The new school year has begun for students across the country, including Stanford’s 90 first-year medical students - who started class on Monday and spent last week at orientation activities anxious and excited for the journey to finally begin.
To help the students prepare, faculty talked to them about the emotional and academic challenges of medical school and emphasized that it can be metamorphic and, not surprisingly, somewhat stressful. "They are seeing life and death," said one faculty member at orientation, who added that medical school “is a transformational time the likes of which I don’t think you see in any other level of education.”
The week of preparation concluded with the traditional stethoscope ceremony, which I wrote about in an article published online today. The ceremony symbolizes the importance of the personal connection between doctor and patient, and during the event each student walks across the stage to accept their stethoscopes. As Laurie Weisberg, MD, president of the medical center alumni association, told the students:
The great thing about the stethoscope is you have to be close to your patient to use it. This is your chance to truly interact with the patient. You are listening to what the patient has to tell you.
In his address to the students, Dean Lloyd Minor, MD, told them the four-year, or longer, journey would change the way they see the world and that they "will learn some of life’s most valuable lessons from your patients." He also highlighted some of the demographics of the new class:
Fifty-one percent of you are women; 15 percent of you are from communities underrepresented in medicine; 21 of you were born outside of the U.S., coming from China, Columbia, India, Vietnam, just to name a few. You come from a diverse and wide range of universities — 10 of you from Stanford, 13 from the Stanford of the East [Harvard]. Eighteen of you already have a master’s or a doctorate, and many of you have already published research, participated in varsity athletics, shined in the arts and contributed to your community.
Previously: Abraham Verghese urges Stanford grads to always remember the heritage and rituals of medicine, Top 10 reasons I’m glad to be in medical school and “Something old and something new” for Stanford medical students
Photo, of Brandon Turner receiving his official white coat at a ceremony last Friday, by Norbert von der Groeben
