Advice for a teacher on how to best help his students?

[BiomedTeacher]

Ok, first why I posted in this forum: I am looking for advice from professionals who are nearing the end of their schooling/time with this process. I am concerned that advice from the pre-med or med student boards will be rife with myopia/bias on their current place in the process. I am a long-time lurker on these boards (like, for the last decade...) and I seem to lurk on the EM board the most. If this is annoying or uninteresting please skip my post but I really would like some advice from anyone willing to give it.

I am a high school biology teacher. (Wait, dont stop reading yet!) I teach AP Biology and an elective course called Principles of Biomedical Science. Both are senior-level courses taken by students that are all convinced they will become doctors. I have been doing this long enough to know that out of ~150 students/year around two of them will become practicing physicians. However, many of them do start the process and fall out somewhere along the way. My HS is located near a major university with a 6-year BA/MD program (UMKC), so many of them head in that direction and end up not making it.

Every year we take a day out of the curriculum to talk about what this process is really like, from start to finish. I try to talk about what undergrad courses are needed, what the MCAT is really about, how important extracurriculars and shadowing can be. We talk about what med school is really like, pre-clinical vs. clinical years and the match and residency process. I refer them frequently to SDN, telling them how much can be learned by lurking!

My question though, is what should I be sharing? Looking back from the end of the process, what do you wish you had known at the very beginning? What can I do to help them be more successful/realistic/prepared for this intense 11+ year journey? Since I don't really know what it is like I would like some help knowing how I can best help them.

Again, please no flaming...I am just going to the source for the best info I can.

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[kenjixshadow]

I know why you lurk here. EM forum is more intriguing than other forums. Anyway, @gyngyn and @Goro can help you.

 

[e30ftw]

Sounds like you actually care and your students are lucky to have you.

I certainly never had someone explain the application and training process in a formal undergraduate setting.

Honestly being ~14 years removed from a high-school and college application setting, yourself and the pre-med forums are probably better sources of info than my advice as a practicing Emergency Physician.

Advice like, study hard. keep your head down. be on time. smile and nod. Go to a cheap med school. Choose a good specialty. Be nice to nurses. Do well on the MCAT and Step 1. Have fun on your days off. Eat well. Exercise. Make good life decisions. etc etc, anyone can give.

We tend to get a bit jaded in time.. my thoughts would be that your students who apply themselves to become physicians, will become physicians. If they fail out along the way, it's because they didn't truly want it. There are many other ways to be successful apart from becoming a doctor. The opportunity costs and massive debt associated with medical school, as well as the emotional/physical/mental toll of medical training and practice makes me believe that 2/150 is an appropriate number to "make it" and those that don't make it, probably wouldn't be docs you would want working alongside you in the pit or taking care of your family.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Thanks for what you're doing.

I think a broad overview is very useful for your students. My undergrad offered a class like that. The first 6 classes or so were taught by the pre-med advisor, then the rest of the semester was practicing physicians coming in talking about their lives. You might try doing something similar on a more limited scale.

 

[EM_Rebuilder]

I think what you are doing is awesome and I bet you have impacted more students in either becoming doctors or the flip side of discovering early maybe it's not for them...

I try to think back about what I would have like to have heard..... I think trying hard to get some guest Doctor speakers in would be huge. also having a medical student come talk could be impactful.

I think the best advice is that you don't have to be all that smart to become a doctor (look at me!!) but you do have to be dedicated and persistent. Having the right attitude and being the constant team player is important also. It's a marathon more than a sprint with tons of distractions along the way....

 

[cbrons]

Ok, first why I posted in this forum: I am looking for advice from professionals who are nearing the end of their schooling/time with this process. I am concerned that advice from the pre-med or med student boards will be rife with myopia/bias on their current place in the process. I am a long-time lurker on these boards (like, for the last decade...) and I seem to lurk on the EM board the most. If this is annoying or uninteresting please skip my post but I really would like some advice from anyone willing to give it.

I am a high school biology teacher. (Wait, dont stop reading yet!) I teach AP Biology and an elective course called Principles of Biomedical Science. Both are senior-level courses taken by students that are all convinced they will become doctors. I have been doing this long enough to know that out of ~150 students/year around two of them will become practicing physicians. However, many of them do start the process and fall out somewhere along the way. My HS is located near a major university with a 6-year BA/MD program (UMKC), so many of them head in that direction and end up not making it.

Every year we take a day out of the curriculum to talk about what this process is really like, from start to finish. I try to talk about what undergrad courses are needed, what the MCAT is really about, how important extracurriculars and shadowing can be. We talk about what med school is really like, pre-clinical vs. clinical years and the match and residency process. I refer them frequently to SDN, telling them how much can be learned by lurking!

My question though, is what should I be sharing? Looking back from the end of the process, what do you wish you had known at the very beginning? What can I do to help them be more successful/realistic/prepared for this intense 11+ year journey? Since I don't really know what it is like I would like some help knowing how I can best help them.

Again, please no flaming...I am just going to the source for the best info I can.

The pre med forums here, while full of a lot of idiocy, actually do contain the most accurate and up to date information of any source in the world on how to actually get into a U.S. medical school.

Asking current physicians is unwise because times change and they arent likely to know what specific requirements are necessary.

 

[italiancowgirl]

I can't emphasize enough how important shadowing and mentorship has been for me. These students are lucky to have you and will do well to learn now to always ask if they can learn more. I think all students should be required to take a day to shadow a doctor, simply because the process of asking if they can opens them up to that question in the future. They won't even be able to understand what they need right now, but learning to ask and being told they can reach for something that big can make a huge difference. Thanks and GL!

 

[Old_Mil]

My question though, is what should I be sharing? Looking back from the end of the process, what do you wish you had known at the very beginning? What can I do to help them be more successful/realistic/prepared for this intense 11+ year journey? Since I don't really know what it is like I would like some help knowing how I can best help them.

Again, please no flaming...I am just going to the source for the best info I can.

Welcome.

What I wish I had known? The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so to speak, is filled with...dung.

The best advice you can give your premeds: If you see yourself being happy doing anything besides being a doctor...do that. If you absolutely positively must practice medicine to be happy...do your undergrad and medical school in Canada/Australia/New Zealand and continue your education and career there.

 

[criticalelement]

It is not the most intelligent that get through. It is the most determined.. You can have avg grades and intelligence and get through medical school. BUt if you are highly intelligent but not determined and not willing to work hard you wont succeed.

The whole process can be humiliating especially early on.

Having a very thick skin is helpful.

There are many long and dark and lonely stretches of time during training that you have to be able to deal with it. It is not for the faint of heart. You will be exposed to a lot of unpleasantness.

 

[BiomedTeacher]

Thank you all for the advice. Bringing in current medical students and practicing physicians are great ideas! That is also something that administrators LOVE so it should be fairly easy to arrange.

I also think I picked up on something that I have never really talked about before and that is the importance of being determined. Obviously being intelligent is a must, but it seems that it is more important to be doggedly determined to make it through the process. I think I will emphasize this a little bit more.

I will also warn them about that pot of dung...

I also want to say thank you for what you do. As a teacher, I get that a lot. Many people see education as something of a public service and so I often get thank-you's from parents and society in general. You all don't get that very often and after lurking on this board for so long I see what a public service EM really is. You put up with a lot and probably don't often get much gratitude in return. So, from one non-practitioner: thank you for what you do. A fundamental idea in our society is that you can always run to the emergency room if you need it. Thank you for always being there when we need you.

 

[Perrin]

Nvm