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Medical Pharmacology ePortfolio: April

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It is hard to believe that this is my last blog post for the masters of medical pharmacology program at Tulane. If any future masters student or applicant does happen to read my posts I truly hope that you can see how impactful this program has been for me. Specifically, the maturity I have gained, the friends I have made, the mentors who have impacted me, and the community that I have engaged in. New Orleans is a city like no other, and Tulane has an uncanny ability to continuously prove this. Education in pharmacology can be gained anywhere, but the impact New Orleans and Tulane has on its students is an unique and invaluable experience. This month I have participated in two habitat for humanity builds, one in the Lower 9th and the other near New Orleans Lake Front airport. I have gained insight from the site managers and locals in these areas that I have never had before in my 5 years of living in New Orleans. Below I have attached a picture which illustrates a tired, yet fulfille
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Medical Pharmacology ePortfolio: March

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What a busy and rewarding month! Our program completed the long awaited pharmacology Shelf exam. I was amazed with how much I knew going into the test. In retrospect, I can see how all of my classes had prepared me from the very beginning. I am proud that I could handle the material and successfully finish the medical pharmacology course. Beyond the exam, I also finished most of the requirements for the medical school application process. This month has been a successful initiation to a difficult transition period. That all being said, I was incredibly happy to participate in another Habitat for Humanity build this month. There is nothing better than being able to go outside with your friends and build something important together. Especially after spending most of my time sitting inside for weeks on end studying for the Shelf. We managed to finish a solid amount of the foundation of the house, despite the difficult hammering angles. I also got to experience a great lunch with four o
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Medical Pharmacology ePortfolio: February

Wow, another month gone already! This month has been very packed as our program is reaching an end. We finished our last Med Pharm block exam, which leaves us with one final assessment, the Shelf Exam. Although the exam seems daunting in that it encompasses all of the pharmacology we have learned so far, I believe that our class has been more than prepared. It is amazing to look back at old material and see how much I remember. I noticed that although we have gone through many different pharmacological approaches in many biological systems there has been major overlap in all the concepts. I find myself able to answer questions that I had previously struggled with, just due to the growth in general concepts I have gained throughout the program. This makes me feel confident that I have truly benefited from this program and will be able to use these skills as a future medical student. I have used my time this month to organize and prepare for the next few stressful months. I am applying
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Medical Pharmacology ePortfolio: January

Hey Everyone! It feels like it has been forever since my last blog post. I am excited to bring you all back up to speed with how my time is going in New Orleans. For winter break I went back to New York City to see my family. It was nice to be home and eat my moms home cooked food. However, NYC was seriously freezing. It made me think back to when I first applied to Tulane undergrad 5 years ago. I hate the cold and I love the New Orleans "slightly chilly" version of winter. Although our break felt too short, I was more than glad to come back to school and start working again. This month some of the masters students, and myself, volunteered for the 50/50 raffle group during the Saints vs. Panthers game. The 50/50 raffle is a charity that sells raffle tickets during sporting events, and then through a lottery system gives half of the total money collected to one lucky individual and the other half to charity. The charity that was selected for this game was the United Negro
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Medical Pharmacology ePortfolio: December

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Hey everyone! This will be a quick blog post before the end of the semester. Right now our class is preparing for the brain and behavior block exam. I have enjoyed all of the material for this exam. Studying complex diseases like Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, addiction, and many more has really expanded the way I view psychiatric disorders. At this point in the medical community, the treatment paradigms are based on relieving symptoms, rather than targeting the disease itself. I believe this is one of the most important frontiers of medicine. I hope to one day be involved in truly understanding and treating these diseases, and this program has given me an amazing start! This month, I participated in a Habitat for Humanity build with a few other students in the program. It was a cold day, but we were able to get a lot done building the sides of the house, as well as, having fun during the whole process. It is exciting to see a group of students so engaged in comm
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Medical Pharmacology ePortfolio: November

Hey everyone, it's me again! Another month down and only one block remaining until winter break. November was a filled month for the pharmacology program. For most of the month we studied the endocrine/reproductive system. I was a neuroscience and psychology double major in college, so this material was mostly new for me. What I found most interesting about this block was all the incredibly complex facets involved with diabetes. It is absolutely amazing how this common disease initiates and progresses throughout a patients life. Learning about everything from the specific biology, all the way to pharmacological intervention, helped me understand how an entire human system responds in many different ways to disruption in the normal metabolic routine. In order to help us gain an understanding of diabetes and its treatments, we all participated in a Team Based Learning exercise. We are split into small groups and work together on answering difficult questions about the disease. I be
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Medical Pharmacology ePortfolio: October

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Hey everyone! October has been an amazing and busy time. The weather goes back and forth between typical New Orleans heat and atypical New Orleans chills. This month we finished our pulmonary block, learning about antivirals, antifungals, pneumonia, organ transplants, and various molecular imaging techniques. From there, we started our GI/neoplasia block covering drugs ranging from IBS all the way to chemotherapy. It has been a busy time with a lot of information to be learned, but manageable now that everyone is now in the pharmacology rhythm. That being said, I am more than ready for our upcoming thanksgiving break! This month, a few students in the program, and myself, volunteered for a 5k run hosted by the United Negro College Fund. I signed up for this event last minute after hearing about it from a few classmates. I was quickly on board once I heard about the amazing work that this fund does for historically black colleges and universities such as Xavier and Dillard Universit
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