During his fourth year of medical school, Zach Bailey will be complete a Family Medicine elective surrounded by studio lights. Bailey will be on a one-month, full-time rotation on The Dr. Oz Show in midtown Manhattan.
He shares his thoughts on the upcoming experience:
How did you hear about this opportunity and why were you interested in it?
The head of the medical unit for The Dr. Oz Show contacted the dean of admissions at UNMC about medical student rotation and internship opportunities with the show. The dean subsequently forwarded the email to our class.
I am interested in the rotation because I have interests in public health, medical research and health media. In today’s day in age many American obtain much of their health information from the media. Therefore, media outlets such as TV shows, internet, social media, radio, etc. have a tremendous influence on the public. I want to be on the forefront of the health media movement and help convey evidence-based information to the public in new and creative ways.
Secondly, I believe the key to health media is communication. That is something I think is done very well on The Dr. Oz Show, and probably the reason why the show connects with so many people. In order to be successful as a physician one must be able to communicate and convey complex medical information to patients/public, who may have a limited medical background, in a way that they are able to comprehend. I have developed these skills throughout my teaching experiences during college and medical school. However, I am looking forward to strengthening my communication skills during the rotation so that I can better serve my patients in the future.
Additionally, people learn in different ways (visual demonstrations, kinesthetic activities, auditory, etc.) and the Dr. Oz Show has the resources to creatively teach/engage the audience in various ways that stick. I hope my creative nature can be an asset to help develop new ideas and create animations and demonstrations to explain physiology and disease to the public.
Another reason I would like to rotate at the Dr. Oz Show is because of my interest in medical research. While I have engaged in laboratory and clinical research during my undergraduate and medical education, working with the medical team at The Dr. Oz Show would allow me to apply my research skills to a new platform. That is searching the literature for information to support or refute various medical questions and then interpreting, evaluating, and extracting that information to be conveyed to the public.
Overall, I thought rotating at The Dr. Oz Show would allow me to combine my broad interests while furthering my career as an aspiring physician.
What are you most looking forward to?
I am most looking forward to stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying something different. I am excited to see how the show operates behind the scenes and work with an Emmy award winning medical team. Also, I have never been to New York City before so I am looking forward to traveling and doing some site seeing in NYC.
How do you think this experience will benefit you as a future physician?
I believe it will help strengthen my communication skills and help me find creative ways to engage and teach patients. It will help broaden my medical knowledge from a public health perspective, and allow me to evaluate the literature to answer various medical questions.