<p>Looking for gift ideas for a wonderful young man who is headed to medical school in a couple of months. His mom is my BFF and I’m thrilled this opportunity has worked out for him. He was recently notified of his admission off the waitlist, so it’s been a long road for him and I’d like to acknowledge it with a gift. Wondering if anybody has a med-school- specific gift idea OR a general gift that was a big hit with the recipient.</p>
<p>The first two years of med school are mostly classroom based, with not a ton of patient contact. He may get a chance to buy a bag, stethoscope, etc through school, or they may wait til third year. So the usual classroom/studying aids would be good— Starbucks gift cards, techie gifts, maybe movie gift cards to encourage him to take a break. Anything food-related, to make sure he has good food. A few hours of sleep— that’s what he really needs but you can’t help him there, lol! </p>
<p>There are some classic books about physicians/med school that he might like if he’s a reader-- be warned that some are not always uplifting or PG! </p>
<p>House of God-- Samuel Shem (and oldie but a goodie)
poetry by William Carlos Williams
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure— Perri Klass
My Own Country-- Abraham Verghese (he wrote Cutting for Stone)
anything by Atul Gawande</p>
<p>Good luck to him!</p>
<p>I found House of God to be very upsetting to read before embarking on medical school. Maybe better to hold off a year or two.</p>
<p>Medical textbooks are very expensive. Could you give him a gift certificate for the campus bookstore?</p>
<p>Something else I found very helpful my first year, which I passed on to my brother when he was a first-year med student, was a photographic atlas of anatomy. Perhaps these are no longer so useful, if students have access to this type of material online, but it wouldn’t be an entirely useless gift.</p>
<p>R. Sassoon - “Teach Yourself Better Handwriting.”</p>
<p>I second the Campus Bookstore idea - for textbooks, apparel, etc.</p>
<p>You could put together a basket or tote of student supplies: note cards, different kinds of post-its including small ones to flag specific pages, pens, highlighters, spiral notebooks. My D is in med school and she still makes flash cards. There is a kind of flash card set that is hooked together with a spiral binding. </p>
<p>There is a set of anatomy flash cards that is important to have. She had those for anatomy first year and still has them.</p>
<p>Is he moving away to med school? You could do a funny “emergency medical kit” with Advil, band-aids, Neosporin, cold meds, upset tummy meds, instant chicken soup, Kleenex, heating pad, etc. </p>
<p>You could call the campus bookstore and get him a sweatshirt or t-shirt with the med school name on it. My D has a sweatshirt from her school. I think I’d vote for that idea as no one else will probably think of that.</p>
<p>My H finds gifts for doctors by using the searchwords “medical antiquities” on Ebay. There are small instruments from a hundred years ago, or paper copies of old prescriptions of medicinal whiskey. He puts them in a small shadow frame. The doctors like them because they’re grateful not to have to use them anymore (a lot of glass cups but we don’t buy those), so it’s a curiosity that some other doctor once used it. Shows how far medicine has come. They do hang these in their office, so I figure they like the gift that much anyway. Once he found something that was from the ancient near east, which was a big hit with his doctor. It’s a completely impractical gift, but the doc said he’d never gotten anything like it in his entire career. He was genuinely excited.</p>
<p>The other thing he gives young doctors is a fancy set of dichromatic cufflinks. I’m not sure why, but they seem to like these for the rare dress-up occasions they attend. The doctor admired my husband’s set, so he reciprocated. It was during my appointment, and I remember sitting there neglected on the table while the two men talked cufflinks.</p>
<p>Nothing beats P3Ts ideas. </p>
<p>My dad used to give stethoscope as gift.</p>
<p>Stethoscope is one of those personal preference things. D1 specifically told me NOT to give her stethoscope because she wanted to try out 3 or 4 brands/styles to see which kind she liked better. (Something about how the earpieces fit…) She also gots hers as a gift from her med school alumni organization during her White Coat Ceremony. This practice is fairly common at many schools.</p>
<p>Scrubs are always a practical gift, esp if the student isn’t ‘average’ sized. i.e. tiny girl or really big guy. (They will need at least 2 sets for anatomy lab because they will need a clean set to change into for whenever they leave and re-enter the lab. And to change into the next day. D1 had 3 or 4 sets of scrubs for anatomy lab, IIRC, so she didn’t have to do laundry every night.)</p>
<p>I will third the bookstore/gift card recommendation. The student will be setting up new digs and unless he has an apartment already will be buying lots of household items.
There will also be some semi-formal occasions first year (like White Coat Ceremony day) where they will need to dress up. </p>
<p>Avoid computers/iPads since every school will very specific requirements for what students are required to have. (OTOH, med students get a really nice deal for those thru thir bookstore. I almost asked my D1 to buy <em>me</em> one if she wasn’t going to buy one for herself.)</p>
<p>Also like the Gawande books. D1 enjoyed the 2 I gave her.</p>
<p>Do NOT give the goodie bag of post # 6- so much will go to waste if it doesn’t suit his learning style. A gift card to the local bookstore is a good idea if you don’t want to give cash outright. H never used cufflinks and I lived in scrubs professionally so not all physicians choose to dress “well”. H has had some fun ties over the years, but these are premature/jumping the gun- wait a few years until he is a resident. Then there are fun specialty specific ties. Time and money are at a premium in medical school- books and dinner gift cards may not have a chance to be used. Money can always be used and choosing what you want instead of being stuck with someone else’s choice valuable.</p>
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These are nice quality ties (they also come in bow tie style and scarves for females):</p>
<p>[Infectious</a> Awareables](<a href=“http://www.iawareables.com/servlet/-strse-Neckties/Categories]Infectious”>http://www.iawareables.com/servlet/-strse-Neckties/Categories)</p>
<p>I agree with wis75 - money will be much appreciated.</p>
<p>I love the ties…but recently learned some hospitals ascribe to new protocols that disallow doctors from wearing neckties during rounds. The ties fall onto one person’s chest and the good doctor carries germs carry into the next patient’s body. Since we’re talking about surgical wounds sometimes, it’s not a silly rule. </p>
<p>I’m going to love seeing my doctors in bowties.</p>
<p>I suppose a cadaver is out.</p>
<p>The day my son found out he was accepted I gave him a name plaque with his name engraved “Dr. Son of HeartArt”, the kind you place on a desk. It is made of black lucite and the letters are carved into the surface. It made becoming a physician more real to him and he kept it on his desk throughout med school for inspiration. His girlfriend had a custom made bobble head figure of him in a lab coat and stethoscope which is very clever too. </p>
<p>Of course money is always appreciated by any student.</p>
<p>For that person who is going to be too busy to cook for the next two years, I recommend a crockpot.</p>