Non-trad gunner?

[scarshapedstar]

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I have a steth and cuff... because the machines at the clinic where I volunteer are unreliable.

I read Harrison's... when I need help falling asleep.

I am... the most gunnerish nontrad in the world. Or so I'm told.

But why does this mean that I will start sabotaging my classmates in the fall? I graduated college in '08. Several of my high school friends are about to start their residencies. I feel like I'm just making up for the time I lost jumping through all the hoops in postbac.

When I think gunner, I think of someone who's 22 years old and has been premed since 11. I don't see how someone like me, who nearly failed out of college before embarking on a potentially fruitless 7-year path towards medical school, can be faulted for being too invested in my work.

Amirite?

 

[0919mmk]

I have a steth and cuff... because the machines at the clinic where I volunteer are unreliable.

I read Harrison's... when I need help falling asleep.

I am... the most gunnerish nontrad in the world. Or so I'm told.

But why does this mean that I will start sabotaging my classmates in the fall? I graduated college in '08. Several of my high school friends are about to start their residencies. I feel like I'm just making up for the time I lost jumping through all the hoops in postbac.

When I think gunner, I think of someone who's 22 years old and has been premed since 11. I don't see how someone like me, who nearly failed out of college before embarking on a potentially fruitless 7-year path towards medical school, can be faulted for being too invested in my work.

Amirite?

The word "gunner" has come to mean something other than it's original definition. By the original definition (sabotaging others for academic superiority), i certainly hope you are not a gunner. By the new definition (someone who gets aroused at the prospect of studying the brachial plexus), then, yeah, you are probably a gunner lol.

 

[mauberley]

I feel like you're closer to the one-track mind than the gunner.

 

[scarshapedstar]

I feel like you're closer to the one-track mind than the gunner.

Yes, that I can cop to. Also a bit of Painfully Enthusiastic; sometimes at the end of the day the doctor will say "sorry we didn't have anything more exciting for you to see..." but it's all cool to me. 🙂

 

[dmf2682]

I used to have similar thoughts. Only more malicious. Like when my grade was high I'd hope the class average was low. Then I realised that's not cool. Everyone who is taking organic is probably a pre-health. And the more we know the better off everyone is.

It's why I started juggling. Whenever I get negative thoughts I juggle. Good stuff

 

[Law2Doc]

The word "gunner" has come to mean something other than it's original definition. By the original definition (sabotaging others for academic superiority), i certainly hope you are not a gunner. By the new definition (someone who gets aroused at the prospect of studying the brachial plexus), then, yeah, you are probably a gunner lol.

There is no new definition. It's just a slang misuse of the old definition. Like calling someone who is liberal a "commie". You don't really mean they are communist, you are just trying to humorously rib them. So folks tell people they are "such a gunner" to rib them. But the true meaning of the term always has been someone who abuses interrelationships to get ahead, ie an a-hole. A gunner is not someone who works hard and gets ahead. In fact you can be a gunner and not do that well, as a gunner is less focused on their own knowledge and more focused on others lack of it. A gunner would rather get the A by pushing everybody else on the curve down than by pulling himself up. It's a mindset you unfortunately will encounter somewhere along the road in your training. Id like to think it's less common amongst nontrads.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

edit: misread message, thought it was referring to trads.

 

[dmf2682]

There is no new definition. It's just a slang misuse of the old definition. Like calling someone who is liberal a "commie". You don't really mean they are communist, you are just trying to humorously rib them. So folks tell people they are "such a gunner" to rib them. But the true meaning of the term always has been someone who abuses interrelationships to get ahead, ie an a-hole. A gunner is not someone who works hard and gets ahead. In fact you can be a gunner and not do that well, as a gunner is less focused on their own knowledge and more focused on others lack of it. A gunner would rather get the A by pushing everybody else on the curve down than by pulling himself up. It's a mindset you unfortunately will encounter somewhere along the road in your training. Id like to think it's less common amongst nontrads.

Man. Does that mean I used to be a gunner? In my pre juggling days?

 

[CajunMedic]

Yes, that I can cop to. Also a bit of Painfully Enthusiastic; sometimes at the end of the day the doctor will say "sorry we didn't have anything more exciting for you to see..." but it's all cool to me. 🙂

Yup, I'll self- i.d. with that and the one-track mind as well....You'd think I'd get enough on the ambulance.


It's interesting to be a non-trad and watch the traditional gunners fight it out. I was in an Organic Chem test review where the leader lost control, parentages were questioned, if the desks weren't bolted down-they would have been throwing them at each other.

I can't see most older non-trads acting in the strictest sense of the word "gunner", we've got so much on our plates as it is, we just don't have time to play games and sabotage other students.

 

[bassvp]

Don't feel alone OP. I am a non-trad who already owns First Aid, Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple and Lippincott's Biochemistry books...however it makes me sick to my stomach to think about sabotaging someone else to try to get ahead. I've also struggled with the two sides of the 'gunner' term.

 

[QofQuimica]

Don't worry, you'll get over some of that eagerness once you've been in school for a while. There's something about doing just about anything for 80 hours per week that starts to dampen your enthusiasm just a bit.

As a resident, I study about 15-20 hours per week, and that's "fun." (This includes the time that I spent listening to medical podcasts while at the gym or doing chores.) It reinforces what I'm seeing at work, and it's interesting because it's relevant to what I'm doing on a daily basis. Plus, if I don't feel like reading one day, there's no penalty for taking a day off here and there. At the other extreme, as a second year studying 80ish hours a week for Step 1, that stopped being fun after about the first week of it. By the fourth week, even looking at the prep books made me want to hurl.

P.S. I guess I'm the overly academic. Today on rounds, the attending asked me when one should use "lay" versus "lie". He has also taken to calling me "Sweets". Don't even ask. I just hope my classmates don't find out about that, because it's one of those nicknames I'd never be able to shake.

 

[vc7777]

... At the other extreme, as a second year studying 80ish hours a week for Step 1, that stopped being fun after about the first week of it. By the fourth week, even looking at the prep books made me want to hurl...

Guess who was at Starbucks this morning studying for Step 1? 😏

And by "was"...I mean...still am.
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