How Representative Do You Think this Forum is?

[Falconclaw]

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So basically, the majority of med students and residents who post on here seem to have a fairly negative impression towards medicine. Blog posts out there are even worse - the impression one gets from reading them is that medical school plus residency is at least eight years of torture, and that at the very least you will not be enjoying your life.

I'll admit straight off the bat that I don't have any very close friends in medical school. I've had significant interactions with probably around four or five med students though, MS1's and M2's, and their perspective seemed markedly less bleak. They did have a lot of studying to do, but usually they still found time to go out to the bar once a weekend or something, or to just hang out with their friends from time to time, and they seemed fairly content with their lives and confident that they made the right choice.

Now, on the one hand, people don't usually like admitting their miserable, except behind the vale of anonymity, and these people weren't my close friends. On the other hand, there might be a selection bias on the Internet in favor of more negative people.

I guess it might be a little silly to ask people on this forum if people on this forum are unrepresentatively negative, but what do you guys think?

It's a little scary! I'll probably find out within a month or so whether I've been accepted to med school, and I do want to be a doctor, but not at the cost of getting the life sucked out of me! I know that sounds simplistic and the typical pre-med ignorance but what can I say haha.

 

[deleted407021]

People vent on the Internet, but they also tend to be the most honest here, as well. Additionally, consider that professionals and medical students might not be entirely honest about some of the less desirable aspects of the field when they talk to a pre-med. So, you have to weigh statements and claims on an individual basis and really worry about yourself and whether or not this field is right for you based upon your experience.

 

[M12B]

I can only speak for myself, but I have not experienced the overwhelming negativity that a lot of people accuse SDN of harboring. Sure, I've come across the occasional pessimistic/rude/inconsiderate/mean poster (I'm sure we all have). But the vast majority of interactions I've had, threads I've read, and posts I've seen have been pretty optimistic/helpful, and have left me with a growing excitement towards entering medical school this fall. I'm sorry if your experience has been different. 🙁

As for my experiences in the real world, I have only had one physician tell me not to go into medicine (not at all aimed at me or my personality specifically, just in light of how he sees his own field and a sense of wanting to "save me" from it). I got the feeling that he was very burned out and if that's the case, I'm not surprised he feels this way. But I've had so many more positive responses from so many other healthcare professionals that I'm more inclined to remain optimistic. Additionally, having gone through all of the pre-requisites and majoring in the natural sciences, I have plenty of friends who are currently in all different years of medical school (I took quite a few gap years) and only one of them seems to be regretting her choice of career path. (and from what I know, her regret is not really due to the practice of medicine itself, but rather for personal reasons).

I agree with @J Senpai above though, it is possible that all of the positive energy I've experienced from those I've talked to in real life is a sort of rug covering all of the dirty secrets of the field. But I'd like to think that I have a good enough relationship with at least of few of the people I mentioned above that at least some of the dirty laundry would be aired if there was any (and of course some has, but not nearly enough to make me question my choices at all).

I'd say take everything with a grain of salt, both the bad and the good. And think about what you are told in context of the person telling you (i.e. their personality/experience/background/relationship with you). Most of all, put a lot of thought into what you've observed, not just what you've been told.

Edit to add: I'm sure that I'm a bit naive and my pre-med ignorance is probably showing a little, but I'd like to think that your experience in medical school and beyond will be what you make of it. Situations can suck, but your mindset and how you react does have an impact on the outcome.

 

[Narmerguy]

Lots of unhappiness in practicing physicians. I find SDN to be far more on the negative side than physicians I encounter in the wild. Like anything, this is a self-selecting group.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/761870

There's a recent survey on physician satisfaction. There's quite a few similar studies floating around.

 

[jqueb29]

So basically, the majority of med students and residents who post on here seem to have a fairly negative impression towards medicine.

This isn't even remotely true. There's certainly some on here like that, but definitely nowhere near the majority, even when you count the trolls. Just like the people on here, we med students in real life hate studying but love what we are studying for. Just because you gripe about something every now and then doesn't mean you don't love it to death.

 

[WinslowPringle]

Med school was okay; a lot of work and the material was less interesting than I thought it would be, but nowhere near four years of torture. I'm cautiously optimistic about residency.

I am, however, more jaded. Medicine isn't perfect and there are a great many frustrating things about it. The negative aspect for me doesn't come from the amount of work (well, what else would I be doing?) but from debt, bureaucracy, and political pandering.

So, I don't think SDN is overly negative. Overly neurotic, sure. But it also probably depends on the threads you read and the time of year (ie, don't read a lot of threads posted by MS2s going into Step 1 right about April...)

