Did your school ask about your medical history before rotations?

[throwwwwawayquestion]

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I couldn't find much about this topic online. This also includes past mental health history.

This post says that their school asks about it but that's about all I could find.
Quoted: Mental health history and residency/rotation applications

 

[Rekt]

I couldn't find much about this topic online. This also includes past mental health history.

This post says that their school asks about it but that's about all I could find.
Quoted: Mental health history and residency/rotation applications

Before entering medical school, yes, but not before rotations. But overall, regardless of when you're asked, especially for residency, your best bet is to lie and say you have no mental health history. Whatever people want to believe, it carries a negative stigma and will only hurt you.

 

[throwwwwawayquestion]

Like right when you started medical school? I have never heard of that. I've only heard of medical licensing boards and hospitals for hospital privileges. I assumed they might ask for rotations/residency except it seems unlikely because people say that the first time they were asked was during licensing. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Strider_91]

I wasn’t asked anything before medical school except for a question on the amcas saying that I can do the job of being a physician. Like stand and move patients and stuff.

If you look up licensing in various states the questions about mental health are usually worded as “in the past 5 years have you had any illness that would effect you from doing your job?”

 

[throwwwwawayquestion]

@Strider_91 Thanks for the reply and insight. Are you in rotations now? Did they ask anything about it before you could start your rotations?

 

[MSTPlease]

We had to visit student health to give our medical history and have a physical done or provide student health with records of those from another provider.

Student health is siloed off from the rest of the med school so the admin just gets an “all good” from student health.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I’ve only heard this stuff asked with regards to hospitalizations (“have you ever been hospitalized for the following: depression, schizophrenia, mania, etc”).

Never heard of them asking about it in a general context. Like I can’t image having to note on a school/work form that I was once prescribed Xanax because I had a phobia of flying when I was 19.

 

[Goro]

Before entering medical school, yes, but not before rotations. But overall, regardless of when you're asked, especially for residency, your best bet is to lie and say you have no mental health history. Whatever people want to believe, it carries a negative stigma and will only hurt you.

Great way to start a career in a profession that values honesty.
Reported

 

[MSTPlease]

Great way to start a career in a profession that values honesty.
Reported

yeah, I would hope with the way things have been going that lying about being on an SSRI will be considered far worse than being on an SSRI.

 

[akinetopsia]

AAMC has lobbied to remove this from licensing questionnaires. FSMB is moving away from asking a specific question about mental health history and a more general question roughly like "Do you have any untreated medical conditions that may impair your ability to practice medicine?"

Source: heard it directly from the CEO of the AAMC this afternoon.

 

[Raney Schauer]

Here's how stupidly bad mental health stigma is in this country: My previous company hired a guy and he needed a security clearance investigation. As a non-military civilian he'd never experienced one before. In the interview he was asked if he ever experienced deja-vu. He said yes and was denied the Secret clearance he needed in order to begin training in his new job. He was on the books doing non-classified odd jobs for over a year before they re-adjudicated him.

He said yes to a bait question and got screwed.

 

[Rekt]

Great way to start a career in a profession that values honesty.
Reported

Sure go ahead and pretend carrying a psychiatric diagnosis isn't a red flag. You're not even involved with residency so your opinion is invalid.

 

[Goro]

Sure go ahead and pretend carrying a psychiatric diagnosis isn't a red flag. You're not even involved with residency so your opinion is invalid.

Our attending colleagues say otherwise

 

[el_duderino]

I'm with Goro. I can't recommend lying about this if asked. Red flag or not, don't lie.

 

[Osminog]

Our attending colleagues say otherwise

Thread from December 2017:

We take mental health issues very seriously. Medical school is a furnace, and I've seen it break even healthy students. The #1 reason my school loses students to withdrawal, dismissal or LOA is to unresolved mental health issues.

So unresolved mental health issues are the #1 cause of flunking out at your medical school... and yet you're saying that sharing a history of severe mental illness on an application isn't considered a red flag? I'm sorry, but find that very hard to believe.

 

[Osminog]

Here's how stupidly bad mental health stigma is in this country: My previous company hired a guy and he needed a security clearance investigation. As a non-military civilian he'd never experienced one before. In the interview he was asked if he ever experienced deja-vu. He said yes and was denied the Secret clearance he needed in order to begin training in his new job. He was on the books doing non-classified odd jobs for over a year before they re-adjudicated him.

He said yes to a bait question and got screwed.

I doubt that he was denied over having experienced déjà vu. It's completely normal in healthy people. Someone probably didn't tell you the full story.

 

[Goro]

Thread from December 2017:

So unresolved mental health issues are the #1 cause of flunking out at your medical school... and yet you're saying that sharing a history of severe mental illness on an application isn't considered a red flag? I'm sorry, but find that very hard to believe.

Jeeze, osmi, I expected better of you.

These two thoughts, while factually correct, are are so wildly divergent that they only thing they have in common is font size and text color.

First, note the OP's question: Did your school ask about your medical history before rotations?
OP has presumably already been accepted or is in med school. As such, the OP has demonstrated to the Adcom that s/he can handle med school. In fact, at this point, the school is obligated to do its best to see to it that OP will graduate.

My understanding of what residencies look for is make sure you're not a danger to patients or yourself. Where's the wise @aProgDirector when you need him???

 

[Osminog]

Jeeze, osmi, I expected better of you.

These two thoughts, while factually correct, are are so wildly divergent that they only thing they have in common is font size and text color.

First, note the OP's question: Did your school ask about your medical history before rotations?
OP has presumably already been accepted or is in med school. As such, the OP has demonstrated to the Adcom that s/he can handle med school. In fact, at this point, the school is obligated to do its best to see to it that OP will graduate.

My understanding of what residencies look for is make sure you're not a danger to patients or yourself. Where's the wise @aProgDirector when you need him???

I was just talking about medical school admissions, because that's probably what you're more familiar with. I don't see why it'd be a red flag for med school admissions but be deemed irrelevant for residency purposes...

 

[Goro]

I was just talking about medical school admissions, because that's probably what you're more familiar with. I don't see why it'd be a red flag for med school admissions but be deemed irrelevant for residency purposes...

For admissions it is serious. This has been discussed at length elsewhere in these fora, but in a nutshell, med school is a furnace, and we've seen it break even healthy people.

Hence, people with a history of mental health issues need to think long and hard before embarking on this path, and the fears Adcoms have can be alleviated by candidates showing prolonged streaks of excellent academics. This demonstrates resiliency and that the issues have been resolved and/or adequate coping skills have been developed.

 

[MSTPlease]

Unresolved mental health is not the same thing as having a mental health history. If a diabetic on meds with an A1C of 5.9 for years and an admission finger stick of 90 suddenly developed renal failure and neuropathy you wouldn’t be like “oh yeah, could have seen that coming from a mile away given his diabetes”

 

[Raney Schauer]

I doubt that he was denied over having experienced déjà vu. It's completely normal in healthy people. Someone probably didn't tell you the full story.

He was going to be my direct report and my company was paying for the background check. I got the full story.