Your personal physician

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fourthwatch96822

Has any of you told your family doctor/internist that you were applyiing to medical school? If you did, does he/she bring the topic up at all? Just curious.
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All of my doctors know I am applying to medical school. They have all been incredibly supportive and are always asking me about it. Most of them have let me shadow them on multiple occasions and two of them wrote me letters of rec. They are some great people that I have known for between 5 and 13 years.

I sound like a hypochondriac. I just have a lot of doctors. Unfortunately.
 
I remember that my doctor was really supportive also. She would always ask about my progress in school. She even knew someone on Columbia's adcom and would ask the person for advice about my course of study. Too bad I did not keep in touch with her.
 
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It is nice that the two of you had supportive physicians...My doctor did not remember, at least I think.

Several years ago, my physician had asked me what I wanted to do for a career. I mentioned that I was interested in medicine and had finished my pre-med requirements. He also knew that I worked in a psych hospital. This was all he said, "it looks like you want to be a psychiatrist." After that he never talked to me about medicine again.

But, if he has patients that are surfers. He sure brings that up with them. (I know this because I can hear the conversations while waiting to see him).

What do you people think about this whole thing? I appreciate your thoughts?

peace
 
I told mine.. he's an endocrinologist at the USC SOM so he was quite ecstatic and supportive. I see him in the Norris every once in a while and he always asks how it's going.

Andrew
 
My GP's reaction, and in fact almost all physicians I have spoken with, told me that I'm crazy for going into medicine.
 
4th watch, maybe your doc is jaded and disillusioned with the medical field. Many older docs that I've talked to, say stuff like they wish they'd never become a doctor with the way things are now, why would you want to become a doctor these days, etc. So I wouldn't take it personally.
 
That's true. I cant tell you how many doctors have told me the same thing. That makes me so mad when they want to be discouraging like that. There are a number of doctors who are disillusioned like that and you cant pay any attention to them.
 
Originally posted by serpiente:
•4th watch, maybe your doc is jaded and disillusioned with the medical field. Many older docs that I've talked to, say stuff like they wish they'd never become a doctor with the way things are now, why would you want to become a doctor these days, etc. So I wouldn't take it personally.•••

Thank you very much your response. I think you really have a point.

peace
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Originally posted by reesie0726:
•That's true. I cant tell you how many doctors have told me the same thing. That makes me so mad when they want to be discouraging like that. There are a number of doctors who are disillusioned like that and you cant pay any attention to them.•••

Thank you for your response too. I think you guys are really on to something.
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I actually almost never go to the doctor's. :) (I know I should get checkups, but I don't)

My wife did tell our family doc after I got accepted and she just said that we were in for an "adventure".
 
You know I never told my doctor that I am a med student. For my med school physical, I went to someone else.
 
I'm pretty used to having docs warn me about getting into medicine these days. But what was really interesting was when an interviewer spent the entire one hour interview block telling me about how now was a horrible time to go into medicine. He didn't ask me a single question(although I defended my desire to go into medicine several times), he just ranted the entire hour about how he was disenchanted by his job
 
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What school was that, Wahoo?
 
I want to defend the disillusioned doctors. It is unreasonable to be mad at someone for being honest with you. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to ask the doctors who are disenchanted with their job why they went into medicine in the first place? Have their expectations been met? Now compare their reasons and expectations from medicine with yours. If they are similar then you may want to advice yourself. Obviously, not everybody has the right reasons for pursuing medicine. It takes a lot of soul searching to find out what you really want. After you find that out you have to see whether your expectations are realistic. You also need to figure out what sacrifices you have to make to realize your dream... All this self-assessment would infact make you a stronger applicant
 
My physician told me this one day, "I pursued medicine because I wasn't good enough for physics and even if I was the job prospects are bad. So, I decided that I will go to professional school."
He quit his grad program and decided to apply two years later and got in.

But, it is hard to say if he really is disillusioned. He may like medicine. When he left physics, he has always wanted to combine medicine and computers together. This is what he is doing now with a medical program called "logician." Patients can request refills online, ask him questions online, request for blood tests, etc.
 
I told both my GP and my Ob/Gyn and they both are very supportive and try to give me advice. So there is hope!!!
 
Originally posted by katiep:
•What school was that, Wahoo?•••

That was at Stanford. It was definitely my weirdest interview experience. All the other applicants that were with me that day had antagonistic interviewers, but at least they got antagonistic questions rather than just an antagonistic rant. But I can't complain tooo much, because they accepted me :)
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my doctor knows and he talks about it sometimes.

I've never asked to shadow him or anything. I kindof think it may be a bit strange.... i don't know. I do plans on, sometime, asking him about like his specialty and such. But he talks about it when I see him, and if we had a question, i'm sure he'd answer.

