job options for a MD without residency?

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Syndicate

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I am in my 3rd year of medical school and I'm realizing that I can't do medicine. I don't want to go into specifics but I am fairly confident I do not want to pursue this career any longer. I do however, want to graduate and get my MD degree since I've already paid 3.5 years worth of tuition and passed everything so far.

What are some options in healthcare insurance, consulting, or other fields that are available to those who only have an MD degree with no residency? I'm search these forums but there haven't really been any solid advice thus far.
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What about 3rd year makes you think you can't do medicine? Do you feel like you've struggled when it comes to dealing with patients or clinical work or do you just feel burned out? Either way I'd think really carefully before deciding you just don't want to keep going, and not just because most people on this forum would tell you that job options for a non-residency trained MD are really limited. I personally hated my 3rd year of medical school, and I feel like the further I go in residency the more I hate it in hindsight because of how unnecessary and unlike actual clinical practice a lot of it was.
Going into residency I was really worried that I'd be miserable in residency like I had been in many of my school rotations but was pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed it so far. I think part of it is the culture of my current hospital is friendlier and less malignant compared to my home institution but I think there's a lot to be said for having actual responsibility and not just pretend responsibility like you have for a student. Even though I'm working significantly more hours than I did as a student there's an understanding that I have an actual job that needs doing and I have a lot more power to get things done and nurses/staff make it a priority to keep me in the loop. There is a much greater sense of satisfaction when I get a diagnosis right or put in the right order that ends up helping a patient get better, compared to being a student where it was easy to feel that nothing I did really mattered, and it felt like most of my eval came down to whether my team liked me or not rather than anything I actually accomplished.
Of course the other end of that is that when errors are made when you're a student, it's never really you're fault even if others on your team try to act like it is since you were never the one making the call to begin with, but as an intern it really IS your fault and the responsibility falls on you, which takes adjustment too. Even with that, though, I'll take being a resident any day. I don't know if what you're going through has anything to do with what I described but try not to write off a life in medicine because of crappy student experiences. It really does get better.
 
Research assistant or lab tech.

Without a residency, your job prospects are, well, rather limited if you're hoping that merely having the MD after your name and no other training will help.



Syndicate said:
I am in my 3rd year of medical school and I'm realizing that I can't do medicine. I don't want to go into specifics but I am fairly confident I do not want to pursue this career any longer. I do however, want to graduate and get my MD degree since I've already paid 3.5 years worth of tuition and passed everything so far.

What are some options in healthcare insurance, consulting, or other fields that are available to those who only have an MD degree with no residency? I'm search these forums but there haven't really been any solid advice thus far.
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ordersol7 said:
What about 3rd year makes you think you can't do medicine?
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A family member passed away and I tried to take a day off to attend the funeral. My clerkship director straight up told me "you chose a career where you have to make sacrifices" and did not allow me to take 1 day off. I took the day off anyway and drove to the funeral. As a result, I received very bad marks in my professionalism categories on my evaluations as well as comments regarding my professionalism. I appealed and in short, nothing happened. I don't know what kind of human being could say such words, and it wasn't just the clerkship director who said that but those who were higher up in the administration ay my school basically agreed with that attending because nothing happened with my appeal. I'm sure not all doctors are like that but being punished for attending to a family member's funeral is just beyond belief. My view of doctors has totally changed. I don't want to be a part of a profession that does this kind of stuff.
 
