How Much Do Graduating Med Students Know?

[medhope15]

There is so much to know in health care (I work in the field already), I'm wondering, do new doctors have to know everything about every disease topic? or is med school basically a lot of the fundementals and then you develop the details in specialized residency? Would an ortho surgeon know the protocols for management of COPD for instance?

I'm just wondering and trying to mentally prepare / imagine how much knowledge exactly is expected to learn in 4 years of med school? When you finish school and someone names any random disease, do you know everything there is to know about it?

I looked at some Step Exam books at sample questions and to me it seems like you definitely need to know pathophysiology behind different syndromes but do you have to know the million meds and protocols for every single disease out there?

[MD2015:)]

By the end of 4th year, you learn the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of most common diseases, and a little bit about less common ones too. They cram a ton into your brain and then cram in the same content over and over if it is pretty important for all doctors to know. We definitely learn all about COPD and an ortho surgeon would have had to learn about it too in the past but wouldn't need to remember all the details or keep up on any new medications or whatever. In med school they will make the expectations clear, and you learn the same things over and over. In first year we learned lung anatomy and physiology. In second year we reviewed the anatomy and physiology and learned about COPD. In third year in internal medicine, emergency, anesthesia, and family medicine rotations you review the anatomy and physiology of the lung again (very brief review) and then go over COPD again. In clinics and on the wards you will have patients with COPD and you'll remember the details of their presentation and how to manage them by connecting the medicine to memories of actual patient encounters. Then in fourth year when you review for your licence exam, you'll review it again. In first year residency, an orthopaedics resident would do some months in internal medicine (I think) and learn about COPD again through seeing patients. Then if you are an orthropod doing surgery on a patient with COPD, you know pretty well what their health is like and how it might affect any surgery plans. So basically you will know a lot about common diseases and a little bit about less common ones just on the basis of reviewing the content a few times throughout medical school. Then even when you forget, you can look it up quickly and remember. Med school definitely gives you enough repetition to learn as much as you are expected to know by the end. And you'll remember the basics later in your career and can look things up quickly if you forget.

[NLengr]

You learn lots about the basics of diseases. For example, I'm a senior resident in a surgical specialty. At some point in med school I learned about Rheumatoid Arthritis, Depression and pre-term labour. I learned the epidemiology, patho-physiology, clinical presentation, related exam findings, lab/imaging work up and basic treatments (essentially what a family doctor would be expected to know). Now I kind of remember the important points for many of them, but to recall all the details I learned, I'd have to go back and read about them again.

 

You will not learn the finer points of investigating and managing those diseases. That's what residency IM, psych or obs/gyne is for. In residency you learn far more than just protocols. You learn the how and why of protocol recommendations. You learn how to manage people who don't fit a protocol. Protocols are a basic starting point in residency.

 

Very roughly, the goal of med school is to prepare you with the knowledge required to be a general practitioner (although not the competency to be one).

 

How much is there to learn? Learning in med school is like drinking from a firehose.

[dmleo]

You learn lots about the basics of diseases. For example, I'm a senior resident in a surgical specialty. At some point in med school I learned about Rheumatoid Arthritis, Depression and pre-term labour. I learned the epidemiology, patho-physiology, clinical presentation, related exam findings, lab/imaging work up and basic treatments (essentially what a family doctor would be expected to know). Now I kind of remember the important points for many of them, but to recall all the details I learned, I'd have to go back and read about them again.

 

You will not learn the finer points of investigating and managing those diseases. That's what residency IM, psych or obs/gyne is for. In residency you learn far more than just protocols. You learn the how and why of protocol recommendations. You learn how to manage people who don't fit a protocol. Protocols are a basic starting point in residency.

 

Very roughly, the goal of med school is to prepare you with the knowledge required to be a general practitioner (although not the competency to be one).

 

How much is there to learn? Learning in med school is like drinking from a firehose.

 

Very well said. I don't know if we went to same med school, but I recall a dean at my school telling us about the firehose or something too.

 

In med school, you're learning. No one ever expects a med student to independently investigate,diagnose,manage and follow up with a patient without supervision.