Like Medicine. Dislike Patients.

[ProAthleteMD]

Do you guys think it's ok to go into the medical field when you know you don't like patients? This is a recent discovery; I thought I'd love patients. I'm really outgoing and social so I find it odd that I shy away from patient care.

When I'm working, I tend to want to keep to myself and just figure out what the problem is. I think the medical field is fascinating but I find it hard to empathize w/ patients...I could see myself having bad bedside manner lol.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Handy388]

pathlogy and radiology.

 

[Katatonic]

I completely understand, hence why I'm debating between MD/DO or a PhD. I've always wanted to go towards Pathology though, I knew I would never want a patient-contact oriented job.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I think some degree of dislike of stupid people is pretty much universal among the educated elite, and you'll be getting plenty of stupid patients. I think you'll find that the ones who are nice, friendly, and fun to know make up for all the pissy, ignorant ones who come calling. That's my take on the situation, anyway.

By the way, sometimes the pissy, ignorant ones can make your day, too. It just depends. You don't have to like someone to be thoroughly amused by him.

 

[p30doc]

pathlogy and radiology.

seconded

 

[BrakngLyv]

If you're ever ill, I hope your physician does not share your view.

How do you intend to make it through MSIII and IV and residency if that's the route you choose?

PhD. Still potentially heavily involved with medicine, possible important implications and far less patient contact.

 

[ProAthleteMD]

Radiology has crossed my mind...that may be a winner!

I think some degree of dislike of stupid people is pretty much universal among the educated elite, and you'll be getting plenty of stupid patients. I think you'll find that the ones who are nice, friendly, and fun to know make up for all the pissy, ignorant ones who come calling. That's my take on the situation, anyway.

By the way, sometimes the pissy, ignorant ones can make your day, too. It just depends. You don't have to like someone to be thoroughly amused by him.

This is oh-so-true! Patients are crazy...

 

[JRJ26]

By the way, sometimes the pissy, ignorant ones can make your day, too. It just depends. You don't have to like someone to be thoroughly amused by him.

the ER is great for this.

 

[ProAthleteMD]

If you're ever ill, I hope your physician does not share your view.

How do you intend to make it through MSIII and IV and residency if that's the route you choose?

PhD. Still potentially heavily involved with medicine, possible important implications and far less patient contact.

Are you talking to me or Katatonic? (<--seeing as you mentioned Ph.D.)
I'll answer the question anyway: I don't know what I'd do about MSIII and IV...that's why I started this thread. Even if I did radiology, I'd have to make it through MSIII and IV and "hope" to get a spot in radiology. Decisions, decisions.

Maybe my dislike of patients has to do w/ the field of healthcare I was working in. Maybe my lack of interest in this particular field lead to my lack of interest in the patient? But then again, if you like patients...you like patients, right? It shouldn't have anything to do w/ what field you're working in? Eh...who knows.

 

[diosa428]

First, I thought I would like patients. MS1 rolled around, I started going doing patient interviews on the wards and hated patients. Rotations rolled around, and I realized that it's just that there are certain types of patients I like, and some that I don't. I don't really like working with adults, but I love working with kids. I also really enjoyed psych, which has a LOT of patient contact. I think that every specialty is different, your interactions with patients are different, what you do on each rotation is so different that it's hard to generalize impressions from a certain instance to the entire medical field, and you don't really know what you'll enjoy and what you won't until you experience it firsthand.

Interacting with patients is also very different when you know what you're doing and you have a job to do. Honestly, I hate making small talk with people. But when I'm going to see a patient, I know what I want to ask and what I want to find out, and that plays a huge role in figuring out what's going on. You don't have to sit and chit chat, but you can't figure out what's going on until you've heard about the sx from the patient. Essentially, you can't "figure out what the problem is" without talking to the patient, so if you view it more as a means of information acquisition (which is what a patient interview is) you might find you enjoy it more, especially when you have some background and know what you're looking for and what certain answers mean.