Syndicate said:
A family member passed away and I tried to take a day off to attend the funeral. My clerkship director straight up told me "you chose a career where you have to make sacrifices" and did not allow me to take 1 day off. I took the day off anyway and drove to the funeral. As a result, I received very bad marks in my professionalism categories on my evaluations as well as comments regarding my professionalism. I appealed and in short, nothing happened. I don't know what kind of human being could say such words, and it wasn't just the clerkship director who said that but those who were higher up in the administration ay my school basically agreed with that attending because nothing happened with my appeal. I'm sure not all doctors are like that but being punished for attending to a family member's funeral is just beyond belief. My view of doctors has totally changed. I don't want to be a part of a profession that does this kind of stuff.
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You can't base everything off of one interaction. I agree, he/she was an ass, but they're also not 100% wrong. You'll need to make sacrifices in your career, it's the just the way it works, but I disagree with how this was handled and it is not a petty situation. I would continue on with school and plan to do a residency. This is just one tiny interaction that won't even matter, even months from now. Even if this comes up later on, it's easy one to explain to why you got poor marks. Unfortunately, this will not be the only crappy interaction you have, but this does not mean your future will be inundated with crappy experiences. Just remember, you're the one ranking residency programs. You'll get to decide if you like them. Then you'll be the one looking for jobs and turning them down later on.
 
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Syndicate said:
A family member passed away and I tried to take a day off to attend the funeral. My clerkship director straight up told me "you chose a career where you have to make sacrifices" and did not allow me to take 1 day off. I took the day off anyway and drove to the funeral. As a result, I received very bad marks in my professionalism categories on my evaluations as well as comments regarding my professionalism. I appealed and in short, nothing happened. I don't know what kind of human being could say such words, and it wasn't just the clerkship director who said that but those who were higher up in the administration ay my school basically agreed with that attending because nothing happened with my appeal. I'm sure not all doctors are like that but being punished for attending to a family member's funeral is just beyond belief. My view of doctors has totally changed. I don't want to be a part of a profession that does this kind of stuff.
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You angry at being in an unnecessarily abusive training environment, which was thrown into sharp relief by an appalling clerkship director. That's reasonable. Training sucks, and insanely unreasonable **** like this happens. I'm sorry it happened to you.

You are thinking of torpedoing your career and your life over what amounts to three more years of training. That's unreasonable. You will be condemning yourself to a borderline minimum wage job and a lifetime of student debt, depriving yourself of a great job you don't even seem to dislike, and incidentally depriving the thousands of patients you could have cared for of the help they need.

If it helps, your colleagues mostly won't be this bad. Academic medicine is a magnet for the worst people in this profession. You know that one guy in your class who you can't stand? His hand went up twenty times a day through the end of MS2? Then he started spreading rumors about other students on wards? Brings baked goods for just the residents and attendings, but not the rest of the team? He's the future academic attending. Believe me, private groups are not denying you a day off for a funeral.

Finally, to answer your question: there are no opportunities with an MD and no residency. Believe me, I looked. I know some people who were fired from residency, and they REALLY looked. There are some great non medical jobs out there for people who complete a Residency, but not if you quit before you get to the finish line.
 
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Really sorry the op had to go through this. If it will offer consolation I have a story from my residency program of a similar situation that was handled better. Last year one of the interns had a sudden family death and requested 4 days off to grieve during his icu month. He went to the pd who was understanding and arranged for another resident who was on elective at the time to cover those days. He made those days up later for the other resident who covered. No one's professionalism was questioned. From what this resident told me he didn't suffer any poor treatment as a result of this and as far as I can tell the faculty don't give him any grief over it either. It's really not always the toxic situation that op describes.
 
I'd consider pharmaceutical drug rep, can make pretty good money and utilizes a lot of background knowledge from MD degree.
 
Syndicate said:
A family member passed away and I tried to take a day off to attend the funeral. My clerkship director straight up told me "you chose a career where you have to make sacrifices" and did not allow me to take 1 day off. I took the day off anyway and drove to the funeral. As a result, I received very bad marks in my professionalism categories on my evaluations as well as comments regarding my professionalism. I appealed and in short, nothing happened. I don't know what kind of human being could say such words, and it wasn't just the clerkship director who said that but those who were higher up in the administration ay my school basically agreed with that attending because nothing happened with my appeal. I'm sure not all doctors are like that but being punished for attending to a family member's funeral is just beyond belief. My view of doctors has totally changed. I don't want to be a part of a profession that does this kind of stuff.
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First off, I'm sorry to hear this. That clerkship director is a total ass, but don't let 1 person completely dictated your views of medicine.
Btw, was it a surgery rotation by any chance?
 
