Will Medical School Make Me Miserable?

Part II of ongoing series: Should I Become A Doctor?

Great question from a potential medical student:

"I got accepted to med school for 2011, but I am scared to commit to this decision. Will medical school suck all life out of me, leaving me passionless, tired and with no ambitions?"

For this question Doctor D called in a consult! Doctor D recruited a real live medical student! Ella the Med Student is a brilliant blogger and a winner of the coveted Big D Award!

Ella's Advice:

Medical school is difficult. It takes tons of time. It's stressful. It is a huge commitment. It's competitive. It is also a million other wonderful things.

Everyone in medical school has essentially the same experience, the same course load, the same time schedule, etc. Yet, you will hear very different opinion from students about their medical school experience... ranging from "it was the worst time in my life" to "this is so much fun!"

The MAJOR factor that contributes to the differences in student's experiences in medical school is why they are there.

"Why am I here?"

Let me describe a pattern I have noticed among medical student. I think there are three main groups of student attitudes about medical school. I'll describe them here...

Ella’s Taxonomy of Medical Students:

The Good

The happiest students are those who are enjoying the journey. They actually love medicine, love the material they are studying, love the lifestyle of continued learning and a high-paced academic environment. Of course, many have other interests and families, but to them medical school is not an obstacle in the way of those things. Med school is an awesome part of their life.

"I'm happier than a pig in mud! Medical school is Awesome!"

Personally, I love reading my huge Robbins pathology book with a cup of coffee in the early morning. I love going to lecture and participating in clinical problem solving. I feel a rush every time I am in the hospital, I talk to my patients for too long, and my brain is always coming up with ideas for projects and research. I look forward to residency and my future career, but I am in no way miserable in school. I absolutely could NOT imagine being anything other than a physician... it took me so much work to get here that I am actually in bliss all the time. I know this sounds weird... but I know a lot of other people like this. If you ask them about medical school, they will describe it just like I have.

The (sort of) Bad

The second group of people are those that like medicine just fine, and it came to it as a reasonable choice. They worked hard in undergrad, and are all around strong academic students. To them, medicine is more of "a good field to be in" but not "the most amazing and only possible career on the planet." They could have been attorneys or engineers or business entrepreneurs or stock brokers and would have been just as happy. They do well academically, but are a bit blase about medicine... often eager to get home, eager to skip extra discussion about a disease or patient, and tend to be a bit frustrated with the rigmarole that comes with medicine. This doesn't make them less of a physician, but they do not enjoy the ride of med school as much as the first group. They are "putting up" with med school... and looking forward to getting out so they can have a family, a paycheck and a steady schedule.

The Ugly

The third group are the Miserablites. They hate medical school. They are barely hanging on by a thread academically, and they are socially and academically absent. They are caught up in the idea that that are in the wrong spot. They've realized that medicine is a lifestyle that doesn't end after medical school... and they expect that stress and academic/hospital nonsense will be a theme in their lives forever.

Some miserablites ended up in medical school because of outside influences. They felt pressured to do something "worthwhile.” Their heart wasn't in it... but they either didn't have another readily identifiable passion, or they felt their other passion didn't hold enough weight.

Other miserablites came to medical school for the money or lifestyle, and quickly figured out that those reasons are not sufficient to motivate you through the insanity of medical school. And they also figured out too late that being a doctor usually doesn't make you rich. 90% of doctors are not free of financial obligations. Student loans, malpractice insurance, etc. make the life less than glamorous.

The miserablites are those who, as you say regard medical school as "sucking all life out of me, leaving me absolutely passionless, tired and with no ambitions." I can tell you I have NEVER even one day felt this way about medical school.

Search Your Soul!

So, you have a lot of thinking to do. I would really consider what this commitment means, and how it will effect your goals. You have already identified some gut feelings about whether this career is a good match for you. I really think you owe yourself, your wallet, your future family, your happiness and your overall sanity some real hard soul-searching.

If you decide not to go into medicine, there is NO SHAME in that!

