Kendall Burks
I typically wake up at 5 a.m. to try to get some light studying in before my day starts. I’m currently in Phase 2, which means I only have a week or so of formal didactics every 1-2 months. Most of my time is spent in some type of clinical setting. Each clerkship includes a mixture of inpatient and outpatient experiences, so my days can look pretty different depending on which setting I’m working in. Inpatient medicine days start earlier with a routine that includes pre-rounding on previous/overnight patients and discussing their care plans with the team on rounds before everyone puts in orders, calls consults and writes notes. Outpatient days include clinic visits in both generalist and subspecialist settings. I don’t spend a whole lot of time in the lab these days, though I will go to some Zoom meetings as I am able. After a full day in the hospital or clinic, if I wasn’t able to work out in the morning, I will go to the Boxing Gym after school before I start my evening studying.
The biggest recent milestone for me was defending my thesis; now my goal is to survive my first exam week at the end of this clerkship. I’m currently most inspired by how supported I’ve felt transitioning back to clinicals. In every space I’ve been in so far, the students, residents, fellows and attendings have all been enthusiastic teachers. It’s very exciting to come into a clinical environment where the excitement about teaching is very real (even having to teach someone like me who’s forgotten quite a bit over the last four years).
Mentorship looks like a jigsaw puzzle in the best possible way. I have research mentors who provide guidance on project design and advice on career planning. I also have more technical research mentors who help me learn to actually execute experiments and analyze the data. I have clinical mentors who are role models for the type of medicine I want to practice and who share their learning resources with me. I also have professional development mentors who have encouraged my engagement in co-curricular activities and modeled team-based approaches to problem-solving built on foundations of mutual respect. One of the most fun parts of my MD/PhD journey has been assembling this mentorship team. One day I hope I can transmit even a fraction of their collective knowledge to my future trainees.