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Syndicate said:
I am in my 3rd year of medical school and I'm realizing that I can't do medicine. I don't want to go into specifics but I am fairly confident I do not want to pursue this career any longer. I do however, want to graduate and get my MD degree since I've already paid 3.5 years worth of tuition and passed everything so far.

What are some options in healthcare insurance, consulting, or other fields that are available to those who only have an MD degree with no residency? I'm search these forums but there haven't really been any solid advice thus far.
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In some ways academic medicine is an alternative universe. Most physicians aren't a$$es like that in many specialties.


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Work for Pharmacy Based Management or insurance companies in auditing PBM transactions, or underwrite insurance claims. I am work for the government with my Carib MD in underwriting insurance (mostly medicare) claims, and pay is alright. But that's because government pay is very strict, and pay goes up the longer you are in the system.

Qualifies for student loan forgiveness if you have all federal loans (non parent plus). 8:30-5 life, but man is it great. Instead of seeing like 20 patients in a day with 10 minute each, while documenting everything; you get like 2-3 cases to work on a day. Honestly, you can finish it in a 3 hours if you hustle. But most people spread it out slowly so they won't be bored. IE Walk over to water cooler, take breaks, go to random meetings, organize potlucks at work, and so on.

Also you don't get treated like a dog. No more being yelled at over **** you can't control. Or making mistakes like a human being. In the real world outside of medicine, people emphasize family/friends over the job.

1) You are sick? Call in sick.
2) Got family emergency? Take emergency leave.
3) Have a off day and make a mistake? They pull you to side and politely tell you.
4) Overwhelmed? Talk to manager, he/she will help you out.
5) Just doing your job with alright effort? Get heaps of praises from coworkers and managers, positive work environment buddy.
6) I use to feel I was a bad person, because residents and attendings were just outright mean to me for no reason. Like I am socially awkward or didn't belong in life. I realize after I started working outside the hosptial. It was just the residents and attendings that are just plain mean with no social skills. Out here at work, I get to be happy/flourish. No more self-doubt of who I am, and the value of me as a human being.

The best part? Those mean attending are paying for my $1 million dollar in student loans being forgiven (compound interest over 10 years). They are also paying for my paychecks through taxes. My pension will be covered by tax payers. Get to retire at 55 if I want. Working on getting in shape, and living longer so that way I can stretch out my pension longer. Also job security once you finish probation. Union job! Only way to lose job is if your company goes bankrupt (IE if the government goes bankrupt). If the government goes bankrupt, you got bigger things to worry then losing your job.

So yeah, there are job opportunities out there without residency.
 
Syndicate said:
A family member passed away and I tried to take a day off to attend the funeral. My clerkship director straight up told me "you chose a career where you have to make sacrifices" and did not allow me to take 1 day off. I took the day off anyway and drove to the funeral. As a result, I received very bad marks in my professionalism categories on my evaluations as well as comments regarding my professionalism. I appealed and in short, nothing happened. I don't know what kind of human being could say such words, and it wasn't just the clerkship director who said that but those who were higher up in the administration ay my school basically agreed with that attending because nothing happened with my appeal. I'm sure not all doctors are like that but being punished for attending to a family member's funeral is just beyond belief. My view of doctors has totally changed. I don't want to be a part of a profession that does this kind of stuff.
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So you asked to take the day off, were denied and chose to take it off anyway.
 
Psai said:
So you asked to take the day off, were denied and chose to take it off anyway.
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Any other career, not getting time off for a funeral relating to a family member is enough to cause a ruckus. If my manager did that, the whole union will come down with might. If OP was an attending,the hospital will let him take day off. Why the **** do OP have to miss a damn funeral, and it's not like he/she is asking for whole month off. Just one day.....
 
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Consulting, Health tech company, insurance, hospital administration... a lot of different things. However, since you care about work/life balance be aware of the work/life balance of any company you are applying to. Your director is a miserable human, don't let it hold you back.
 
