Sex Ed classes were taken out of schools right after I graduated high school. I can still see some of those pictures in my head to this day. I was sold on birth control after watching a child birth video in Mr. Jarrell’s class in middle school…. I admit some of the tactics used to educate us were a bit much and others were just fine but at least the conversation was initiated and we were educated on how to care for ourselves. So this elective would allow me to gain more experience in that aspect of adolescent medicine. SN: My absolute favorite part of OB/GYN was ambulatory…almost made me consider switching over but…nah…I’ll be there once the baby is delivered 👶.

Research 🏥

I thought I wouldn’t be into research so much because of my experience in bench research…pipetting and swirling and pipetting and bleaching. It’s definitely worth it in the end but I prefer clinical research. So that’s what I’ll be doing during this time. I helped create a Blood Pressure Self-Management and Education Program while in LA with Watts Healthcare so I’m considering starting that once again but in Atlanta and East Point.

Academic Medicine 👩🏽‍🏫 

I originally started my career teaching. I would LOVE to teach medical academia. This elective should give me a hint of what it’s like.

Rural Medicine (South Georgia & Dominican Republic) 🌳–>🌴 🇩🇴

During Family Medicine, I went down to good old Albany, GA. It was the first time I saw all my own patients, completed my own notes, did every part of the Physical Exam, ordered labs and imaging and medications…at the same damn time. My attending let me do everything! I enjoyed having the autonomy and I’m going back for more. I have some family down there, so I enjoyed spending some time with them. For the final week, I plan to travel to the Dominican Republic with Handfuls of Hope. That was my first mission trip abroad where I worked with the Pediatric team as a translator (Blog Post coming soon). I can’t wait to go back, the work they do down there is amazing and the best part is it’s sustainable. I need to get back on my Spanish so I’ll be ready for the trip.

Child Health & Social Determinants in Ghana 🇬🇭

This might be the ultimate highlight of my 4^th year. I get to go back home!!!! To my true home..mother Africa. I feel like I’m going to cry as soon as I land. Through Children’s Family Health International and MSM’s Office of Global Health Equity I get to go to Accra, Ghana and learn Child Health and Social Determinants of Health. I will rotate in weekly specialty clinics with HIV/AIDS, TB, Asthma and Sickle Cell patients. I will also have opportunities to work in Pediatric Surgery, ENT nurse’s clinic and the emergency medicine department. I think a really good aspect of the elective is working with the public health unit and social centers in the area to understand their approaches to public health issues. It also gives me an opportunity to assist with home visits to follow up with patients I’ve seen at the hospital and participate in health education and awareness outreach efforts in the area.

—-With the pandemic going on, I had to push this elective back to be one of my last. I’m hoping the funding will still be available…

*Child Abuse & Forensic Science 🔬

This would be one of the most challenging electives to do if I get the chance to do it. It’s a future pediatrician’s fear…seeing children abused and/or dead as a victim of abuse.

I feel like I should give myself full exposure to what I might experience during my career, so I’m up for the challenge.

This would be an additional elective though so I would have to remove one of the electives shown above. If I can’t, I’m sure I could work something out by shadowing the preceptor for 3/5 days a week to gain some experience. If I can’t fit it into my curriculum, I’ll just adjust it to fit into my life…create my own curriculum. Que Law and Order SVU’s intro 😏.

Back to studying, I have my first remote NBME coming up next week.

-Future Dr. Jones ❤