Question for med students with previous work experience

[def1]

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I want to ask a question to medical students who worked full time jobs during undergrad or even better non-trads who had previous work experience in long hour jobs. Do you think this helped you in medical school? Did you feel it helped take away some of the stress of adjusting to the hard work of medical school?

It seems to me like the biggest adjustment med students talk about is how time consuming medical school is. This made me curious as to whether people with experience working long hours or doing full time or close to full time jobs during undergrad would adjust better to this situation.

Or is medical school unlike anything else and is the hardest working environment out there?

Just curious to hear some opinions.

 

[Law2Doc]

I want to ask a question to medical students who worked full time jobs during undergrad or even better non-trads who had previous work experience in long hour jobs. Do you think this helped you in medical school? Did you feel it helped take away some of the stress of adjusting to the hard work of medical school?

It seems to me like the biggest adjustment med students talk about is how time consuming medical school is. This made me curious as to whether people with experience working long hours or doing full time or close to full time jobs during undergrad would adjust better to this situation.

Or is medical school unlike anything else and is the hardest working environment out there?

Just curious to hear some opinions.

I think med school is closer to college than being in the workforce during the first two years, and more like employment the latter two. The issues tend not to be the stress of hours, but a necessary change in attitude. I've certainly heard practitioners bemoan the sense of expectation and entitlement some of the younger folks with no employment history seem to have. Lots of whining about scut, focusing on the fact that they are paying to be there, worrying that they'll only get 5 hours of sleep, not appreciating the value of being there with the team as opposed to off reading/ sleeping someplace else, not appreciating the "office politics" and hierarchy, and sometimes looking down on the nurses and techs. The folks with more workforce experience reportedly tend to roll up their sleeves more and complain less.

 

[music2doc]

I think med school is closer to college than being in the workforce during the first two years, and more like employment the latter two. The issues tend not to be the stress of hours, but a necessary change in attitude. I've certainly heard practitioners bemoan the sense of expectation and entitlement some of the younger folks with no employment history seem to have. Lots of whining about scut, focusing on the fact that they are paying to be there, worrying that they'll only get 5 hours of sleep, not appreciating the value of being there with the team as opposed to off reading/ sleeping someplace else, not appreciating the "office politics" and hierarchy, and sometimes looking down on the nurses and techs. The folks with more workforce experience reportedly tend to roll up their sleeves more and complain less.

I would tend to agree with this so far.

 

[girlonfire]

My experience has helped me deal with the workload and not sweat the small stuff. I don't get sucked into school drama or assign my self-worth to school performance (as some students straight out of college tend to do). Obviously, there's more work/studying for med school than my old job, but keeping things in perspective, this is the best job I've had.

 

[sinombre]

My experience has helped me deal with the workload and not sweat the small stuff. I don't get sucked into school drama or assign my self-worth to school performance (as some students straight out of college tend to do). Obviously, there's more work/studying for med school than my old job, but keeping things in perspective, this is the best job I've had.

Workload? Don't you have non-mandatory lectures and tests?

 

[Geebeejay]

Workload? Don't you have non-mandatory lectures and tests?

non-mandatory doesn't mean you don't do them

 

[sinombre]

non-mandatory doesn't mean you don't do them

"Non-mandatory" implies you have that option. I was being sarcastic though. I don't know anyone at Yale and don't know how optional anything really is there.

 

[def1]

I think med school is closer to college than being in the workforce during the first two years, and more like employment the latter two. The issues tend not to be the stress of hours, but a necessary change in attitude. I've certainly heard practitioners bemoan the sense of expectation and entitlement some of the younger folks with no employment history seem to have. Lots of whining about scut, focusing on the fact that they are paying to be there, worrying that they'll only get 5 hours of sleep, not appreciating the value of being there with the team as opposed to off reading/ sleeping someplace else, not appreciating the "office politics" and hierarchy, and sometimes looking down on the nurses and techs. The folks with more workforce experience reportedly tend to roll up their sleeves more and complain less.

Thanks. I originally thought that work experience would help deal with the stress of hours, but I think you made excellent points. It seems that having work experience would help you understand that all jobs have their tedious tasks and rules that you probably wont like.

 

[Geebeejay]

"Non-mandatory" implies you have that option. I was being sarcastic though. I don't know anyone at Yale and don't know how optional anything really is there.

Heh, yeah, I realized you were being sarcastic right after I replied. I was too lazy to change my post though 😀

 

[Anon212]

I think med school is closer to college than being in the workforce during the first two years, and more like employment the latter two. The issues tend not to be the stress of hours, but a necessary change in attitude. I've certainly heard practitioners bemoan the sense of expectation and entitlement some of the younger folks with no employment history seem to have. Lots of whining about scut, focusing on the fact that they are paying to be there, worrying that they'll only get 5 hours of sleep, not appreciating the value of being there with the team as opposed to off reading/ sleeping someplace else, not appreciating the "office politics" and hierarchy, and sometimes looking down on the nurses and techs. The folks with more workforce experience reportedly tend to roll up their sleeves more and complain less.

I had a full-time job in between college and med school and I hated all of those things about med school anyway. I will say I never whined about scut cause it just is what it is, but I do fell that things should be different because I AM paying to be there. If anything, this bothered me more than it did the traditional med students who never had a paycheck. I gave up a steady income to be taught, not to watch a resident write notes in an attempt to "be part of the team". I felt validated in being able to say "this is not useful to me, I'm going to go read now" because med school is not a job, it's school, and I should be learning something. So to me it had sort of a different effect. I found that the people who went straight through were more timid about getting what they needed out of their education.
But I agree re: knowing your place in the totem pole and respecting the pecking order.

My experience has helped me deal with the workload and not sweat the small stuff. I don't get sucked into school drama or assign my self-worth to school performance (as some students straight out of college tend to do). Obviously, there's more work/studying for med school than my old job, but keeping things in perspective, this is the best job I've had.

I agree, it was definitely less about grades and "what did you get on that test".

 

[Erakis]

I am curious how that will translate. I work full time and go to school at night. I assumed that life would get easier without a 6am-10pm day, but I have also been told not to count on it being that easy. All I can do is show up ready to work.