There are a million other things you can do which are just as rewarding. And if you do choose medicine as a career, choose it because it is best for you. It is indeed a wonderful life, but only if it is the life you really want.

Good luck!

What do you think? Doctor D always loves hearing your thoughts in the comments.

Patients: Would you care if your doctor enjoyed learning medicine?

Medical Students: Where do you fit in Ella's Taxonomy? Any of your Miserablites want to explain themselves?

Go on over to Ella's blog and admire how awesome she is!

Do Chicks Dig Doctors?

Do women find you more attractive because you have an MD?

(Hard to tell, since all women swoon in the presence of Doctor D's masculine charisma even when he isn't wearing a white coat.)

Actually though, if you go into medicine because you are looking for a sexy and glamorous life you'll likely be disappointed...

Everybody reads House Of God or watches TV medical dramas and assumes that medical folks do nothing but save lives, kick ass, and fornicate like rockstars.

Millions of bright young people sign up for medical school every year certain the opposite sex will find them irresistible with MD behind their names.

"Irresistible? You know I am! ...and I totally just banged these hot nurses."

What they find instead is exhausting, banal work that destroys personal time, and patients too sick and coworkers too beleaguered to even consider romance.

But to answer the question:

"Yes, there are women who might find a man with an MD more attractive, but it is not as cool as you might imagine."

(Sorry Dr. D can only answer from the male perspective. Perhaps a woman can tell the story of the female MD's love life in the comments?)

The Social Life

If you go around in your private life saying "Hey, nice to meet you. I'm a doctor!" the ladies will think you are trying too hard. And trying too hard is not cool.

And once people realize you are a doctor they still really won't care. Generations ago being a doctor may have meant something. Perhaps back in the day when a physician entered the room everyone was struck with reverent awe, but these days nobody really cares. Being a doctor means you might be intelligent, but you're also overworked and up to the eyeballs in student loan debt. Not so sexy!

Seducing the Silly Ones

The only place where being a doctor means much is in hospitals and clinics. In the medical environment the MD means something, and there's nothing women find more attractive than a guy who is in charge. But think about it: are intelligent, interesting women in the hospital going to be lead astray by silly teenie-bopper fantasies in which the a doctor replaces the handsome prince? Nope, only the ditsy or creepy chicks!

I don't know about you, but Doctor D isn't into silly women.

So it is a rare occurrence when a woman that you would actually be interested in is attracted to you because you are a doc. But it does happen...

The Femme Fatale:

There was once a beautiful and intelligent patient who had visited Doctor D several times. Then one day she came to D's office with a hurt knee. Doctor D was dutifully examining the knee when he couldn't help but notice that not only was this attractive patient wearing a short skirt, but she also was lacking underwear!

Now in other situations obvious signals that a beautiful person has the hots for me is at least flattering, but not at work.

Doctor D stood up, said "Excuse me," and walked out. He brought a nurse in to chaperone, and for the rest of the exam kept his eyes nowhere but the knee. The patient never returned.

Sorry to disappoint you, beautiful ladies, but at work Doctor D keeps it strictly professional!

Keeping It Professional

Apparently in years past there was a more lax attitude toward frisky behavior in the hospital. Older nurses tell stories about the 70's in which the entire hospital seems to have been one big orgy with doctors, nurses, and patients going at it like bunny rabbits. (It's hard to tell if these reports are true or just the sentimental musings of soon-to-be-senile baby boomers.)

"McDreamy, I'm just too busy with romantic entanglements to see patients right now."

Despite what you may presume from watching Grey's Anatomy such funny business is no longer tolerated in hospitals. With political correctness, sexual harassment, and lawyers circling like sharks there isn't any room for behavior that isn't totally professional.

The doctors and nurses of today may be more laid back than those of the generation before us, but when it comes to mixing business and pleasure we are downright puritanical.

So, attention to all lusty young premeds:

Becoming a doctor will not get you laid! And if it does get you laid, you might ruin your career and lose your medical license in the process.

If you want to live like a rockstar, you should probably join a band.

But don't lose hope. You can still have an exciting love life. It's just that the MD won't help.

