Category: Allopathic Medicine (MD)
-
How Working as a Hospital Chaplain Informed My Clinical Practice
— Updated:
Being present and connecting with patients can be difficult for any healthcare professional student. Sharada details her experiences as a hospital chaplain which has afforded her to better connect and to be present for her patients as she continues her medical career. When I told my parents that I wanted…
-
A Day in the Life of a Clinical Student
— Updated:
In today’s Osmosis blog, a medical student discusses their experiences while on clinical rotations compared to their basic science courses, and how he is successfully navigating this part of his medical educational journey. As a basic science student, I had always speculated and dreamed of what it would be like…
-
How to Use USMLE® Question Banks Efficiently on Osmosis
— Updated:
Learn practical tips to use medical question banks effectively, improve test-taking skills, and stay motivated throughout your USMLE preparation.
-
Mindfulness in Medicine
— Updated:
Keerat, a third-year medical student, discusses how she practices meditation to help develop mindfulness and strengthen her brain as she journeys through medical school. Medical school can be overwhelming. With 8:00 AM lectures after 2:00 AM study nights, cadaver dissections with the omnipresent taste of formaldehyde, changing from white coat…
-
Clinical Encounters
— Updated:
A medical student shares her best tips for keeping perspective and connecting with patients while out on clinical clerkship. “Hi, my name is Sarina and I’m a medical student.” Medical trainees are all too familiar with this sentence, repeating it dozens and dozens of times in a day. We use…
-
Osmosis Top 5 Videos: Dr. Rishi Desai
— Updated:
The Osmosis Product team has been hard at work making Playlists an even better experience for Osmosis learners. By popular demand, you can now subscribe to Playlists on the platform: just click the Follow button on a playlist and it will be added to the My Playlists menu on the left. Osmosis’s Chief Medical…
-
His Hallucinations: A Clinical Experience
— Updated:
Osmosis colleague and junior doctor, Armando, reflects on clinical experience during medical school. The burden of mental health is often overlooked. One in five Australians will suffer from a mental health illness each year. This includes anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and also a variety of eating disorders. An often understated…
-
Celebrating Women in Medicine Month
— Updated:
It’s Women in Medicine Month, a time to celebrate the incredible, inspiring work performed by women working in the health professions around the world. There are so many innovative and inspiring women working in the medical field, and it hasn’t been an easy road. Shout-out to all the women who…
-
Establishing Balance in Medical School
— Updated:
Second-year medical school student Percy Takyi discusses the importance of finding balance, from making time to working out to maintaining his friendships, all while being a medical school student. While medical school is comprised of many difficult topics, perhaps its most difficult aspect is learning how to deal with the…
-
Neurophobia, Let’s Talk About It
— Updated:
Neurology has a reputation as one of the toughest medical specialties to master, but what does it mean to fear it? Four weeks into our twelve-week long neurology module, I had an unsettling realization, “I think my brain hates itself.” I had developed an intense distaste for learning neurology. There…
-
A Day in the Life of a Dual Degree Program Student
— Updated:
Meet a graduate student tackling a masters and medical school simultaneously. Here is how they do it and what they find rewarding about it. I’m a medical student and graduate student in a small program, a hidden medical school at UC Berkeley, called the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP).…
-
Studying for Step 2 and Making the Transition to Clinicals
— Updated:
Studying for USMLE Step 2 or COMLEX Level 2 is similar, but can be fairly different than studying for USMLE Step 1 or COMLEX Level. Both require countless dedication and self-discipline. However, with Step 2/Level 2, those days of being able to sit in the library all day are reserved…
-
Our Sedentary Situation
— Updated:
For many of us, the pandemic forced us into making our homes our work/study space as well, resulting in having far fewer options for exercise and movement. Medical student Daniel reminds us that it’s up to us to set time to exercise throughout the day for our health’s sake! If…
-
Overcoming Failure in Medical School
— Updated:
A medical student bravely shares her experiences struggling with—and ultimately overcoming—the intense test anxiety that caused her to fail her first year of medical school. I failed my first year of medical school. I survived, don’t worry! As someone who had pretty much never failed anything else in my life…
-
The Clinical Experience That Shaped Me
— Updated:
Clinical experiences can shape the way clinicians think, feel, and their approach to providing care. A med student shares an important experience as she learns to become the best doctor she can be. As a 7 year old learning about how my grandpa gave himself insulin injections everyday, I wanted…
-
How to Stick to a Strict Study Schedule in Medical School Using Osmosis
— Updated:
Get tips on how to stick to a strict study habit to be successful in medical school and the boards. The pressure of the reckless flow of water from the water hose gushed down my throat for hours upon hours without a slight moment to catch my breath, and then,…
-
Learning How to Use Spaced Repetition in Medical School
— Updated:
Learn how spaced-repetition flashcards helped a medical student improve memorization and application of medical facts, leading to higher exam scores and clinical confidence.
