<p>I mean seriously, it can't be THAT bad...right? Or is it just wishful thinking that I would be able to get in, and still have somewhat if a social life, and make it out with a diploma and a few more letters after my name?</p>
<p>med students are notorious whiners</p>
<p>I think the stresses I’ve faced as a resident have been far worse than the ones I got through as a student.</p>
<p>To be honest, I hated most everything in medical school, unless it was related to the heart, as I already knew I wanted to be a Cardiologist. It is a grueling process, followed by residency. I honestly believe that medical school education teaches us a lot of information that will never be used in practice, but there’s no way around it. However, there needs to be less focus on rote memory and more application of studies to clinical situations. The main problem I see is a whole bunch of poorly trained residents because of lack of clinical skills and a lack of work ethic because of the 80 hour work week imposed by ACGME. Too many doctors now look at medicine as shift work.</p>
<p>I’m a second year med student, and just this week: I went out with new friends on Thursday, went salsa dancing with classmates and some docs from Mexico (we did a med trip with them this summer and now they’re here as visiting lecturers) on Friday, studied and watched movies on Saturday, and went to a Super Bowl party tonight.</p>
<p>I mean, sure med school’s tough. And it’s very time consuming and difficult and all those other terrible things you’ve probably heard about it. But I think saying it’s HORRIBLE is a gross over-estimation. And for what it’s worth, I’d estimate the time spent studying for boards (which I’m currently doing) is unquestionably the worst part of med school so far.</p>
<p>And I completely agree with Brown–med students just looooove to whine and “out-stress” other people. Eg “Oh, you thought your day was terrible? Just wait til you hear about mine…” (I think this behavior is despicable, but that’s another topic 
)</p>
<p>Psychodad,</p>
<p>I’ve wondered what the 80 hour work week does in terms of resident education, but I guess their thinking is that the learning done in those extra hours isn’t worth the increased risk of poor patient outcomes.</p>
<p>I wonder if maybe we should shorten the clinical rotations and get medical school down to 3 years with an extra year added to residencies across the board. In other words, get people into their specialty faster without actually shortening the time to becoming an attending. I imagine the training during residency is far more important than 3rd/4th year. Does anyone know anything to support or discredit my idea? I don’t think I would even know where to begin. Are there surveys on what percentage of doctors feel they made the right specialty choice? Could we shorten clerkships if residency were longer (e.g. do you really need 6 weeks of OB/GYN or 8 weeks of surgery if you’re not going into those fields/if you spent an extra year as a resident in those fields?)</p>
<p>My D. is fuly enjoying her Medical School. However, it is extrememly hard work. Somebody said that it is easier than UG. Nobody in her class thinks so, nobody including all those who cam to Med. School with advanced degrees. She interviews applicants and commented several times: poor things they do not what is ahead of them. But again, somebody said that academics is easy, they must be genius with photographic memory. For average Summa Cum Laude it is very very hard to the point that they do not study by themselves. It is normal to study with the group, divide up material and publich your part for the rest of the group as it is not possible to cover everything on your own. After saying that, they all seems to have a social life, volunteer, have potluck parties, visit other cities, some having spouses and even kids and I imagine that most in residency have families and residency is harder than Medical school (by most that I heard from).
Not sure about whining, they sure luuve to put others down, but remember, Med. School is NOT competitive, it supports each student and as long as you learn to deal with some super-intense personalities and shrug their comments about reading thousand pages in one day (or something of this nature) you should be OK. Yes, sometime in Medical school, you cannot choose your peers, you might be thrwon into the same group with personalities that do not match yours at all, but it is done on purpose so that you learn. And as long as you take it as learning experience and never take any comments personally, you are OK, it will make you better.</p>
<p>Kristin: Bear in mind you’re a pre-clinical student. :)</p>
<p>IWBB: My thought:
1.) Add prereqs to undergraduate coursework: Anatomy, physiology, biochem.
2.) Remove first year from medical school.
3.) Consolidate residency application process.
