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Hey y'all,
I know we are all nerds fighting hard to be able to take on other nerds in huge nerd fights and emerge nerdtorious. I am sure that more than a few of you want to be a doctor, nurse, EMT, or other health-care professional and having been an EMT for awhile and now on my way to my M.D., I probably have a few relevant stories you might like to hear. But even for people who have no interest in any of that, the case study is mainly a focus on decision-making and moving past apparent obstacles.
The title is dead-on. Whatever your goal is, medical school for example, well, actually accomplishing that thing is probably the easiest step. Managing to get all the way to where you are at that final step is really the challenge, so I figure you can learn from my unbelievable number of mistakes and poor life decisions. I have nothing to teach per se, but I have done much of the things one can wrong, so I'd like to pretend there is educational value in that.
I'll work my way backwards from where I am now. It is more suspenseful that way. Or so television tells me.
For the last few years I worked my way through undergrad working as an EMT, before starting medical school and being promptly taught that all the things they tell you about medical school are wrong. Medical school is not for the best and the brightest. It is not for the creative problem-solvers. It is not for anyone who LIKES SCIENCE. It's for those of us who are supremely capable at doing mindless work, memorization, paper work, and telling themselves its all going to pay off once we start "helping people."
There is one problem with this; most people help people. Sure most people can't prescribe controlled substances with their signature... but I am pretty sure I've helped more people as an EMT, as a tutor, as a dance teacher, than most of the doctors I've worked with out of medical school less than 5 years, in terms of volume at least. If you are going to tell me it is about 'quality' above 'quantity,' I'm not really smart enough to figure that out.
I graduated ahead of a number friends. Two are at MIT, one is at Harvard, one at Stanford, and the others are already out of debt. I'm at a nameless southern medical school. Woot.
Again though, it is pretty fair. They are brilliant. They find enough satisfaction out of solving, ya know, important problems that affect people. I am too needy not to work with people more directly.
The first thing I figured out after the fact was this: Do what you actually love, not what you think you'll love. I am a damn good med student and will be a damn good M.D, but I could do a dozen other things and help people just as much. My friends who have true satisfaction, contentment, dare I say, happiness didn't worry about what anyone else thought or what they 'should' do. They just fucking did it. Like ballers.
Let that be enough.
Later y'all.
EDIT: Fixed a typo.
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Interesting. Is every med like this in your opinion?
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Wait, what were you thinking of studying in the first place? (since you tell us we should do what we want but you didn't say what you wanted to do before working towards med school ;; )
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There's nothing witty to say, a very insightful post 
I'm just starting College, and I'm 95% sure I want to stick with Computer Science. I think a lot of people think too much about the money they'll be making (granted, being a ditch digger because you like it isn't going to work out in the long run), or have unrealistic goals (wanting to be a professional sports player when they aren't THAT good), instead of focusing on something they can do for the rest of their lives while still feeling happy about it.
My question, like one of the above questions: do you feel this way about ever medical field, or just the MD route? Also if you know, what are the requirements of Nursing compared to EMT work as far as education?
Thank you for your post!
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@ News
Yeah. I have a fair number of contacts with people all over. Now most people don't have my background, but I read between the lines fairly well. You know how you break free and college is about everyone being diverse and their own thing? All medical schools have the dynamics of high school. The post-bac kids are one clique. The M.D./Ph.D's are one, the party-goers, the internationals, the married people, and the odd balls fall through the cracks. It wasn't about intelligence in high school, the SATs and APs just took time, and it's the same game now.
@ emperorchampion
Thanks, I think.
@ Humbug
I was an organic chemist doing natural products research. Before that I was Mathematics and Comp Sci. Before that it was Linguistics. I basically moved study programs because I didn't feel like I would 'help enough' in each successive field. I will delve into this more before too long.
@ Hikko
I was Comp Sci early in school because I worked as a programmer in high school a bit. I got out because I got sick of the mind-numbing drudgery that goes into the coursework. It all is worth it in the end, judging by my friends who graduated in Comp Sci, I just couldn't keep up the grind of CS. I'll dive into that more later. I think you are dead on in your understanding. Be happy, man. Fuck the white noise of the masses, just find something you can be happy with. There are basically no "worse" jobs than others, except those guys who have to slaughter horses. That job sucks.
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Ah, I wish it was longer, I really enjoyed reading it.
A few parts struck me as particularly true, based on my own observations through friends and acquaintances
Medical school is not for the best and the brightest. It is not for the creative problem-solvers. It is not for anyone who LIKES SCIENCE. It's for those of us who are supremely capable at doing mindless work, memorization, paper work, and telling themselves its all going to pay off once we start "helping people."
It's just a challenge based on efforts, not intelligence.
I also really liked this part
The title is dead-on. Whatever your goal is, medical school for example, well, actually accomplishing that thing is probably the easiest step. Managing to get all the way to where you are at that final step is really the challenge .
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Physician
United States4146 Posts
just stay out of sermo when the moment comes and you'll be fine ~
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Thanks for the blog The last paragraph is very reassuring.
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@ Cambium
Thanks Cambium! There is more coming... I just figured people are more inclined to read blurbs. Part 2 will be along in the next 24 hours.
@ Physician
What is 'sermo'?
@ HiddenMotives
Yup. Turns out Mom and Dad were always right.
