What are YOUR responsibilities?Dr. K gives his view

I suspect that most people coming to medical school do so to learn how to care for patients. The majority of time spent in school focuses on just that goal: becoming a skilled, empathic, excellent clinician. However, students seem increasingly aware of the multiple roles physicians play in influencing our nation's health care. At the request of the Chief Complaint editorial staff, I am happy to offer my thoughts on the social & political responsibilities of future physicians.
-Peter Katsufrakis, M.D., M.B.A.

Renewing New Orleans

Ask any New Orleanian and they'll tell you, there's not too much one can do to silence the sounds of the Crescent City. In fact, they'd probably go on to say that it would take something like a natural disaster to turn New Orleans into a ghost town. Well, in one fateful day, the unthinkable happened: the jubilant, carefree sounds of the city disappeared to be instead replaced with the eerie, deafening howls of 165 miles per hour winds swirling off the Gulf of Mexico, and panicked...
-Daphne Hayes, MS II

Tribute to a Father

He looks tired. He looks gray. He looks lifeless.

Tears silently stream down my face and I see him strong, alive, vivacious. Standing on the third base line motioning me on to run through from 2nd to 3rd to home plate. He rushes to meet me, to celebrate with me as I cross the plate and score the winning run for the wildcats. We high five, we cheer, and we hug. That's my...
-Kori Sauser, MS II

Let’s get it started: Student suggestions for Step One

As year two progresses, many of us anxiously anticipate the dreaded STEP-UhhNO. The one and only exam which will determine the rest of our professional life, the residency programs we will apply to, what specialties we would consider, or whether Sid will be the next Nip/Tuck Christian Troy. The Chief Complaint staff set out to interview our big sibs to seek their wisdom. Here are a few questions that we asked and their responses.
-Pho Nguyen, MS II

What you need to know about STD’s

Carefully knocking and pushing open the highly polished mahogany door sanctum, I groveled forward in as realistic caricature of the obedient journalist as I could manage, sinking into the luxurious carpet as I did so. Rich tapestries, portraying scenes that could be interpreted as being either the Rape of the Sabine Women, or the different stages of some of the more odious diseases, lined the paneled walls. The editor, for it was he who had summoned me, lay on a velvet couch surrounded...
-Fred Kusack

A break out of the ordinary

About six months ago I was, like all first year medical students inching their way towards June, faced with a decision. How should I spend the final few months of summer vacation that I would ever be granted? Looking into my future I saw 40, maybe 50 years ahead of me void of a similar opportunity to follow my nose where it would lead without distraction.
-Shane Smith, MS II