Motive Behind The Student Doctor Diaries

Hello there! I wanted to kick off my blog by first explaining in further detail the reason why I started The Student Doctor Diaries. Since the summer of 2020, I have had this idea brewing in my head but I was unsure about where to begin in terms of creating my own blog and the content I wanted to make. When the semester began in late August, it was intensity level 10 from the get-go. I still had the desire to eventually develop a blog, but I couldn’t find the time to brainstorm ideas and figure out the logistics of it all. As Thanksgiving Break loomed near, I felt the fire reignite and once it began I took the leap. Now we are here, so let me explain why this was an interest of mine!

As I mentioned in my About the Author page, the main reason I started this blog is to act as a resource for the 6-year medical students that will follow after me. This program is rigorous, mentally challenging and will test how far you are willing to push yourself for this career path. My hope is that students can navigate my blog page and find entries they are curious to know more about and find useful, relatable information that will provide comfort. There are an insane amount of resources offered to the students from the beginning to aid in the transition from wherever you are coming from – being high school or as a college transfer student – such as Peer Mentor groups, a class group chat and a team of academic advisors including an Education Team Coordinator (ETC). All of these are great resources, but speaking from personal experience you will probably have creeping thoughts and feelings you might not feel comfortable speaking out about. You will convince yourself that you are the only student feeling a specific type of way or lacking certain strengths. I am here to not only tell you that you are not alone but to show you why these feelings are normal and how I dealt with them. Eventually, I would love to build a safe community on this website that will allow students to interact with each other on a post and tell their own related stories that might reach an individual in a way that my experience couldn’t.

As my blog title indicates, I also wanted to create this blog to serve as a sort of diary that documents my personal experiences over the years. I want to be able to look back on my journey as I grow through milestones and even beyond that well into my career. Keeping a record of my growth and accomplishments will serve as a tool that will keep me grounded and remind me to keep persevering.

Finally, I would love to be able to share an insider’s perspective of this non-traditional program with the world. There are only three 6-year programs in the United States: California Northstate University College of Medicine (Elk Grove, CA), Howard University College of Medicine (Washington, D.C.), and University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine (Kansas City, MO). There are also 7-year programs and even 8-year combined programs, you can find the comprehensive list here. I find that whenever I have a conversation with people about my degree, they are always fascinated by the idea of the program and usually have never heard of anything like it. I believe that if I had not lived so close to Kansas City, I might not have ever discovered that this opportunity existed either. I hope to shed a light on this unique program to people across the nation.

So without further ado… let’s begin! 🙂