Authored by: Robert Luna, Class of 2023 – M1 Student
It’s fitting that my main thoughts revolve around process improvement as I reflect on my first eight weeks of medical school. CMED does a great job of tracking our class stats which allows me to draw parallels to the tracking of player stats in NBA basketball. It’s safe to say Lebron James has a preparation process that helps his stat line far exceed the average player stat line. For the 2018-2019 season, he put up 27.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 8.3 assists compared to the league average of 10.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. To relate this back to medical school, I didn’t come out firing off elite scores these first eight weeks. I’m playing more like Danny Green rather than Lebron – no disrespect to Danny.
As I look ahead to Foundations B, I’ll be refining my preparation process. Firstly, I’m paying keen attention to my performance in problem-based learning sessions and weekly quizzes. Not to say I took those events lightly the first eight weeks, but I’ve learned to trust them as accurate indicators of my understanding of the class material. Secondly, I’ll be aiming for 2-3 passes at the material before leveraging flashcards and case questions to test my active recall. I think making the attitude adjustment towards those weekly sessions and adding an extra layering step to my review will get my stats up moving forward.
The reason I chose to write about process improvement for my first post is because it’s one of the fundamental reasons I am pursuing medicine. Beyond the science and humanity, I find that this pursuit challenges me to maximize my potential. I didn’t necessarily accept the challenge while I was younger – maybe the laidback atmosphere and Southern California beaches distracted me. But these first eight weeks reminded me to keep investing in myself and setting the bar higher. It’s that type of mentality that will prepare to deliver when my patient needs me most.
In future posts, I’ll be keeping the same theme of process improvement but in relation to healthcare. Since graduating Brandeis University in 2013, I spent a few years teaching physicians to leverage NextGen and Epic electronic medical record systems. That work sparked my interest in how technology is being leveraged to improve workflow processes as well as patient outcomes. So, I’ll leverage this blog to track my own process improvement as well as the innovations I come across in the healthcare space.
Thanks for reading.
Robert Luna
First Year Medical Student – Class of 2023