AHH! lookit the graemlins! cool. :D
 
I haven't told my physician. He knows that I have a master's in biology, because he asked about my background. But, I have not told him about my plans. When I am at his office, I am suffering with a bad cold or some kind of ailment. So, I am too physically uncomfortable/in pain to talk shop with him.
 
When I told my family doc about me wanting to go to med school, he pulled up a chair and asked me a ton of questions. I felt like I was in an interview! Then, he gave me tips and pointers for applying, maintaining a solid GPA (which I already have) as well as advice for preparing for the MCAT...pretty cool dude in my opinion!

Peace
 
I told my doc and she was very excited--and, as she used to be on the adcom for UVA, she started asking me about my stats, experience, and so on. She was very supportive and encouraging.

This is a woman who loves her job. She and her best friend opened a practice together and they both work part-time, on alternate days. (They both have little, little babies. There are 3 one-month olds between the two of them and they have other kids under the age of 4.) She is one of those people who does it all, does it all well, and really feels that everyone else can do it, too.

My husband's uncle, on the other hand, shrieks every time he is reminded that I am going to med school. He says the profession has gone down the tubes--he appears to be upset about the fact that he can't charge as much as he used to. But I think that he, and many other jaded doctors, don't realize that those of us who are going into medicine nowadays are not doing it to make ludicrous amounts of money. (I read this whiny article in New York Magazine in which a doctor was lamenting, "Our patients no longer want us to drive Mercedes--they'd rather see us in Acuras." I happen to think that an Acura is a nice car...)

;)

mma
 
I loved my personal doctor. She was the nicest doctor I have ever had - I remember the first time I saw her in winter 1999, she spent an hour with me. Now I know she was taking a history, but then I was impressed (I am on an HMO, so she is technically only supposed to spend 20 minutes with me). She always remembered me and her nurses always remembered my name and what I did for a living. Interestingly, she had also done the Harvard post-bacc program (which I am in right now) and finished her IM residency in the late 1990s.

I had an appointment in November with her. I was pretty stressed: hmm, let's see what was going on...My first major car accident was in the beginning of the month, where my two driver's side doors were torn off but I was somehow uninjured. My grandfather died and I was faced with seeing my father for the first time in 14 years. I moved from one apartment to another, which is a stressful event in itself. I was taking these classes, commuting an hour each way, and keeping up with work.

When she came in the door, she asked how I was. And I told her how I was - stressed - and I made my little list of all the things I was stressed about. She turned to me and said, "If you can't handle one month of bad luck, then you should really reconsider med school. You'll be wasting your time because you'll get kicked out. You can't complain as a doctor." Blah blah blah. She spoke from her personal experience and said I should take next semester off and think about whether I'm really suited to medicine, etc etc. She compared me to some other patient of hers that day, who was a woman with three kids under 5. This woman had asked for sleeping pills. I must point out that I was NOT asking for medication - just answering her question (and maybe hoping for a little sympathy :) ). The medical reason for the visit was totally unrelated (yearly gyno exam). I just sat there shocked.

I haven't gone back since, because I feel it was an overreaction on her part (hey, I wound up doing fine and got straight As). I had an exam that night and I left her office feeling so low and stupid and awful. Part of me wants to go back and tell her how great I am doing now (really, who wouldn't be stressed after all that?) but another part just wants to find a new doctor who might be a little supportive in my next two years before I apply.

Maybe she was almost kicked out of med school herself! Maybe she was trying to scare me or see how I would react. But in any case, she totally alienated me, and I don't even want to see her again because I don't want her "tsk, tsk" when I tell her I haven't given up.
 
fiammarosa,

I am sorry about your difficult month and hooray for you for going ahead and getting straight As anyway!

Your physician's rxn was way out-of-line. I think that, yes, it is often a good thing when physicians do tell you what they think of their profession, but I do not believe that it is ever appropriate for them to judge a personal contact's fitness as a future physician. That's just awful.

Boy, I sure hope we don't all become as jaded/fearful/bitter as all these doctors are...

mma
 
fiammerosa..maybe your physician was a little stressed and having a bad day herself. Maybe she was giving you advice that she wished someone had given her. Just a thought, but don't put too much stock in what someone who barely knows you thinks about you. You know what you're capable of. Just because she's a doc, doesn't make her all-knowing and it certainly doesn't make her an expert on you! Everybody is allowed to stress out once in awhile...car accidents are a great reason.
 
My doc has been great (she's an OB/GYN). I email her about my progress. When I told her I wanted to go into peds, she said, "I did too, but then I realized I couldn't deal with sick kids..."

