Dr. Ehab Nazzal is out of Emory School Medicine ’20 and is now a PGY1 University of Pittsburgh Orthopedic Surgery.
We had a chance to sit down with Dr. Nazzal and ask him a few questions about his pre-health journey.
1. What have
been impactful events that have led you to this pre-health track?
Getting involved early and volunteering at hospitals showed me the
small things. I got start in high school working in patient transportation,
which showed me how the hospital works. Cold calling and shadowing physicians
further helped me learn the style of different physicians and provided key
first-hand experience in high school. I also worked in clinical research as a
college student at the University of Michigan, which allowed me to view
medicine from a more scientific lens.
2. What was
the most difficult part of your pre-health career?
Studying the for the MCAT. It’s a hard exam and has a lot is
riding on it. Sometimes, it can feel like no matter how hard you study, this
one score is out of your hands and decides your fate. It was stressful until I nailed
down a solid study plan, and definitely the most difficult part of my journey.
3. What helped
guide you to where you are now?
Mentorship for sure. Everyone starts out with a personal
experience or clinical/research position of some sort, but whereever you start,
you find a mentor. I was lucky in college to have clinical and research mentors
who could provide guidance and show me that medicine was the career for me.
Without the mentors you’d be in over your head.
4. What do you
wish you knew 5 years ago?
Ooh right before entering medical school. I think I would
re-affirm that this is a super long journey, and it’s important to recognize
when things are difficult or overwhelming. Don’t try to repress that. Often
times, pre-health students try to push through, but sometimes I let myself slow
down and feel it all. Took me a few years to learn how to do that, but I used
to always want to push through and not think about my experiences. But I really
started doing well when I acknowledged that things were overwhelming, and I needed
to recuperate. I didn’t learn how to do that until I entered med school, but
it’s definitely crucial to my success now.
5. If you
could start over, what would you change?
I was under the impression that I had to take only science classes in undergrad, but it wasn’t until the end that I decided to minor in something non-science. I majored in microbiology, but I wish I could go back and take time to explore the non-sciences. Once you enter med school it’s so focused, but I realized I could still end up where I am now and with more experiences if I had pursued that earlier on.
6. Did you
have a specific mentor that inspired you to get to where you are now?
I have two specific mentors who come to mind: one in research and
the other from medical school:
On the research side, I worked with a skin cancer specialist at Michigan,
and she was the first person I worked closely with on research. She taught me
how to do well in research and laid a solid foundation with the basics. In
doing this, she also showed me how working with mice in a wet lab translated to
the actual medicine for skin caner
As medial student at Emory, I had an orthopedic surgeon, helped me
decide on ortho and was vital during my application process. He helped me put
myself out there, and his guidance reaffirmed that this was the specialty for
me.
While these mentors are from different realms of my pre-health
journey, both of them pushed me beyond my comfort zone. From showing me the
basics of research to guiding me in a more specialized sense, both physicians
really helped me grow on a personal and professional level. I like to push
myself as a person, but these mentors were also aware of my limitations. What made
them good mentors was pushing me a little more each time we worked together.
7. What
challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
As a freshman in college, I tried to overload all my classes to hit the ground running. But it backfired, and I didn’t do so well my first semester. I had to swallow my pride and take it slow to regroup from a low GPA my first semester. This almost made medicine not achievable, but it ended up working out. Again, shoutout to my mentors who helped me bounce back and provided encouragement early on.
8. What is the
best advice you could give someone pursuing the same track as you?
There are a lot of external ways of measuring succeeding, but you have to be comfortable with recognizing when you’ve tried your best or hardest and accepting the outcome. As long as you are comfortable with the fact you tried your best, otherwise you’ll get caught up on the outcome.
9. Any closing
words of advice for someone on a pre-health journey?
In general, people assume the road to medicine is full of super smart and naturally gifted students. But everyone has their own struggles and weaknesses, and you have to identify what those are. For me, I’ve been all about introspection and reflection. The name of the game is pushing yourself past your limits and being comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s a big part of the road to becoming a doctor and even once you’re in medicine.