4.) Remove fourth year from medical school.</p>
<p>My proposal has LOTS of disadvantages. It disadvantages kids from small/local undergraduate programs; it makes medical school much more unpleasant; it requires major overhaul of residency selection; it gives a little less time for specialty choice.</p>
<p>But saving TWO YEARS of the lives of 17,000 students in EVERY SINGLE year – that’s a big deal. Hopefully medical schools do not raise tuition in response.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Those two years are much more easily saved pre-college. It is absolutely ridiculous to still be using a system of education very little changed in over a century. Everyone should be either in college or vocational training by the time they are 16 yo.</p>
<p>BDM: And you think I have it easier than you? Please.</p>
<p>Well not NOW, obviously. :)</p>
<p>Omari248 - D and her friends worked really hard in med school. They are working harder as interns. I would say most of them are working 80 hours (plus) every week. But they do find time to exercise, to hang out together, to travel, to attend movies, concerts, and sporting events, to volunteer - I love that they still do this, and they often gather at their favorite retaurants/bars to celebrate birthdays. Oh, and they will always join H and me for a meal if we’re cooking (or buying). ;)</p>
<p>BDM…are you out of law school now? </p>
<p>BDM reminds me of those genius-smart students sitting on the lawn in “Legally Blonde”. Their Harvard Law prof has them go around the circle and tell a little bit about themselves. One example: “I was first in my class at Princeton, I have an IQ of 187, and it’s been suggested that Stephen Hawking stole his “Brief History in Time,” from my fourth grade paper.” If BDM had been on that lawn, it would have been, “Went to Duke, then med school, then law school, and now (fill in the blank with some other amazing thing).” :)</p>
<p>Yeah…but mom2, Warner only went to Harvard Law.</p>
<p>*Yeah…but mom2, Warner only went to Harvard Law.
*</p>
<p>Yeah, but only after his dad “made a call.” ;)</p>
<p>It’s sounds pedantic, but nothing is perfect. If you can’t go into any career expecting to love everything about it. That job doesn’t exist. Med school is awful some of the time and pretty awesome a lot of the time. Some things are absolutely miserable (step 1, residency interviewing/rank order list/match), but it’s not four years of torture. </p>
<p>A lot of times in medical school, especially when I was in a course or rotation that I didn’t enjoy, it helped to remind myself “it’s only x more days, and I can do anything for x days.” That said, plenty of people have gotten through medical school by saying that about every rotation, and that’s a sign that they probably shouldn’t have gone into medicine. And then, sure enough, they don’t particularly like clinical practice. So it takes a fair amount of introspection to figure out if you’re just shouldering through some of the less-than-pleasant parts or if you’re finding everything to be less than pleasant.</p>
<p>I wanna be</p>
<p>I personally believe that residency training should not be restricted to 80 hours. The work ethic of many residents has suffered tremendously now as they basically look at the residency as shiftwork and they don’t get the necessary training that they should be getting by observing as much as they are able to get out of the training program. As for me, I regret going into medicine. It is a job that is not as rewarding as I thought. Many patients certainly don’t really care who their doctors are. They only really care who is on an insurance plan. In addition we face the threat of lawsuits every day and we have to deal with issues such as government intrusion into medicine. For those of you were thinking about a career in medicine, think long and hard. What you perceive to be the glory in medicine has disappeared. I really don’t think that it is worth the effort as well</p>
<p>Oh, and by the way, I am not alone in my thoughts about the future of medicine. Most physicians would not recommend medicine as a career to their children. I am no exception. My son wants to pursue a career in medicine. I certainly don’t encourage it, but I will support whatever is that he wants to do.</p>
<p>*I personally believe that residency training should not be restricted to 80 hours. *</p>
<p>lol…really. A person only has 168 hours in a week. </p>
<p>80 hours residency
56 hours sleeping
14 hours food (purchase/prep/eating/cleanup)
7 hours basic grooming (showering/dressing/shaving/etc)
6 hours basic housework/laundry
5 hours travel</p>
<h2>5 hours social</h2>
<p>168 hours</p>
<p>Everything is made pretty easy for residents- they get 1 day off every week, they can’t admit more than a certain number if patients, they can’t even be yelled at. I think that harsh training conditions for 3-7 years is the price to pay when having a human life in your hands. I worked more than 80 hours a week when I was a resident and still found time to start a family and have a good time. It’s all about setting priorities.</p>