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Interesting view. I guess it depends a lot on what medical school you go to, and who happens to be in your year. For instance the 2 major universities in my province teach med completely differently. One is more class based book learning the other has you doing real work almost from day 1. From speaking with various people in med school each year of students is quite different as well. Some years will have a lot of the perfect GPA type of people, it's just luck of the draw.
You are right that it's not necessarily for the best and the brightest, in the sense that you need to be one of those to get in. Just with a lot of hard work you can make it without being one of the best and brightest, it probably helps though. But I think the field probably does draw a lot of those best and brightest people.
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@ GogoKodo
I would not consider Canadian schools victim to what I've described. Canadians are less uptight, I find. Canadian schools, by extension, seem to be much better for cultivating intellectual pursuits among the manure-laden fertile grounds of medical students than American ones. It's a different animal. They teach to the same curriculum, and yet, all my Canadian medical school friends are brilliant, dedicated, and capable scientists. Maybe my sample size is too small, but SOMETHING seems different.
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On September 13 2010 10:49 Sleight wrote:
@ GogoKodo
I would not consider Canadian schools victim to what I've described. Canadians are less uptight, I find. Canadian schools, by extension, seem to be much better for cultivating intellectual pursuits among the manure-laden fertile grounds of medical students than American ones. It's a different animal. They teach to the same curriculum, and yet, all my Canadian medical school friends are brilliant, dedicated, and capable scientists. Maybe my sample size is too small, but SOMETHING seems different.
Oh, that's interesting to find out. I don't think I've dealt with anyone from the US in the medical field.
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This was an interesting post.
I'm a medical student in Canada and I agree with a lot of what you say. Medicine is not some magical field where you are able to help everyone and become the savior of mankind (with a few exceptions). Problem-solving amounts to recalling your memorized differential trees. There's usually not enough time to have a nice chat with people without ending up ridiculously behind. The system, at least here, is not made for quality time - it's made for "get to the point, I have 15 more people to see". And we're one of the better systems in the world. I've heard of China's healthcare system where the lines go out the hospital.
Medicine is not hard. I still believe that unless you are a psychopath or mentally retarded, you can become a good, even great, doctor. Especially in this day and age where everything is online. (I marvel at past doctors who actually memorized everything they read in textbooks).
I worked with an MD/PhD and he said something that stuck with me: "Medicine is boring. It's all just protocol."
I may sound like a bitter medical student but I'm just laying out some of my thoughts. I'm actually quite pleased with medicine. I don't mind memorizing stuff and learning about the human body - it's quite a beautiful system. Plus, the great thing is that there's just so many paths you can take in medicine. There's a field for almost anything you're interested in.
It's interesting that you mention the US/Canada divide. In Canada, once you're in med school there's almost 0% chance of failing out. The schools want each student to succeed and do well. There's more an air of collegiality than competition. Once you match to a residency, this trend continues. I hear in the US that there's competition throughout your education - there are yearly tests that weed people out and residencies hire more people than graduation spots. It doesn't sound like a fun environment 
In conclusion, universal healthcare ftw haha.
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On September 13 2010 11:30 Xusneb wrote:This was an interesting post. I'm a medical student in Canada and I agree with a lot of what you say. Medicine is not some magical field where you are able to help everyone and become the savior of mankind (with a few exceptions). Problem-solving amounts to recalling your memorized differential trees. There's usually not enough time to have a nice chat with people without ending up ridiculously behind. The system, at least here, is not made for quality time - it's made for "get to the point, I have 15 more people to see". And we're one of the better systems in the world. I've heard of China's healthcare system where the lines go out the hospital. Medicine is not hard. I still believe that unless you are a psychopath or mentally retarded, you can become a good, even great, doctor. Especially in this day and age where everything is online. (I marvel at past doctors who actually memorized everything they read in textbooks). I worked with an MD/PhD and he said something that stuck with me: "Medicine is boring. It's all just protocol." I may sound like a bitter medical student but I'm just laying out some of my thoughts. I'm actually quite pleased with medicine. I don't mind memorizing stuff and learning about the human body - it's quite a beautiful system. Plus, the great thing is that there's just so many paths you can take in medicine. There's a field for almost anything you're interested in. It's interesting that you mention the US/Canada divide. In Canada, once you're in med school there's almost 0% chance of failing out. The schools want each student to succeed and do well. There's more an air of collegiality than competition. Once you match to a residency, this trend continues. I hear in the US that there's competition throughout your education - there are yearly tests that weed people out and residencies hire more people than graduation spots. It doesn't sound like a fun environment In conclusion, universal healthcare ftw haha.
Re-quoted for truth. Dead on. I am just as happy and just as honest about what's wrong. Medicine in the US is a bitch and cutthroat. People are more concerned with their ego than getting the right answer.
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This type of stuff is really nice to read. I just took my MCATs this past week.
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Come on, seriously?
The bottom line for all careers is not "helping people." It's the $$$, baby.
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CA10830 Posts
On September 13 2010 12:23 SkyLegenD wrote:
Come on, seriously?
The bottom line for all careers is not "helping people." It's the $$$, baby.
if you go into medicine with solely dreams of $$$ you are wasting your time.
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Unfortunately, thats what most people are going for. Maybe some pro bono to feel less guilty.
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CA10830 Posts
On September 13 2010 14:19 Disregard wrote:
Unfortunately, thats what most people are going for. Maybe some pro bono to feel less guilty.
those are usually the ones that burn out after the weeder courses in undergrad. not all of them of course, but many of them do.
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EPT