D met the stunningly beautiful future Lady D when he was in medical school. First thing she said when she found out what he did, "Ugh, I hate doctors!"

D responded, "Really? Me too! Too bad I'm about to be one of them."

I won her despite the MD. How you like them apples!

Feel free to tell your stories and opinions in the comments.

Doctor D can't wait to hear the heart-wrenching drama of your experiences in the odd world of medical romance!

The Big D Awards! (Friday Links)

So last post Doctor D examined the ways The Man is always trying to hold us decent bloggers down. With all the great blogs by medical students and nurses they got no love from The Man over at Medgadget.

With all the thankless hard work med students and nurses do the least we could do is recognize their blogs! So Doctor D decided to stick it to The Man, and declare his own Medblog Awards!

So one lucky Nurse Blogger and Med Student Blogger shall be declared "the most awesomest medblog in existence" and receive the coveted Big D Award:

The Big D Award

The nominees for The Big D in NurseBlogging:

• Call Bells Make Me Nervous
  
• New Nurse Insanity, Fundus Chop!
  
• Life In The ER
• Nurse Me
  
• At Your Cervix
  
• Those Emergency Blues
  
• Weird Nursing Tales
  

The nominees for The Big D in Med Student Blogging:

• Journey To MD
  
• Indifferential Diagnosis
  
• Asystole Is The Most Stable Rhythm
  
• Old MD Girl
• Doc 2 Be
  
• The Life & Times of J. O. Morris
• Med Student 101
• Medically Mind Numbing
• The Dragonfly Initiative

Enjoy discovering the odd worlds of nursing and medical school! Bloggers, rally your readers and send them to vote you to victory!

The winner in each category gets the honor of a Big D Award and a free Supratentorial Mug direct from Doctor D.

Doctor D nominated the good nurse and med student blogs he knows, but the blogsphere is a big place there are probably other frickin' awesome nurse and med student bloggers out there. Nominate your favorite nurse or med student blog that Doctor D missed in the nominees. Shameless self-promotion is allowed! (as long as it isn't spam)

D's favorite new blog will get a link, and the reader who nominated it will also get a Supratentorial Mug!

The winners will be announced next Friday. Have Fun!

It Was Fun While It Lasted

Today is a sad day here at AskAnMD.

Doctor D was really excited about this new blog getting nominated for "Best Medical Weblog of 2009." Doctor D was doing his victory dance and playing "Eye of the Tiger" so loud the neighbors complained because he was totally gonna win that sucka.

Alas The Man over at Medgadget didn't think Doctor D's blog should be in the finals, thus all the AskAnMD fans that couldn't wait to vote it to victory were disenfranchised. Doctor D suspects The Man is dabbling in politics again since a lot of the finalist blogs in this category look like they were written by corporations or medical schools and are about as interesting as watching paint dry.

But never fear! The Man didn't totally succeed in exterminating personality in medblogging. Our dear friend Doctor Rob from Distractable Mind slipped into the finals!

So mosey on over there and vote for Dr. Rob early and often!

Is Doctor D encouraging you to vote more than once? Naw, you must have misunderstood that.

While you are over there be sure to support the beautiful work being done by WordDoc at Medical Moments in 55 Words for Best Literary Medical Weblog.

The real competition this year comes in Best Patient's Blog. Three of Doctor D's total favorites made the list: Queen of Optimism, ∞ itis, and RheumaBlog. Doctor D is so torn, because all those blogs are excellent! I might just have to vote for all of them.

Would Doctor D vote more than once? Of course not! You guys are totally misunderstanding me.

Have fun voting!

By the way, did you notice that Medgadged totally ignored medblogging nurses? WTF? Why is The Man always trying to hold the RNs down? Medical students too!

That's it! Doctor D has to set this right:

Tune in to this week's Friday Links to Vote for Doctor D's totally unofficial NurseBlog of the Year and MedStudentBlog of the Year awards!

Feel free to say sweet and comforting things in the comments to console Doctor D in his time of sorrow. Or you can just tell him to get over it and be a man, because its just some stupid contest and he isn't 8 years old!