I'm upset that 30 minutes of writing got erased. But basically, it's hard being a student because we're a liability. We don't have a license to practice medicine and we often go ignored by teaching faculty. We're inexperienced people who need experience.
We're just there a lot of the time and no one even acknowledges we're paying tens of thousands of dollars to watch attendings or residents chart on a computer.
Our status is sort of like a disenfranchised group, we can't get what we want or what we need because of our status. It would look awful in court if a complication arose and the lawyer said "Then why did you let a student do that? " So I understand that.
But why do we get left out of sim labs when the residents and fellows get to go? Costs, probably.
Anyway the state of medical education is terrifying and depressing at the same time. We need to push our students to be residents when they're early in training, not hand hold and not get frustrated that a learner isn't a god at procedure X.
I really want to take the reigns and reform medical education, but it's going to be a long haul with so many ccomplicating factors.
You aint lying. I've invested several hours into things like UpToDate and the like, for bloodwork, and I can piece things together better than 90% of the doctors. That includes a specialist who did his residency in 2012 and then I ran rings around him on albumin. He stared at me. I didn't go back to him.
ReplyDeleteThank-you for all of your posts. They are extremely helpful as an upcoming MS1. One concern I have had recently is the overwhelming debt and decreasing reimbursements. I am fully committed to medicine. If you have the inspiration, could you at some time write about a medical student's budget and what reasonable living expenses are. I am also very interested in what a resident's budget is and what type of monthly payments are most effective at eliminating this debt throughout residency and beyond. I know this a broad topic but would really appreciate any pointers or plans you may have at attacking this. Thank-you again for all of your posts!
ReplyDeleteHey there, thank you for your readership. I've been thinking about your post for a long time. Medical school is expensive, so expect to graduate with at least $100K in debt.
ReplyDeleteThe upside is that you can have different loan repayment methods like: pay as you earn, and another option to not have to pay back your loans until you're an attending (but interest still stacks up).
I'll get started on that article now, thanks for reading, I'm glad you appreciate my posts