Hmm... 2 questions. 1. What about people that worked for years in medicine BEFORE med school and perhaps have seen that many patients on their own, just not as the EM physician? Can they be cynical since they have, in fact, seen just as many patients as you have but admittedly in a different role? 2. Can you explain why you believe people should not be able to express their personal opinion until some preset deadline is met?
I asked cuz one evaluation I had said "Be careful showing any cynicism this early in your young career" which I found interesting because unless you asked or knew me, how would you know if I'm early in my career or not? Because I was a 3rd or 4th yr med student at the time? As fate would have it the person who wrote that was like 3 or 4 years out of residency and as it turns out I happen to have over a decade as a paramedic before medical school. It would probably be a tossup who had actually seen more patients in their career so I had wondered if you thought pt count, years, or just plain experience as a medical provider counted as "time served". I tend to understand what you are saying in terms of someone fresh outta school or residency that never worked in medicine before playing the highly cynical almost burned out card but definitely would have disagreed if you said that it had to be solely as a primary EM physician. As for correlation with experience and validity... mmm, usually. Can't think of any good example off the top of my head when it doesn't but like others mentioned there are a few that are just natural keen on picking up on and building that cynical view. Whether that's good or bad who knows but I do think cynicism can be as much of a personality trait as it can be something you earn from time and experience.
And I can definitely see your point or why you would say/think that IF you lump every medical student into the same pile. As mentioned above, would you say that to any medical student regardless of their time in medicine/experience or are you agreeing that it's more directed towards the straight outta HS into college and straight into med school type people that have never held a job or had any true independent patient experience and not so much towards the people who chose to change careers or advance? It's just curious how so many people lump all med students in the same pile and in some aspects we are but in others not so much. Anyways, just a side opinion and I can tell you that my level of cynicism is not modeled after any attending I've met or known but by things I've seen and done over the years. It may not be the same thing as being an attending but it is the same patient population, experiences, and problems. I totally agree on the fresh outta HS into college and then med school bunch though... it takes time to develop gestalt, cynicism, and crust, lol. I guess all I'm trying to say is just make sure you know the person you are telling "for your level of training..." cuz they could possibly be someone completely different than you think and may have MANY good reasons to have that "cynical gestalt" as it was referred to earlier. If you don't do that then you are essentially doing the same thing as you think they are... making preformed judgements about a group of people based on the "norm" and expecting it to be true. Bottom line is get to know your people... both your patients and your colleagues... without preformed opinions or prejudices and you'll sometimes be amazed what you find out. Sometimes not, lol, that's what cynicism is for!
I can buy that for the most part.
Agree with everything you said. I've gotten to the point that I don't even mention that I was a paramedic before unless it becomes completely relevant to the task at hand or I'm directly asked. That usually manifests with "You don't seem like a normal med student we're used to... did you do something in medicine before?" or something along those lines. I always took that to hopefully mean "... cuz you seem to do pretty well" as the unspoken intent of the question but perhaps they were thinking "... you cynical bastard!" lol! Who knows... I'm pretty sure I don't anymore
