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Is It Possible To Finish Med School Without Becoming Too Salty Or Cynical?


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  • 3 months later...
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Happiness is proportional to when you are let off post call.

<10am = :D low salt

10-12 = :I getting out the salt shaker

12-2 :( :( :(  processed food level salty

>2pm (?4 ?6 ?...)GAHAHHHRRRRRGGGG (the surgical resident life) ...dead sea level salty...

 

a weekend ruined by a saturday call also gets the salty level up

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With the way call is structured in my program (points versus frequency), I do less overall calls if I volunteer for Saturdays, so I usually do.

 

But without that perk, Saturday is the pits.  

 

When I was an R1 on GIM, those Mon/Fri/Sun weeks were pretty bad, but the Saturday weeks took it for sheer misery.

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None. Unfortunately, surgery of any kind generally has lots of stuff that can't wait. If you want a balanced resident life stay far far away from the OR. Maybe look into family, psych, path etc.

 

Less terrible than average: ENT, Optho, Plastics

Average levels of terrible: Urology, Cardiac (maybe, I haven't spent much time with them)

Terrible: Gen Surg, Ortho, Vascular

Ultra terrible: Neurosurg

 

That's my own opinion based on my experience at my center. Don't take it for gospel.

 

I think how terrible Cardiac is will depend on center. If your center does transplant GG... 

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I'm finishing a 4 year program. I'm a lot more cynical about some things:

1)  the med school's administration, and how much they care about you as a person versus accreditation, or versus statistics (eg match rate)

2) whenever a study comes out about a new drug, or a new application of an existing drug, and it's in anything less than Phase II OR the study is sponsored by Big Pharma, I just tune out and go digging for the flaws. 

 

I think 2) is a good thing and 1) a sad reality of life. 

 

I'm still idealistic about the following: 

1) advocating passionately for your patients will help them get that extra care in an overstretched healthcare system

2) the stories and the struggles of my patients who are so much more resilient than I ever thought a human being could be.  I see them everyday while I'm on service. 

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Finishing med school, the only thing I learnt is how much I hate medicine and it's system.

Glad to be done soon, doing a quick residency in family, I actually enjoy it so there's that. But we'll see how long I stay in this field. 

In retrospect I sometimes wish I listened to my family and friends that told me not to do it, and went into dentistry instead. 

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Finishing med school, the only thing I learnt is how much I hate medicine and it's system.

 

Glad to be done soon, doing a quick residency in family, I actually enjoy it so there's that. But we'll see how long I stay in this field. 

 

In retrospect I sometimes wish I listened to my family and friends that told me not to do it, and went into dentistry instead. 

Yup, except the family part. I wish I could do it but it makes me miserable. Can't stand the Doc McStuffins crap, the same people with the same problems, fixing insulin for people who won't exercise, tweaking inhalers, beta blockers, coumadin. Screening, oh god I hate screening. Not having enough time to do a good job. Glad there are good people out there that can do it but I would kill for a short residency in something I could do.

 

This is definitely not my last career, pay the bills, stack some cash, then maybe switch out to working in the stock room at walmart where I never have to see another human again.

Edited by Fresh fry
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  • 3 weeks later...

Finishing med school, the only thing I learnt is how much I hate medicine and it's system.

 

Glad to be done soon, doing a quick residency in family, I actually enjoy it so there's that. But we'll see how long I stay in this field. 

 

In retrospect I sometimes wish I listened to my family and friends that told me not to do it, and went into dentistry instead. 

 

Were your family members MDs as well? 

 

Also would you have loved working on people's teeth all day?

 

With family medicine, the world's your oyster. You can have a practice focused solely on Botox or hair transplants, and make a lot of easy money.

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I think self reflection and inquiry into your personal beliefs and motivations in life go a long way in offsetting some of the less desirable experiences in Medicine. In my case I picked a speciality that best aligns with my interests and personality (psychiatry) and I think it's important for all applicants to find a speciality that allows them to retain their nature and individuality.

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I was speaking to a graduated family resident who regrets going into medicine and was saying "I don't know why anyone would go into medicine, my dad was right- I should've gone into engineering". I didn't know how to respond so I just said "but there are so many people who would want to be in your position right now, I had a friend try several times to get into med school and still hasn't gotten in so now they're doing something else"

He replied "just you wait, when you're a resident you'll wish you hadn't gone into medicine too"

I don't know if my response was correct...but I was just wondering how other people would approach this situation if it happened to them

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tbh family residency is super chill...compared to my friends in other specs im relaxing all the time. 

4 minutes ago, mononoke said:

I was speaking to a graduated family resident who regrets going into medicine and was saying "I don't know why anyone would go into medicine, my dad was right- I should've gone into engineering". I didn't know how to respond so I just said "but there are so many people who would want to be in your position right now, I had a friend try several times to get into med school and still hasn't gotten in so now they're doing something else"

He replied "just you wait, when you're a resident you'll wish you hadn't gone into medicine too"

I don't know if my response was correct...but I was just wondering how other people would approach this situation if it happened to them

 

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28 minutes ago, mononoke said:

I was speaking to a graduated family resident who regrets going into medicine and was saying "I don't know why anyone would go into medicine, my dad was right- I should've gone into engineering". I didn't know how to respond so I just said "but there are so many people who would want to be in your position right now, I had a friend try several times to get into med school and still hasn't gotten in so now they're doing something else"

He replied "just you wait, when you're a resident you'll wish you hadn't gone into medicine too"

I don't know if my response was correct...but I was just wondering how other people would approach this situation if it happened to them

Well, it's hard to respond without knowing *why* they're unhappy with being in medicine...

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To be honest, the most useful response to someone who says that they are unhappy about anything in life is almost never "well, many people would want to be in your position right now."

Medicine sucks sometimes.  I personally am mid-PGY3 and swinging through a burned out "this sucks and I hate it" phase, and sort of wishing I'd been a clinical psychologist instead and avoided all this garbage (though no career is without garbage, obviously).

Trying to tap back in to all of the non-cynical things I wrote in this exact thread.  Sometimes we all just have to show up for each other and see how we can make this profession better.

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1 hour ago, ellorie said:

To be honest, the most useful response to someone who says that they are unhappy about anything in life is almost never "well, many people would want to be in your position right now."

Medicine sucks sometimes.  I personally am mid-PGY3 and swinging through a burned out "this sucks and I hate it" phase, and sort of wishing I'd been a clinical psychologist instead and avoided all this garbage (though no career is without garbage, obviously).

Trying to tap back in to all of the non-cynical things I wrote in this exact thread.  Sometimes we all just have to show up for each other and see how we can make this profession better.

What makes you think that being a clinical psychologist would be better than being a psychiatrist?

 

Thank you

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