What is the absolute worst part about med school?

Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine
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notlikethat said:
can someone give some examples of this alledged backstabbing?
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Showing up 2 hours before rounds just to collect all the patients' vitals (except mine, fortunately), so this person can be the one to read them to the residents.

That was the most blatant. Not really backstabbing, just trying to make me look bad. The person later gave that up (after a few weeks) when she realized the residents didn't care who read the vitals.

Edit: Oh, leaving a class meeting IMMEDIATELY after (without saying a word to me), even though we've been excused to stay for the international rotation dinner that followed it. I noticed the person was gone (I sat in the middle of the room, and the person was on the edge), so I went back to the hospital where I found the person already working on the list.
 
The worst are students who leave lectures at 5:00pm and return to the hospital to ask if there is anything else that needs to be done, especially after the rest of the team specifically agreed not to return the hospital. On a few occasions, the whole team has been burned by one individual who shows up to the hospital and makes the rest of us look lazy.
 
The worst part for me has been the fact that once I figured out what I wanted to do in clerkship, every other rotation has been tainted by the thoughts- "I really don't need to know about [insert condition ie vulvodynia] to be a [specialty of choice]". To make it worse, I've honestly not been very interested in anything else! I'm very results oriented and don't really get off on intellectual masturbation about pathophysiology or anything on a differential diagnosis beyond the first couple things.
 
notlikethat said:
can someone give some examples of this alledged backstabbing?
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There was a student at my school a few years back who would steal patients from other students. If, for instance, you said that you'd come in at 7 AM, he would come in at 6 AM and round on your patients. I think he thought that it would make him look better - i.e. like he was a harder worker than the other students - but the school's professionalism committee had a little "talk" with him.

There was another 3rd year student who fawned on the 4th year student on his surgery rotation. He'd ask the 4th year student for advice, compliment the 4th year for being so smart, say that he was sure to match well, etc. Then he went to the clerkship coordinator and bad-mouthed the 4th year: he said that the 4th year was being greedy and selfish, wasn't helping other students out, etc. Then, he went back and fawned on the 4th year some more. It was pretty ruthless, and nobody fell for it - everyone knew that the third year student was just a lazy *** who enjoyed stirring up trouble.
 
smq123 said:
There was a student at my school a few years back who would steal patients from other students. If, for instance, you said that you'd come in at 7 AM, he would come in at 6 AM and round on your patients. I think he thought that it would make him look better - i.e. like he was a harder worker than the other students - but the school's professionalism committee had a little "talk" with him.
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That happened to one of my friends (person 1) on surgery. This person (person 2) also "forgot" to page person 1 when a major case came in at night after he was told to let the other student know. The next morning, the attendings were like "Person 1, where were you last night?" Person 2 said, "Yeah, I paged you!" Person 1 never turned off his pager. The attendings never forgave person 1, and started treating him differently because of his perceived lack of interest.

I was very wary of the student I was with doing stuff like that to me. It never got that bad.
 
Small group, hands down.
 
deuist said:
The worst are students who leave lectures at 5:00pm and return to the hospital to ask if there is anything else that needs to be done, especially after the rest of the team specifically agreed not to return the hospital. On a few occasions, the whole team has been burned by one individual who shows up to the hospital and makes the rest of us look lazy.
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Wow- that is obnoxious. It is one thing to try to be a productive member of the team but it is entirely another thing to intentionally make others look bad.

I believe what goes around comes around and that students who try to show up their colleagues will be found out. The residents I have had the pleasure of working with are not so far away from medical school that they have forgotten incidents like the ones described above and in most cases, will not view the gunner student in the light that the student hopes to be viewed.

Team work is an integral part of clinical rotations. No one person can handle the load by themselves without harming patient care. Woe to he/she who makes their teammate intentionally look bad. Reputation is with us a long time- it can get sullied very easily. People have long memories.

Keep in mind that if you are striving for honors you can do so without undermining those around you. Even (heaven forbid) helping your teammate iif they are having problems can be used in your evaluations as a positive factor.

You would be surprised what the residents/attendings see/hear and do not say anything at the time. They are not stupid/born yesterday.

As far as the lazy medical student, yes they do exist. These individuals do not need help in looking bad, they can do that all on their own by repeatedly showing up late to rounds/surgery/whatever, by not knowing about their patients.
 
kdburton said:
I get 6 hours of sleep as it is. I'm under the impression that 3rd and 4th year will be easy compared to 1st and 2nd because I hate studying and I'd much rather be on the wards for long hours than in the library. Some people like studying/learning from the book and they probably feel the opposite.
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Depends on what kind of person you are.

