Medical Student Socialization Study

GreatWhiteApe · Nov 7, 2005

I am currently doing a study on the process of socializing medical students. I want to see if opinions, aims, etc change over time and therefore am looking for a set of responses ranging from applicants to as far up the food chain as I can get!

I figured this website had a good number of all and therefore could provide a diverse, if that is the case, set of answers.
I have created a short 8 question questionnaire that I would greatly appreciate a few people taking the time to answer. I have separate sets for applicants and current med students. The questions are similar, but structured slightly differently to reflect experience vs speculation.
If you are currently applying to medical school, please look at this thread: Med School Applicant Form

I would appreciate any time and effort you put into this questionnaire. You do not have to answer every question or provide extensive answers (although more than 1 word is usually pretty necessary). Simply do what you feel compelled to.

Responses can be emailed to [email protected] or posted here. If responses ARE posted here, I would appreciate those filling the survey out to not look at the responses before giving their own responses.

Med Students
Year in school:
1a. Why do you want to be a doctor?
1b. Has the reason changed since you started?
2a. What do you believe the professional standards of the medical profession are and what do you believe being professional insinuates?
2b. Do you agree with these standards?
3. Have you ever felt troubled knowing that you will be surrounded by sick people for the rest of your life? If so, have you gotten over it and how?
4. Has your school made formal attempts to teach you professional standards or are you expected to learn these implicitly or through example?
5. Do you feel exposure to both patients and cadavers has alleviated some of the discomfort you may have initially felt in medically oriented situations (physical exams, etc)? If so, why?
6a. Has the medical thought process and focus on detail over a holistic view of the person made it easier to deal with potentially disconcerting or uncomfortable situations with patients?
6b. Do you believe such an approach is the best and is the professional way?
6c. Should such an approach be the way in which doctors handle their patients?
7a. Does your learned professionalism affect other aspects of your life?
7b. Do you make an attempt to keep these two aspects of your life separate and can you?
8b. Is there anything you would change about the professional standards of medicine or the ways in which they are taught?
8b. How would you change these or what do you think should be done?

Once again, I appreciate any cooperation on this.

zinjanthropus · Nov 7, 2005

GreatWhiteApe said:
I am currently doing a study on the process of socializing medical students. I want to see if opinions, aims, etc change over time and therefore am looking for a set of responses ranging from applicants to as far up the food chain as I can get! I figured this website had a good number of all and therefore could provide a diverse, if that is the case, set of answers.
I have created a short 8 question questionnaire that I would greatly appreciate a few people taking the time to answer. I have separate sets for applicants and current med students. The questions are similar, but structured slightly differently to reflect experience vs speculation.
If you are currently applying to medical school, please look at this thread: Med School Applicant Form

I would appreciate any time and effort you put into this questionnaire. You do not have to answer every question or provide extensive answers (although more than 1 word is usually pretty necessary). Simply do what you feel compelled to.

Responses can be emailed to [email protected] or posted here. If responses ARE posted here, I would appreciate those filling the survey out to not look at the responses before giving their own responses.

Med Students
Year in school:
1a. Why do you want to be a doctor?
1b. Has the reason changed since you started?
2a. What do you believe the professional standards of the medical profession are and what do you believe being professional insinuates?
2b. Do you agree with these standards?
3. Have you ever felt troubled knowing that you will be surrounded by sick people for the rest of your life? If so, have you gotten over it and how?
4. Has your school made formal attempts to teach you professional standards or are you expected to learn these implicitly or through example?
5. Do you feel exposure to both patients and cadavers has alleviated some of the discomfort you may have initially felt in medically oriented situations (physical exams, etc)? If so, why?
6a. Has the medical thought process and focus on detail over a holistic view of the person made it easier to deal with potentially disconcerting or uncomfortable situations with patients?
6b. Do you believe such an approach is the best and is the professional way?
6c. Should such an approach be the way in which doctors handle their patients?
7a. Does your learned professionalism affect other aspects of your life?
7b. Do you make an attempt to keep these two aspects of your life separate and can you?
8b. Is there anything you would change about the professional standards of medicine or the ways in which they are taught?
8b. How would you change these or what do you think should be done?

Once again, I appreciate any cooperation on this.

g. This survey methodology makes no sense.
3. There is no reason given for this survey or no explanation of why it is being done or what will be done with the results
7. People with 0+ posts asking lots of questions should not get lots of responses.
c. This does not benefit much of the SDN forum community.
8. The numbering/lettering scheme seems a bit haphazard.

GreatWhiteApe · Nov 7, 2005

zinjanthropus said:
g. This survey methodology makes no sense.
3. There is no reason given for this survey or no explanation of why it is being done or what will be done with the results
7. People with 0+ posts asking lots of questions should not get lots of responses.
c. This does not benefit much of the SDN forum community.
8. The numbering/lettering scheme seems a bit haphazard.

g. It is a topic I have researched and I am looking for some first-hand accounts based on these questions with which to supplement text-based research. It is probably a good thing that you cannot tell my intent or hypothesis from the questions. This simply means they will not influence your answers.
3. It is to gather first-hand responses to support or potentially contradict other research. The research paper is simply for a medical anthropology class. I assumed that due to the anonymity of both the survey and the internet that most people partaking would have no worries about the final destination of their information. I felt that I had made the intent to include it as research in a paper clear at the outset.
7&C. I am sorry that I never knew about this forum or posted here before. I would also have had no inclination to, I don't understand how you can fault me for that. Potentially, I may have felt that anonymity on my part even if I had posted here before was important.
I understand that the answers to these questions are solely for my benefit. That is why I tried to make it simple, left the extent to which people answered questions open, and was generally trying to be very accomondating and appreciative of even the smallest input of time. At the best perhaps some people may see it as an interesting self-reflection. I understand this and was simply asking for a little time for which I am very appreciative. If you are so adverse to it, I am in no way pressuring you to answer.
8. The numbering scheme is not haphazard. If I was able to properly format within the forums perhaps it may not seem that way. Questions which have the same number maintain a similar theme through them and occasionally relate back to the original question.

Again, I'm sorry you found it so troublesome and I hope my responses help clear some of his questions up for any others. I felt that the intent of the questions was clear enough for people, but I guess not. For that I apologize. If you have any other questions or concerns I can address them.

I thank you for any time that you spend on this and completely understand that it is solely a gracious favor to me.

Medical Student Socialization Study

GreatWhiteApe

Junior Member

zinjanthropus

Full Member

GreatWhiteApe

Junior Member

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