A Day in the Life

Bairavi Maheswaran

D.O/ M.S Medical Simulation

Hi! My name is Bairavi Maheswaran, and I am D.O/ M.S student at NYITCOM. I am from Glen Oaks, NY and for undergrad I went to St. John’s University. I graduated SJU in 2018 and did a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Currently, I am interested in pursuing Psychiatry and hope to provide mental health resources to the adolescent and immigrant populations. My favorite things to do are traveling, coffee shop hopping, and spontaneous trips to Barnes and Nobles.

I choose to attend NYITCOM because I wanted to attend a medical school that fosters a balance between a students’ academic and social lives, while providing them opportunities to grow and expand as a physician. Here there are endless opportunities to get involved with the surrounding community, interact with professors, and make differences as you progress into becoming a physician.

6:45 am: I wake up around this time after snoozing my alarm for a bit and then I make breakfast, and of course my coffee for the day. Then I will get my scrubs and any other materials such as my laptop ready.

8:00 am- 10: 00 am: I arrive to campus and head over to Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) Lab. Before lab, I will review the techniques that we are learning really quickly and take notes as our professors/scholars demonstrate them during the lab. Then with my partner, I will practice the technique and ask my pod leader for any feedback on how I am performing them. Lab gives me an opportunity to fine tune my skills, since OMM is about finding what you works for you in order to perform the treatment. Further, it is a great way to refine your anatomy and physiology knowledge because you will understand why you are treating specific structures to restore or at least improve the structures’ function.

10:00-2:00 pm: After lab is over, my friends and I go to Rockefeller to study and use the rooms upstairs with the whiteboard walls to write out all the main concepts we are learning in Pathology, Microbiology or Pharmacology. During our study sessions we will quiz each other and do mini lessons with one another to help us reinforce the concepts. I will later either grab lunch, get more coffee, and do a quick walk around the lake to get some from fresh air.

2:00-4:00 pm: During this time, I have Peer Instruction (PI), which is a session where we get case-based questions from high yield lectures. In our pods we answer the questions displayed in the front and discuss amongst each other what the correct choice is. Here we get to meet some of our professors and are able to ask them questions pertaining to the material if we do not understand it.

4: 30-5:30pm: I come home and get ready from a research meeting, where I discuss my progress that I did that week and get feedback from my mentor.

5:30-6:30pm: Now time to relax for a bit before studying, typically I watch an episode or three of my favorite show or read a book, my favorite is anything Colleen Hoover or Ali Hazelwood.

6:30-7:30pm After relaxing, I start my tutoring sessions where I help some students with their college essays or provide them with advice on how to get ready for college.

7:30- 10:30 pm Now I plan out my schedule for the following week listing any important tasks that I have to do and organize what lectures that I should do per day. Then I do one lecture from the upcoming week and make flashcards to help me learn the material. Next, I will review my one-page summaries from the current week we are in, these one-pagers have the main concepts or pathways for each lecture or catch up on emails.

10:30-11:30pm I grab dinner with my older cousins and every Thursday we always go to taco bell, this is my way of still having some family time and an excuse to eat tacos.

11:30-1:30 am As we come to an end of the day, I do some U-World questions based on the material I am learning, or I make my own questions as a study guide. Currently, I am taking my thesis class for my master’s, and I will edit some of my thesis proposal. Before, I sleep I think about how grateful this day was and reassure myself that nothing is impossible.

I joined NYITCOM in 2020, where I started to pursue my master’s in Medical and Health Care Simulation alongside being a medical student. I started this program because prior to medical school I worked as a research assistant at NYPHQ, where my project’s focus was how simulation can aid as a learning tool to improve resident’s skills. One of my passions is to be an educator and I thought this route was a good way to build that experience. With this additional degree, as a physician I can teach medical students how to improve their skills in a safe and positive environment and give them room to make and fix their mistakes. Further, I hope to create simulation programs/cases that focus on mental health and allow students in their pre-diabatic years to get exposure in interacting with trauma/abuse patients before going on their rotations. Further, for students to understand an osteopathic tenet that everything is connected, how our mental health can be interrelated with one’s physical health.

NYITCOM has diverse set of clubs and organizations, there is a little bit of everything for everyone. Currently, I am the House Leader for the Student Advising and Mentoring (SAM) program for House Sanguinis, the second-year representative for the Wellness Organization, case coordinator for the Asylum clinic, and the outreach leader for the American Medical Association (AMA). I am also a member of SAMSA, the AOCOPM, AMWA, AOCNP, and a Student Ambassador. Other than school organizations, I also volunteer at my temple as a tutor and teach SAT for the 11th and 12th graders as well as violin to preschoolers. Further, I am writer for SAMHIN, which is a South Asian organization that is dedicated to reforming mental health in my community. I am also a founder of the New York branch of We Are SAATH, my organization is dedicated to end the stigma behind mental health in the South Asian community through activism and promoting wellness. Alongside, this I am also the founder of Yogam, which is a Sri Lankan Tamil organization that helps and guides pre-health students and provides food resources to improvised areas in the North parts of Sri Lanka. During the weekends, I work with my two friends in creating a children’s book that is focusing on immigrant mental health.

For research, I am involved in a few projects, one is focused on substance use in the South Asian population, the other focuses on lack of health resources for domestic violence patients in urgent cares, and my other project focus is about the prevalence of cervical osteoarthritis and providing support interventions for patients who have this disease. Lastly, along with my medical school classes, I am writing my thesis for my master’s course and my thesis focus is how simulation can help medical students treat domestic violence patients. The faculty here are very open to your ideas and if you ever have a research topic that you want to focus on, they are always here to help you develop it.

NYITCOM gave me a place to grow as a physician, being the first person in my family to go to college and now medical student, I pretty much had no idea what I was doing when I was pre-med. NYITCOM gave me the guidance that I needed to become a physician by providing me opportunities to immerse in my passions and the faculty here was willing to get to know me and help develop my interests. For those of you who are going to enter medical school or interested in pursuing medicine keep this quote in mind, "Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it." We often think of the future, but don’t forget about your past, always give back to the community you came from and be proud of how much you have achieved thus far.

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