Syndicate said:
A family member passed away and I tried to take a day off to attend the funeral. My clerkship director straight up told me "you chose a career where you have to make sacrifices" and did not allow me to take 1 day off. I took the day off anyway and drove to the funeral. As a result, I received very bad marks in my professionalism categories on my evaluations as well as comments regarding my professionalism. I appealed and in short, nothing happened. I don't know what kind of human being could say such words, and it wasn't just the clerkship director who said that but those who were higher up in the administration ay my school basically agreed with that attending because nothing happened with my appeal. I'm sure not all doctors are like that but being punished for attending to a family member's funeral is just beyond belief. My view of doctors has totally changed. I don't want to be a part of a profession that does this kind of stuff.
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Does your medical school have a policy? I would think that they do...
 
Being in a hospital is not the only place where your boss may say you can't have a day off. Usually, if you just said screw it and took it off anyways you would be fired. I'm not saying I wouldn't have let you off if I was your boss, I'm just saying you may be in a non-clinical job where the same thing happens. Not everyone has unions.
 
thxleave said:
Any other career, not getting time off for a funeral relating to a family member is enough to cause a ruckus. If my manager did that, the whole union will come down with might. If OP was an attending,the hospital will let him take day off. Why the **** do OP have to miss a damn funeral, and it's not like he/she is asking for whole month off. Just one day.....
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Actually if OP was an attending they could take it off if they could find coverage. Depending on the field that may or may not be possible on short notice.
 
DrBowtie said:
Actually if OP was an attending they could take it off if they could find coverage. Depending on the field that may or may not be possible on short notice.
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I promise that as an attending there will be some kind of mechanism in place for you to deal with family emergencies on short notice. Once you finish residency they need you more than you need them.
 
Syndicate said:
I am in my 3rd year of medical school and I'm realizing that I can't do medicine. I don't want to go into specifics but I am fairly confident I do not want to pursue this career any longer. I do however, want to graduate and get my MD degree since I've already paid 3.5 years worth of tuition and passed everything so far.

What are some options in healthcare insurance, consulting, or other fields that are available to those who only have an MD degree with no residency? I'm search these forums but there haven't really been any solid advice thus far.
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Hey Syndi
there is an institute
SEAK by a guy Steven Babitski
and it is all about non clinical carreers , you should check it out, but most jobs want you to have residency training, license and board certification.

What the guy said about the medicare desk job, the guy with the md from a caribean school, sounds nice too. (thxleave)

But be careful about making a life changing desicion just because a guy was a jerk...

I have had bad rotation grades from guys that I thought were allright, and later they just said stuff like "well you dud not come to see this or that operation when the chief did this or that" yet I was scrubbed in in a big ass 8 hour surgery in another OR... stuff like that. You need to move on and be the better guy.
Lots of vindictive militaristic a$$$les out there, they probably got treated like garbage and now they get some sick satisfaction in doing it to others. There will always be some of that, human nature, it us up to us to make a change, some of us, in a small way, in our little world, some of you will go on to bigger and better things and you can be instruments of change on a bigger scale
 
sailor jerry said:
Hey Syndi
there is an institute
SEAK by a guy Steven Babitski
and it is all about non clinical carreers , you should check it out, but most jobs want you to have residency training, license and board certification.

What the guy said about the medicare desk job, the guy with the md from a caribean school, sounds nice too. (thxleave)

But be careful about making a life changing desicion just because a guy was a jerk...

I have had bad rotation grades from guys that I thought were allright, and later they just said stuff like "well you dud not come to see this or that operation when the chief did this or that" yet I was scrubbed in in a big ass 8 hour surgery in another OR... stuff like that. You need to move on and be the better guy.
Lots of vindictive militaristic a$$$les out there, they probably got treated like garbage and now they get some sick satisfaction in doing it to others. There will always be some of that, human nature, it us up to us to make a change, some of us, in a small way, in our little world, some of you will go on to bigger and better things and you can be instruments of change on a bigger scale
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Job has its pros and cons. Not going to lie. There are some cons with working in the government office system. Policies and procedures are created based on senior staff advice, good and bad. You can suggest 100% solid accurate plans, but doesn't mean it gets implemented. There is a lot of gossip and politics in determining promotions. And you aren't going to be saving lives.

