Students, educators, and physicians writing on KevinMD about medical school: admissions and what they select for, the cost of tuition and the debt it leaves, the curriculum and what students say it does and does not teach, Step 1 and the test-prep industry, pass/fail, mistreatment and depression in training, the match, Caribbean schools, and what should change. Most contributors are students writing while still in school, many of them anonymously. For what physicians have said about paying off that debt and the money decisions that follow, see Physician personal finance: what physicians say about their own money, in their own words. For a maintained record of what students and physicians have said about medical school on KevinMD since 2004, see Medical school: what students and physicians say, in their own words. For what physicians and deans have said for and against affirmative action and diversity in admissions, see Race and medicine: what physicians say, in their own words. For what international and Caribbean graduates have said about the Match and visas, see Immigration and medicine: what physicians say about immigrant doctors and immigrant patients, in their own words.
In January, the National Academy of Medicine is launching a new committee to address the high rates of depression and suicide among physicians and other health care workers in the United States. They plan to bring together medical professionals, educators and hospital administrators, and I hope they will also bring to the table professionals who have experienced burnout, and who may have attempted suicide due to burnout. I say this …
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We cannot afford to lose our physicians to suicide
It’s 4:17 a.m. as I begin this entry. I’m scheduled to be at the hospital in 43 minutes for one of my last days on surgical rotation, and I’ve been working on the following text message since 3 a.m.:
“Hi, team. Im afraid that im burned out and anxious. I will be taking today off. Sorry to be blunt but i felt it better than to make up an excuse. Thanks …
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The word that best describes this medical student’s experience
I spent one year working full-time as a pharmacy technician at a high-volume community pharmacy prior to entering medical school. Besides learning the intricacies of billing and the dispensing process, I was granted personal access into a world nearly all patients, but few providers are aware of. At the time my job was just that: a job. There were fun perks like counting pills in multiples of five and visualizing …
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The need for pharmacy electives in the medical school curriculum
I thought long and hard about the financial ramifications of medical school before I started. I already had a job in the medical field that I enjoyed, and I was happy with my level of compensation at the time. After running the numbers, I knew that the choice to pursue medicine would result in a delayed economic benefit that would take at least 15 years to recover, and only through …
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The financial ramifications of medical school
In an oft-cited psychology experiment from the 1960s done at Stanford, toddlers were isolated in a room with a table on which sat a single marshmallow. If they could resist the temptation to eat it, as they were told by the experimenters, they would be rewarded with two marshmallows later on.
If we replaced these toddlers with medical students as the subjects, the experimenters would have run out of either marshmallows …
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Does medical school ever pay off?
Tests and exams are the most challenging part of campus life, especially when it is in medical school where students will frequently encounter different types of examinations. One of the things which makes it special is that in medical school, exams are not only given as a written examination but also as oral and practical examinations in which students must face their instructors. Most of the time these are external …
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How this medical intern deals with stress
It is frustrating for patients to have unanswered questions, and it is equally frustrating for doctors to not have answers to their questions. In the past month, I have cared for three patients who have stood out to me because they have all presented under personally dire situations.
“I have had crushing 10/10 chest pain since this morning,” Ms. A tells me at the urgent episodic appointment she scheduled in my …
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The uncertain diagnosis is difficult for everyone involved
We as humans start learning new things since we are born and continue learning until the last breath we take on this earth. We learn lessons that are essential to our lives such as walking and talking, all the way to life lessons that we learn when we face death. I learned a lot through my lifetime; as a child, as a student, as a citizen, and I continue to …
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What this medical student learned after being diagnosed with cancer
In a time of rising health care costs, it’s hard to talk about the financial strife of physicians, who as a whole over time do very well financially. We see the bills from our doctor’s office, and it’s hard to imagine why anybody would complain about the upfront investment of a medical education, when the payoff seems so good.
Many recent articles make the case for why becoming a physician is …
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Why you should care about medical student debt
I’m a first-year medical student who recently discovered the magnetic pull of surgery.
As one might assume, on my first day scrubbing into the OR under a pediatric surgeon, I was beyond excited. The surgeon’s precision and expertise fascinated me, and the constant activity in the surgical suite was something I could definitely get used to. Adrenaline was as pervasive as anesthesia in the OR, and I knew I’d thrive there.
However, …
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Doctors should take care of teddy bears too
“Pregnancy termination” and “infanticide” are two different words, used by two very different kinds of people, to describe the one exact same thing: abortion. The source of an argument is found by looking at the words used to frame it; the rest is filler.
I am a medical school student. Like many of you reading this, my life is spent between the walls of the library and the walls of the …
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Don’t call me a provider
I am a professor of family medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. During their third and fourth years, students must complete a four-week clerkship in family medicine. The clerkship includes a “significant-event reflection” project, in which students discuss patient encounters that they’ve found especially meaningful.
Over nearly a decade as a facilitator for these groups, I have heard many powerful and emotional stories. I’ve often felt deeply moved–and admiring …
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Why I’m a doctor: Life-changing stories from med students
Pre-med students are characterized by a number of things. Most notoriously, they prominently carry type A labels. Perhaps the intricately color-coordinated notes give you away. Maybe it is your strict, military-like regimen with which you go about your daily existence. Whatever it is, you are not alone. Many pre-meds turned medical student harbor these behaviors to some degree. After all, we get to where we are because of years of …
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What is the mistake that every pre-med makes?
I arrive 7:15, 15 minutes before I was supposed to come in. I make sure to bring a shelf review book, knowing that I will be getting significant use of it that day.
After surreptitiously observing my surroundings, I attempt to seek out a physician of sorts, a guide, a mentor, a guru that could aid in my quest for knowledge and experience. I am seated in a chair against a …
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In memory of what medical education used to be
“It won’t be the last sacrifice you make for medicine.”
These were the words my surgical intern said between yawns as I expressed regret at having to miss a distant cousin’s wedding. The digital wall-clock read a blurry 3:15 a.m. as we sat together in the on-call room, the coffeemaker dripping black gold into the pot.
She had three pagers affixed to her scrub pants which would beep intermittently in turn, signaling anything …
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The sacrifices we make for medicine
Dear future doctor,
Please remember. Remember what it feels like to be a patient.
Remember the pain, remember the anguish of the unknown, remember the detours of being referred from one physician to the next, and how you hoped that this doctor would finally be able to diagnose you and empathize with your suffering. Remember the agony of not knowing what caused the mysterious, writhing pain; however, at the same time being …
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Dear future doctor: Remember what it feels like to be a patient
