NREMT Certification Exam - DONE AND PASSED!

I wrote the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians certification exam on Monday the 21st. The exam is what they call a "computer adaptive test" in that it starts with an easy question and if you get that question correct, you move on to a harder question. If you get that question correct, you move on to an even harder question. If,however, you get that harder question wrong, you get an easier question. If you get that easy question wrong, you get another easy question. And so goes the exam until it can eastablish a baseline for your passing score. The thing is that for some people, the exam will stop at 70 questions. For others, it may be 80 questions and still for others, it could be 110 questions. For me, the exam stopped at 68 questions. I was last certified at the EMT level in 2012, 10 years ago. The exam was MUCH easier and as I recall, the exam stopped for me around question 80 or so. I'd always heard that 70 was the minimum number of questions needed to establish a baseline score (You have to get a minimum of 70% correct) and I read somewhere that if the exam stops at less than 70 questions, you probably failed and did so poorly that even if you did the full exam, you would still fail.

So I left the Pearson Vue testing center pretty certain that I'd failed. Yesterday morning, at 0500, I checked the NREMT app on my phone and... I passed!!!! I had to have gotten a minimum of 48 questions out of 68 correct to pass. So now I can officially say that one of my medical school graduation requirements is checked off. At my school, we are required to pass an EMT class AND the NREMT cert exam to graduate. The EMT class isn't hard but its extra work ON TOP of our medical school coursework and adds quite a bit of stress to the days and weeks. After the course, you have to wait weeks, sometimes a couple of months, before you can schedule the EMS ridealong that is part of the EMT class. Then, once all of that is done, you wait another week or two to be cleared to sit for the NREMT exam. The whole process can carry into Unit 3 of medical school and I know some of my classmates who failed a unit or two because they were trying to stay caught up with the EMT business. It would be better if the school gave students access to the EMT class maybe in late April or early May so that the didactic portion could at least be completed BEFORE medical school starts. After that, they would just need the hands on skills and the two associated testing days. Then students could start the EMS ride alongs earlier and finish the NREMT earlier. But, this is all above my paygrade. All I know is that I passed and I dont have this hanging over my head anymore. When I return to school in July, ALL I have to do is be a medical student...

2022 NRMP Match

This week has been one that has been filled with great highs and the lowest of lows. On the one hand, I've been able to celebrate the happy stories of friends and acquaintences who matched into their chosen specialities. On the other hand, I have seen a lot of people on Twitter who did not match. I also have five friends, one who took his life on Tuesday, who did not match and who have, so far, failed to land a position in the SOAP.

I cannot begin to imagine what its like to open your email and find that you didn't match. There are not a lot of great helps out there to help unmatched students cope with this new-found reality or to develop a plan to apply for the match again. And the reality is that each year you try to match, your odds of matching go down by about 25%. Thus, its really in your best interest to match the same year that you graduate. I've been talking to my friends who didn't match, and to hear the despair in their voices has been heartbreaking. But its also served as a huge wake up call. Just because I am in medical school, there is no guarantee that I will match.Even though I am in a U.S. school, about 5%-6% of US students don't match each year. There is no guarantee that you will match just because you get into medical school. Thus, I'm now thinking about what I need to do to make sure that my odds of matching are as maximized as possible...

Why is HIV activism and research so important to me?

When I was in my doctoral program, I had to take a grant writing course. As part of that course, we had to give a mini-seminar on our proposed research to the department. At the time, I was considering an HIV intervention where by hair stylists would be trained to deliver the intervention to their African American female clients. After I presented my talk, one of the faculty members in attendance made some disparaging remarks to the effect that she couldn't understand why I am so "obsessed" with HIV in the Black community. It was almost like she was trying to say that HIV is no longer an issue. While my dissertation topic did change out of a need to graduate in time to start medical school, it still focused on HIV and the Black community. If I could go back in time, I'd like to explain why HIV and BIPOC communities obsesses me so.

When I was in the Army, my best friend, Jeavon Luceina, and I went through basic training and AIT together. It was while we were at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX that I found out that Jeavon was non-binary. This was in 1991 so I don't even know if the term "Non-Binary" was a thing back then but whatever, I just saw Jeavon as Jeavon. Jeavon was an outstanding soldier, an immensley skilled medic, and one of the best people that I knew. Jeavon suffered though. At the time that we were in the Army, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was in place so while on duty, Jeavon had to be "he" and when off duty, they could be themselves, but never fully. If you have ever lived in a military town, these towns tend to be small and everyone knows everyone. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to walk around everyday, all day with my guard up.

