In the short five months that I have been in medical school, I have come to realize certain truths about the medical community from a student physician’s perspective. If you are thinking about med school, these are some ideas you must appreciate to succeed in medicine. I sit in front of my computer today, feet propped up on my coffee table, with the first free afternoon I’ve enjoyed in nearly 3 months. It was fitting to allow myself a bit of reflection upon this first semester. In the short five months that I have been in medical school, I have already come to realize certain truths about the medical community from a student physician’s perspective. If you are thinking about med school, these are some ideas you must appreciate to succeed in medicine: Studying becomes a regular routine Recently, one of my buddies from college invited me out on a Saturday night to grab a drink. The conversation went something like this: “Hey Evan, want to grab a beer tonight?” “Ah, really wish I could, but I’m going to stay in and get some studying done” “Oh really? When are your finals?” “Not for another month or so, but I’m pretty behind” That conversation, while difficult to have with a close college friend, has become fairly commonplace on the weekends. It has also made me realize that in undergrad, studying was sometimes regarded as an event – a chore that must be completed when finals rolled around. It was fine to cram, if you still managed to pull a good grade and maintained your GPA. After the exam, the information we gained seemed to fall right out of our heads. All that changes in medical school. On some level, it is strange to think that we will study longer and harder in medical school than we ever had in undergrad, even though the pass/fail system requires only a 70% to get through the first two years. Studying in med school becomes a part of your everyday routine: class, eat, study, repeat. The library, coffee shops, and study lounges become like second homes. Socializing and studying with your classmates become nearly synonymous. It may seem a bit extreme, but this idea doesn’t seem so bizarre when you realize that everything we learn and understand will help us provide the best possible care when we become doctors. As one faculty member aptly phrased it during our orientation: “In medical school, we don’t study for the grade anymore – we study for our patients.” PDr Tip: In medical school, don’t view studying as a burden. It should become enjoyable as concepts begin to overlap and make sense. The human body is a fascinating construct, and the challenge of solving complex medical problems is one of the thrills of medicine. It is humbling to realize how much there is still to learn. PDr Tip #2: Although medical students spend much of their time studying, there will still be time for you to have a life and enjoy the things you love. Spending time with loved ones and engaging in some hobbies will provide balance and rejuvenation. Seeing and touching the human body Lawyers memorize cases and decisions. Chemists understand the composition of matter. And physicians? We specialize in the human body. Every pathology is located somewhere in the body, and oftentimes the only way we can find out more about the problem is by pushing until it hurts. This means that as a medical student, you will become more familiar and comfortable with the human body than any other profession could ever imagine. There is a 3-hour session every other week in school, where we are asked to wear gym shorts and sports bras, because we will be practicing clinical skills not only on standardized patients but on each other as well. Even friends and family have asked me to take a look at strange bumps and bruises on their body. We work in a field where the patients wear nothing but a paper-thin gown and slippers in the hospital. One of the first things we do upon meeting a patient is give a physical exam, and clothing only gets in the way. We wear disposable scrubs in clinic because at any moments notice, we may have to examine a patient covered with mucous, blood, and who knows what else. Remember, nobody comes into the doctor’s office when everything looks normal and healthy. An abscess with something sticky coming out of it, smelly fungus between the toes, and little scabies up and down somebody’s arms may sound like a nightmare to some, but it’s a productive Wednesday evening for a medical student at the free clinic. PDr Tip: Understand normal before trying to understand abnormal. This means you should practice your physical examination skills as much as possible, before your third year. Take the blood pressure of your friends and listen to the heart of your family members. Becoming familiar with normal will make identifying abnormalities much easier when the time comes. Not making any money I have friends who have been hired by software companies, financial consulting firms, and investment banking corporations, all straight out of college. Friends who have compensated happy hours, dinner galas, paid travel expenses, and a Facebook page plastered with luxurious experiences. Even my younger brother, who is just halfway through his third year as an undergrad, recently landed a $30-an-hour summer internship at Amazon – the kid doesn’t even have a Bachelor’s degree yet! Meanwhile, we medical students are still highlighting textbooks, flipping through flashcards, and paying student loans. As my peers from undergraduate are off with real jobs and earning real money, I am spending four more years earning no money. Wait, let me rephrase, I am making negative money. If you’ll allow, I’d like to juxtapose my personal experience a bit further: when my buddy is shopping for his next suit for a client meeting, I’m climbing into another pair of scrubs for anatomy. His all-expenses-paid training in New York City is the counterpart to our summer spent in a developing country caring for the local population’s skin wounds. Some of my closest friends work in non-medical fields, and I hold a great deal of respect for them. However, the bottom line is that we medical students work just as hard as them, and yet they will be enjoying their early- to mid-twenties with more sleep and less debt. Especially with today’s social media, it is easy to feel like we are missing out on something that our friends in the paycheck world enjoy. PDr Tip: View your time in medical school as an investment. Rather than imagining medical school as more “school”, think of yourself as a physician-in-training. We are investing time early in our lives to become a lifelong medical provider in the future. With that career path will come both job security and a well-paying salary. Few other jobs can guarantee you that combination. PDr Tip: Do not go into medicine for the money. There are less stressful, less time-consuming paths to a comfortable income. It’s OK to be unsure about your specialty I will offer you a bet. I am willing to bet $10 that when you are a medical student and run into an old friend from college or a family member at a Christmas party, they will ask you a variation of exactly three questions, and in the same order: “Hey! How’s med school going?” “Is it super busy?” “So do you know what kind of doctor you want to be?” I want to take this opportunity to talk about that third question: “what kind of doctor do you want to be?” Once we get into med school, everybody wants to know what’s next, and who can blame them? It’s an exciting time! The trick is to not to fall into the trap of narrowing down your specialty too early on in your education. When you get asked so frequently, it’s natural to want to have a concrete answer. Maybe it gives us a sense of accomplishment if we feel like we’ve already decided our future. Maybe it’s because we overhear our classmates already deciding on a future field and we fear falling behind. It becomes a cycle in which we feel like others have it all figured out, so we start trying to figure it out earlier as well. Chances are if you’re in your first year of med school, nobody has much clue what field they want to go into. After all, the only thing you’ve learned about so far is cancer and diabetes. The UCLA Med Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Neil Parker, used an excellent analogy that I would like to repeat. Take a moment and think about the man or woman you hope to marry, and the type of marriage you wish to have. If you are like me, you probably want to spend at least a couple years getting to know that person – learning about their personality, figuring out if you are compatible, and ultimately confirming whether you can see yourself happily committed to them for the rest of your life. Perhaps you’ll date around for a bit and learn some lessons along the way before finding the right significant other, your true love. Well guess what? Choosing a specialty is exactly the same! It’s important to keep an open mind throughout medical school and explore different fields before deciding on one. Once you find a field that sparks your interest, whether it be pediatrics, surgery, or anything in between, spend time with physicians and patients in that field, and get to know the ins and outs of the specialty while you’re still in medical school. Think of it as “dating” that specialty. Staying open-minded and curious will guarantee that in the future, you’ll be working your dream job, loving your day-to-day, and never look back (whether you’re a 4-day-a-week dermatologist or a round-the-clock critical care physician). Source 1 Source 2
