Alpha Epsilon Delta, SMU’s pre-medical honor society, provided free pizza as well as internship experiences with its members and other students with medical aspirations last night in the Dedman Life Sciences building.
Five AED members discussed their clinical and research experiences with the group in an attempt to provide information about not only how to find medical internships, but also what to expect at the hospital.
Junior Jaipreet Suri, a biology and finance major, first spoke about his experience working with the Student National Medical Association (SNMA).
“I got to see what it really means to be a doctor,” Suri said.
Suri focused primarily on internal medicine during his period with the group and said it was very beneficial. The program assigns students to a physician while they are interning, with whom the student works with on a daily basis. Suri was quick to point out that the workload is not overbearing.
“You work five to 10 hours a week and no weekends,” he said.
Suri was complimentary of the program and said that the doctors worked with the students to help them find tasks and research that was interesting to them.
However, not all programs require only 10 hours of work a week. Junior biological science major Chet Donnally reflected on his experience in Houston while working for the Debakey Surgical Program.
“We worked 13-hour days,” Donnally said.
The Debakey Surgical Program is a competitive and extensive surgical program. Donnally stated that much of his time was spent with doctors in the operating room.
“You just get thrown into it, and it’s really hands on,” Donnally said.
While the SNMA will accept sophomores, the Debakey program primarily looks for junior and senior students. Once accepted into the program, a student could be placed in one of six hospitals located in the Houston area.
Donnally stated that the days were long and the program was intense but “the amount you are willing to put in is the amount you will get out.”
The Debakey Surgical Program is not the only medical internship offered in Houston. Junior biochemistry major Michael Evans also interned in Houston at the Stehlin Foundation where he performed cancer research.
“It gave me a chance to get hands-on experience and be in the operating room,” Evans said.
Evans also interned at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston. Evans admitted that he was attracted to these programs because he would have a chance to be in the operating room. He also expressed that working and being in the operating room is the only way a student can make sure they want to be a doctor.
Junior biochemistry major Bahaa Bedair conveyed the same ideas as Evans. Bedair, who worked with the Summer Undergraduate Research Foundation sponsored by the University of Texas Southwestern said, “Doing something with your hands really cements it. It’s really rewarding.”
Bedair worked a lot with research while interning and even talked about how he was able to record studies that involved how protein effects germ lines.
Not all of the internships discussed were Texas based though. Rachelle Dorvil, a senior economics major, found herself in Durham, N.C., at Duke University. Dorvil was working with the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP), which selects about 100 students and disperses them across the country to schools like Yale and Duke. This program, like the SNMA, also accepts freshmen and sophomores. However, the program had the long hours similar to that of the Debakey program.
“From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. we would be in class learning chemistry, biology and writing that would help prepare us for the MCAT. From 1 p.m. till 9 p.m. we would go around the hospital and meet and talk with doctors,” Dorvil said.
Dorvil was passionate about her experience at Duke, saying it was the best experience in her career so far. She admitted it was a tough program and involved a lot of intense studying and work.
While all of these students had their own experiences to share with the audience, all of them agreed that it is important to find an internship in the medical field because many students don’t know if they really want to be a doctor until they step into the operating room.
“Unless you go out and do it, it’s just an idea; it’s not real life,” Bedair said.
