Fare thee well, my fellow travelers!

[Skip Intro]

When I finished my residency program in 2009, one of the faculty signed my card with the following:

AMFYOYO!

A bit puzzled, I went home and Googled it. Knowing this particular attending, it fit his ribald and occasionally over-the-top personality to a tee.

He subsequently moved from the University program I trained at, and is now on the faculty of more internationally prestigious programs and, arguably, top-ten healthcare institutions in the world. Paths diverge. The cream always rises.

So...

I believe that I have done all I can do on this forum. The time and effort I've put into getting the fair word out on the Caribbean pathway here could be compiled into a hundred-page book. There are things that cycle. There are things that are immutable. But, before jumping the shark, it's best to recognize when your time is over... and then move on.

I have hopefully inspired, I've hopefully smacked-down, and (most importantly) have hopefully been honest and fair. Today's generation of fragile bawl-babies will be tomorrow's leaders. Heaven help us all. The paramount thing I've learned through this journey is this: stay healthy, stay out of the hospital.

To all of you, best of luck. I hope @bedevilled ben, @the argus , @hmania , and some others continue to carry the torch forward. I reserve the right to stop in here from time to time, but my ongoing and dominating presence on this forum will be no more.

To that end, here's a shortcut to my posts that you can view.

Best of luck to you all!

-Skip
Ross, 2005
Board-certified anesthesiologist
Winning

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[deleted888443]

When I finished my residency program in 2009, one of the faculty signed my card with the following:

AMFYOYO!

A bit puzzled, I went home and Googled it. Knowing this particular attending, it fit his ribald and occasionally over-the-top personality to a tee.

He subsequently moved from the University program I trained at, and is now on the faculty of more internationally prestigious programs and, arguably, top-ten healthcare institutions in the world. Paths diverge. The cream always rises.

So...

I believe that I have done all I can do on this forum. The time and effort I've put into getting the fair word out on the Caribbean pathway here could be compiled into a hundred-page book. There are things that cycle. There are things that are immutable. But, before jumping the shark, it's best to recognize when your time is over... and then move on.

I have hopefully inspired, I've hopefully smacked-down, and (most importantly) have hopefully been honest and fair. Today's generation of fragile bawl-babies will be tomorrow's leaders. Heaven help us all. The paramount thing I've learned through this journey is this: stay healthy, stay out of the hospital.

To all of you, best of luck. I hope @bedevilled ben, @the argus , @hmania , and some others continue to carry the torch forward. I reserve the right to stop in here from time to time, but my ongoing and dominating presence on this forum will be no more.

To that end, here's a shortcut to my posts that you can view.

Best of luck to you all!

-Skip
Ross, 2005
Board-certified anesthesiologist
Winning

It’s the end of an era who’s gonna control all the CaribPros and Aformerstudentbots now?

 

[LM75]

I don't have a problem with you Skip but your posts were inaccessible to a lot of people. The style of language you used was a bit much and hard to understand at times and you never really did get to the point in a lot of your postings. It was just paragraph after paragraph of verbiage for rather simple topics.

There were a few things that you did post that I found interesting and I have researched further and am considering but after all this time I still haven't figured out if your message was anti-Caribbean, pro-Caribbean, or anti/pro-physician so that is saying a lot.

Most people here do not have your winning credentials so I think the problem was that you were preaching to the wrong crowd.

No pre-med on this forum has the ability to think long term and see what you saw or are currently seeing in the profession. People here just want to become doctors and have a great degree of naivety towards that end. If the Caribbean is going to make that a possibility when all other doors have closed, then you better bet that these Caribbean schools, even the most risky ones, are going to get tons of applications from those who are willing to go down that path.

Even if people go to the Caribbean and it doesn't work out, that's not the end of the world. That's just another learning experience and a bend in the road. Everybody eventually figures out what is for them and what isn't and despite the current state of the profession, a lot of these people will realize that medicine is still for them and will have no regrets about choosing it.

 

[mcat_taker]

I don't have a problem with you Skip but your posts were inaccessible to a lot of people. The style of language you used was a bit much and hard to understand at times and you never really did get to the point in a lot of your postings. It was just paragraph after paragraph of verbiage for rather simple topics.

There were a few things that you did post that I found interesting and I have researched further and am considering but after all this time I still haven't figured out if your message was anti-Caribbean, pro-Caribbean, or anti/pro-physician so that is saying a lot.

Most people here do not have your winning credentials so I think the problem was that you were preaching to the wrong crowd.

No pre-med on this forum has the ability to think long term and see what you saw or are currently seeing in the profession. People here just want to become doctors and have a great degree of naivety towards that end. If the Caribbean is going to make that a possibility when all other doors have closed, then you better bet that these Caribbean schools, even the most risky ones, are going to get tons of applications from those who are willing to go down that path.

