Blueprint Med School Blog (formerly Cram Fighter & Med School Tutors)

The blog for Blueprint Medical, supporting your MedEd journey with our exam study planner, tutoring, residency consulting, and advanced boards.

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The Best Piece of Medical School Advice I’ve Ever Received

Even for the most stellar students, medical school can feel overwhelming. From figuratively running through Anki flashcards between lectures to literally running through clinical shifts, succeeding in med school often means having to juggle many tasks at once. Fortunately, there are countless students who’ve completed the same journey you’re now on—like me. And from one

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What Really Matters in Medicine?

The writing is on the wall. Though most things in this field happen slowly, there is a noticeable trend away from test scores and towards empathy and humanism in medicine. With burnout consuming the field in addition to a staffing crisis, it only makes sense that some of these “softer” skills become more important. When

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Are We Obligated to be Cordial in Medicine?

It was a day like any other in “the heart room.” I was a relatively newly minted attending anesthesiologist, inducing a patient with some level of mitral stenosis. The echo read “atrial mass causing pseudo-mitral stenosis.” Sounded innocuous. Rather than exercise a “trust, but verify” mindset by double checking the echo images with my own

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Don’t Miss Out On This Powerful Medical School Lesson

I’m struggling. When caring for a morbidly obese, dialysis-dependent cancer patient, nothing comes easy. Especially IV access. Despite being on peritoneal dialysis, affording us the use of both arms, I’m getting nowhere. I’ve got 2 blown IVs, one in each arm, and the one that he came in with from the floor is not functional

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Medical School – Is Now the Right Time for Me?

Nowadays, the “nontraditional” medical school matriculant is almost the rule, more than the exception. Whether one jumps straight from college to medical school, takes an accelerated BA/MD, or takes a decade off in between for a career switch, the decision to go to medical school is a weighty one. Every doctor had to make it

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How to Become a Pediatrician

If you’re hoping to become a pediatrician, congratulations on choosing a rewarding profession with a great deal of variety! As a pediatrician, you’ll provide medical care for infants, children, and adolescents in a range of clinical settings, including inpatient units and outpatient clinics. You can either choose to work as a generalist and provide comprehensive

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Medical Students: Which Specialty is Best for Work-Life Balance?

If you’re a medical student, you might be wondering if you’ll ever find a healthy work-life balance as a physician. In short, the answer is a definite yes—despite the misconceptions about long hours without any time off, you can (and should) structure your future career to include your personal life and other hobbies to prevent

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How to Make the Most of Remote Learning in 2022

Although the beginning of 2022 is a time of fresh starts and renewed perspectives, some aspects of pandemic life will remain with us. One of them is remote learning. Many medical schools around the country and world are returning preclinical lectures and small group sessions back to Zoom. Do not lose hope! We offer some

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