Just a Thought

[gabem480]

Is it me or does anybody else think it is ******ed the way medical schools teach students how to care for other and themselves how to keep healthy but then put students through so much stress that is in no way good for ones health. (disregard grammar please) This is just something I have been thinking about.

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[RySerr21]

how else do you suggest physicians gain the knowledge necessary to practice medicine? Should they extend medical over an 8 year period instead of a 4 year period, to relieve the stress? Thats impractical. Its not the medical schools fault, its the profession that you choose. Its the way things are set up. Yes it sucks you have to learn such an enormous amount of information in such a short period of time, but honestly what else can be done? If you aren't prepared or dont thinky ou can handle the stress, you probably shouldnt become a physician. I think its just something you have to deal with.

 

[hedgehog1]

Yeah, it sucks, but if you're going to be holding people's lives in your hands so to speak, you should be able to handle anything. Plus, isn't medical training long enough to begin with? It doesn't seem like there's a better way to learn that amount of necessary information.

 

[Insulinshock]

Heres an idea:

Two years of very rigorous undergrad work. Take the MCAT, and apply to med school after two years. Make medical school 6 years long instead of four, or double residency length and reduce hours, depending on what alleviates your stress more. Bam, cut out the first four years of mostly trivial bull**** we have to put up with.

 

[scrubsaresexy]

Idk...I think part of it is learning to be healthy and well adjusted despite having a high stress lifestyle. I hate to sound like a cranky cynic right now, but real life is hard and stressful and not always conducive to being really healthy. Gotta make the best of it anyway.

 

[DoctaJay]

Yeah, it certainly sucks. But you can be healthy in medical school if you make it one of your priorities. I have 3x as much to study in my 2nd year but I've been exercising much more this year simply because I have an accountability partner who pushes me when I don't feel like it. I have classmates who bike everyday and alot of our female classmates do the BATS (butts, abs, and thighs) aeorbic workout at our school gym. Looking from the outside in, it can seem impossible, but if you put exercise on your everyday todo list, then you can do it.

Eating healthy is a much harder task, especially since most of the free lunches tend to be pizza. I can honestly say that I haven't quite won the battle yet with eating healthy, but I have classmates who have. Overall, in any stressful environment you have to adapt in order to make sure that it doesn't kill you.

 

[RySerr21]

Heres an idea:

Two years of very rigorous undergrad work. Take the MCAT, and apply to med school after two years. Make medical school 6 years long instead of four, or double residency length and reduce hours, depending on what alleviates your stress more. Bam, cut out the first four years of mostly trivial bull**** we have to put up with.

Yea but then you sacrifice half of your college career, and you get people entering med school at age 20 or younger. I defintely wouldnt have applied if that was the case. And what about the students that didnt decide on medicine before they entered college? Then its just an extra 2 years of school, for someone deciding on medicine after another career who is an older applicant, that just sucks for them.. Nice idea, but doesnt really work.

 

[scarletgirl777]

Heres an idea:

Two years of very rigorous undergrad work. Take the MCAT, and apply to med school after two years. Make medical school 6 years long instead of four, or double residency length and reduce hours, depending on what alleviates your stress more. Bam, cut out the first four years of mostly trivial bull**** we have to put up with.

If you already KNOW that you want to be a doctor and did your research/clinical exposure, you should be able to cut out a lot of undergrad coursework that's not directly relevant. And yeah it's nice to be well rounded and whatnot, but you don't need 2 years of coursework to do that.

 

[19nbj58]

Heres an idea:

Two years of very rigorous undergrad work. Take the MCAT, and apply to med school after two years. Make medical school 6 years long instead of four, or double residency length and reduce hours, depending on what alleviates your stress more. Bam, cut out the first four years of mostly trivial bull**** we have to put up with.

Try again.

 

[nick_carraway]

Try again.

I've got an idea! Let's all go back to the days before the Flexner report.

Those who want to be great doctors can just go train in Europe. The rest of us can stay here, go to schools with no standards, and call ourselves doctors too.

No competition + initials after our names = win, win, win.

 

[jinx520]

Heres an idea:

Two years of very rigorous undergrad work. Take the MCAT, and apply to med school after two years. Make medical school 6 years long instead of four, or double residency length and reduce hours, depending on what alleviates your stress more. Bam, cut out the first four years of mostly trivial bull**** we have to put up with.

UNM has a new program like this for students who graduate HS in New Mexico. I think that at the end of 6 years graduates have a B.A. and an M.D.., but I'm not sure. The first batch of students in the program (I forget what it's called) will matriculate in 2010. The school also has a similar program for pharm. Don't know how well these students do compared to those who complete a normal-length undergrad, but I'm sure that programs like this exist elsewhere.

 

[diosa428]

Yeah, it certainly sucks. But you can be healthy in medical school if you make it one of your priorities. I have 3x as much to study in my 2nd year but I've been exercising much more this year simply because I have an accountability partner who pushes me when I don't feel like it. I have classmates who bike everyday and alot of our female classmates do the BATS (butts, abs, and thighs) aeorbic workout at our school gym. Looking from the outside in, it can seem impossible, but if you put exercise on your everyday todo list, then you can do it.

Eating healthy is a much harder task, especially since most of the free lunches tend to be pizza. I can honestly say that I haven't quite won the battle yet with eating healthy, but I have classmates who have. Overall, in any stressful environment you have to adapt in order to make sure that it doesn't kill you.

Yeah, agree. Med school really isn't that bad. I definitely NEVER worked this hard in undergrad, but I can't think of a single rotation where I could not sleep 6-8 hours/night most nights per week and workout at least 3-4 times/week. It's all about setting priorities. And for the basic science year (of which I only had one, because Duke condenses two years of basic sciences into 11 months) - the hours were better than rotations and you don't even have to go to most of the classes...