what scares you most about medical school?

[josehernandez94]

Well, first, answer the poll above.... second, what aspect of medical school or the profession in general scares you most?

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[freesolo]

doing powerpoint presentations in front of a bunch of MDs.

 

[rgporter]

Bunnies with nasty pointy teeth.

 

[SarahGM]

I am scared of not having free time or enough sleep!

 

[gschl1234]

I am scared about literally failing a class. I am scared I won't be able to make it through anatomy. I am scared that I may not be good enough at memorizing things. I am scared that I will regret the enormous financial and emotional scarifices of this career path but I hope it never comes to that.

 

[medman12677]

Getting pimped by beautiful women like roja and ::seabass::

 

[Apparition]

I'm scared of realizing that medicine is not for me after all and being 100K in debt already.

 

[uclakid]

I pretty much have the same fears as gschl1234.

It's OK, we all have fears, so we're in this together! Help out your fellow classmates...

 

[darkcity998]

I'm actually excited, maybe because I'm a little older and I've planned a couple of vacation before this August.

 

[::Seabass::]

Originally posted by medman12677
Getting pimped by beautiful women like roja and ::seabass::

I know I didn't just read this.........

 

[Blade28]

When entering med school, the thing that scared me the most was the difficulty (and sheer volume) of the material. I was just afraid of not doing well in school for the first couple years. Strangely enough, the clinical stuff didn't faze me as much.

 

[Auricae]

Originally posted by SarahGM
I am scared of not having free time or enough sleep!

ditto

 

[lisa13579]

I'm scared that seeing all of the bad things that can happen to people will make me depressed and more of a hypochondriac. And I'm scared of the first time I have to stick or cut a real patient.

 

[Trismegistus4]

I'm scared that I won't get in in the first place.

 

[Sharkfan]

I am scared of the moment when I have to make the first cut on an untouched cadaver. It just seems violating somehow... especially when I think that this is somebody's grandmother or grandfather I am going to mutilate.

 

[LJoo83]

Originally posted by lisa13579
. And I'm scared of the first time I have to stick or cut a real patient.

i'm not in med school but i work as a phlebotomist. i remember my first time ever sticking a patient....fortunately they were knocked out cold from meds so i didn't feel too bad when i missed.

i've been doing my job for a little over 2 months and many times patients comment that i'm a) don't hurt or b)the best they've ever had. but there are difficult days when i miss the easiest veins and i want to walk away crying because i never want to intentionally cause the patient anymore pain then they already are in.

 

[lisa13579]

Originally posted by LJoo83
but there are difficult days when i miss the easiest veins and i want to walk away crying because i never want to intentionally cause the patient anymore pain then they already are in.

This would be me. I'd like to add that I'm scared I will be a wimp and cry over things like this.

 

[bewitched1081]

other med students practicing iv sticks on me...aughhhhh!

 

[jlee9531]

worrying about my family.

but still excited to start med.

 

[Rendar5]

Originally posted by medman12677
Getting pimped by beautiful women like roja and ::seabass::

roja's really nice (I got to shadow her 2-3 times volunteering), I honestly can't see her pimping people in any manner to make them feel dumb.

 

[Swiper]

I'm scared that my kids won't remember who I am during the first two years.

 

[good_faith]

While everyone in my family sleep, I am still try to memorize those enzymes and pathways...
I hate nonsense detail

 

[fullefect1]

Not having enough time to score with some hot blondies.

 

[ify]

Top 3 fears

I'm scared of picking up someone's disease. I've read posts ( not pre-allopathic) where people get hep C blood spilled on their faces.
I'm scared that my patients may harm me (if I go into psychiatry)
I'm scared that I may not be able to spend enough time with my kids(when I have them).

 

[Spitting Camel]

Excited, but scared that:


1) Will not be "good enough" or will be in a class where everyone is just miles ahead of me.

2) My plans to have a family will be pushed back too far.

 

[G_Eagle]

I'm worried that I'll spend 10 hours a day "studying" with most of that time spent falling asleep on a textbook in the library.

I'm worried that I'll be outmatched and outclassed by my peers to be the bottom of my class.

I'm worried that I won't be able to convert head knowledge to real knowledge when it becomes time to treat patients.

I'm worried that I won't think for myself and will try to follow preset protocols and formulas to treat patients, rathering than tailoring the treatment to the person, not the disease.

