<p>first time user here.
I have an extraordinarily stupid question to be asking a bunch of med/pre-med students, but here it is regardless.
I've been debating going for med school for a while (currently a sophomore at UPenn with a 3.93 gpa) and I'm fairly certain that I could handle the coursework. I like science and I like the idea of helping people (as naive as that sounds)
My only concern is that every time I watch a gory scene in a movie, I have to turn away. Now I'm fairly convinced that being a surgeon is out of the picture, but there are so many options in medicine, and I don't want this to hinder me from pursuing a field where I wouldn't be up to my elbows in innards.
However, I realize that in the 4 years of medical school, I'm bound to have to do a rotation in ER where I'd be exposed to such things.<br>
My question is, what exactly is the extent to which students work in such an environment?
And secondly, how possible is it to overcome a distaste for blood? I understand this is purely subjective, but I'd love a few opinions anyway :)</p>
<p>well yeah you're definitely going to be doing dissections in the anatomy lab, and I think you have to rotate through general surgery (not entirely sure about this). You will see blood and other unpleasant things during your training, but I think it's just a matter of getting over that squeamishness that we all have (some to a greater extent than others). I would advise you to shadow some general surgeons on a regular basis so that you are exposed to a lot of invasive procedures and that will hopefully help you get used to blood. Also, consider downloading/watching some autopsies and/or surgeries online.</p>
<p>You will have to do dissections, but these are not bloody. The cadavers have been preserved, and a normal part of the funeral/wake embalming is to drain the blood.</p>
<p>Surgeries of course have more blood. You will have to do a clerkship during the third year in General surgery (4-8 weeks usually), and many schools (not all) have an ER clerkship requirement - it's of course a 4th year elective everywhere. </p>
<p>Part of being a med student, and why they start with anatomy right off the bat most places (at least as a latent reason) is for you to develop coping mechanisms. I found that initially, during anatomy, the hands and face were pretty disconcerting for me, but as we got into those dissections, I developed the ability to sort of disconnect myself from the fact that I was hacking away on someone's parent or sibling or grandparent. When I was doing surgery last summer, I found it even easier to disconnect b/c of the sterile field prep, and that only the exact place where we were operating was exposed - everything else was covered and it was easy to forget there was a living person there.</p>
<p>Some schools are shifting from hands on dissections to expertly prepared prosections. Even at schools where dissections are required, your hands on involvement can be quite limited if you have enthusiastic bench partners. As BRM noted, cadaver dissections are not at all bloody: blood has been drained and in most cases conveniently replaced with red or blue latex.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most unpleasant aspect of dissections is the smell of formaldehyde.</p>
<p>ER rotations vary greatly in terms of clinical scenarios and student involvement. Some squeamish students manage to work up every sore throat and belly ache that comes through the ER while avoiding trauma.</p>
<p>Finally, it is very common for students to pass out the first time they are in the OR. This is true for future surgeons as well as future psychiatrists.</p>
<p>Your post leaves me with a few questions not necessarily regarding the question you're asking:</p>
<p>-have you taken any of the premed classes at Penn yet?</p>
<p>-if no, what is your current major?</p>
<p>-I ask this because in order to finish your requirements in your remaining two years, you'll have to squeeze a whole lot in (and take a year off after graduation). You likely will have to take summer classes as well. For someone who hasn't taken any sciences at Penn, this is a lot to ask. While your current GPA is outstanding, frankly I don't find it terribly impressive if you're a psych or comm major or something; there's a reason why the minimum GPA to graduate with honors as a bio major is 3.25.</p>
<p>Of course, if you have filled some of your requirements, then by all means go for it, I fell like the gross-out factor will fade with exposure.</p>
<p>If you have particular Penn questions, feel free to PM me (I'm a junior in the process of applying now)</p>