Diary of a Med Student

Book excerpt: From the earliest stages of our medical training, we experience unforgettable moments with our patients - inspiring, traumatic, joyful, and sometimes even humorous events. Too often, as doctors-in-training we talk about the suffering or recovery of our patients, ignoring our own emotions after these events, letting them passively shape us until we dig ourselves into an abyss of burn out and resentment. Diary of a Med Student is a book created by medical students, for medical students, doctors, pre-med students, and their loved ones to look backward, forward, and laterally on the wonderful world of medical school. This book offers a space to reflect on our emotions, process their meaning, and share them as tales of sorrow, humor, joy, or inspiration, told from the perspective of medical students writing in a diary. While the act of sharing emotion is itself therapeutic, reading these emotional challenges that we can all relate to is unifying and comforting, providing us with insight through the lessons conveyed in the light of a variety of feelings. Let this book spark a powerful domino effect of change in medical education: in the way we teach physicians to create a safe space for inner reflection and expression of emotion to ultimately enhance physician wellness.