This post was written by Vivian Yao after her Princeternship.
I met Dr. Shah for the first time in the lobby of the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Westchester County, New York, and Day 1 officially started with “Grand Rounds.” These weekly lectures are held by academic departments on subjects related to their specific medical specialty. The presentation focused on how hospital care can be strengthened through improved national standards and better communication within the often disparate divisions in the medical system. For the remainder of my Princeternship, the idea of effective communication resonated.
When I tell people that I am studying chemistry, they often assume that I’m on a track right to medical school. For most of my life, though, I never considered going into medicine. Working in a lab has always sounded more appealing to me — perhaps developing pharmaceuticals and creating novel compounds. It’s only recently that I even began considering changing my plans and studying medicine. However, I had no sense of what a doctor did on an everyday basis. What were the interpersonal dynamics of a doctor’s office like? Was the stress worth the reward? To answer these questions, among others, I decided to apply for a Princeternship with Dr. Peter Hersh ‘78, a corneal surgeon specializing in well-known procedures like LASIK and less-familiar procedures like INTACS and collagen crosslinking.
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