I know this site is made up of lowly med students but even with that there's some degree of respect and admiration we get from the public. When you tell ppl you're a med student they often act impressed and treat you slightly differently. My question is, what keeps you guys from becoming arrogant?
I think this is especially important for physicians in highly competitive fields. Being a vascular surgeon, ENT, Optho, ortho, etc is no doubt impressive. But often times this leads us to put these people on a pedestal which leads us to go to them for advice on topics in which they have no expertise simply because their career requires intelligence. This can even become dangerous as we start to rely on these people to make great decisions. Case in point is Ben Carson who is an incredibly successful neurosurgeon but seems to know less about politics than an undergrad poli sci major at a third rate school.
So the question is two fold. Is becoming arrogant a problem for MD/DO students? If they allow this arrogance to grow can it be detrimental to society?
You say SDN is made up of "lowly med students" (not sure if this is tongue-in-cheek or a somewhat obnoxious token of false modesty), when in fact it's made up of lots of regular medical students, some insanely accomplished med students, residents, attendings, professors, whatever--all of whom offer opinions that may or may not be very good and need to be judged on their own merits.
You say people often "act impressed"--not my experience at all. They often don't care, sometimes feel a little intimidated, make lots of unmerited assumptions about me, and occasionally seem entitled to share their opinion (or ask my opinion) about stuff that's really no stranger's business.
You say people "rely on doctors [like Ben Carson] to make great decisions." Sort of. Ben Carson is a vocally religious hard-working neurosurgeon who has a compelling life story--that combination really appeals to
some (kinda like Tim Tebow speaking at the RNC this year). But in the end, the only great decisions that people relied on Ben Carson to make were the decisions for which he had been exceptionally well-suited: the neurosurgical ones.
And then there's your comment about a political science major at a third rate school. First, political science is not the same as public policy, international relations, economics, political philosophy, or law (though it may entail those things)--it's mainly the analysis of political
activity and political
behaviour. Whatever. Second, lots of idiots graduate from "first rate schools." How does what school you go to determine the merit of your opinions?
Anyways.
Most medical students are fine people. Just like most people are fine people. Still, too many medical students are an entitled and pampered bunch, and too few recognise the outrageous amount of stupid luck it takes to become a doctor (starting with where you were born, how your parents treated you, what health issues you were gifted with, where you went to yadda yadda yadda). But this isn't something that
develops in medical school.
Becoming arrogant is not the problem.
Being arrogant is the problem, because arrogance flourishes in the medical context, both as a result of where doctors sit in the medical hierarchy (surprisingly not very high, though high enough to facilitate arrogant behaviour) and the dehumanising burden medical training places on students. And I don't think it's a problem for society (a hearty LOL at the idea most people care about what doctors think, especially some rando ENT--I would wager that most people don't even know what that is; many think a neurologist is just the same as a neurosurgeon, and don't ophthalmologists sell sunglasses?). I think arrogance is a problem for
some miserable doctors and the unfortunate people that have to deal with them.
Being arrogant means to have an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities. But being arrogant is often a symptom of another, more basic problem: an inability to distinguish wish, fantasy, and idealisation from reality. And when fantasy and reality collide... well, misery abounds, usually with lots of anger and defensiveness directed at all the wrong people. What's the antidote? I think time, introspection, care for others, and a lots of ego crushing exposure to the real world will cure any exaggerated sense of of yourself... Unless you remain defensive and angry and just use things as an excuse to be miserable to the people around you. (We *all* know attendings like this.)
And so much yes to all of the comments above.
