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| Medical School vs Residency |
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 Posted by Joe Galazin on Thursday December 30, 2004 @ 10:58 AM
from the medical-education dept.
Editor's Note: This site is for news of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in medicine. The following is off-topic but I get these frequently enough that I will refer everyone to this story and thread in the future: I am a sophmore in college, and I have hopes to become a psychiatrist. I have heard some disheartning things about the lifestyle one leads at med school and on to residency. Can someone please tell me what a med school lifestyle is really like in terms of hours spent in class and studying, etc and how much free time one has. Also, the same question for residency, and if residency is overall harder or easier, and what the benefits and drawbacks are for each. My final question is: Can someone please send me in the direction of some good literature that explains exactly what med school IS, and not how to get into med school. The same for residency. THANK YOU SO MUCH, for who ever answers all of my (ignorant) questions. Digg this article
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Re: Medical School vs Residency
by Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS on Thursday December 30, 2004 @ 02:12 PM
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| Medical school: Heaven and hell, good and bad, life and death, grand and ugly. If you go, you will be abused, you will be your best, you will be your worst, you will meet some of the finest people you will ever meet as well as the creepiest and lowest. You will be tired. You will find help in un-expected places. You will mature more in those years and see more and know more about life in one year than most do in a lifetime. That's how it was for me. I can't speak for others and you may find it dramatically different.
I am a psychiatrist. The first 3 years of medical school are long and hard, the last one is easy by comparison. The first 2 years of a psychiatry residency were not nearly as difficult as medical school but they are just as difficult as any other residency. After that it gets easier and after that it can become just like a regular job.
Some people go into medicine and psychiatry because of their own issues. Good psychiatrists get themselves treated, bad ones get their treatment through their patients. The same goes for all physicians. You will see florid psychopathology among all types of physicians, not just psychiatrists, and people in general.
If you have the calling, feel the fear and do it anyway. Every job sucks in some way no matter what you do. You have to fill the years you have regardless and your time of bondage does not last forever. Good luck, may you find peace.
-- IV
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Re: Medical School vs Residency
by Bob M.D. on Friday January 07, 2005 @ 08:17 AM
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Regarding Medical Training in the U.S.:
The first two years or so of Medical School are pretty much similar to what you are used to from college but maybe somewhat more intense. You go to class and take a lot of tests. You get weekends and holidays off similar to college. The main difference is your classmates will be the higher achievers from college that have been selected out. Grading is still mostly very objective, based on the same kind of tests you are used to taking.
The last years of Med School are usually the "clinical" years where you start working in the patient centered environment, usually in a large "teaching hospital" and are gradually given more roles with actual responsiblity in real life situations. The grading becomes more subjective, based on people's "impression" of you. This can be sort of a hard thing to adjust to. You have many fewer objective kinds of tests - much more on the job type of evaluations, more face to face presentations to give etc. On the other hand, the grading starts to mean less and less as you take on more real world responsibilities.
Residency is much more time consuming and demanding physically than Medical School. It is like very intense on the job training. The first year is similar to boot camp in the Marines at Camp Lejune N.C., without the camping out in the bush. You are just physically exhausted and sleepy all the time. You don't think you are learning much, but you are - but it's a different kind of learning. In the later residency years they usually give you more time to sleep, and you can start doing some reading again. At all levels you are a teacher and impart what you have learned along with the legacy of the professional hazing rituals and indoctrination processes going back to the time of Abraham Flexner onto the next generation coming up behind you.
Hope that helps.
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Re: Medical School vs Residency
by John Hadley MD on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @ 12:34 AM
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Pre-med and medical school is very difficult and completely time consuming. Lots of fields use the healing arts and see more of the exciting challenges with less years of deveotion to school, such as nurse practitioner, EMT, respiratory therapist, ortho tech, xray tech, pharmacy, etc. Perhaps consider those choices. The reason medical training is so intense is to be sure you have the tenacity to work as long and as late and under any conditions of deprivation as needed by your patient. You must be immediately willing to give up any plans of your own in favor of your patient. You will never recieve the respect, authority or money that your responsibilities require. Your best work will go unnoticed. You will often have to know the truth yet keep it secret. You will be lonely in in midst of many.
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Med School and Doctor Info
by Zac on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @ 04:42 AM
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I am thinking of becoming a doctor (I'm only XX years old) and want to know how long med school is. If I specialize in cardiology, how long would it take? What about an emergency room doctor, or an anesthesiologist? Do all doctors take emergency calls, or is that optional? Thanks for the great help,
Zac
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Re: Medical School vs Residency
by Stay away if you are sane, on Friday May 18, 2007 @ 06:11 PM
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I hate every day of residency. If you are not worried about getting sued, you end up doing useless crap with no thanks ever. The future and present for physicians in the US is very grim indeed.
If I could do it over again, I would become a Nurse anaesthetic. They make as much as a doctor and have no liabilities and no responsibilities.
Again, stay away and if you are still set on it , think hard and long.
If you like to work 3-5 years of your life for less than 6 bucks an hour and work as a slave with no respect, then you got the right job;)
Once I am out of residency I am planning to get a job in the pharmaceutical industry or do something entirely different, because being a doctor SUCKS!!
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