Premed by Day, Mom by Night

Once you make the decision to go on the journey of becoming a doctor, how do you acquire the skills you need to balance school, activities, family and life while making sure you give yourself the best competitive edge possible? My goal is to find some answers. Just recently, I decided that I wanted to pursue the path of becoming a doctor. I did my research; I found very helpful books and videos from premed students, medical students, and doctors about everything to do with medical school and physician life. I also found a lot of helpful articles and information from the AAMC about medical careers, MCAT, and application advice. Using these resources, I have received a reasonably accurate idea of what it’s going to take to accomplish this goal.

I’m currently a single mom going to school full-time and one big concern I had when first deciding to pursue medical school was that if I am overloaded with class work, studying, and serving my community, how am I going to have time to continue being a caring mother to my son? I think anyone else out there worried about having enough time for your family along the way can relate. Once I got into my classes and had a few terms under my belt, I had a better understanding of what studying methods work best for me.

I have used YouTube to search for ways to improve my study skills. One helpful way of studying for me is using digital flashcards, which keep track of your progress in the form of graphs and let you know how many cards to study in order to maximize the benefit of spaced repetition. I really enjoy using digital flashcards to study when my son gets home from daycare and I want to be able to study but also spend time with him. I also have learned a way of reading through textbook chapters without having to sort through all the extraneous information. A few channels on YouTube talk about a technique where you focus on the beginning and end of chapter summaries; bold, italic, or underlined words; the first and last sentence of each paragraph, and lastly the diagrams. I just recently started using this idea to study for my midterm and improved my grade from a C to a B!  Using the flashcards and this textbook technique together has saved me time and allowed me to more efficiently balance school and life.

As a mother, I put my son before anything else and by knowing where he is prioritized in my life, I have yet to run into a shortage of spending time with him. I believe in what I am doing and by becoming a doctor it will only further my ability to be a good role model for my child which ultimately is what gets me through those days of class when I just want to be home snuggling with my baby.

I have been looking for volunteer opportunities for my son and I to do together.  For example, I am beginning to hold a weekly meeting for mothers in recovery at my house, which is great because not only can he be with me, he has other kids to play with too! My son and I also go on a short walk each morning when we wake up and every evening before bed. It’s a really good way to start and end our day by unwinding with a little fresh air. I am always reading to my son and most importantly, the majority of our free time we have together is spent playing. He is in daycare Monday through Friday while I’m either in school or studying and then when he gets home, we enjoy that time together, have dinner, go for our walk and I put him to bed. After he’s asleep, I try to wrap up any unfinished assignments or papers from earlier in the day but, I try not to start on anything new unless I absolutely have to.

When I am not in school, studying, or with my son, I spend time reading a book, or listening to an audiobook. I love learning and experiencing new things and reading is a great way to do that while it provides relaxation and a good way to practice self-care.

My point is, we all know that this is not going to be an easy route but if you prioritize what is important to you, you can find ways to incorporate building a great application for medical school while still having a life and doing things you enjoy and not to mention making you an even greater future physician! I think balance in life is a great goal to work toward especially in my premed years so that I am able to gain the habits and consistency needed to be successful in medical school, residency and beyond.

About Andrea Rano

Andrea Rano is a premed student who lives in Portland, Oregon. She is currently attending Portland Community College and plans on transferring to Portland State University in Fall 2019. She plans to graduate in the class of 2021. She has a one-year-old son Amarii, who she enjoys spending the majority of her time with. Andrea also spends a lot of time looking for resources, information, tips & tricks as to how she can be a better premed student, mother, and individual. She is very passionate about working hard and keeping her commitments. She looks forward to the long years ahead as she works towards becoming a physician.