Anyway, after AIT at Ft. Sam Houston, we went our seperate ways. I heard from Jeavon periodically over the years but finally, I just stopped hearing from them until 1998. Jeavon must've gotten in touch with my pop. I was living in Houston by now and was off of active duty. I was working as a patient care tech at St. Lukes Hospital. Jeavon let me know that he had AIDS and probably didn;t have long to live. They wanted to go home to Guam but their family was not accepting of Jeavon's queerness. The Chamorro people were traditionally very accepting of the LGBTQIA community, but after Spanish and then American colonization, the people started to adopt a more Western-centric view of the LGBTQIA community. Things started to change in Guam in 1978 but unfortunately, there are some families that hold on to the Western view (i.e., American) view of the LGBTQIA community. Jeavon wanted to go home to die but couldn't. I took Jeavon in and cared for them for the last six or seven months of their life. A group of our friends got the money together to hold proper remembrance services. Those last months of Jeavon's life were sad because they could not be with their family. I cannot fathom what it would be like to face the end of my life in a place that is foreign to me while not being around the people that I love. The stigma and ignorance that Jeavon faced contributed to their death...

In 2006, I met the woman who would become my wife. Her father, Derrick L. Anderson, was an HIV positive gay Black male. Derrick was an internationally known HIV and human rights activist but more importantly, he was a father, brother, uncle, son, and one of the finest people that I ever met.

On Nov. 23rd of '06, Derrick suffered what seemed like a minor car accident. He didn't go to the hospital or anything and the next day, he celebrated Thanksgiving with his family. By that evening, he wasn't feeling well and he later vomited blood and was rushed to the hospital. At the time, I was living in Portland, OR so I couldn't be with Eboni as she narrated everything that was happening at the hospital ER. During triage, Derrick was asked his HIV status and when he said that he was positive, the way that the hospital treated him changed. Instead of doing an ultrasound of his belly or any other imaging tests, the hospital spent about 12 or 13 hours trying to transfer him to a different hospital. Why? Because the ER docs and truama surgeon on duty were afraid to potentially perform a surgery on Derrick because of him being HIV positive. Early in the morning on the 2th of November, the hospital realized that there was not going to be a transfer (It was snowing and the roads were iced over) so they decided to do something. They did an ultrasound of Derrick's belly and it was full of blood. By this point, he'd lapsed into a coma and the attending physician told Eboni that she needed to make a call regarding keeping him on life support. She opted to let her daddy go. As it turned out, Derrick had suffered a small tear in his descending aorta and had bleed out over the course of those few days between the time that he had the accident and his passing at the hospital. This isn't what killed him though. The ignorance, fear, stigma, and indifference of the people who should have tried to save him is what killed him.

This is why I am so obsessed with HIV, PrEP, HIV interventions, and ending HIV in the BIPOC community. I have seen to many Black and Brown people suffer, needlessly, because of HIV-related fear and stigma, ignorance, hate, and discrimination. Black and Latinx gay males and cis-Black women are still contracting and dying at rates far higher than the general population. Trans-Black and Latinx women are at particular danger from HIV-related morbidity and mortality and the violence that they are particularly vulnerable to. I'm 50 years old now and will be 54 by the time I finish medical school and 57 by the time I finish residency. I pray that the Lord will allow me to have a 30-35 year career in medicine so that I may do my part to see a day when HIV no longer affects BIPOC communities in the way that it does. Better yet, I pray that the Lord allows me to live to see a day when HIV is no longer an issue for ANY community in America or around the world. This is why I do what I do. No matter what my former professor or people like her may say, nothing will deter me from fighting this fight.

TNP Pulse - Published a brief on my dissertation research

I would have NEVER finished my dissertation research on time without the Texas Nurse Practitioners. I was granted permission to send my survey to their membership via two email blasts and they got me the numbers to finish my participant recruitment in exactly eight weeks. I return, they wanted me to submit a brief report on my research but I didn't know that they were going to publish it. This was a nice surprise.