Additionally, everyone says "oh pathology and radiology". Well, that's not necessarily true. Anesthesiologists spend the majority of their time with the patient asleep. Some surgical specialties don't require TONS of patient contact, although more so than the above mentioned. Even hospitalists generally go see their patients once per day and then spend the rest of the day following up on labs and studies. The only time you're REALLY seeing patients all day every day is in outpatient specialties such as family med, general peds, etc. Or in clinic.

 

[ProAthleteMD]

First, I thought I would like patients. MS1 rolled around, I started going doing patient interviews on the wards and hated patients. Rotations rolled around, and I realized that it's just that there are certain types of patients I like, and some that I don't. I don't really like working with adults, but I love working with kids. I also really enjoyed psych, which has a LOT of patient contact. I think that every specialty is different, your interactions with patients are different, what you do on each rotation is so different that it's hard to generalize impressions from a certain instance to the entire medical field, and you don't really know what you'll enjoy and what you won't until you experience it firsthand.

Interacting with patients is also very different when you know what you're doing and you have a job to do. Honestly, I hate making small talk with people. But when I'm going to see a patient, I know what I want to ask and what I want to find out, and that plays a huge role in figuring out what's going on. You don't have to sit and chit chat, but you can't figure out what's going on until you've heard about the sx from the patient. Essentially, you can't "figure out what the problem is" without talking to the patient, so if you view it more as a means of information acquisition (which is what a patient interview is) you might find you enjoy it more, especially when you have some background and know what you're looking for and what certain answers mean.

Additionally, everyone says "oh pathology and radiology". Well, that's not necessarily true. Anesthesiologists spend the majority of their time with the patient asleep. Some surgical specialties don't require TONS of patient contact, although more so than the above mentioned. Even hospitalists generally go see their patients once per day and then spend the rest of the day following up on labs and studies. The only time you're REALLY seeing patients all day every day is in outpatient specialties such as family med, general peds, etc. Or in clinic.

Good point. Now that you mention it, I always enjoyed patient care when it had to do w/ children. I guess it was just the annoying adults (which most of my patients were) who should know better which made me think, "I need to get out of here!"

 

[Bacchus]

You're going to have to get over this or put on a happy face. You'll start SPs (standardized patients) your first year more than likely. You don't treat them like robots, but a patient so you'll have patient contact. You're gonna have to suck it up 3rd/4th years. Or, you could skip it all and go into a PhD.

 

[Textuality]

You can also maybe consider anesthesiology? I could be wrong, but I didn't think they were a heavily "bedside" profession.

I'm actually looking into radiology myself, mostly because I really enjoy how diagnostic it is, I love the technology, and looking at slides is a lot of fun (I'm a heavily visual learner).

 

[MrBurns10]

ProAthlete, the fact that you know this about yourself now is HUGE. I was an EMT during college and always interacted with patients that way and loved it. I'm an outgoing, social person like you so I just assumed I would enjoy taking care of patients. It was about midway through my clinical year that I realized that I didn't enjoy patient care after all...it wasn't that I disliked talking with or helping people, I just didn't enjoy what encompassed patient care. I hated taking H&Ps then writing 2-3 pages on them, it bored me to tears on rounds when we would spend 20 minutes deciding what antibiotic to put a patient on or if we should decrease a patient's IV fluids. I realized what I did enjoy was experiencing the mystery of diagnosis (when it was a mystery) and then I wanted to move on (i.e. short attention span).

With all that in mind and a love for technology (and the fact that I think it's so freakin' cool to be able to see inside the body through imaging), I'm hoping to go into radiology. I hate that it's such a competitive specialty and there's a lot of pressure to do well on rotations and on step 1 (which I haven't taken yet), but if you really want to do something and work hard for it, chances are you'll make it (I hope, at least!). Psych was also very cool.

So my long-winded answer to your question- yes, it is very possible to not like patient care (this doesn't mean you don't like people!) and still go into medicine.

 

[LadyWolverine]

It was about midway through my clinical year that I realized that I didn't enjoy patient care after all...it wasn't that I disliked talking with or helping people, I just didn't enjoy what encompassed patient care. I hated taking H&Ps then writing 2-3 pages on them, it bored me to tears on rounds when we would spend 20 minutes deciding what antibiotic to put a patient on or if we should decrease a patient's IV fluids.

