Curious

[SuperOrchestra]

I am starting medical school one week from today. But it got me thinking about the greater process of becoming a physician.

During the first two years it's mainly the science foundations of medicine. At my school which I am sure is common now in most, you also learn to take vitals and some basic clinical skills.

During the 3rd and 4th year you do clinical rotations where you learn the basics of different specialties.

So how functional are you by the end of school? What is expected of you when you start internship/residency?

This post isn't echoing a concern of mine (I am not going to start preparing for intern year today) but simple curiosity of what an MD really means after the completion of these four years.

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[Pinkertinkle]

you will be able to do... surprisingly little.

 

[tideleonheart]

you will be able to do... surprisingly little.

But at least you'll know that ankylosing spondylitis has a positive HLA-B27 marker in most patients! Your skillset will be very different than someone fresh out of nursing/PA school. You're trained to excel in residency with an unsurpassed foundation.

 

[julie29524]

Surprisingly, you are expected to do a decent job at everything except the diagnosis.

At my hospital, the interns needs to write a note that the attending signs (better not suck), do a through exam, make a differential ( pretty difficult since it needs to be in order of likeliness), order some labs and exams, and make a plan of treatments.

Sometimes after the attending gets there, the intern realize they did nothing correct other than giving saline by IV. But no worries, there will always be upper level residents helping you and you are expected to not totally know what you are doing for the first couple of months.

My school encourages 4th years to have the same level of work as interns (without the responsibility) to prepare us, so we will make a differential, write orders (not sign them), do procedures like lumbar punctures and other stuff.

MS3