For some, 3rd year is like a marathon and much harder than 1st or 2nd year. Usually the people who found the preclinical years easy have a harder time with the transition to the clinical years (there are exceptions of course). For me, even with the really long hours of surgery or medicine, I am in my element and I love third year.
 
DwyaneWade said:
Do people get significantly worse during the clinical years? 😕

I have to add my vote FOR PBL as being useful, I guess it depends on your group but I much prefer it to lecture.
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3rd year just illustrates the kind of people that your classmates always were. Maybe the edges are a little more raw with less sleep.

People do not change in 3rd year- our understanding of them may though.
 
Ashers said:
That happened to one of my friends (person 1) on surgery. This person (person 2) also "forgot" to page person 1 when a major case came in at night after he was told to let the other student know. The next morning, the attendings were like "Person 1, where were you last night?" Person 2 said, "Yeah, I paged you!" Person 1 never turned off his pager. The attendings never forgave person 1, and started treating him differently because of his perceived lack of interest.
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That's absolutely awful. I can't believe that. 😱

I'm not sure what would have been worse - if Person 2 intentionally did not page Person 1, or if Person 2 had really forgotten, but lied ("But I, uh, DID page you...really....) to cover up his lie.

Did Person 1 try to defend himself? Say, "That's funny - my pager isn't showing any new pages in the past few days...did you page the wrong number?" Anything?

I'm glad that you didn't face anything like that on your surgery rotation. I know that you want to do a surgical field, but an incident like that would have really hurt your grade and your residency prospects.
 
smq123 said:
That's absolutely awful. I can't believe that. 😱

I'm not sure what would have been worse - if Person 2 intentionally did not page Person 1, or if Person 2 had really forgotten, but lied ("But I, uh, DID page you...really....) to cover up his lie.

Did Person 1 try to defend himself? Say, "That's funny - my pager isn't showing any new pages in the past few days...did you page the wrong number?" Anything?

I'm glad that you didn't face anything like that on your surgery rotation. I know that you want to do a surgical field, but an incident like that would have really hurt your grade and your residency prospects.
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I can't remember if Person 1 tried to defend himself. I think the attendings just dismissed him after Person 2 lied about paging, when he hadn't forgotten nor had he paged. Very odd situation. I'm friends with both Person 1 and 2, but I've lost respect for Person 2.

Thanks, SMQ. I'm really glad nothing like that happened to me too, but Person 1 warned me that the student I was with would probably try something along those lines (the person basically hates me for a reason I can't figure out), so I was hypervigilant. It was a mentally exhausting 5 weeks on that rotation. At least Person 1 doesn't want to go into anything remotely related to surgery. He wants to stay away from it as much as possible.

I'm so looking forward to 4th year where we basically don't have to worry about this stuff.
 
Another reason why it is good to give teammates both your pager and cellphone. A little hard to argue that they did not call you.
 
Ashers said:
That happened to one of my friends (person 1) on surgery. This person (person 2) also "forgot" to page person 1 when a major case came in at night after he was told to let the other student know. The next morning, the attendings were like "Person 1, where were you last night?" Person 2 said, "Yeah, I paged you!" Person 1 never turned off his pager. The attendings never forgave person 1, and started treating him differently because of his perceived lack of interest.

I was very wary of the student I was with doing stuff like that to me. It never got that bad.
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Man, Numero Dos is just asking for a late night encounter with somebody in a parking lot.
 
sprinkibrio said:
The transition to a new lifestyle that requires 90% of your time, mental energy, and dedication. There are so many wonderful things about med school, but I'm experiencing them at the cost of the wonderful things I used to enjoy. It's a bit like multiple doors have closed and only a few are left open, but I want to be able to move from room to room. Hopefully one day I'll be able to set up my life in a way that's more in tune with my personality incorporating my many interests.
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i just want to say: what a lovely literary picture; you should write some fiction
 
HEADintheCLOUDS said:
proceed to use the instruments (when passed around) to grip my shirt sleeve and use them to pull it (stretch it).
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sheesh, relax and lighten up; she stretched you calvin klein designer shirt; get over your ****ing self; who cares if she wasn't hot; you need to bust a nut, that much is clear
 
nasty patients who order you around and yet are completely ungrateful when you stay around to do them multiple favors instead of hauling *** after obtaining the requisite SOAP note information.

p.s. if there's a bathroom in your hospital room and you are perfectly mobile and allowed to contact water, please for the love of god take a shower at least once every other day. your doctors, nurses and i do not wish to be reminded of your eau de B.O. every time we have to go into your room to check on you.
 
