intentions

[Guest dogeatdog12]

I know I posted this earlier in the mac forum, but I should have posted it here. Anyway, my main reason for choosing medicine is teaching. I enjoy quite a lot. I don't mean teaching in a lecture, but that's also interesting. But I mean teaching where students and teachers learn from each other. I learned a lot when I taught an advanced biology summer class. I suppose in there somewhere is a desire to help people, but that's seems a little corny. I don't know much about the clinical parts of the job you guys are doing , and I can't really comment on that stuff.

 

I am doing research right now, and although I enjoy the creativity of it, there's not enough human interaction for me. I need to be around people to get by during that DAY!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to know what you guys think regarding my intentions of med school. do you think schools will not look on them favorably?

 

thanks

[Guest Lactic Folly]

I think it sounds good that you want to teach.. but now you have to answer the question - why medicine and not other careers that involve teaching?

[Guest mying]

Actually, I cited that as one of my motivations in an interview. I think it makes sense as a reason to like the practise of medicine, though of course I could just be self-justifying. :b

 

You teach your patients. You educate them about their illness and the management. If you are an approachable educator, you may get better results from your patients.

 

You teach your colleagues. Whether in small groups with clerks or residents, in Grand Rounds, or some drug-rep sponsored CME, or an article in CMAJ, people need to do some teaching.

 

A lot of people know that in medicine, you are constantly learning. But you're constantly teaching too!

 

Medicine remains an *academic profession* because every physician is a teacher and a student for the rest of their lives.

 

But as was pointed out... teaching is not *all* that medicine is, only part. So it's worth it to consider carefully if you are as fond of the rest of the profession as you are of the teaching... because there are lots of professions that engage in teaching...

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Don't forget you're not just teaching med students, you're teaching your patients as well! A good physician will educate a patient so that they know how to best control their illness themselves. What's the point of prescribing a drug, therapy or device if the patient doesn't know how to use it properly?

[Guest dogeatdog12]

one of the reasons I like medicine over just a simple high school teaching position is because it deals with the biomedical sciences at a small level. I know that sometimes MDs do have to teach in lecture halls, or give presentations and I more than happy to do that. However, I like the close interactions involved in the everyday aspect of the job. Teaching patients is a new concept and I now I know why people put it down on their applications. It seems very exciting. This seems like a new door opening for me.

 

Last summer, my friends, and my sister started a free tutoring for young kids to teach them biology but mostly medical biology. I showed them a pipe getting small and pushing the same amount of water. I think the kids finally what high blood pressure meant. I put big pieces of tape within the inner wall of the pipe and taught them atherosclerosis. To me the medical sciences is an amazing thing.

 

I think medicine is good because the human interaction involved. I like working with people-as you can tell by willingness to tutor for free.

 

Anyway, I thought I would put this out there to see if there's anything more.

[Guest Lactic Folly]

Anything more? Hmm.. how about nursing? Lots of patient education and interaction there. University profs also get to work closely with students on biomedical research.

[Guest piglatinlover12]

why is teaching an important aspect to medicine? last time I checked I don't recall a surgeon giving a lecture during surgery.

 

I think it's incredilous how people can use the excuse of teaching to justify their intentions of medical school.

[Guest Lactic Folly]

Yes, but there are preoperative/postoperative instructions, which if not understood correctly can have adverse consequences for the patient. Teaching people about prevention is a huge part of medicine.. just think of the myriad public health education campaigns, and their potential benefit for the health of our society in general.

 

Skill in explaining mechanisms of disease and treatment to people with no medical background is extremely valuable, and may make the difference between a successful/unsuccessful course of treatment. People are more likely to follow directions if they understand the rationale behind them, and of course are also more likely to follow them correctly if they understand the directions themselves (which can be quite complicated). I think the posts above covered this nicely as well..

Also, who's going to train the next generation of physicians?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I'm not sure teaching, completely on its own, is the best reason to go into medicine, either. (considering you could maybe go into, I don't know, teaching?)

 

But as I pointed out in, almost all forms medicine (with the potential exception of Radiology, Lab Medicine, and Pathology) involve teaching PATIENTS. Even surgeons. But do you think surgeons just randomly walk into OR rooms, and randomly start cutting into whatever body is there? Of course not! Patients are referred to a surgeon (or the surgeons is called for a consult) at which point surgeon assesses whether the patient needs surgical intervention, and then has to EDUCATE the patient about all the options so that they might make an informed choice.

 

And that's just the example of teaching to patients. Specialists from ALL fields have a hand in teaching students in a teaching centre. Of course, if you truly truly despised teaching you could choose to live in a non-teaching centre such as Kitchener-Waterloo, Chatham, Peterborough, Windsor, Sudbury or Thuderbay. . . oh wait a second, those last three are becoming teaching centres within the next two years, aren't they? And the great thing is that the teaching isn't just limited to the traditional lecture format of a University program. . . in medicine you can often be teaching students (clerks) one-on-one or at least in small groups. Personally, the thought of teaching really appeals to me but I wouldn't want to stand in front of a group of 25 kids or 3000 University students and try to teach.

 

If dogeatdog truly wants to teach medicine or teach patients about their illness, I can't see anything wrong with that. But I should point out dog, that I can't think of a single prof of mine who JUST teaches. I think all of them combine their academic duties with clinical ones as well. If you want to teach biomedical sciences related material. . . you might want to think about doing a PhD instead. But of course it's up to you.

[Guest mying]

almost all forms medicine (with the potential exception of Radiology and Pathology) involve teaching,

 

:b

 

Actually, some of the most incredible on-the-job teachers I've met were radiologists. They did most of their teaching to emerg and internal med colleagues, rather than to patients, but they were pretty much constantly teaching.

 

Mind you, that was outside of the city of London... . .

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Whoops - by that I meant teachers to PATIENTS not STUDENTS. Pathologists can be good teachers too (ie Dr. Hammond)!!

 

I've edited the above.

[Guest ikaj]

Hi, I am a volunteer ESL teacher. Most of the students I teach are in their 50's and up, so, other than grammar and pronunciation etc. I like to cover alot of health related topics in class. Since they can not watch the news and keep up with the current events, I have taught them about SARS, West Nile, Mad Cow etc. Also diabetes, osteoporosis etc. etc.

I have such a good time that the experience actually further motivated me to pursue medicine. The teaching job is making me a better communicator. As a physician, you have to be able to clearly and simply explain concepts to your patients. You have to educate the public on health related issues. So, I think it really helps if you enjoy teaching others.

I don't think I want to become a classroom teacher, where often there is a strict curriculum and I actually enjoy working with adults and seniors than bratty little junior high and highschool kids.