If med school is so great.......

[J]

...then why am I so unhappy? I just started my third year and the hours are driving me nuts. Don't get me wrong I love medicine and have done well in the first two years but I really don't think that I can handle the next 5+ years of 60-80 hour work weeks. Is there any one else out there that feels similarly?

Personally I think I would be much happier if I was in an MBA program.

Anyone out there with any advice? Any of you physicians that are in practice and have already been through House Officer Hell?

Are there any work opportunities for someone who just completes the M.D. and does not complete a residency?

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[HeatherR]

Don't give up yet. I too am just starting my third year and know your stress. They say that this is the worst - some even say worse than residency because you're not used to the hours and you have absolutely no clue what you're doing! Give it a chance, you might get into the groove of it all with a bit of time. Or you might find your next rotation to be more to your liking. I'm doing surgery right now and am hating the hours - My friend is doing family medicine rotation and he goes golfing 3 times a week!

I know of a guy who graduated and then decided he didn't want to be a doc - he got an MBA and went to work for a pharmceutical company. He's making more than most of the docs he graduated with and works a lot fewer hours.

 

[Jim Henderson]

I'm a second year family practice resident:

At times, it sucks, and it sucks bad. I feel like you do about once (for a day or two) every few months, and then something happens to change things. On harder rotations, I feel like it even longer (weeks on end even...)

I felt like you did during my third year of medical school also. I did not like most of my rotations, and was really, really bummed at times.

Through times like those, I just kind of went through the motions of each rotation and turned to my faith, wife, and friends to get through it.

Then something happened... something clicked. I did a rural family medicine rotation and knew I had found my calling.

Keep going, hang in there. One day something will click.

Make sure you are not going through this alone. Keep in touch with friends (maybe even outside of your medical school classmates!), family, church, or even a counselor.

I know, its hard. That doesn't make it any easier but maybe you can take comfort in the fact that I've been there and I know...

If you'd like to vent, please do so here... many people feel similar and we can all walk through it together.

PS: I'm happy more than I'm unhappy now, and it seems to improve yearly!
Jim

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Jim Henderson, MD of MedicalStudent.net

 

[avi newman]

listen to your heart...your feelings are never wrong...you are a free person in a free country...michael crichton went to medical school...he may not have done the internship but he sure didn't do a residency...then, too, there's the year or semester off, to think things over...i've done that in my medical school career...all my clinical rotations have been ABC, that is, one all nighter every three days, day work on day B and day C...day work on the weekend is off, all nighters on the weekend are off...it adds up to 84hours a week...something or another in the day, the er through the night...i love it...i have 1 hr days...monday at 8:00am i start...then at tuesday at 1400 i leave the A part of the ABC rotation...but it seems like only 1 hour has gone by...in these rotations i live in the hospital..i have certain language skills which get me called on even on my hours off..sometimes on the all nighters i sleep where i can,when i can.....this patient's in crisis, that one needs a joke or has one to tell, whoa!..time to stop and help a nurse move a big patient...mrs. x is going home, mrs. y is coming in with pain beyond belief...hey, pharma def is doing wonders for mr. j but is going to kill mr. k...gotta make changes...three minutes free...time for some executive fine dining: doritos 'n diet coke...i used to be in another field...the days went by slowly...i left it...i don't like to suffer...and if medicine turns boring...you will find me selling hot dogs at the beach!...you'll have no trouble finding me, i'll be the vendor sleeping in my chair between customers!!!!...be well!...avi

 

[avi newman]

listen to your heart...your feelings are never wrong...you are a free person in a free country...michael crichton went to medical school...he may not have done the internship but he sure didn't do a residency...then, too, there's the year or semester off, to think things over...i've done that in my medical school career...all my clinical rotations have been ABC, that is, one all nighter every three days, day work on day B and day C...day work on the weekend is off, all nighters on the weekend are off...it adds up to 84hours a week...something or another in the day, the er through the night...i love it...i have 1 hr days...monday at 8:00am i start...then at tuesday at 1400 i leave the A part of the ABC rotation...but it seems like only 1 hour has gone by...in these rotations i live in the hospital..i have certain language skills which get me called on even on my hours off..sometimes on the all nighters i sleep where i can,when i can.....this patient's in crisis, that one needs a joke or has one to tell, whoa!..time to stop and help a nurse move a big patient...mrs. x is going home, mrs. y is coming in with pain beyond belief...hey, pharma def is doing wonders for mr. j but is going to kill mr. k...gotta make changes...three minutes free...time for some executive fine dining: doritos 'n diet coke...i used to be in another field...the days went by slowly...i left it...i don't like to suffer...and if medicine turns boring...you will find me selling hot dogs at the beach!...you'll have no trouble finding me, i'll be the vendor sleeping in my chair between customers!!!!...be well!...avi