DMS Alumni Reflections

As a "Dartmouth-Brown" student, the "positive experiences" I reflect on from DMS are most immediately those relating to people - both students and faculty from my pre-clinical years. Without a doubt some of the best friends I have in my life are the people I met while at DMS. Perhaps due to the intrinsic academic challenges of the first two years of medical school creating an "us-against-the-volume-of-material" atmosphere or perhaps due to the fact that DMS selects great people to study there, my classmates were tight. Studying together, laughing, going to the gym, making meals, and pulling together to help each other when times were tough were all the best lessons in learning to care about and care taken for people. Though most of us moved far from Hanover and life carries us forward in relationships, families, jobs, research, academics, further studies and even sadly health crisis, I feel strongly that my class could come back together and enjoy each other now as we did in 1993-5. That is the best that any school could hope for in its alums.

Personally, I left DMS for Brown in the spring of 1995. I graduated from Brown Med in the spring of 1997 and began my residency training in General Internal Medicine that July. After finishing my training, I served as the Chief Medical Resident for the Brown IM programs. As anyone who has served in that position, that was a fantastic year of teaching, learning, organizing, counseling, and administrating. I took an academic job within the Brown University system in a busy primary care practice. The scope

of my role included not only a full week of clinical time but also precepting in the medical clinic, teaching/admitting to the inpatient medical service, as well as hosting students, interns and senior residents in my office. Together with a call cycle, I quickly saw how difficult it would be to be a mom, doctor, and wife. With the impending birth of my second daughter, I was overwhelmed by the demands of the "dream" job as an Academic Clinician. In the winter of 2003 I changed jobs to my current position. As a staff physician in a Radiation Oncology practice, I provide a primary care of sorts to cancer patients while they receive their radiation treatments. Now with no call cycle and no academic responsibilities, I am really able to spend the time I want with my children at the end of their school day, but still work full-time in a rewarding job. I feel that with a bit of careful rethinking about what "the dream" really was, I was able to re-create a career that suits my goals to be Mom-Doc-Wife in a more balanced way.

As I mentioned on the phone, I would be happy to talk more about "finding balance" as a female physician with young children at home. Truly, the challenges women face are different than those faced by our male peers. It is not that women can't have or find the same success; it is just that it is not necessarily defined the same way.

Most sincerely,

Carolyn Blackman, MD, DMS '97