med school experiences?

[chemie02]

HI everyone,

i'm a relative health newbie curious to learn more about med school, and people's impressions about med school as i'm considering medicine or another health related field.

how do the 4 years of med school break down? ie: what are the first 2 years like course-load/work-wise? what major hurdles are there in med school? what do you do with your summers, etc?

what is the biggest challenge you guys have faced during med school?? what did you really like/dislike about it?

any general information would be appreciated! thanks in advance

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[DrB]

Welcome Chemie02... and all other nubies out there.

A great place to start learning about what med school is like is to do a search on SDN. You can find a variety of information already posted. It would be good to read through the AACOMAS web site to learn about how med school breaks down. If you want more information there are any number of great books out there to help.

Feel free to ask specific questions you have as they may help others who are too shy to ask.

Good luck

 

[OSUdoc08]

HI everyone,

i'm a relative health newbie curious to learn more about med school, and people's impressions about med school as i'm considering medicine or another health related field.

how do the 4 years of med school break down? ie: what are the first 2 years like course-load/work-wise? what major hurdles are there in med school? what do you do with your summers, etc?

what is the biggest challenge you guys have faced during med school?? what did you really like/dislike about it?

any general information would be appreciated! thanks in advance

2 years classroom, 2 years clinicals, generally

hurdles are boards (step 1 & 2)

generally, you only get summer after first year off, and most people work/volunteer or go on vacation

 

[Dr JPH]

First Year: Anatomy is the big course here.
First Summer: Take a break...this will be the last summer vacation of your life.
Second Year: Medicine training becomes more intense.
Boards Step 1: End of second year...big hurdle.
Third Year: Starts right after (literally) you finish boards. Here you are on clinical rotations.
Fourth Year: Same as third year, but you need to: 1. take boards step 2 and 2: apply for residency

 

[Chisel]

First Year: Anatomy is the big course here.
First Summer: Take a break...this will be the last summer vacation of your life.
Second Year: Medicine training becomes more intense.
Boards Step 1: End of second year...big hurdle.
Third Year: Starts right after (literally) you finish boards. Here you are on clinical rotations.
Fourth Year: Same as third year, but you need to: 1. take boards step 2 and 2: apply for residency

It seems to me that everything we do in medical school is just another "hurdle"......

We study for four years in college so that we have a good GPA. We study all of the info from college to pass the MCAT. We pass the MCAT and get a good GPA to get into med school. We study our rear-end off in med school to pass tests. We study all of the material we learn in MSI and II so that we can pass boards. We pass boards so that we can apply for residency. We apply for residencies based on what we want to do for the rest of our life. We work in private practice to make money. We have to be up to date on all the latest research and techniques so that we don't kill people......see where I'm going with this.

And all of this and we have to do whats best for our patients. And do so so that we don't get sued and lose everything we worked so hard to get.

Just my miserable opinion on things. Sorry for being such a party pooper- it's been a long day and it's only Tuesday.

Chisel
PCOM 2006

 

[DrB]

Welcome to the long journey through life Chisel!! I can understand where your frustration may stem; feeling like the whole game is just a giant "Stairmaster" and in the end... your destination... is just another "hurdle".

Listen close as I tell you that life itself is about the journey and not the destination. To be happy with our struggle over consecutive hurdles; to be happy with the journey and ourselves. If we hope for happiness at the "end" we will only realize that our whole life has passed.

Have a good Wednesday!

 

[Chachie2682]

Welcome to the long journey through life Chisel!! I can understand where your frustration may stem; feeling like the whole game is just a giant "Stairmaster" and in the end... your destination... is just another "hurdle".

Listen close as I tell you that life itself is about the journey and not the destination. To be happy with our struggle over consecutive hurdles; to be happy with the journey and ourselves. If we hope for happiness at the "end" we will only realize that our whole life has passed.

Have a good Wednesday!

VERY TRUE

 

[Chisel]

VERY TRUE

I suggest reading the book called "The House of God."

I just started to read it over this past weekend. It becomes more and more evident that physicians sometimes do more harm than good.

I am not trying to be pesimistic, because I do believe that the work that we do is worthwhile and often very rewarding. It just amazes me how sometimes patients will come to the hospital for problem X and end up leaving with problems Y and Z.

And it often seems that when we can't find the cause of problem X, we go looking for it and it is at these moments that we find Y and Z that are totally unrelated to X.

Just my observation in my 8+ months of rotations.

And to the "hurdles", I say, "Keep them coming!"

Chisel
MS III PCOM

 

[newyorkcougar]

You should really get a book describing the process. There are tons of "How to get into med school" books out there that are pretty cheap and very detailed. Also, if you are interested in DO schools in particular, I recommend reading "The DO's 2nd Edition." It is the best book you can get to help understand who and what DOs are. Good luck.

 

[babyruth]

As stated, the first two years are 'basic science' training and the approach to this will be different in every school, so you need to look into that (i.e. didactic v. case based v. independent study).

Next look at the school's clinical training and how that is set up. Look at where they do their rotations and residency placement.

Then look to see if the school's culture and environment would be a good place for you to be and also other characteristics involving school differences (i.e. technology, facility, location, etc.).

Keep an open mind and see where you fit in the most.