Research while in medical school

There has always been an expectation that research in medical school will be a part of your eventual residency application. And not only is research an expectations, there is generally an expectation that you will also participate in some kind of scholarly activity such as submitting a publication, abstract, and/or poster presentation. While you won't be expected to conduct research or have scholarly activity to the volume that a PhD or postdoc student might, now that COMLEX Level 1 and USMLE Step 1 are pass/fail, its been hypothesized that residency program directors are going to start to place more emphasis on research and scholarly activity (along with the results of COMLEX Level 2 and USMLE Step 2) in the selection of residency applicants to interview. We don't yet know if this will be the case, but in the next year or two, we should have a firm handle on this. In the meantime, how would a medical student go about seeking research opportunities in medical school?

The simplest way to get some research experience would be to maintain any existing research connections/collaborations with undergrad and/or graduate research labs. For example, when I was in my PhD program, I started working with Dr. Melva Thompson-Robinson at UNLV during my research practicum and I continued that relationship through the COVID pandemic and into medical school. Its resulted in a textbook chapter, three peer reviewed journal articles, three webinars, two poster presentations, a fourth peer reviewed article that has just been submitted, and a fifth peer reviewed article that my wife and I are working on now. I'm also currently working on turning my dissertation into several first author peer reviewed journal articles, and I presented a poster at the 2021 AMA Research Challenge and I will be presenting the following poster at the 2022 Beyond Flexner Alliance Conference at the end of the month.

What do you do if you do not have these existing research collaborations though? You'll have to start looking at your medical school (or lovcal medical schools) to inquire about research opportunities.

You first want to understand what research is available at your school and then determine if it fits your interests and future specialty plans. If you do not care so much for laboratory research projects, look for faculty who are doing community and public health realted work, clinical research studies, epidemiological studies, retrospective studies, or case studies. These experiences may be more interesting and they have the benefit of being relatively quick as compared to laboratory bench research. If you decide that you want to do research, you need to speak to the primary investigator and you need to be super clear about the time committment and expectations they will have of you in relation to your work as a medical student. Do not forget, your primary purpose in medical school is to graduate and become a doctor. You do not want to fail out because of your time being taken by extracurricular activities. Sometimes it can be hard to find a good PI or research opportunities that you may be interested in. You should speak to upperclassmen and graduates of the school in addition to looking at the website. Once you have committed to a project, ask about the opportunity to produce some scholarly work from the project. Make sure to get a clear understanding of authorship in the case of papers, abstracts, and/or posters. Lastly, if you find that you like research as much as I do, you might consider taking a gap year in medical school to do a research project or you may even want to pursue a research-based masters or doctoral degree.

Now that I am thinking about specialties, I need to start thinking about getting a research project that aligns with that. I've identified a project at Highland Hospital in Oakland that I would like to do as it would be a perfect way to show continued interest in emergency medicine and primary care. I also have a growing interest in gastroenterology and clinical research, so I may seek a bench research project in GI physiology at UTSA or something. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Clinical Shadowing and Mentorship Program: Opportunities for Premedical Students, Medical Students, and Physicians

Clinical Shadowing and Mentorship Program: Opportunities for Premedical Students, Medical Students, and Physicians

*Various Deadlines CSMP Mentee Application: Monday, March 21st by 5 PM EST CSMP Physician and Medical Student Mentor Application: Friday, April 15th by 11:59 PM EST CSMP Leadership Team Application: Friday, April 1st by 11:59 PM EST

The Clinical Shadowing and Mentorship Program (CSMP) is a nationwide initiative serving Associate premedical members of the SNMA. The 12-month program seeks to address and overcome the systematic barriers that interfere with success among pre-medical students who are underrepresented minorities in medicine (URM) by providing them with clinical exposure (in-person or virtual), culturally sensitive guidance, individual and group mentorship, community service, team research, and professional development training as they pursue medical school admission and careers as future physicians.

There are several ways to get involved with the CSMP as a Mentee (Premedical Students), Mentor (Physician or Medical Student), or Leadership Team Member (Premedical or Medical Student). The following details information about prospective mentees, mentors, and leadership team members, including mentee eligibility, informational sessions, and application deadlines.

CSMP Premedical Mentees: Program Eligibility

Current premedical student (undergraduate, graduate, post-baccalaureate, career-changer, gap year, and other non-traditional students) Current Associate (national dues-paying) member Available to attend monthly workshops and mentorship sessions Available to attend regular (weekly or bi-weekly) virtual shadowing sessions (individual or collective) Able to complete all program surveys and assessments

To apply: https://lnkd.in/eEffiBPa