She Wants The MD

So I’ve got a question for all you ladydocs out there: if under the circumstances you were to be married, which last name would you prefer to be professionally known as?

This question might depend on a number of factors: timing of marriage, stage of career, traditional vs non-traditional, ease of name changing, one’s own personal beliefs.

I always felt that no matter when I got married, whether it’d be before I graduated medical school or after, I would keep my maiden name professionally and go by Dr. MJ. I went through medical school as an MJ, I earned my medical degree as an MJ, and so I want to be Dr. MJ. 

But, I would also like to take my husband’s last name socially… but I’m not sure how all that works in the “real world”  with licensing and such. Is there a checkbox you mark that says, “Hi yes I want to be Dr. MJ at the hospital but everywhere else I’m gonna go by Mrs. X”?

Obviously, I am now post-medical-school and full into the actual MD phase of my training. I also have research publications under my maiden name. 

So I’m KEEPING my name professionally and legally and will socially go by Sweetheart’s name for functions/kids schools/random strangers/phone calls/etc– but I’ll always keep my maiden name officially and professionally. Growing up, my mom had kept her maiden name and went by it professionally, but then went by my dad’s last name socially. So the non-matched last name is super normalized for me.

I’m doing this for a lot of reasons: -It’s annoying to change your name – lots of forms, etc etc -It’s SUPER annoying to change your name AFTER you have a medical license. I looked into it. It’s a headache and I hate paperwork.  -It’s SUPER SUPER annoying to get the publications you published UNDER YOUR MAIDEN NAME “counted” toward your publishing record (dumb, antiquated rules).  -I’m not traditional. I’m just not.  -I’ve always had this name. It’s my name. It would be weird to me to wake up and suddenly have a different name. -It wasn’t important to Sweetheart for me to take his name (and it wasn’t important to me that he took mine). We’re not traditional.  -I like my name. I’ve had it for a quarter of a century. I’m used to it. 

Long story short: I think names are a very intimate thing. They are a special part of who you are. You are the person who gets to decide what to do with your name - change, don’t change. 

Whatever works for you!! And you should always feel free to have a conversation with your partner about your choices. 

So change your name, or don’t change your name, hyphenate, come up with a whole new name for both of you. 

General/all rotations:

https://onlinemeded.org/

Has a ton of free lectures on various topics. Notes and stuff, you need to pay for.

http://www.medbullets.com/

Summary of various topics. Free. 

http://radiopaedia.org/

Useful radiology source

http://www.dynamed.com/ or http://www.uptodate.com/

Useful readings that are subscription based - I would wait to buy subscriptions because the hospital or your school may give it to you for free. Also, dynamed is free for students. 

Maxwell Quick Medical Reference

A quick reference for random things

Case files / Blueprints

Books series that has books for each rotation. Choose whichever works for you. 

http://som.uthscsa.edu/StudentAffairs/thirdyear.asp

Has review lectures for the psych, surgery, peds, and medicine shelves that are about 2 hours each.  

Qbank

Pick your fav

Medscape app Apple / Android

Useful reference and has calculators 

I don’t really recommend epocrates - has a lot of random and really stupid errors that even I caught. 

Figure1 - Apple / Android / Web

Instagram for medical people

http://www.2minutemedicine.com/

“High-Impact Reports on the Latest Medical Studies. All Curated and Written by Practicing Physicians and Health Professionals “

Medicine 

Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine (Pocket Notebook) 

Gold for medicine rotation

Step Up to Medicine 

Good reading for medicine rotation. I’ve heard that the older version and the newest version are not that much different so you might consider buying an older version to save money. 

Family

http://www.fpnotebook.com/ 

Reference guide. Also has apps. Recommended by my attending. 

ER

10 second EM app - Apple / Android

Recommended by an ER resident - has quick references for everything ER

Ortho

http://www.orthobullets.com/

Medbullets for ortho.

Surgery 

Pestana’s Surgery Notes  

Overview of surgery things. I dunno, I never finished reading this but people highly recommend it.

Surgical Recall 

Good to review before your surgery for pimp questions.

For pts

GoodRX - Apple / Android

Find the cheapest prescriptions. 

Medisafe - Apple / Android

To help remember when to take medications 

Random 

Compression socks

Especially on surgery or any other rotation where you’re on your feet a lot.

Comfy shoes

For all rotations

Food/granola bars in your whitecoat

Because you never know when you’ll get hungry/hangry

Pain meds

You may consider carrying some in your white coat because there may not be time to go to your locker to get anything.

Whitecoat clipboard 

Useful to organize notes and whatever. Also has some nice reference things on the back that I always forget is there.

General advice

Be flexible. Things don’t always work out perfectly - roll with it. 

Have things to study with you, especially for when your attending invariably runs late. 

Don’t take things too personal. People will yell for the most stupidest things. Realize that it’s a problem with them and not you. 

Hello fellow medblrs, premedblrs, and anyone else who just enjoys reading the hell that medical school students go through. When we are in medical school, I feel like we are constantly bombarded with multiple resources. Which ones are best? How do I know which ones will work for me? While not every learning method works for everyone, I did decide to compile a list of resources along with my thoughts on each one. Each resource is linked as well!