But end of day. The worse days at the office beats the average days at the hospital for me. And at 5pm, I can drop everything to go home.

So OP really gotta decide is it this just one incident, or does OP really hate everything at medicine. Life has been chill outside the hospital settings for me.

I used to commute to the hospital thinking, "If a truck ran me over and I die in a ditch, that wouldn't be so bad."

Now it's "I wonder what I should eat for dinner and how should I spend my weekends with my significant other."

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side.
 
thxleave said:
Job has its pros and cons. Not going to lie. There are some cons with working in the government office system. Policies and procedures are created based on senior staff advice, good and bad. You can suggest 100% solid accurate plans, but doesn't mean it gets implemented. There is a lot of gossip and politics in determining promotions. And you aren't going to be saving lives.

But end of day. The worse days at the office beats the average days at the hospital for me. And at 5pm, I can drop everything to go home.

So OP really gotta decide is it this just one incident, or does OP really hate everything at medicine. Life has been chill outside the hospital settings for me.

I used to commute to the hospital thinking, "If a truck ran me over and I die in a ditch, that wouldn't be so bad."

Now it's "I wonder what I should eat for dinner and how should I spend my weekends with my significant other."

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side.
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Attendings also leave at 5, more or less, and most of us don't work weekends either. I'm not sure about other fields but the average private practice Pediatrician works 45 hours per week (per a big survey that was recently published in our major journal). And its a good job, with way fewer overbearing bosses and more jobs security than any other job available to you. The misery associated with medical training ends the same day that the training ends, or at least it did for me.
 
Well just to throw this out there. I had a death in the family during one of my clerkships, and the clerkship director, and every member of my team said that "of course" I could take a day off to go to the funeral. It was treated as a given that I would be excused for it.
 
MSTPlease said:
Well just to throw this out there. I had a death in the family during one of my clerkships, and the clerkship director, and every member of my team said that "of course" I could take a day off to go to the funeral. It was treated as a given that I would be excused for it.
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Rotations were always a mixed bag for me.

Some rotations, they didn't let one of my classmates take a day off when his wife miscarried.

One rotation, I was able to take a day off, to change my spark plugs, since I said I was too broke to pay someone to change it.
 
I get that 3rd year is supposed to be a learning experience, but it's not like every day is new material that you'll only see once. OP could have easily taken the day off, nobody (except the attending) would have noticed he was gone, and he could return the next day without having missed anything of importance.

I really don't see the big deal with allowing a 3rd year to take off to attend a funeral, or really even just take a personal day if they need one. Residency I could probably understand in certain circumstances, because there are people that actually depend on your contribution instead of getting dragged down by it.
 
Facts:
OP wanted to do something
OP asked for permission
Clerkship director said no
OP did it anyway

It's pretty clear
 
There can be many different types of opportunities, but pursuing them successfully also largely depends on how you're able to leverage your skills outside of traditional medicine. There are countless examples of highly successful business people who obtained an MD/DO and did not do a residency. Your opportunities tend to be greater if you have some type of postgraduate clinical experience, but as health care and technology evolve, I'm sure you'll be able to find something suitable and promising with the right guidance and perseverance.
 
Tantalum said:
I hope you face the OP's situation someday.
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The lack of empathy in this thread really does show that this attitude is all too prevalent in medicine. I would NEVER attend a program that would not let you take a single day off for a funeral of a close family member, and I would likely make the same choice as the OP.

Why would it matter for an ms3 anyway, that clerkship director needs to take a long hard look at himself. Disgusting.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
The lack of empathy in this thread really does show that this attitude is all too prevalent in medicine. I would NEVER attend a program that would not let you take a single day off for a funeral of a close family member, and I would likely make the same choice as the OP.

