Hi guys, thought I would chime in. I am a 4th year med student, graduating soon and going into general surgery (I'll find out where two weeks from tomorrow!). I originally was an accountant for two years, then hated it, took 2 years of science classes, and then went on to get my masters in Physical Therapy from MCP Hahnemann. But during grad school, I found I was fascinated with the anatomy and the interventionalist nature of surgery (I got to scrub a couple of heart valves so I could see the trauma the pts went through, before I got them up to ambulate the very next a.m.) I also found a deep desire to be the one driving the ship - doing the surgeries - not just rehabbing the pts afterwards. So I put my money (actually my wife's money) where my big mouth is, and took organic chem at night, studied my ass off for the MCAT during my last year of grad school, and got my acceptance. I took an extra six months off and practiced PT at a local sports rehab place, then went straight into med school. It's been a *long* haul
but I couldn't be happier and my family (wife, kid, parents, inlaws) are in total support so all is cool.
That being said, I felt that because of PT school I was quite ahead of the game for Gross Anatomy & Neuroanatomy, and most of Physiology, except for the gut stuff (which I now love the most - I actually am quite disinterested in the musculoskeletal system nowadays). I often would lead study sessions / tutor / etc. However, nothing's for free
, so of course all of Histology, Embryology, Pathology, Biochemistry, Genetics, and Microbiology were completely Greek to me, and I definitely felt behind the 8-ball in these areas compared to the other "science-type" folks.
Most of all, however, I felt that I was light-years ahead of my classmates in patient interaction skills. This has actually been pointed out to me repeatedly on my rotations. Yes I am a bit older, but I don't think it was because of age - I think that physical therapists have an inherent positive and motivating quality that brings out the best in their patients even under the most adverse, tenuous, even terminal disease processes. Even now I never leave a patient's room until I've gotten a smile out of them and told them to hang in there. And I always love giving patients anatomy lessons relevant to their disease process, or interpreting what the attending just told them in English
Funny, I thought I was the only one crazy enough to go back to school (twice), especially for surgery - it's great to know there are other PT's who wanted to be more proactive in directing their patients' care. Let me know if I can be of help to any of you - good luck and take care.