I am also dealing with these sorts of feelings. It's not the "medicine" per se that I dislike, it is the endless documenting/presenting/re-presenting/pre-rounding/rounding/coding/consulting and other "not-exactly-medicine" duties that is making me reconsider some of the types of careers in which I was originally interested. I realize that some of it we need to do because we are students, some of it we need to do because that's the way the system works, and some of it we need to do to keep the hospital from getting sued. But it just seems like there is so much busywork in medicine, which detracts from the time that would be better spent actually caring for patients and/or learning. For example, internal medicine would be a fascinating specialty if it wasn't for all the BS that goes along with it (at least in the academic setting).

From the get-go, I was interested in radiology as a specialty. Lately, though, I have been more and more drawn to pathology. Not to say that these specialties don't deal with their own brand of BS, of course.

Interacting with someone on a social level is very different from dealing with them in a professional setting. Just because you are outgoing does not mean that you will thrive in the latter environment.

 

[Ella Shepherd]

Do you guys think it's ok to go into the medical field when you know you don't like patients? This is a recent discovery; I thought I'd love patients. I'm really outgoing and social so I find it odd that I shy away from patient care.

When I'm working, I tend to want to keep to myself and just figure out what the problem is. I think the medical field is fascinating but I find it hard to empathize w/ patients...I could see myself having bad bedside manner lol.

It's going to be quite challenging for you to go through med school if you don't like dealing with patients. But if you really want to get into Medicine, maybe you can choose a specialty that won't require you to deal with patients so much. You can take residency in radiology, pathology (at least they're not alive) or anesthesiology (you're not dealing with them directly).

Good luck!

 

[MrBurns10]

But it just seems like there is so much busywork in medicine, which detracts from the time that would be better spent actually caring for patients and/or learning. For example, internal medicine would be a fascinating specialty if it wasn't for all the BS that goes along with it (at least in the academic setting).

Totally true. It's amazing how much time the residents I worked with spent dictating, doing discharge paperwork, duty hours, etc. Unfortunately, I don't see it changing anytime soon with how litigious this country is.

And the H&Ps, my God, the H&Ps...I hated doing 1-2, I can't imagine doing 7+ in one night.

 

[nVictus]

im willing to bet the majority of active SDNer's dont have the patience for medicine and will prob go into something like surgery, anesthesiology, rads, etc.

i know i dont. ill prob go into anesthesiology.

 

[bcat85]

pathlogy and radiology.

Yep and if you can sort of handle patient contact, consider anesthesiology.

 

[jeaneous]

Good point. Now that you mention it, I always enjoyed patient care when it had to do w/ children. I guess it was just the annoying adults (which most of my patients were) who should know better which made me think, "I need to get out of here!"

The bad news is the "annoying adults" in this case are the parents.

 

[Wrigleyville]

No matter what field of medicine you go into, you need to love having patients. You might not like direct patient interactions as much as you thought you might, but you need to love taking care of patients.

 

[Cegar]

Do you guys think it's ok to go into the medical field when you know you don't like patients? This is a recent discovery; I thought I'd love patients. I'm really outgoing and social so I find it odd that I shy away from patient care.

When I'm working, I tend to want to keep to myself and just figure out what the problem is. I think the medical field is fascinating but I find it hard to empathize w/ patients...I could see myself having bad bedside manner lol.

Most doctors dislike most patients because most people (patients are often people) are pretty stupid.

Don't worry about it.

 

[ProAthleteMD]

No matter what field of medicine you go into, you need to love having patients. You might not like direct patient interactions as much as you thought you might, but you need to love taking care of patients.

Hhhmmm...I don't. Maybe I should be locked away in a lab somewhere lol. I could see myself enjoying radiology. Like another poster said, I'm a visual learner and I'd enjoy diagnosing. There may be little patient contact but I can deal w/ that. It's not that I don't like people, I just don't enjoy having direct patients or caring for them. (<--That sounds awful seeing as I'm thinking about going into healthcare). As a radiologist, I can care for them...indirectly!