Why would it matter for an ms3 anyway, that clerkship director needs to take a long hard look at himself. Disgusting.
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It's not a lack of empathy. It's not "should you get a day off for a close relatives funeral," as Psai keeps pointing out, the OP did NOT get their request for a day off honored, and they left anyway. All that happened was they got a poor grade under professionalism. They didn't fail the rotation, they didn't get suspended, they got knocked on professionalism for blatantly disregarding a supervisors order.

Should they get the day off? Maybe, probably. But if they weren't given it, it doesn't mean you just don't show up. That's, *ahem*, unprofessional.
 
Donald Juan said:
It's not a lack of empathy. It's not "should you get a day off for a close relatives funeral," as Psai keeps pointing out, the OP did NOT get their request for a day off honored, and they left anyway. All that happened was they got a poor grade under professionalism. They didn't fail the rotation, they didn't get suspended, they got knocked on professionalism for blatantly disregarding a supervisors order.

Should they get the day off? Maybe, probably. But if they weren't given it, it doesn't mean you just don't show up. That's, *ahem*, unprofessional.
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It wasn't a close relative. It was his/her family member. Also, OP is only a 3rd year med. student. Whether he/she is there or not does not mean crap. They school should've let him/her off for the day.
 
Donald Juan said:
It's not a lack of empathy. It's not "should you get a day off for a close relatives funeral," as Psai keeps pointing out, the OP did NOT get their request for a day off honored, and they left anyway. All that happened was they got a poor grade under professionalism. They didn't fail the rotation, they didn't get suspended, they got knocked on professionalism for blatantly disregarding a supervisors order.

Should they get the day off? Maybe, probably. But if they weren't given it, it doesn't mean you just don't show up. That's, *ahem*, unprofessional.
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It's not a maybe, probably. It's a definitely. Not letting someone attend the burial of someone they love is flat out wrong. With something like this it is time to go against the higher authority. Rosa Parks wasn't "unprofessional" for not sitting in the back of the bus.

You did the right thing OP, don't let anyone make you feel otherwise
 
lmao at conflating op's situation with rosa parks

OP got dinged for professionalism. OP acted unprofessionally. I don't see the issue here.
 
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There's a fine line between being professional and being wrong. The OP may have been unprofessional in not following his clerkship director's orders, but the clerkship director was wrong in denying the OP a day off to attend a funeral of a loved one. The OP's situation is just completely unbelievable.
 
i agree with the OP. As an attending physician, this is completely unreasonable to do to a MS3. they arent important in patient care. A funeral far exceeds anything one can learn in a single day in the clinic, hospital or OR. I hope you tell us your school, so at least perhaps through social media, itll get back to them and hopefully cause some change.

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Psai said:
lmao at conflating op's situation with rosa parks

OP got dinged for professionalism. OP acted unprofessionally. I don't see the issue here.
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The issue is that the OP tried to be professional and ask for a single effing day off to attend a burial and was denied the request, which is absurd. At that point, OP didn't have much choice but to act unprofessionally, as most sane people wouldn't choose wandering around the hospital unhelpfully as a medical student for one day (which you have plenty of other opportunities to do) over the only chance to pay proper respects to a deceased family member.

OP, I'm sorry you are going through this and I admit that I would have done the same. Take a deep breath though and try to keep perspective. Deal with these dinguses for a little while longer then have a satisfying career to spite them.
 
Psai said:
That's a pretty crappy thing to say and you should feel bad about yourself. Also, I already have except I made the prudent choice.
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So what was the prudent choice you made if you don't mind sharing? You actually obeyed your attending who refused you time off to go to the funeral of a loved one?

At an objective level, sure OP was unprofessional in the sense that he/she did something that wasn't permitted. But honestly what normal person wouldn't miss work to go to the funeral of a family member. You should feel bad about yourself because it's a crappy thing to suggest OP was wrong or unprofessional just because they were being human.
 
