i came back to the glorious united states from the end of june until the beginning of january. on the schedule were four month-long 4th year electives. first i did pediatric emergency medicine at morgan stanley children’s hospital, which is at columbia university’s new york presbyterian hospital in washington heights, at the northern tip of manhattan. i rented a room close to the hospital in the heavily dominican neighborhood, and frequently ran back and forth across the george washington bridge at night for awe-inspiring views of the manhattan skyline. this as well as the next elective were sub-internships, meaning that i was expected to assume the responsibility level of a first-year resident, which was a huge (but great) learning curve and kept me extremely busy. that first month i also took the clinical skills (cs) portion of step 2 of the united states medical licensing exam (usmle), which is a practical test in which you enter a series of exam rooms with actor patients who simulate a variety of medical scenarios.
my next elective was in baton rouge,
louisiana, at our lady of the lake hospital, where i was on the pediatric wards
basically 15 hours every day.
next i made a quick stop at home
in alberta to pick up my car, as living in the south for a month without a car really reminded me of the value of wheels. then, to
rady children’s hospital at the university of california – san diego for a month of
pediatric endocrinology (and many long runs on the beach)! thanks to friends
from the past kimberly and brian for being so welcoming! san diego was truly
amazing, and i stuck around for a couple weeks after my elective to go to
mexico and also to attend the american academy of pediatric’s (aap) annual
conference, whose attendees included, among others, hillary clinton.
then i drove quickly back across the
country to new york city, where i did an elective in dermatology
at mount sinai-beth israel hospital in midtown manhattan, commuting daily from the cheapest place i
could rent in caribbean brooklyn. then, i drove all around the country for a
little over a month, attending residency interviews! they were quite fun. special thanks to all the people who helped me out by hosting me, like mrs breckenridge in san diego, will in phoenix, mayaan in western mass, isaac and camille in south bend indiana, ryan and jess in minneapolis, joel in chicago, mr and mrs burns in cincinnati, and a potpurri of motel 6s. even
made the impromtu decision to go to kenya for a week for a family reunion! finally,
it was home to canada for christmas, with about 30 000 more kilometers on my
college-era honda civic.