Has anyone had a professor they couldn't bring themselves to respect? I imagine that will be the worst part for me.
 
The fact that you have to be a doctor afterwards.
 
The worst part of med school isn't the actual school, but where it's at. Right now it's a Saturday night, I've just finished a clusterload of exams from the previous weeks and I don't have an upcoming exam until after spring break. I promised myself I wouldn't study tonight, but after seeing that there was nothing to do in this ****hole town of mine, I actually popped open a beer, then looked at some pages in my neuro book because there was honestly nothing to do. It was either that or risk my life and go to a redneck dive bar. In my college town such a night would've been a godsend. Right now, such a free night is a curse because it makes me realize how much I detest this city I live in right now.
 
vtucci said:
3rd year just illustrates the kind of people that your classmates always were. Maybe the edges are a little more raw with less sleep.

People do not change in 3rd year- our understanding of them may though.
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Ha, interesting point. I often lead the tours for interviewees as a first year, and the interviewees always ask us what our classmates are like. I really think that my classmates are great and generally nice, but maybe we should have our 3rd and 4th years answering that question or giving the tours.
 
** People with no clinical experience (i.e. bioethics "professors" and...um...pre-meds 😳) telling you what you should think, how you should feel, and what your life is like. 🙄

I'm sorry, but it's a little exasperating to hear pre-meds tell you that they know what med school is like, because their roommate's brother's girlfriend is a med student and has told them stories.

And it's extremely frustrating to hear bioethics professors (who have zero clinical experience) tell you how you "should" react to a drug seeking patient or a difficult patient. Or, worse, making you feel guilty for how you actually did react to a drug seeking patient. Here's a hint: anger and compassion are NOT mutually exclusive.

** Those same bioethics professors and pre-meds insisting that they "truly understand" your concerns, when, in reality, they don't.

** Knowing just enough to get freaked out, but not enough to diagnose yourself/others with any real certainty.

** I kind of wish that people in medicine weren't so diplomatic. Sometimes, you just want a straight, honest answer.

But everyone's so afraid that they'll discourage you from medicine, and unduly influence your decision, that they kind of hedge when they answer your questions about careers and things like that. "Don't worry...it's not that bad...everything will be fine!" seems to be everyone's favorite catch phrase.

While some people don't like surgeons because they're too "blunt," their honesty and short answers are refreshing. 🙂

** The NBME cartel. I mean, really - why are Step 1 and Step 2 exams so expensive? 😕

** Female does NOT = "nurse." 🙄

And no, I didn't go to medical school to "find a doctor to marry," so stop asking.

And no, I will not set your daughter up with a classmate. If she wants to marry a doctor, she can find one herself.

*******
Don't worry, there are good things about medicine too. But if I described the things that I liked about medicine, I'd have a bunch of third years and fourth years loudly disagreeing with me. 😉
 
DoctaJay said:
Ha, interesting point. I often lead the tours for interviewees as a first year, and the interviewees always ask us what our classmates are like. I really think that my classmates are great and generally nice, but maybe we should have our 3rd and 4th years answering that question or giving the tours.
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They would say that everyone is a perfect angel at your school. The tour guides are the salesmen who need to convince the applicants that they're applying to world's greatest medical school.
 
uzybear said:
i just want to say: what a lovely literary picture; you should write some fiction
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Aww thank you! I think I have a lot of untapped and possibly dieing creativity. Science tends to squash those things...
 
TheProwler said:
Hmm, I think I'm starting to see why my school has a reputation for having a friendly student body. I actually like most of my classmates. Sucks to be some of you guys.
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by chance, the school in vermont?
 
Ashers said:
Obviously there's more than 1 school with a reputation for generally nice students. 😉
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:laugh: Yeah, I suppose there is.

We seem to garner that rep here in TX (with the possible exception being some of the Baylor kiddies, no offense to the few Baylor MDs-to-be here).
 
indo said:
Prowler's med school has a higher population than Vermont.
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When I saw you had posted in this thread, I would've bet money that you were going to say the worst thing about med school is TBL.
 