OP was unprofessional. I don't understand why it's so hard for all of you to understand this. It's very clear.

There are expectations and op didn't meet them. OP went out of their way to trample on them.
 
OP, not everywhere is like that... If that's the only reason you don't want to do medicine, do something really portable and find coworkers who share your values.
 
Psai said:
OP was unprofessional. I don't understand why it's so hard for all of you to understand this. It's very clear.

There are expectations and op didn't meet them. OP went out of their way to trample on them.
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I don't think anyone disagrees that the OP technically acted unprofessionally. The clerkship director and school made their professional decision. The OP made the ethically correct decision. I would gladly take a big hit on my professionalism and Dean's Letter for that because I would not want to attend a residency program that held their point of view.
 
Psai said:
Facts:
OP wanted to do something
OP asked for permission
Clerkship director said no
OP did it anyway

It's pretty clear
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I'm guessing you're a surgery resident/attending (going off of your comments and profile pic)? Misery sure does love company.

Anyways OP unfortunately many attendings are like this. However almost all of my bad interactions with attendings have been during surgery and OB/GYN. Every single one of my medicine, pediatrics, and psych residents and attendings were very pleasant to work with and completely understanding if this sort of thing were to come up. Guess it just depends on what field you get exposed to early in 3rd year which can easily shape the outlook for your future career. Thank God I got surgery and OB out of the way early in 3rd year so I didn't have to deal with any of that BS throughout the rest of the year. I would definitely see how the rest of the year goes before making a major decision like this.
 
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DaTruMD said:
It wasn't a close relative. It was his/her family member. Also, OP is only a 3rd year med. student. Whether he/she is there or not does not mean crap. They school should've let him/her off for the day.
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Family member's are not close relatives? I don't think we're using the same language.

OP is a 3rd year med student. They are not the ones that decide what days they get off. They have supervisors.

The school should have let them off for the day? As I said (twice above.........) probably. I most likely would let a student off. It doesn't change the fact that they were not given the day off. And the repercussions for not showing up were pretty light. If the school was kicking the student out, I would agree it was overblown. Getting a less than stellar performance on professionalism for blatantly disregarding your duties? Seems reasonable.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
It's not a maybe, probably. It's a definitely. Not letting someone attend the burial of someone they love is flat out wrong. With something like this it is time to go against the higher authority. Rosa Parks wasn't "unprofessional" for not sitting in the back of the bus.

You did the right thing OP, don't let anyone make you feel otherwise
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Seriously?

You think that a doctor missing a funeral for an unspecified relative for work is the same as the plight of black Americans in the US during post civil war segregation??

Rosa Parks was boycotting an institutional stance against widespread racism. Rosa Parks was arrested and charged with crimes for sitting on a bus because of the color of her skin. The OP received a "poor professionalism" mark (read: B).

If you equate receiving a B in one rotation in med school with the threat of being lynched, shot, or arrested for the color of your skin, you are a terrible human being. I usually think white people who get offended on behalf of black people (or any other race/culture) are being oversensitive, but holy ****, what you said here is the most ridiculous, entitled, blatant example of why everyone hates millennials, dumbest things I've ever read.
 
Donald Juan said:
Family member's are not close relatives? I don't think we're using the same language.

OP is a 3rd year med student. They are not the ones that decide what days they get off. They have supervisors.

The school should have let them off for the day? As I said (twice above.........) probably. I most likely would let a student off. It doesn't change the fact that they were not given the day off. And the repercussions for not showing up were pretty light. If the school was kicking the student out, I would agree it was overblown. Getting a less than stellar performance on professionalism for blatantly disregarding your duties? Seems reasonable.
Click to expand...

A close relative could also be a cousin, nephew, grandfather, niece, etc. I read OP's message saying family member as being a sibling or parent.

You also said "maybe" he should get a day off.

But hey, if you're going to be anal with someone, with no impact on patient care at all, in this kind of situation for the sake of "professionalism", I bet you must be really fun to be around. But that's just my opinion. Agree to disagree.
 
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