Not liking it afterall

[drcave]

drcave, I think your frankness might be an asset! One of the best cardiologists I work with is very frank... he tells it like it is! Example, "This rhythm is a huge pain in the a$$, but it won't kill you!" Patients love him... residents love him...

 

I know a rheumatologist who is very frank as well. Unfortunately, she doesn't always choose her moments to be frank. Once when i was a junior resident, we were seeing this young, teary woman in clinic for joint pain. She had to be about 70lb overweight, and all of her tests had been negative. The rheumatologist walked into the room and said, "I'm Dr. X, and I have heard your whole story from ffp. I think your joints hurt because you are FAT!" Needless to say, the patient burst into tears, her mom (who had accompanied her) turned bright red, and you could practically see the smoke coming out of her ears as she mentally composed her letter of complaint to the College.

 

LOL... gotta choose your moments, I guess.

 

 

I would have said the same thing except I would have used the medically defined term obese. Is this bad? If I had a diabetic with complications from poorly managed blood sugar I would be direct so why should I beat around the bush when addressing obesity? Of course I would try not to be mean about it; calling someone fat does come across as being mean.

[Jazzie]

drcave, I think your frankness might be an asset! One of the best cardiologists I work with is very frank... he tells it like it is! Example, "This rhythm is a huge pain in the a$$, but it won't kill you!" Patients love him... residents love him...

 

I know a rheumatologist who is very frank as well. Unfortunately, she doesn't always choose her moments to be frank. Once when i was a junior resident, we were seeing this young, teary woman in clinic for joint pain. She had to be about 70lb overweight, and all of her tests had been negative. The rheumatologist walked into the room and said, "I'm Dr. X, and I have heard your whole story from ffp. I think your joints hurt because you are FAT!" Needless to say, the patient burst into tears, her mom (who had accompanied her) turned bright red, and you could practically see the smoke coming out of her ears as she mentally composed her letter of complaint to the College.

 

LOL... gotta choose your moments, I guess.

 

 

Reminds of the saying, "It's not what you say but how you said it."

 

I think I'd probably have a reaction that is equal to the patient's if my doctor told me that I'm fat. I'd be really pissed. It would have been less harsh if the rheumatologist told her that she needs to lose all that extra weight. The word fat just have a certain sting to it.

[Jochi1543]

So now she's working for a fortune 500 company as a CFO at 25

Yeah, but you know what, you have much lower odds of being a CFO in a Fortune 500 than you are of getting into medical school! I think the anecdote about working as a salesperson at Chrysler resembles the actual reality to a much greater extent.

[DeeDoc]

Yeah, but you know what, you have much lower odds of being a CFO in a Fortune 500 than you are of getting into medical school! I think the anecdote about working as a salesperson at Chrysler resembles the actual reality to a much greater extent.

 

True, but this person did an undergraduate at Harvard Business School. Then when she jumped ship from med school she got her MBA. Either way though, you can be successful at whatever you put your mind to. It might take a little work, or longer, but it will definitely be worth it.

[CutieYellow]

About 17 people from my promotion dropped out since the beginning of med. Guess the tuition fees in Quebec doesn't stop people from leaving lol

 

CY

[muchdutch]

17 people? Out of a class of <150 I'm assuming? That seems SO high!

[Jochi1543]

Da,mnnnn, think of the people who REALLY wanted to go and yet got rejected in favor of those 17. Maybe the selection process is not that great.

[DeeDoc]

Da,mnnnn, think of the people who REALLY wanted to go and yet got rejected in favor of those 17. Maybe the selection process is not that great.

Newsflash, the Canadian selection process, no offense to Canada....love it whole heartedly, but it's crappy compared to the American system.

 

American schools interview all the way through from october to march usually... They interview 4 times the amount we do in Canada on average. Therefore giving them a greater selection. We just do not have the resources available to interview that many applicants. Therefore brain drain to the US, Caribbean, and even Europe.

[CutieYellow]

My class has >150 actually. We were 187 when i started.

[andros]

So, they interview 4x what we do, but their population is 10x ours?

 

Lavals attrition rate might have something to do with the age of the applicants, considering Quebec students only have to do CGEP before med school.... so there are lots of 19 yo students starting meds.

 

Newsflash, the Canadian selection process, no offense to Canada....love it whole heartedly, but it's crappy compared to the American system.

 

American schools interview all the way through from october to march usually... They interview 4 times the amount we do in Canada on average. Therefore giving them a greater selection. We just do not have the resources available to interview that many applicants. Therefore brain drain to the US, Caribbean, and even Europe.

[Rock*]

So, they interview 4x what we do, but their population is 10x ours?

 

Lavals attrition rate might have something to do with the age of the applicants, considering Quebec students only have to do CGEP before med school.... so there are lots of 19 yo students starting meds.

you're also forgetting that they have 10x the medical schools, EACH of which interview more applicants than we do here

[DeeDoc]

you're also forgetting that they have 10x the medical schools, EACH of which interview more applicants than we do here

 

Still though, it's much easier to get into a medical school in the US, where you have 150 to choose from. Doesn't matter where you go, you're still an MD. In Canada we're turning away qualified applicants over one MCAT point, or a 0.1 difference on a GPA. Frankly, it's quite ludicrous. There are stats from 1991 where the government decreased medical school seats by 10%, and now it's biting us in the ass with the whole family medicine thing.

[drcave]

No matter wher they set cutoffs, there are always going to be people who miss is by 0.001 points. The problem is not the adcoms being to picky, it's the fact that there aren;t enough training spots. As the number of spots increase you will see the admissions standards being lowered slightly in order to fill those spots and then you will still hear people griping that if only their GPA was 0.001 points higher they would have gotten in.

[andros]

I'm sure you will agree... but I think there is a lot more to the lack of FPs than a decrease in meds spots in the 1990's. There is nothing to say that if those seats were here today (and there have been expansions in recent years at many medical schools across the country) that those students would choose family med.

 

I would argue that if someone missed being accepted by a small difference in GPA/MCAT scores then that person should realistically be able to beef up their application (upgrade courses, re-take the MCAT, etc) to be admitted. It would be a pain in the @ss, but doable I think. But my opinion is likely quite biased given the fact I'm about to graduate from med school.

 

Edit:

 

I wanted to add that (without getting into specifics about dr shortages, med school spots, etc, because I don't know enough about that to make an educated comment) I would rather have some qualified applicants be rejected (and hopefully admitted after re-applying ) than finishing residency to find that there is a glut of docs and no jobs (doesn't really apply to FP, though).

 

Still though, it's much easier to get into a medical school in the US, where you have 150 to choose from. Doesn't matter where you go, you're still an MD. In Canada we're turning away qualified applicants over one MCAT point, or a 0.1 difference on a GPA. Frankly, it's quite ludicrous. There are stats from 1991 where the government decreased medical school seats by 10%, and now it's biting us in the ass with the whole family medicine thing.