Slide said:
The worst part of med school isn't the actual school, but where it's at. Right now it's a Saturday night, I've just finished a clusterload of exams from the previous weeks and I don't have an upcoming exam until after spring break. I promised myself I wouldn't study tonight, but after seeing that there was nothing to do in this ****hole town of mine, I actually popped open a beer, then looked at some pages in my neuro book because there was honestly nothing to do. It was either that or risk my life and go to a redneck dive bar. In my college town such a night would've been a godsend. Right now, such a free night is a curse because it makes me realize how much I detest this city I live in right now.
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Yeah, I'm not too wild about where I live, but I think it has to be better than where you are. But aren't there some college bars around Millsaps? You might be annoyed by frat boys, though.
 
Does a med student have a life outside of school????? Not the ones I know.
 
Whether a medical student has a life depends on what rotation they happen to be on. As I am on surgery right now, I can say with all confidence that students do NOT have a life while doing surgery (but at least we are in good company as the interns, residents and even attendings do not have one either). 😀

God I miss emergency medicine.
 
Medical school is awesome and I like it way more than undergrad. I love my class, my school, and the opps we are offered. It totally beats being the "unsure about the future" pre-med status any day. The worst part of med school (to answer your question)- yeah- a little less free time, but not something that is going to be insanely life altering. Most successful pre-meds are busy doing school work, research, volunteering anyways, but now you just spend more time studying as a med student vs. doing other activities. Granted, I'm an MS-1 and have no idea how the clerkships are going to be, but thus far- I think it's awesome!! 👍👍 And, anatomy lab is also very interesting and you really learn a lot. 🙂🙂
 
smq123 said:
...

But everyone's so afraid that they'll discourage you from medicine, and unduly influence your decision, that they kind of hedge when they answer your questions about careers and things like that. "Don't worry...it's not that bad...everything will be fine!" seems to be everyone's favorite catch phrase.

...

And no, I didn't go to medical school to "find a doctor to marry," so stop asking.

...
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Regarding the first quote:
Ever get the feeling that doctors that hate medicine just tell you they like it anyway? Maybe they're too proud to admit they made a wrong choice, or think you'll tune them out if they say they hate medicine, or just can't bear to admit to themselves that they hate it.

Regarding the second quote:
Talk about doing something the hard way!
 
Type-A students. No, not everything you read is important.

expensive last minute airfares due to scheduling uncertainty in clinical years.

brown-nosers, ppl will eventually notice who u r.

none-med school friends/significant others sometimes not understand that u really need to study.

Oh forgot, pre-rounding at 5am (waking up every patient and writing a soap note) before 7am surgery.
 
Ashers said:
Same here. Some people stayed the same, whether nice or gunners, but I just got off surgery with a student who used to be nice and was totally gunning for surgery. I want to do something surgical too, but I wasn't doing stuff to make her look bad. I relied on doing my work and doing it well, ignoring what the student was trying to do, and at least my residents told me I was doing well.
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His passion got ahold of him....And will stop at nothing to achieve his goal.....
 
You're expected to grasp the concepts, it's a given. So the testing just assumes you know all the minutia of the concepts and skips right past that going for the extreme detail that you barely had a chance to study b/c you spent all your time trying to nail-down the concepts.

Noting new, not going to change, doesn't mean it doesn't bug the crap out of me...
 
Depakote said:
You're expected to grasp the concepts, it's a given. So the testing just assumes you know all the minutia of the concepts and skips right past that going for the extreme detail that you barely had a chance to study b/c you spent all your time trying to nail-down the concepts.

Noting new, not going to change, doesn't mean it doesn't bug the crap out of me...
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That's my life in a cracked nutshell.
 
how much sleep do most of you guys get on average during first 2 yrs?
i got around 6-8 on weekdays, weekends i slept in and got maybe 9-10hrs, days before exams i usually got 6 hrs
 
I averaged around 6-7 most days during the first two years. Not so much in third year. Believe it or not, I am actually sleeping the most in surgery (only because I am going home and collapsing after my shift. I have passed the point of caring about honors in this course and just want it over and done with- good teams, well most of them anyway😳)
 
TheProwler said:
When I saw you had posted in this thread, I would've bet money that you were going to say the worst thing about med school is TBL.
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I'm an ultrasound tech! jeebus, lady.
 
Worst part of med school=SPAL's Standardized Patient Assessment Lab. The assessment isn't that bad, but it sucks scribbling down every single detail in a timed situation while your hand cramps like mad. They have use write down things that a real physician wouldn't care to document.😴
 
I despise exam days that begin at 8am, have barely 30min for lunch, and end at 5pm (usually a few minutes past). Makes the old MCAT exam day (pre-computer) look like a walk in the park.
 
actually, the worst part of med school; not getting in.
 
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