Video 9: Dr. Nelson’s Final Thoughts on Virtual Patients

Dr. Nelson (00:00):

Welcome back, student doctors. Sadly, it is our final video and it has been such an honor to work alongside you in taking care of our virtual patients using full code software. I’m consistently amazed at all the functionality of Full Code software, and you can see on my screen here tons of different cases that you can work through in the virtual emergency department as an ER physician. 

In fact, [Full Code offers] four free cases as a trial. In going through those cases, I want you to reflect on those AAMC Premed Competencies, things like critical thinking and analysis, communication skills, teamwork, cultural humility, and many more.

In addition to working in the emergency department, I am a teacher. I teach at the medical school and also have students come and rotate with me in the emergency department. I also mentor free medical students in their journey of their medical school application through MedSchoolCoach.

Dr. Nelson (00:58):

In mentoring those students, we work very hard to build those pre-med competencies to show their readiness to succeed in medical school through extracurricular activities and other academic adventures.

In the extracurricular activities, we make sure that each student has engaged in impactful volunteer experiences where they gain insight into different disadvantages various communities face. We also guide students in finding leadership opportunities because that really is what differentiates a physician from other healthcare professionals is the leadership aspect of the healthcare team. We also guide them through research and finding at least a year of research opportunity in gaining creative problem-solving skills, resilience.

In addition to technical skills, we also encourage our students to shadow physicians to gain an understanding of the daily rigors and responsibilities of being a physician. And finally, we highly encourage students to get experience in the clinical environment, gaining the aptitude to communicate with patients which aren’t always easy to engage with, much like you saw in our case. As you know, applying to medical school is very competitive, so it’s important that you gain all of these different experiences so you can show your competencies and readiness to succeed at that next level of training in medical school.

For more information on mentorship, go to medschoolcoach.com, and don’t forget to try your four free cases using the Full Code software.

I’m Dr. Blair Nelson. It’s been a pleasure working with you. Stay healthy.