How to know if Medical School is for me? *Need advice*

[WannaBeDoc0]

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hey all, i've completed my bachelor's degree in history and politics. i'm just not sure on what type of career i want. i thought about medicine as i really enjoy helping people.

does anyone have a list of the possible specialties that i could do so that i can now decide on if i want to do medicine or not. what link can i look at?

also, could anyone list a couple of the 'beginner medical books' a med-school freshman would be reading to see if a career Medicine would be for me or not?

any help would be really appreciated!

 

[Ismet]

hey all, i've completed my bachelor's degree in history and politics. i'm just not sure on what type of career i want. i thought about medicine as i really enjoy helping people.

does anyone have a list of the possible specialties that i could do so that i can now decide on if i want to do medicine or not. what link can i look at?

also, could anyone list a couple of the 'beginner medical books' a med-school freshman would be reading to see if a career Medicine would be for me or not?

any help would be really appreciated!

I have no idea what you mean by a "beginner medical book." A first year medical student basically studies all the upper-level biology classes shoved into one year.

If you want a list of specialties, here you go: http://www.jmu.edu/esol/specialist_list.htm
http://www.abms.org/who_we_help/physicians/specialties.aspx

If you actually want to find out if medicine is right for you, start emailing or calling doctors at your local hospital and ask if you can shadow. That is how most people determine that medicine is for them, and that is even how medical students start to narrow down specialties. You need clinical experience before applying to medical school.

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

Be a spy. You'll help everyone in America by preserving US global dominance.

CIA.gov

 

[WannaBeDoc0]

I have no idea what you mean by a "beginner medical book." A first year medical student basically studies all the upper-level biology classes shoved into one year.

If you want a list of specialties, here you go: http://www.jmu.edu/esol/specialist_list.htm
http://www.abms.org/who_we_help/physicians/specialties.aspx

If you actually want to find out if medicine is right for you, start emailing or calling doctors at your local hospital and ask if you can shadow. That is how most people determine that medicine is for them, and that is even how medical students start to narrow down specialties. You need clinical experience before applying to medical school.

ok thanks a lot.

can someone recommend me a medical book i can read to see what medical students read in the beginning stage?

i didn't realise i'd be allowed to 'shadow' a doctor. i thought i'd first need to be enrolled in a medical course. that's a good idea.

thanks for any help!

 

[Lya]

ok thanks a lot.

can someone recommend me a medical book i can read to see what medical students read in the beginning stage?

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

I did not get into medical school, so I have no idea what MS1 is reading over the course of their first year. BRS Physio/Path and Robbin's Patho come into my mind, but other medical students can answer that for you.

However, at this stage, I think it's better to envision further than just "reading MS1 texts to see if I can understand as a pre-med." Being a MS1 is not the same as being an attending. Just because you understand MS1 materials, it does not always mean that you will excel as a doctor too.

With that said, instead of looking at MS1 materials, look at books written by other doctors and see if medicine is what you really wanted (shadowing is also great too!).

For me, I started out with reading books by Atul Gawande:

<http://www.amazon.com/Atul-Gawande/e/B00458K698>

There are numerous threads about what to read before being a MS1, so I would also check that out!

 

[Finnkor]

can someone recommend me a medical book i can read to see what medical students read in the beginning stage?

Gray's Anatomy 😀

But seriously, you don't want to use what 1st year med students are reading as a guide to whether you want to be a doctor. Shadowing is really one of the best ways to know. If you're really looking for something to read to find out more about the field, try On Becoming a Doctor by Tania Heller. No book is going to tell you whether being a doctor is right for you, but Dr Heller has compiled many interviews. It should provide some guidance.

It could also be good to ask yourself why you are considering medicine. You said you like to help people, but why do you want to help people by going into medicine instead of in some other way? Why physician specifically and not RN? What draws you to the field (money, prestige, freedom, autonomy, fulfillment, skill, respect, etc.), and be honest with yourself? Many people have misconceptions about what being a doctor will actually be like, so make sure you haven't imagined some career that really doesn't exist outside of bad television and film.

 

[Ismet]

can someone recommend me a medical book i can read to see what medical students read in the beginning stage?

This will not help you determine whether or not you want to be a doctor. This will not even help you determine if you can handle medical school. You need to shadow and get clinical experience, and frankly learn a lot about the process of becoming a doctor, before you consider applying to medical school. You also need to take all the pre-requisite courses, like biology 1&2, general chemistry 1&2, physics 1&2, organic chemistry 1&2, and probably biochemistry.

Most of what we "read" is lecture notes written by the instructors of the class, very few of our classes have textbooks, but every school is different. I could suggest to you Netter's Atlas of Anatomy, which is what we use for our first course of MS1, but that really won't do you any good. Neither will reading Abbas' Immunology.

Some really good medically-related books are anything by Atul Gawande (like Complications), House of God by Samuel Shem, and First Do No Harm by Lisa Belkin. Those books go into some of the clinical and ethical scenarios you'll encounter as a doctor.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

I did not get into medical school, so I have no idea what MS1 is reading over the course of their first year. BRS Physio/Path and Robbin's Patho come into my mind, but other medical students can answer that for you.

Those would be rather overwhelming for someone who is completely foreign to the subject material

 

[survivordo]

I wouldn't look for an answer in a first year medical text. This would be representative of a small slice of medical training and being a physician. The best way to learn what it is actually like is to shadow a physician. If you want to read something my first thought would be to take a look at http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/ there are a wide range of posts there on a variety of topics in healthcare. It may give you an overall impression of what the field is like.

Survivor DO

 

[tantacles]

ok thanks a lot.

can someone recommend me a medical book i can read to see what medical students read in the beginning stage?

i didn't realise i'd be allowed to 'shadow' a doctor. i thought i'd first need to be enrolled in a medical course. that's a good idea.

thanks for any help!

Most medical schools don't use textbooks, so this would be a fruitless endeavor. Professors in medical school generally only assign textbooks to avoid accusations of copyright infringement, with a few exceptions. And, with a few exceptions, nobody buys any of those assigned books.

 

[IniestaDeMiVida]

I agree with the other posters. You should definitely check out the "medical biography" type books that describe what doctor's do. However, remember that they aren't writing about the boring or mundane parts of their job, just the most notable. Did you take any science classes in undergrad?