UCSF Medical School Trip

Written by Jonathan Santos, AMSA ARC President, and Minhaaj Qasmi AMSA ARC Representative to the ICC. They attended AMSA ARC’s trip to Stanford Medical School on May 29, 2008.

As any other trip done by AMSA ARC we began our trip very early in the morning on a Thursday. The trip to UCSF was one which we greatly looked forward to since it is one of the top medical universities in the country. Our bus left ARC at 4:30 in the morning and so began our trip to UCSF. We were very anxious to get there.

Our main goal at UCSF was to see and understand how medical school students go through their day-to-day lives. We were to spend a whole day with them while they go to classes and interact with their faculty. It was our chance to truly see and experience what medical school was all about. This trip also gave us an opportunity to interact with med school students and gain first hand knowledge about the field we were pursuing ourselves.

UCSF is located in the heart of San Francisco. In the midst of overlapping hills and tall buildings, this university offers not only an excellent education but also breath-taking views of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the San Francisco skyline. When we got there, we were amazed by these exquisite views. The wind was cold yet refreshing; the atmosphere excited yet welcoming; the medical students busy yet happy.

We were greeted by a first-year student named Erica. She welcomed us happily and took us to the first destination of our trip — the lecture room. We sat down in the back rows and watched, first-hand, what medical students learned! We literally were sitting with these future doctors and just looked on as they listened to the professor talk about anti-depression medications. We learned about how some medications have different names but same functions and they all had side effects that can be either be good or bad, and it was up to the doctor to determine the right one for a given patient. It was an odd yet relieving feeling because it made us realize that these med school students were just like us, they were learning the material the very same way we do back at ARC. The refreshing part of it was that the professor was not talking at the students, but conversed with them. He was talking not only about cases and discovery of the medications, but he was also passing on information and knowledge on affecting a person’s life — not just the dull facts and what was going to be on the exam. It was not about taking exams or quizzes, but it was about life and death. It made us realize that med school is indeed an institution we can see ourselves attending in a few years.

This first-hand experience was truly the most rewarding part of the day. To sit side-by-side with medical students and learning what they were learning was beyond doubt a very rewarding experience. It gave us the confidence and belief that we are also capable of becoming doctors. I met a medical student named Sam right before the lecture started and he shared his experiences with us. He told us how medical school can be pretty fun and enjoyable but also pretty hard and complicated at times, especially during exams. He also told us that everyone is different and that the whole “med school experience” is really different for every individual.

After the lecture was over we had a little spare time to look around, get some food, go to the bookstore or do anything else we wanted. Since most of us were hungry, we went to the cafeteria to get some food. Later on we met in the lobby where we were separated into small groups of two and three and a first year medical student came and took one group to a small group session. In these small group sessions, the med school students had discussions on topics ranging from patient care to ethics. The small groups consisted of six to seven med school students and a professor, and they discussed the topic of the day for two hours. We witnessed the students and faculty talking about how to deal with patients who have special needs and how doctors are to meet these special needs as best as they can. In this case it was an African American woman with depression and possible psychosis.

This was a remarkable experience because it made us feel like we were part of an actual team of doctors trying to figure out what the problem with the patient was and how to treat it. Plus, we learned a few techniques about how the experts may approach a medical problem.

After the small group sessions, we rejoined the rest of our peers and were taken to the center of the campus, a grassy area surrounded by buildings, a cool refreshing breeze flowing through. From there on we went on a tour of the campus. We went to the labs and visited the college. The library was busy and completely filled with students. The next stop was the heart of the university — the student center. But the real treat was the view from the balconies behind the student center. There we saw the entire San Francisco area. The wind was refreshing after being in classes all day. Our tour guide, Miko, a first-year student, walked us through buildings, hospitals, and the campus.

After the tour, we had lunch with the first-year students. The lunch was very informal and friendly. Our group was accompanied by Emilia, a very kind and down-to-earth person who was willing to share her experiences and ideals with us. She told us about her experiences as an undergraduate student and related it to us and our lives. We felt very comfortable with her and just ate, talked, and joked for and hour. The conversations were pleasant and informative. We even took pictures. What we noticed was that the students were very down-to-earth. Even though they were learning extraordinary things, they were indeed very much like us.

The next part of the trip was an anatomy presentation of the human body, done by a few talented first-year students. We learned about the GI tract, the nervous system, and a few other interesting things that we did not know before. It was informative, interactive, and amusing. They showed us displays of actual human organs and sliced pieces of the various parts of the body. It was during this time that we really realized just how much these med school students study and how hard they try to excel in their studies, and just how passionate they are about their chosen careers!

Finally, the last part of the trip was a presentation done by the Dean of Admissions of UCSF. He walked us through the whole admissions process and showed how med school students are chosen. He explained how just having good grades is not enough for a student to gain admission; how, in order to get into med school, a student must show how much he or she cares about the community and is are capable of taking up leadership spots. He explained that through hard work and perseverance we can achieve what we seek and that what we seek had the potential to take us wherever we like in our lives. This is what medical school is all about. This is what lies ahead for us and this is what our ultimate goal is in life: to help others by becoming a knowledgeable health care physician. And, as we learned on this trip, that is what UCSF strives to accomplish.