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COM Outlook . Fall 2012
A Student’s Perspective on Attending Conferences
By OMS-II Alex Youngdahl
Secretary, American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians’ Student Chapter
The prospect of attending a big national con-
ference for physicians was intimidating to be sure,
but it was a nice excuse to make my first-ever
visit to Sin City. The luxurious Wynn Hotel in Las
Vegas, Nevada, was the site for the fall conference
hosted by the American College of Osteopathic
Emergency Physicians (ACOEP). Aside from the fall
conference in Las Vegas, I have also attended the
ACOEP spring conference in Scottsdale, Arizona,
and the Florida Medical Association’s (FMA) an-
nual conference in Boca Raton, Florida.
Before I get into what I enjoyed about attend-
ing these conferences, I want to describe the con-
cerns I had with abandoning Steele Auditorium
for three days in the middle of my first semester.
Cost was obviously high on my list of anxieties,
but our local chapter graciously paid for hotel
rooms for all those wishing to attend. The ACOEP
conference registration was free for students (in
contrast to the $750 it costs for physicians). This
left only my plane ticket, food, and drink as my
only expenses—oh yeah, and the money I lost
playing blackjack in Vegas.
Fortunately, after considering the debt gener-
ated by four years of medical school, this turned
out to be a drop in the ocean. More concerning
was the academic burden even over the fiscal
one. To effectively subdue my worries about
missing class, I convinced myself this was vital
for my career and thus a guilt-free vacation. Plus,
calling it a
business trip
made me feel important.
Luckily, the conferences are excused absences,
so we were able to make up any labs with no
questions asked. Unfortunately, I was not able
to match the studying I normally accomplish in
Davie, but we did all manage to sneak away and
get our noses in the books a little, and everything
turned out just fine.
The ACOEP is exceptional in how it has an en-
tire conference curriculum designed specifically
for medical students, but not in the “let’s keep
the children in this room so they don’t cause any
trouble” kind of way. A lecture series presented
by distinguished physicians tackled various
subjects, from snake bites and other types of en-
venomations to emergency medicine in a combat
setting. The afternoons were filled with hands-on
clinics that included mass casualty, casting and
splinting, suture, and ultrasound.
Additionally, the resident chapter designed
a
Jeopardy
game for us with cash prizes. The
real competition was the leadership acad-
emy, where groups of students were tasked
with creating a presentation with the goal of
recruiting more students to the conferences.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with students
from other schools and comparing the chal-
lenges of medical school.
By night, the mood changed and the social
events hosted by various corporate sponsors
effectively wined and dined us all. These lavish
parties were open to the attending physicians
and residents as well, so I really got to rub
elbows with a great group of physicians that
truly love getting to know the next generation
of their profession. Also, it’s a nice place to pick
the brains of residents off the record about
their particular programs. However, one of the
most valuable experiences is the marquee event
for the ACOEP fall conference: the residency
fair. This is where directors and residents from
programs across the country come and set up
booths to advertise their programs. It’s a great
opportunity to get some face time with the pro-
gram directors because as they will all tell you,
aside from board scores, the best determinant
of where you get matched is, “Can I put up with
you for the next three years?”
The FMA conference in Boca Raton was less
student-oriented but beneficial in a completely
different way. The FMA is a political advocate for
medicine in Florida; therefore, the discussions
there revolved around policy and politics. As a fly
on the wall, I observed Florida’s most politically
active physicians debate plans of action on topics
such as scope of practice of other medical pro-
fessionals. The student chapter developed and
presented a proposal for clean-needle distribu-
tion to reduce disease transmission between IV
drug abusers, which spurred an intense debate
among the physicians. It was invigorating to see
the passion everyone displayed and refreshing to
watch intelligent debate take place.
Looking back, I can say the benefits of attend-
ing conferences as a medical student far out-
weigh the costs. They are fun, informative, and
constructive for my career, not to mention the
closest thing I’ll get to a real vacation for a while.
My goal for writing this
article is to expose some
aspects of
national and
local conferences
that
students usually do
not consider through
a brief overview of
my experiences with
them. As a second-
year medical student, I
casually consider myself
a seasoned conference-
goer with two national
and one state assembly
under my belt.
