Selectives

The Medical Spanish selective is a great way to practice your Spanish and learn how you can apply it in clinical settings while being sensitive to patients of different cultures and backgrounds. The first semester is more humanities-focused and includes discussions of socioeconomic and cultural barriers to care, traditional medicine, ethics, and health policy, to name a few. The second semester is more clinically-oriented and involves learning vocabulary/skills focused on each component of the history and physical. There are also several opportunities to practice what you’re learning on standardized patients. Overall, it’s a very chill and fun course!

If you’re eager to continue learning/practicing, you can participate in the longitudinal Medical Spanish curriculum, which opens opportunities for using your Spanish skills in clinical settings in M2 and beyond. Among other things, the program allows you to take the Clinician Cultural and Linguistic Assessment (CCLA) phone exam to be certified as a bilingual provider starting from your M3 and M4 rotations (this accomplishment is noted on your Dean’s Letter). And, excitingly, it also lets you apply to volunteer as a medical interpreter at Casa de Salud, a low-cost clinic for the uninsured and underinsured population of St. Louis!

Intro to Emergency Medicine was one of my favorite classes this year! It provides an overview of the different cases that are common at emergency departments, and allows us to work through the patient to figure out what is wrong and how to appropriately treat the patient. There are two different parts of the class, one in the fall and the other in the spring, which cover topics like trauma, cardiovascular emergencies, and pediatric emergencies. Though this is a lecture-based course, Dr. Wichelman is a great lecturer and she finds a way to always make class interactive and fun. This course has taught me the most practical knowledge about medicine as of yet, like how to read an ECG and what blood tests to order for certain symptoms. Even if you are not interested in EM, this is a great course to take to learn general medical knowledge that most first years do not have yet!

The MSTP Journal Club can count as a basic science selective. If you’re an MSTP student who is receiving selective credit for Journal Club, the sessions are mandatory. Journal Club is also recommended for students that are interested in transferring into the program. Hence, it’s a valuable opportunity to chat and keep up with your fellow MD/PhD students. We meet weekly, but unlike other selectives, Journal Club lasts throughout all our years at WashU, both MD and PhD.

Perhaps most importantly, the club is entirely student-directed. Each week, one of the students presents on a research paper, usually a seminal paper in the field they’re interested in, or an article with novel, breakthrough findings. An informal Q&A and discussion follows every presentation. Each week we hear fellow students’ perspectives on science they’re passionate about, allowing us to ask even the most basic (or in other cases, very intricate) questions in an entirely relaxed environment. And, best of all, lunch is always provided!

If you’ve never been exposed to the business and administration aspects of health care (or even if you have), this selective is for you! It’s particularly unique because it is offered at the Olin Business School on the Danforth Campus and because your fellow students come from law, business, and undergrad programs: Olin Grand Rounds is one of the few chances you’ll find to get outside of the med school bubble. Each week, Dr. Cynthia Wichelman, the course director, brings in speakers from hospital administration, biotech, and private practice to talk about their piece of the health care landscape and the challenges they face day to day.

We heard from the CEO of BJC HealthCare, one of the largest nonprofit health care delivery organizations in the country (whose flagship hospital is WUSM’s Barnes-Jewish Hospital); the CEO of the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts; the CMO of the insurance company Centene; and other high-profile speakers with real expertise. A highlight for the med students was learning about medical malpractice and hearing about the experiences of WashU physicians who have been sued. The speakers can be a little hit-or-miss, and the course reads more like a smattering of interesting case studies than a comprehensive survey course of the health care industry, but overall, this course has something for everyone and may even spark a new career interest.

It’s worth noting the hefty-ish time commitment: It’s a 3–hour seminar every Monday night for the whole first semester, and we were assigned a fair number of written assignments based on Harvard Business Review case studies. That said, 13 other M1s took the class with me, and it was a good bonding experience for those of us willing to brave the challenge — and the journey over to the Danforth Campus!

I enjoy learning about what I’m not. Not because I’m boring, but … well … I’m boring. Straight, white, cis-gendered males aren’t exactly the bee’s knees. Thus, I decided to dip my toes into the world of queer theory. Did this leave me an expert? No. However, did I get to listen to the finest minds from the Danforth Campus talk about the “down-low” (i.e., how sexual behavior doesn’t necessarily correspond to sexual identity), or HIV prevention and treatment, or German queer history? Yes. Where else can you get that? Not from Olin Grand Rounds, that’s for sure (not a shot at Olin Grand Rounds — just facts). Throw in two fantastic physician-instructors, Dr. Glass and Dr. Sternhell-Blackwell, who even take you out to a fancy Italian restaurant, and you got one hell of a selective.

P.S. If you are really nice to Dr. Sternhell-Blackwell, she will diagnose your skin conditions (hint: she’s a dermatologist). Sadly, mine were not treatable, but she tried.

Alongside the volunteering opportunities that pre-clinical and clinical students can engage in at the Saturday Neighborhood Health Clinic (SNHC) — WUSM’s student-run free clinic — our school also offers a selective course about the SNHC. Students in the selective are trained to coordinate at the clinic. Responsibilities include taking charge of patient intake, monitoring clinic flow, discharging patients, and all other aspects of care management. Coordinating at the SNHC is a unique opportunity to learn about aspects of health care delivery that happen outside the patient exam room.

Students in the selective also get the opportunity to learn from people doing amazing work all over St. Louis. Guest speakers include Dr. Heidi Miller, known for her work in local and national health advocacy and policy, and Rob Freund, the CEO of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, a collaborative aiming to increase access to health care, reduce health disparities, and improve health outcomes among marginalized and disadvantaged populations in St. Louis. By learning more about the community we live in and people’s efforts to continue improving it, we are ideally positioned to make an impact to improve the lives of those around us.