Preparing for a successful Match - Harsh Patel

​"Passion, Compassion, and Honesty is the key for all the family physicians"

​Matching in this top program has always been quite a difficult journey. I am  Harsh Patel and here I am sharing with you my USMLE success story to help you through your USMLE journey. I am a medical school 2019  graduate from my home country, India. I gave my step one around in 2019 and I was about to do my rotations like all students. I initially got involved myself in some hands and experience while doing step one. So that was a big key. The purpose for that is I wanted to know how the healthcare system functions, how the EMR systems are working in here, how to interact with the patients, how to, and get an idea of how the patient centered care work. 
I gave my step one in around 2020 in February, and I got a score of below average national leverage. And at that point of time now I had to figure out how I should compensate for that score and do rotations and research. But the thing is the COVID struck and the rotations were out of equation. Research was tough. So, I had to take nonmedical jobs during that period. And while doing that, I gave my step 2. During that course of time, I managed to do some virtual rotations, some remote research and by the end of 2020, the situation was getting a little bit normal. So I did a couple of hands on and then I started preparing for the application and that's how I believe the timeline sets up for me. 
You need to focus, and need to tell yourself that you have worked hard for it, and you have the right knowledge. So now just start working on your next steps. I started my journey after I graduated. I did everything in a span of one and a half years. So, during the course of time after step one I had to do virtual rotations. So now people have always had this mindset that virtual are not helping.
For a four week period I did tele rotations with one of the best doctors in Chicago. During those four weeks, I tried to understand how healthcare works, some treatment options, and whatever opportunity I got, I took it.
I did work in the clinics. I handled the patients, I interacted with the patients, learned how to send the prescriptions, learned how to sell work effectively through the EMR, and interacted with the nurses. And that's how I get myself a whole scenario of how the hospital setting works. And additionally, I also got the opportunity to work in some simulation lab as well. So I got the understanding of how the system works, how to interact with different doctors from different specialties. 
Family medicine, the key is communication. So the family medicine physicians have to communicate a lot of things with the patients, starting from, their history, taking their vaccinations and all the minute details of what's going on with the patient. You need to be aware of that, and you need to communicate with the patient effectively. You have to understand the patient's mindset, and that's a key for a family physician. For any applicant who is looking for family medicine, just try to get as much exposure to the healthcare system. You should effectively express yourself. Be confident with whatever experience you got. 
For family physicians, I would say, build a strong profile, especially in terms of family medicine, show them, you are a dedicated family medicine physicians by working in different clinics or doing some research and a dedicated profile is, very important for family physicians and some, they are always the, point of care any patient happens. Most of the time anything happens to the patient, they call the family physician. So you need to have an idea of how to respond to the patient, how to show them comfort, and how to make them realize that you are there for them. So, passion, compassion, and honesty is the key for all the family physicians.