My husband's new doc (a GP) went to the med school I'll probably be attending (South Ala.). My husband told him I was going there and he joked with him about my shopping at the Foley outlet mall (a HUGE outlet mall near Mobile) and he said, "yeah, it's down there, but she'll never see it."
 
Originally posted by fiammarosa:
•I loved my personal doctor. She was the nicest doctor I have ever had - I remember the first time I saw her in winter 1999, she spent an hour with me. Now I know she was taking a history, but then I was impressed (I am on an HMO, so she is technically only supposed to spend 20 minutes with me). She always remembered me and her nurses always remembered my name and what I did for a living. Interestingly, she had also done the Harvard post-bacc program (which I am in right now) and finished her IM residency in the late 1990s.

I had an appointment in November with her. I was pretty stressed: hmm, let's see what was going on...My first major car accident was in the beginning of the month, where my two driver's side doors were torn off but I was somehow uninjured. My grandfather died and I was faced with seeing my father for the first time in 14 years. I moved from one apartment to another, which is a stressful event in itself. I was taking these classes, commuting an hour each way, and keeping up with work.

When she came in the door, she asked how I was. And I told her how I was - stressed - and I made my little list of all the things I was stressed about. She turned to me and said, "If you can't handle one month of bad luck, then you should really reconsider med school. You'll be wasting your time because you'll get kicked out. You can't complain as a doctor." Blah blah blah. She spoke from her personal experience and said I should take next semester off and think about whether I'm really suited to medicine, etc etc. She compared me to some other patient of hers that day, who was a woman with three kids under 5. This woman had asked for sleeping pills. I must point out that I was NOT asking for medication - just answering her question (and maybe hoping for a little sympathy :) ). The medical reason for the visit was totally unrelated (yearly gyno exam). I just sat there shocked.

I haven't gone back since, because I feel it was an overreaction on her part (hey, I wound up doing fine and got straight As). I had an exam that night and I left her office feeling so low and stupid and awful. Part of me wants to go back and tell her how great I am doing now (really, who wouldn't be stressed after all that?) but another part just wants to find a new doctor who might be a little supportive in my next two years before I apply.

Maybe she was almost kicked out of med school herself! Maybe she was trying to scare me or see how I would react. But in any case, she totally alienated me, and I don't even want to see her again because I don't want her "tsk, tsk" when I tell her I haven't given up.•••

I am sorry that your grandfather died and sorry that you had such a bad experience with your doctor.

When I read your message, I was almost speechless. Anyone would be depressed by what you went through. You are human and need the time to grieve. If she can't understand that, she shouldn't be in any healthcare field at all. Apparently, she feels that doctors are not human and shouldn't be grieving. Her statement about your stress now and the stress in medical school is ridiculous.

Also, it is extremely unprofessional of her to be comparing you with another patient.

I would go and talk to her about your visit. You may want to tell her how she made you feel. It is really pathetic how she continues to practice medicine with her EGOCENTRIC ATTITUDE.
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fiamarrosa, I agree with lemarck. That doctor was way out of line and she really could work on her inter-personal skills a bit. You should tell her about herself so maybe she wont be so high handed with the next person.
 
I think the older physicians would know more about being a physician than a premed or medical student. I would value their opinions a great deal. I have gotten opinions from a physician of mine and a acquaintance of my fathers. He also told me not to do it. It's not a fun job anymore, he says. They are not trying to discourage us, but letting us in on reality.

Alicia
 
i'm with an HMO so my physician sees probably a ton of patients but i did tell him i was going to med school and when i asked him if he liked the profession, he wholeheartedly answered in the affirmative. which was comforting...
 
Originally posted by snowballz:
•I think the older physicians would know more about being a physician than a premed or medical student. I would value their opinions a great deal. I have gotten opinions from a physician of mine and a acquaintance of my fathers. He also told me not to do it. It's not a fun job anymore, he says. They are not trying to discourage us, but letting us in on reality.

Alicia•••

Her physician was being judgemental. She had no place to make statements like she did. Having the need to grieve, has nothing to do with what profession you are in, but being a human being.
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I do have an appointment with her in a month...I was going to cancel it and find another doctor, but I don't think I will. I will tell her that I wound up doing fine and I will be continuing school in spite of her advice. Then I'll find another doctor.

I hadn't thought about the ethical issue of comparing me to another patient...I might bring that up as well. I still can't get over that she compared me to a woman asking for sleeping pills!!

I'll let you know how she responds...

-Fiamma
 
I think it might be a good idea for you to let her know that people need to grieve in order to heal and that one's profession has nothing to do with any of this.

I would let her know that the normal grieving that you are going through would help you to be a compassionate physician and not a medical machine.
 
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