Personal Narrative: My Reflection During Medical School

Please describe any contributions of distinction during medical school (in any and all academic areas: research, teaching, teamwork, clinical care, and community service).

One of my proudest contributions during medical school was identifying ultrasound education as something that I wanted to expand, so I worked with a small group of my classmates to start an ultrasound education program. The goal of our program was to help our peers learn how to use ultrasound imaging while gaining valuable anatomy and physiology education. We spent countless hours developing a curriculum, finding faculty mentors, and teaching first year medical students. Our hope is that one day this program will change the formal ultrasound curriculum offered at UCSF. While

Please provide an analysis of why it was challenging and how you dealt with it.

Medicine is a field that lives and breathes in an ethical grey zone, ethical challenges arise daily on the wards of the hospital and addressing the if not always easy. On a recent rotation I was confronted with addressing the medical treatment of a young woman with severe rheumatoid arthritis that had already eaten away two of her precious joints. The best option was clear, methotrexate. However, methotrexate is a toxic teratogen, and female patients taking this medication are advised that they should be on birth control to prevent severe damage to any possible future fetuses, which is where the ethical challenge arose. Our patient had a history of intermittent contraception use, and insisted that she would not get pregnant in the future. As such, she did not want any chemical form of birth control because she felt that she was already taking too many medications for someone her age. I could empathize with her, as someone who does not like taking medications myself, but my team was against prescribing this joint saving medication with potential toxic effects to someone who did not have a clear plan for birth