-
How To Choose Your Medical Specialty
— Updated:
Find out how a 4th-year med student approaches choosing a medical specialty by balancing USMLE scores, personal strengths, and career goals for residency success.
-
How I Studied for the Shelf Exams and Survived Clinical Year
— Updated:
Clinical year can feel overwhelming, but effective studying doesn’t require perfection. Discover practical, high-yield strategies for shelf exams, clerkships, and balancing medical school with life outside the hospital.
-
How I’m Managing Medical School with OCD
— Updated:
Medical school is hard, but I’m sure you know this already. What they don’t tell you though, is that many medical students experience high amounts of stress – and this stress carries well into residency and beyond. As a result, mental health conditions can be exacerbated by the stress. A…
-
Become a Master Clinician and Ace USMLE Step 2 with Osmosis
— Updated:
Osmosis has been working hard to develop clinical content for those studying for USMLE® Step 2 or currently in clinical rotations at hospitals so you can develop the skills you need to become a master clinician. Here are several helpful resources from Osmosis: Learn to think clinically with the Osmosis…
-
7 of the Best Valentines Day Gifts for Medical and Health Students
— Updated:
Medical and health students lead very stressful lives. As their loved ones, we want to cheer them on and support them. Maybe you are hoping to brighten the day of one of your fellow classmates. This Valentine’s Day, show them some love with a few gifts that could help make…
-
Top 3 Tips You Should Know About COMLEX-USA® Level 1
— Updated:
COMLEX-USA® Level 1 measures your knowledge of the biomedical sciences relevant to solving clinical problems and promoting osteopathic medical care. Tip 1: Should you take both USMLE® and COMLEX-USA®? To obtain physician licensure from an osteopathic school, you must take and pass all three levels of the COMLEX-USA. Some osteopathic schools are now…
-
5 Strategies to Acing the USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX-USA Level 1
— Updated:
As you probably know, USMLE®️ Step 1 and COMLEX-USA®️ Level 1 assesses whether you can apply scientific basics to the practice of medicine. Osmosis is here to help you prepare for and ace the Step 1 and Level 1. Strategy 1: Plan Ahead 6 months to 24 months before test day So, you know…
-
3 Tips to Write Progress Notes
— Updated:
Discover how to write an effective SOAP progress note that tells the patient’s story clearly, communicates accurately with colleagues, and builds trust; all while avoiding common documentation mistakes.
-
My Step 1 Experience, Dr. George Koshy
— Updated:
Learn how a medical student used a 3-month integrated study plan with trusted resources and daily checklists to prepare effectively for the USMLE® Step 1 exam
-
Avoiding Errors In Patient Care
— Updated:
Learn about essential tools and best practices that help healthcare professionals avoid medication, communication, and typographical errors, enhancing patient safety and care quality.
-
What Clinics and Organizations do to Protect Medical Information
— Updated:
There are many laws that are meant to protect patients and their information. Not everyone really understands the laws, protocols, and regulations that clinics use. It can range from a doctor or nurse refusing to disclose patient information to the technology that clinics implement protections. There are laws that doctors’ offices and…
-
5 Tips for Effective Peer-to-Peer Learning
— Updated:
Over the last four years of medical school, I have realized that my knowledge comes from a mosaic of sources. These included, but were not limited to, a multitude of textbooks, lecturers from many domains of scientific research, clinicians and residents from all fields of medicine, multidisciplinary members of treatment…
-
Socio-cultural Awareness: 5 Common Cultural Treatment Practices
— Updated:
As a medical student who also studied anthropology, it’s easy for me to apply my socio-cultural lens to the practice of medicine. Throughout my first year of clinical medicine, I’ve run across a number of examples of alternative practices and cultural healing. Although we are being trained in Western medicine,…