I loved med school. My entire life before med school (high school, college) peers looked down on you for studying, for doing well (you curvebreaker!) Once all those future plaintiff’s attorney’s were weeded out, it was OK to study hard and learn. I had 150 instant lifelong friends. Plus I met my wife in my class.

I enjoyed the first 2 years of medical school. It was like a continuation of college, only harder. I didn’t like the clinical years that much. I hated the regimented schedule and being at other peoples’ (residents, attendings) beck and call. Now that I am an attending, I have a lot more control of my time. Time is a valuable thing.

I was recently berated by a social worker for “splitting the team”. She said she’s not going to be put in the lurch by any student when they decide to change the discharge plan. And finally, the coup de grace was when she grated, “he’s too independent”. All this to my attending psychiatrist.

It just so happened that her accusations were patently untrue. In fact, I had explicitly said to the home director that I hesitate to make a decision without the team’s input. Fortunately my attenting knew about this problem social worker, and even predicted how she would respond, “she didn’t listen to your self-defense and walked out of the room while you were talking, right?”

Its these kinds of issues that cause unrest among medical students. I’ve never seen nursing students, or PA students, or dance therapy students, or social work students, or anybody else treated in this manner before. In fact, I hardly ever see any other kind of student on the wards, taking an active role in management, or taking abuse publicly from EVERYBODY including the clerk. Especially the clerk.

The people I work with have no idea how much I pay (~$100/day) for the priveledge of being subject to their professional misconduct. What kind of training is this? If I was to understand that this is on purpose, to what end? I suppose it is to make me compliant, to force me to listen to them. Well, I’ve got another suggestion. If you want me to listen to you, say something useful or interesting.

I guess its part of preparing to be at the head of the treatment team that you first have to be abused by the rest of the team as a powerless MS, so that when I get to the top, I remember my days of bondage and do not subject other people to the same treatment.

As a 4th year medical student, I’ve been around the block, literally in every department, and so I take an active role in protecting my less-experienced wide-eyed colleagues the third-years as well as myself.

Sometimes I want to jettison the whole mass of incompetent, lazy, union, highly-paid bunch of not talent fools that comprise much of my experience with the “allied” health professions, and strike it out on my own. Wait a minute, that’s exactly what most out-patient psychiatrists do! Sweet!

I have no clue why medicine, the study and practice of the healing arts, attracts so many sociopaths, cynics, miserable middle-aged slobs, pointless hangers-on and outright morons. Does it make me depressed? Hell yes! Does it make me reconsider my career when I have to make people do the job they’re paid for? Uh-huh. Does it frustrate me and make me pull out my hair when I have to sit through morning nurse report, medical rounds, treatment planning conference, a computer class to get certified in yet another specialized overpriced EMR, talk to the nurse, social worker, psychology intern, night covering intern, case manager, pharmacist, “administrator” whatever the hell that is, before I can talk to the patient? On and on and on it goes! Where are america’s health care dollars going? That’s where. It’s worse than Kafka’s worst nightmare. It breaks my heart.

“Constantly berated for not knowing everything about everything, I lost all sensitivity and compassion.”

Wait till you get sued! You think med school was bad! Wait till you have to sit in a courtroom and have some mental midget spend 2 weeks telling everyone what a mental midget you are, all because you happened to be signing charts the day some poor schmuck came in and had a bad outcome. Med school was a breeze compared to the f-ed up CYA health care system we have to deal with every day.

I thought medical school was a long and mixed experience. Depressing? Sometimes. You are hosed down with information and constantly reminded that you didn’t learn enough. You are living less well compared to some of your non-medical college friends, and yet working hard and for long hours, and possibly digging a debt hole for yourself at the same time. Your work isn’t earning you any income. Yes, medical students don’t get much respect. I don’t know what the answer to that is except to try not to take it personally. You have to remember that you are on an upward trajectory in your profession and many of the ancillary workers you encounter, and even quite a few of the physicians also are not on a similarly upward trajectory. So there can be resentment that occasionally spills over into meanness. Your best defense is not to take it personally and to be grateful for those who are pleasant. Unfortunately some people hate their jobs and their work; learn to avoid that trap.

I do think some things need changing. I think medical schools and teaching hospitals should be made to compensate medical students for “service work” that is not directly related to teaching. It is morally unjust to extract work from students that would be done by paid non-physician employees at a non-”teaching” hospital. These practices are common and frequently are rationalized as somehow “necessary” for the completeness of the student’s training. That is merely a convenient self-justification that fails to convince.

It sounds very similar to my Executive MBA program. We had to keep up our day jobs (50+ hours a week) and attend class and do assignments, topping out at around 80 hours a week. You had to have three minds — one for work, one for school and one for home. Plus most of the students were in their 30s and thus had family commitments. I found most of my classmates were depressed and anxious. Most of us went in thinking the EMBA would provide greater focus, but came out completely unfocused.

This is sad to me. I have read through several blogs and other sources of info about life during residency. I have made a choice to not become a doctor because of what I’ve heard about residency. I am 32 years old and was very close to signing up for a post-bac program. No the age thing is not even a small issue. I have asked myself a lot of questions and have talked to a lot of people and have felt like my intentions are good. I think I would actually be a good doctor as well. But I don’t see how any right-minded person would choose this path. From what I’ve gathered, a majority of people say that they regret their decision to go into the medical profession because of residency and it’s aim to break people.