I'm worried that I'll forget that the patient comes first before all else, and I'll not give them the respect they deserve.




BUT ALL THESE ARE VAPOR....I'm going to push myself too hard and lean on my foundations too much to let these fears become reality. Even if one does happen, I'll shake it off and press forward.


YET THE FEARS REMAIN...

 

[Gleevec]

Being unable to stop the pain/death of a patient.

 

[Optimist]

Originally posted by Abraham
doing powerpoint presentations in front of a bunch of MDs.

Indeed, this sounds like the worst thing I can think of. The real problem is that no amount of hard work really makes it easy to do.

 

[Spitting Camel]

I changed my mind... what scares me the most is knowing that I could be going to school with some of you next year!

 

[beatleschick]

I'm scared that I'll grow apart from or lose touch with all of my friends & family with all the craziness of med school

 

[MDmiracle]

with a wife and three kids, having enough money to make ends meet... so that i can concentrate on school.

My number 1 fear is not being good enough at all of the acedemics to warrant me taking a spot away from someone else.

 

[Spidey]

Anatomy scares me. Blood and guts and such have never bothered me at all, but I don't like the idea of touching a dead person, let alone mutilating and dehumanizing one. the idea of cutting into a living person to fix something doesn't bother me in the slightest, but cutting into a cadaver is going to be very hard for me.

 

[sandg]

Besides everything else that was mentioned, does anyone worry about social life in medical school? That you'll end up in a brand new place and not make many friends among your classmates and/or others? Do med students end up forming the lifetime friendshis that develop in undergrad?

 

[Tiki]

I'm scared of the surgery rotation. Not because blood and guts bother me, because they don't. I'm just worried about mean surgeons yelling at me.

 

[LauraMac]

i originally answered no to this question, but after reading what you guys have said, i think there are a few things that kind of worry me.

not having a social life, which would make me super depressed and make it hard to have motivation for anything

not having time to see the kids i will have someday cause i'll be too busy studying or working at that point

not being able to convert head knowledge to real world knowledge

picking up a disease from a patient


overall i'm super excited, though! but since i haven't even applied yet, i don't want to count my chickens before they hatch or whatever that saying is.

 

[trauma_junky]

Dealing with all the number people the Adcoms let in instead of the people that would make good MD's. At least that is my friends biggest issue with medschool.

 

[meanderson]

Performing the technical aspects of medical school. Mainly the more involved stuff third and fourth year(the few LP's, central lines, etc that med students do) but also all the way down to things like blood draws in the intro classes 1st and 2nd year. I've never worked as a tech or plebotomist(sp?) before so I don't know what to expect.....and sometimes it takes me a little while longer than others to pick up mechanical/technical tasks. Like how am I going to know I'm in a vein? I guess that sounds silly to someone who has experience.

I'm not at all worried about the academic rigors of medical school, or eventually becoming a fine internist/radiologist/pathologist/whatever. I'm plenty confident I'll work hard enough to overcome any shortcomings. I'm just afraid I'll be the guy every nurse is pissed off at 3 weeks into my medicine rotation because I'm not catching onto the technical procedures as quickly.

 

[quideam]

My boyfriend is an MS-2, and he's one of the smartest people I know, and he is constantly stressed out. I'm worried that i'm going to spend the next two years of my life just like him: stressed, lacking sleep, not eating enough, and constantly worried about my schoolwork....

Hopefully, though, he'll be there to remind me that "It will all be worth it in the end" like I remind him.... hopefully!!

- Quid

 

[Squat n Squeeze]

Popping a stiffy during anatomy lab while I'm dissecting the sigmoid colon and anus. Everyone in my lab group will think that I'm weird.

 

[Solace]

Some of the above fears have already materialized with me. The scariest and most embarassing was when I was attending morning report during my IM rotation and my senior resident unexpectantly caught me by surprise and told me to present my patient to the room full of white coats ! The chief was a Pimpologist and I felt like a $2 dollar H* after he was finished with me. I was not prepared and I looked really bad in the room full of MDs. After morning report, my fellow 3rd year partner on the rotation came up to me and said "well, at least you have experienced the worst possible thing you can experience on a rotation besides killing a patient. It can't get any worse than this."


Did I say it was easily the most embarassing situation of my life?