Even if people go to the Caribbean and it doesn't work out, that's not the end of the world. That's just another learning experience and a bend in the road. Everybody eventually figures out what is for them and what isn't and despite the current state of the profession, a lot of these people will realize that medicine is still for them and will have no regrets about choosing it.

Thats because none of these topics are black and white where someone can just say do this or do that and you'll be successful. It is very person specific and school specific. I think skip's posts always preached that the Caribbean can be a viable pathway but should only be used after all other med school options stateside have been exhausted. It is not a short cut. Everyone wants to be a doctor but not everyone wants to carry those heavy ass books. There is no singular message, he responds to topics that he feels he has something to contribute to.

Regarding his pro-physician/anti physician stances, those posts were directed towards premeds who endlessly romanticize the idea of being a physician as if it is the end all or be all profession that they must achieve at all costs. In reality being a physician is vastly different from what a lot of people think a physician is or how it is portrayed on tv. Lots of bureaucracy and red tape where you are treated as just a cog in the machine of a big hospital system, loss of autonomy, lots of midlevel encroachment, spending more time on paperwork then actually seeing patients, repetitive cases and clinic visits no matter what specialty, patient no shows, reimbursement being tied to all sorts of crazy things, working insane amount of hours for what return on investment?

Bottom line is that for a lot of students the amount of debt they take on to become a physician and loss of income and loss of years in school and residency needs to be thought about more carefully. There are lots of more efficient ways to get a good income where you have much more free time, and less years wasted in school and in training. You miss out on a lot- weddings, birthdays, funerals, vacations, etc when you are in medical school and in training. The hours you work per dollar earned isn't that great in my opinion. Especially now at the end of my third year when I see every day how hard and long some of these docs are working.

Not saying it isn't or can't be a rewarding career, but there are certainly lots of other rewarding careers and I'm not sure anyone really knows what they are signing up for on this 10 plus year journey when they start or what being a doctor really means today.

 

[LM75]

Thats because...

How would you know all of this? Have you been practicing for some time now?

 

[bedevilled ben]

AMFYOYO!

Best of luck, Skip. I always respected the time and effort you put into these forums. I don't know if your program has gas residents and students, but if you invest in teaching them half as much as you've invested in these forums, then they are lucky to have you.

 

[the argus]

Skip was a good poster, and a good man. He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors... and posting, and as a poster he suffered no fools such as aformerstudent and... up to... Caribpro. He left, like so many young men of his generation, he left before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Dominica, at Grenada, at Sint Maarten. These young men gave their lives. And so did Skip. Skip, who loved posting. And so, @Skip Intro, in accordance with what we think your last wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of SDN, which you loved so well.

Good night, sweet prince.

 

[mcat_taker]

How would you know all of this? Have you been practicing for some time now?

I don't need to be practicing for years to comment on my observations. I spend every day in the hospital working with doctors as a current third year medical student. I know how long they work, I know how little free time they have in residency for example, I see what time they get home day in day out, working 10-12 hour days for minimum wage for years in residency for 3-5 years.

It is a well known fact that lots of premeds endlessly romanticize what it means to be a physician. The day to day realities of being a physician is not as glamorous as they think it is. Even out of residency.

You aren't gonna be Dr. House diagnosing crazy stuff and saving the world: you're going to be spending a majority of your time chasing labs, doing repetitive procedures, seeing patients for 5 minutes, arguing with case workers about discharge planning, writing endless notes, and getting consulted on things you shouldn't be consulted on.

 

[LM75]

I don't need to be practicing for years to comment on my observations. I spend every day in the hospital working with doctors as a current third year medical student. I know how long they work, I know how little free time they have in residency for example, I see what time they get home day in day out, working 10-12 hour days for minimum wage for years in residency for 3-5 years.

It is a well known fact that lots of premeds endlessly romanticize what it means to be a physician. The day to day realities of being a physician is not as glamorous as they think it is. Even out of residency.

You aren't gonna be Dr. House diagnosing crazy stuff and saving the world: you're going to be spending a majority of your time chasing labs, doing repetitive procedures, seeing patients for 5 minutes, arguing with case workers about discharge planning, writing endless notes, and getting consulted on things you shouldn't be consulted on.

I could give my own narrative after having worked alongside physicians for some years now but that too would be only based on my observations.

 

[ScubaV]

I'm mostly a lurker, but I think Skip brought a lot of wisdom to this subforum. You've got your naive airheads who only want to hear positive reinforcement about how they too can be a doctor with a 2.9 GPA and 19 MCAT just because they want it so bad and will work so hard.

On the other hand, you have your *REDACTED* who think anything Caribbean is a toxic wasteland of debt and failure.

In the middle are the few realists and Skip was one of them. I'm sure you've helped more than one prospective Caribbean student. May your legacy live on. RIP in peace.

 

[Raney Schauer]

Shomer shabbos

 

[LM75]

Shomer shabbos

Semper Fidelis!