 

[Holmwood]

It could be a generational thing.

I've read a couple of older threads and they were preeetty nasty. Maybe we've created a counter culture based off what we've heard about premeds in the past.

 

[NickNaylor]

The pre-med forum is generally not all that informative. There are too many threads that don't provide much information and a lot of people (though certainly less than in the past) who post nonsense based on fact. However, if you have the ability to distinguish quality information from crap, then they can be extremely useful.

Where the money is is the medical student forums and, more so, the specialty-specific forums. They're frequented more by residents and attendings who don't touch the pre-allo forum. There's a lot of good information in those areas that might be difficult to ascertain by talking to people that you know personally.

 

[Lucca]

The occasional "Would you do it again?" Or "Do you like medicine?" Threads in allo seem to get mostly positive responses. There's self-selection going on but I feel there is still a silent majority that, like everyone else, critiques all the negative aspects of medicine while still really enjoying what they do.

The real bias on SDN? Allo is pretty damn conservative/libertarian. I disagree with like 90% of Allo's opinions about the government (I don't disagree, surprisingly, that the ACA has been pretty shoddily implemented) and its role in healthcare. However, I don't comment because I am not interested in a discussion that ends with "you're a premed, wait till you're a big boy". It's not that I don't value their expertise and respect the real fund of privileged knowledge and experience they have over me but I sincerely don't think a lot of it applies to the running of an organization and much less to the actual philosophical discussion of ethical care, ethical delivery, rights, the role of government, etc.

So when it comes to satisfaction in medicine, I think you should listen very carefully to what the residents and attendings have to say.

When it comes to pre-allo just remember that the subset of students here is probably one standard deviation above the mean in terms of application success (no comment on any other positive quality). Use the MCAT forum, it's great.

When it comes to politics? Be very careful and make sure you read academic, political discussions from accredited sources because the majority of people on this forum probably think Reagan was a good president but then complain about the massive national debt; not really the most informed or balanced opinions here. Don't write it all off entirely, @Mad Jack just made a thread critical of the ACA and his post is quite good as are several others in there, I am just saying be careful and don't think that's the only opinion in medicine.

At the end of the day "we have met the machine and the machine is us"; physicians are ultimately all that make up "the physician community", by definition and that culture can only be accessed and influenced by physicians. It's a powerful thought and it means that we're really the only ones responsible for the essence and repercussions of our culture, good and bad included.

 

[GoPens]

I agree with those here who have said that there’s more good than bad on here. But even some of the negative posts, I’ve found very helpful. When someone puts every bad thing about medicine in one post, its easy to seem like they’re telling a doom and gloom story. However, I’m grateful for those who are experienced and [constructively] share this side of medicine—it helps the rest of us who haven’t yet committed ourselves get a more comprehensive picture of what we’re getting into.

 

[asdf123g]

I know a person in UG who studied all day but struggled. I studied, but not anywhere as often as they did yet i had much better grades (same major/classes). Is there a large descrepency like this in medschool too?

 

[jqueb29]

I know a girl in UG who studied all day but struggled. I studied, but not anywhere as often as she did yet i had much better grades (same major/classes). Is there a large descrepency like this in medschool too?

It completely depends on the intelligence and abilities of the particular person. I know people who barely study and have poor grades, people who study hella and have poor grades, people who barely study and have great grades, and people who study a lot and have great grades.

 

[asdf123g]

@jqueb29 (+anyone eelse who wants to chime in): but is it like that in medschool too?

 

[physicsnerd42]

This forum is not representative of medicine in general. I honestly didn't think med school was that bad (and actually enjoyed it). I'm an intern now, and even though I'd like to stop being an intern at some point, intern year isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be (and, again, has been at times enjoyable and is definitely a good learning experience). I'd go into medicine again.

 

[jqueb29]

@jqueb29 (+anyone eelse who wants to chime in): but is it like that in medschool too?

Yes, I'm in medical school, that's what my post was talking about

 

[soccerman93]

Is Medicine unique in that way though? With the possible exception of top-level professional sports, is there any field that is immune to negativity? Work can be a bummer, regardless of what you do

 

[Psai]

Medical school doesn't suck because you have to study. Medical school sucks because you don't have much to look forward to. It's on a downslide where your medical training will be considered equivalent to an NP who did nursing in undergrad and got an online DNP degree by 26 as you're employed by stupid people who think of you as just another cog in their moneymaking machine

Enjoy writing those application essays