Everyone's entitled to whine a little now and then. Some days a re just like that.

it's all good doc. Someday in the future when you are driving down the road in your Mercedes, It will all make sense!

sounds like yer human to me good days bad days like the rest of us here.... thank you for chooseing such a noble profession..

Someday in the future when you are driving down the road in your Mercedes, It will all make sense!

Hah, you think? The other night I happened to IM a good friend from undergrad with whom I had not spoken for a while. We took many of the same classes in undergrad, both planning on entering the health field. For a time he thought of med school, but then decided that Optometry was a better fit for him. He got into a great school, got a scholarship, and now has purchased his own practice and is living a real life. Me? I'm an idiot.

This feeling will pass. It always does. But it ebbs and flows.

Some days I whine.

You're allowed to. It will all be worth it in the end I'm sure. Feel better.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement. To be entirely honest today I don't think I have it in me to say you are right. So I won't.

But I will say thank you.

Somedays are like that. You look at someone else who started at the same line as you and wonder how they are so much further ahead. And then one wonders, why am I still down here. Scratching my head at the dire situation I find myself stuck in, and in too deep. Some days are just like that.

Brilliant idea for heading into a field that is being raped more and more every day by the government and private insurance companies. And laywers.

Hear hear.

I have far too many friends going to law school these days. I try to sit them all down and patiently explain that, while I like them, if they choose to be trial lawyers, I will never speak to them again. Time will tell what they turn out to be.

(On some days I get on my medical malpractice soapbox. Guess this is one of 'em.)

-A.

Some days are just like that.

Yep they are. I just gotta take my lumps as they come. *Sigh* I'm just tired.

I try to sit them all down and patiently explain that, while I like them, if they choose to be trial lawyers, I will never speak to them again.

I like that idea. I have a few myself. Perhaps I should let them know the same.

I posted this on my weblog a couple days ago - maybe our moods are in synchrony... I would make some allusion to how when women are living together they tend to synchronize their monthly cycle... but that makes me feel uncomfortable...


A very brief excerpt from the Jan-Feb 2005 issue of The New Physician:


... I had used up everything while struggling to survive in an environment and life that I now despise. And what did I gain? The "privilege" of working 36-hour shifts and sometimes 100-hour weeks, and becoming so tired that I would fall asleep standing and almost while driving, endangering my life and the lives of innocent bystanders. The "gift" of giving up all my personal time, at the expense of my family and friends, to be among strangers. The "honor" of entering a profession where public humiliation is the mode of educational training. The ability to "help" patients, the same ones to whom I cannot devote my full attention because I am so overwhelmed, overworked, and frustrated. All of this while paying more than $100,000 for an education with no guarantee of even graduating and an uncertain future career in a crumbling national health-care system. I mourn my lost life and want enough time to remember the reasons why I entered medicine. I want to see a future.



This was written by Kevin M. Takakuwa, excerpted from a book called What I Learned in Medical School. Something I should have read before applying, I think. If you're thinking of med school, maybe you should have a look yourself.

\end{bitterness left over from last year}

I stopped by today and noticed that. Yeah, I have been feeling that. Excellent post SAS, excellent.

... I had used up everything while struggling to survive in an environment and life that I now despise. And what did I gain? The "privilege" of working 36-hour shifts and sometimes 100-hour weeks, and becoming so tired that I would fall asleep standing and almost while driving, endangering my life and the lives of innocent bystanders. The "gift" of giving up all my personal time, at the expense of my family and friends, to be among strangers. The "honor" of entering a profession where public humiliation is the mode of educational training. The ability to "help" patients, the same ones to whom I cannot devote my full attention because I am so overwhelmed, overworked, and frustrated. All of this while paying more than $100,000 for an education with no guarantee of even graduating and an uncertain future career in a crumbling national health-care system. I mourn my lost life and want enough time to remember the reasons why I entered medicine. I want to see a future.

I agree and disagree with this. I agree that medical school and that a great many parts of the profession are like this. Some doctors thrive in that--my dad, for one. But some don't--my brother, for one. So he's going into internal medicine or family practice, something with more regular hours and fewer late-night calls. Sure the medical school part is tough--no one disagrees with that. But in medicine, you have a choice as to the type of career path and the stress-level and environment you're going to work at.

As for the crumbling health-care system, I wish people would open their eyes and realize what it's really like. I wish the media would help, but they're too busy being unhelpful--somehow Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's separation is more newsworthy....

-A.

But in medicine, you have a choice as to the type of career path and the stress-level and environment you're going to work at.

You are, of course, correct A. That is one of the reasons I was drawn to it in the first place.

I think SAS and I are just suffering from med student burnout. It comes and goes. I fear it has lasted a lot longer for him than me, but I hope it goes soon, as I am sure it will.

And as for that quote, it is one of those that I agree with on my most cynical days, and think the author needs to get a grip and quite whining on my normal days.

I'm actually thinking of family practice - I really enjoyed my away rotation last year in rural Franklin, NC. In fact, I pretty much enjoyed any part of the year that didn't happen at the hospital BlueDev and I tend to work at.....

It's a shame that family practice people are sometimes regarded as pariahs, particularly at snootier med schools. I think the family practice docs I've met are some of the smartest docs, and they tend to have their heart and motivation in the right place.