Do Peoples Behavior Actually Change When They Study Medicine or Something Rigorous?

This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Diogo Warpechowski, studied Medicine at Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (2013)



Yes.

I will give you some example of things that change you.

Waking up at 3 a.m. with a pregnant woman in labor arriving at the emergency department, and in less than 5 minutes after waking up you have to perform flawlesly because now you have two lifes in your hands.

Getting called because one of your patients is suffering acute ventilatory failure and cant breath properly, so you have to insert a tube inside his airway for the ventilator machine to work. To improve your odds at achieving it in the first attempt you use a neuron blocker to reduce muscle resistance so its easier to visualize his airway so you can insert the tube in his airway instead of his esophagus. The problem is that the neuroblocker stops all his muscles and prevent him from breathing, so if you fail he may die because he depends on you to breath.

Not only you work 60 to 80 hours/week, you are also required to go home and study in your free time, and ocasionaly prepare classes which you will be required to present to others who will judge you the entire time.

And you have to do all that while feeding youself, paying bills, having relationships and caring about the few people that surround you.

That makes you value your free time a lot. That makes you very critical about your knowledge and skills. That requires you to face your fears and try to work at 100% efficiency even if you lack the time to sleep, eat or exercise. You get used to doing everything while tired. There are no excuses because you have to do everything whenever you can, because time is limited.

Due to how rare some procedures can be while you are studying, you have to be permanentely prepared to perform them perfectly at any moments notice. There was a saying in my med school that said this “The first time you watch, the second time you do it, and the third time you teach it”. You are suposed to do anything required every time you are on duty, and you should control your feelings so they dont hinder your actions.

Even specialties with a high degree of quality of life such as anesthesiology and radiology face high levels of stress. Radiologists can be the sole responsible for diagnosing life threatening diseases where urgent surgical interventions are required. That is a lot of responsability. Anesthesiologists have so much control over the patient that anything wrong during the surgery is bound to be their fault. Anesthesiologists have high suicide and drug abuse rates.

That is why many physicians suffer from depression, anxiety, insomnia, drug abuse, burnout and relationship problems. It is not easy.

The challenge is high and you have to tailor yourself to face it. There is no other way. That make you hardened and things like inserting devices into people or cutting them become commonplace.

I remember how ansious I was at the first time I did a suture on a patient. That requires you to insert a needle onto them to apply a local anesthetic so they can endure the procedure. Now immagine inserting a needle onto a screaming children foot knowing how much it must hurt for him, yet you have to endure it because you know it is required. Or having to sedate a kid so he can endure it, with risks such as respiratory failure.

These things change you. You have to adapt. Many cant endure it and leave medical school. Some have mental diseases and some go into drug addiction. These are all mental mechanisms of survival.

It doesnt help whem you have to move to another city and lose all your social support.

I had it easy. I managed to stay at my home city and had the support of both my family and girlfriend.

American med students must have a very hard time. They not only have to move to another city and face high levels of stress, but also deal with high tuition rates both at med school and pre-med college. It is not easy.

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