what would I like least about being a physician?

[nrddct]

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Got this question in one of my secondaries. Should it be truly negative such as dealing with phony patients who visit the ER just to get prescriptions or something like dealing with the beauracracy of HMOs?

 

[stherling]

These posts really make me wonder.... why does it seem so damn hard for pre-meds to just be frank?

 

[jbrice1639]

It should be what you'd like least about being a doctor.

 

[powerbooki]

stherling,

Agree with your comments. There are other factors (besides interest and 'want to help')that I am sure are factors for many's decisions to go into the field, factors that applicants are not being frank about (no choice): job security, high income possibility, respect, prestige ... Provided that many don't do a lot of things that are just around them and can thus help people immediately, why would these same people go through many years of hard work, debts, stress on family relations... and then coming back to help others? Two good questions that are very good to verify there are such motivations are:

'do you donate blood?' If one truly wants to help, and if there's no medical/religion reason, then EVERY person that says 'I want to help' really should be a donor. (I am one)
'what is the threshold of yearly income, below which you would not consider medicine?'

 

[drmota]

It should be what you'd like least about being a doctor.

-mota

 

[byeh2004]

dealing with malpractice scandals

 

[AxlxA]

What i like least is future pre-meds begging me to shadow and write a letter of rec.


jk

 

[Moto]

Got this question in one of my secondaries. Should it be truly negative such as dealing with phony patients who visit the ER just to get prescriptions or something like dealing with the beauracracy of HMOs?

R-E-S-I-D-E-N-C-Y & smelly people.

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

These posts really make me wonder.... why does it seem so damn hard for pre-meds to just be frank?

No kidding... I'm not talking about the OP here, but too many people need to be told how they feel about a particular subject. Just say what you actually think, because at the interview they're going to see through any BS you construct in a carefully calculated essay.

 

[dajimmers]

Paperwork. I don't want to do paperwork. They better electronify everything by the time I get to residency!

Edit: Scotty! I saw Scotty!

 

[WhatUpDoc!]

Sleepless nights 🙁

 

[obgyny]

telling people they are going to die or telling families their loved one has died.

 

[Flopotomist]

I gotta agree with the people that responded suggesting that you should just give an honest answer.

 

[ForbiddenComma]

manual disimpactations

 

[BooMed]

manual disimpactations

Oh my god. 😱

You know, your avatar really kind of goes with that post.

 

[stherling]

I gotta agree with the people that responded suggesting that you should just give an honest answer.

indeed (of course i agree, i was one of them!) .... and the other thing is, goddamn it if you can't think for yourself, i sure as hell don't want you as my doctor.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

Got this question in one of my secondaries. Should it be truly negative such as dealing with phony patients who visit the ER just to get prescriptions or something like dealing with the beauracracy of HMOs?

If you don't know what you'd dislike about being a doctor, you should probably get a little more experience before you commit to applying to med school. Just a thought.

 

[nrddct]

If you don't know what you'd dislike about being a doctor, you should probably get a little more experience before you commit to applying to med school. Just a thought.

I love all the personal attacks, keep them coming. Just to let ya'll know, I worked for three years as a patient care tech and did everything from giving bed baths to changing diapers to cleaning up ****! I like what I did and gained valuable hands on experience with patients. I think this would show more motivation than the above mentioned post about spending a few minutes to donate blood (which I have done). I think everyone would agree that applying to med school requires the applicant to jump through neverending hoops. I don't see how my question can be related to my movitation for medicine. Obviously the adcoms are looking for a specific type of answer. I think we all practice what we will say in our interviews and not just blabber the first thought that comes to our heads. Same goes with our personal and secondary essays. Do you not revise and reword your essays so that you as the applicant appear in the best possible light? Getting into med school is the biggest hurdle I have to get through and I think all premeds would agree with that. That being said, I don't want to write down a generic response (b/c I don't like dealing with HMO's) and have the adcoms glance at for 2 secs then trash it. Thanks again for the smart ass responses.

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

I love all the personal attacks, keep them coming. Just to let ya'll know, I worked for three years as a patient care tech and did everything from giving bed baths to changing diapers to cleaning up ****! I like what I did and gained valuable hands on experience with patients. I think this would show more motivation than the above mentioned post about spending a few minutes to donate blood (which I have done). I think everyone would agree that applying to med school requires the applicant to jump through neverending hoops. I don't see how my question can be related to my movitation for medicine. Obviously the adcoms are looking for a specific type of answer. I think we all practice what we will say in our interviews and not just blabber the first thought that comes to our heads. Same goes with our personal and secondary essays. Do you not revise and reword your essays so that you as the applicant appear in the best possible light? Getting into med school is the biggest hurdle I have to get through and I think all premeds would agree with that. That being said, I don't want to write down a generic response (b/c I don't like dealing with HMO's) and have the adcoms glance at for 2 secs then trash it. Thanks again for the smart ass responses.

Don't take the personal attacks personally. I know that sounds odd, but the callous responses were not too out of line - your first post made you sound as if you really dont know much about the profession. You've definitely cleared up that misunderstanding with your second post.
My thought on this topic is to give a very honest answer. Questions like these are intended to probe your knowledge of the field and discover your underlying motivations to enter medicine. There is no right answer to this question, or any question of this type. There is, however, a wrong answer, which is one you write to impress ADCOMs. Imagine the naive premed who knows little about the medical field answering this question with an answer along the lines of "I dont want to deal with those mean, nasty, overbearing HMOs that are destroying medicine" Should that particular premed be asked about HMOs in an interview and she can't explain much or anything about HMO function or alternatives to HMOs in financing medical care, that premed will leave with a bit of egg on her face as she's caught giving an answer highlighting an issue that she doesnt know anything about.
Just my two cents. Please feel free to chime in with your analysis of my answer.

 

[humuhumu]

My answer: spending less time with my family.

 

[stherling]

I love all the personal attacks, keep them coming. Just to let ya'll know, I worked for three years as a patient care tech and did everything from giving bed baths to changing diapers to cleaning up ****! I like what I did and gained valuable hands on experience with patients. I think this would show more motivation than the above mentioned post about spending a few minutes to donate blood (which I have done). I think everyone would agree that applying to med school requires the applicant to jump through neverending hoops. I don't see how my question can be related to my movitation for medicine. Obviously the adcoms are looking for a specific type of answer. I think we all practice what we will say in our interviews and not just blabber the first thought that comes to our heads. Same goes with our personal and secondary essays. Do you not revise and reword your essays so that you as the applicant appear in the best possible light? Getting into med school is the biggest hurdle I have to get through and I think all premeds would agree with that. That being said, I don't want to write down a generic response (b/c I don't like dealing with HMO's) and have the adcoms glance at for 2 secs then trash it. Thanks again for the smart ass responses.

I certainly can't speak for the rest of the 'smart asses' who posted, but here're my 2 cents. I agree with you, the adcoms are looking for a well thought out answer. What I don't agree with is that they're looking for a specific type of answer. I still think you should just be honest and talk about whatever it is that you personally would not like about being a physician. Honest and personal doesn't equal generic and unjustified. By all means, take the time to really analyze your response and make sure you can justify and substantiate it. just also make sure it's your own, that's all I'm saying.

 

[Darth Asclepius]

Paperwork. I don't want to do paperwork.

I used that as my answer on a secondary. I said I knew there were other things that would be difficult, but that I wanted to spend my time with patients, not doing paper work. I got an interview there.