Stephanie Howard

Stephanie Howard

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Stephanie Howard

To be totally honest I was not looking forward to internship. In some ways it seemed a necessary evil that I had to endure before getting to do the stuff I really like- radiology. Since I was an undergrad at Duke I’ve been really intrigued by radiology, and all my exposure to medicine prior to med school was in rads. During med school at Yale I loved my radiology electives and research, and became particularly interested in pediatric radiology. My medicine rotations, however, annoyed me. I loved the conferences and learning about disease processes, but I really didn’t like the “scut.” It seemed that on medicine I spent 95% of my day on mindless tasks and only 5% actually thinking about medicine. Plus, I am really not big on dealing with bodily fluids.

I am now 4 months into internship, and I can honestly say I really love MSKCC. First and foremost there is tons of teaching, and the lectures are almost universally awesome. On the floors I work hard, the patients are often really sick, but it’s different from my med school medicine rotations. We round twice a day and they really are teaching rounds. We take computers with us on rounds, so we can pull up films, put in orders, and, since my notes are typed, even update notes while rounding. Everything is very efficient, the people are extremely dedicated and friendly, and the ancillary services minimize the “scutwork.” The hospital really works as a team, and it makes my daily life much more enjoyable. Plus, call only lasts until , so I am never really exhausted, which makes my personal life much more fun!

Next year I’ll start my radiology residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and I am incredibly excited! I’ve come to see the value of this year, however, and I truly feel the training I’m getting at Sloan Kettering is allowing me to build a strong foundation for my future career-plus it’s been surprisingly fun! I would definitely recommend this program!!