A Student’s Guide to Medicine

Specialty of the Month: Pediatrics This month, I decided to explore pediatrics, and honestly, I didn’t realize how much there was to learn. I mean, I always knew pediatricians worked with kids—but I thought it was mostly checkups, vaccines, and the occasional cold or flu. Turns out, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much variety in what pediatricians actually do, and I found myself pretty fascinated as I read more. Age Range & Variety For starters, the age range alone is wild. Pediatricians see patients from newborns to teenagers. That’s literally from tiny babies who can’t even lift their heads yet, to teenagers who are practically mini-adults (and sometimes even sassier than actual adults. Each age comes with its own challenges and rewards. The way you communicate with a toddler is completely different from how you interact with a 14-year-old. With little kids, pediatricians need creativity, patience, and sometimes a lot of distraction—like toys, songs, or just getti...

    Medical Ethics: When a Patient Refuses Life-Saving Treatment      I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how medicine sometimes intersects with other fields, especially law. When doctors (and other medical staff) work, they often have to make tough decisions. Not just high-tension, instant choices like you might see on TV, but ethical or moral dilemmas they might face over a longer period of time. Here is one thing I’ve considered that seems like a difficult decision to make; How should doctors handle patients who refuse treatment that could save their lives? Despite what I stated in the introduction, this could potentially be life or death. Sometimes, a patient might need emergency surgery, a blood transfusion, or an organ removal to save their life (among other things). However, not every patient wants that, generally for personal reasons. So, what should a doctor, whose job is to prevent death, do in that situation?     I think that they ne...

  ❤️‍🩹 Cardiology: Specialty of the Month Introduction Did you know that there are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body — enough to wrap around the Earth more than twice? For the specialty of the month for January, I’ll be diving into cardiology! I will be covering the basics of cardiology, exploring the career lifestyles and responsibilities of a cardiologist and perfusionist, looking at some interesting facts about the heart, and wrapping it up with some of my personal thoughts. Let’s get started! What is Cardiology? Cardiology is the branch of medicine that deals with diseases and abnormalities of the heart. Despite it being such a small organ (roughly the size of two fists), there’s a lot that goes into learning about it. It’s one of the most important organs in the body because it pumps blood and keeps you alive. If your heart stops beating, you’ll be unconscious within several seconds. Cardiology is a vast field, with many subspecialties, such as Interventional Cardiol...

       Science is a vast and fascinating world, from the tiniest DNA cells to the complex systems of the human body. Among all of it, I’m especially curious about the domain of medicine. I genuinely enjoy learning about anatomy, human biology, health sciences, and patient care. In hopes of becoming a doctor, I want to learn as much as possible about medicine and healthcare. As a result, I’ve decided to start this blog to publicly record what I’ve learned so that others can access it, ask questions, and learn from it as well. I’m going to be researching different specialties, finding out about new developments in medical technology, and looking at the health system as a whole. This blog is about learning, not just having all the answers!      On that note, my name is Aaliya and I’m in ninth grade! I’ve always liked science, but I’m passionate about human biology more than anything else. I knew I’ve wanted to become a doctor ever since seventh grade, whe...