Medical School
 

Is anyone else out there in medical school? I need to rant about this cruel punishment!:mad:

SigKapSweetie is!

Sadly, my sister is correct - I am in medical school.

HA HA I dropped out of pre-med :p

Me and my B.A. in Psychology mock you, and then cry because I'm unemployed (and getting my Masters)

Haha, me and my as-yet unfinished BA in Political Science with a concentration in international relations mocks you and your psychology degree, also known as a toilet paper degree!

I thought I wanted to go to medical school, then I realized that I just didn't have the motivation to study hard. Nursing it is!

My piece of paper written in Latin mocks your as-yet-unfinished BA in Poly Sci aka majoring "I dunno what I wanna do but I have a good professor"

My as-yet-unfinished Masters consoles you because it's a Masters in Counseling.

My future license in Clinical Professional Counseling charges you $150.

SigKapSweetie, I'm glad to see there is someone else on here suffering too! We have an exam on Monday-virology and parasitology, then it's time to celebrate halloween style!
I'm at Maryland, What school do you go to?

Nah, actually I do have my career future planned out completely. I'm doing Poli Sci because it's a subject I have an interest in. After I graduate, I'll work a couple of years as an EMT then go back into nursing school, get my RN and work as a critical care nurse. Nursing is impossible at UMASS, hence why I had to switch my major.
I don't believe in counseling so :P to you!

Suuure how does that make you feel?

Don't know what you mean by not believing in it.

Doesn't work for me. I have this thing where I think that a complete stranger who doesn't know me cannot solve my problems. I'm not much of a talker anyway so...works great for some people but not me.

Yeah, we have an exam on Monday - all the drugs for the neuro/psych block, plus (oddly enough) beta-blockers and adrenergic/cholinergic drugs, despite the fact that we actually have a heart block coming up (248 drugs in total). Also, questions on evidence-based medicine, neuro/psych microbio, neuro/psych pathology, and our clinical correlations for the block. Oh, and physical diagnosis. Jeez, if I can't even remember what all's on the test, I'm going to have trouble answering the questions!

Gotcha, I understand. Most people can deal with their own problems most of the time, and they can talk (or not) to their friends. Some people just don't have a good support group or have gotten themselves stuck into patterns where they don't see how to get out of it. Outside perspective is important, but my job is to help you solve your own problems. I don't fix anything, I just help you figure it out.

Aww, don't say that! Nursing isn't a piece of cake by any means; at least the RN end of it. Not sure how much training the bedpan changers need.

My sister-the-doctah-whom-our-mother-likes-the-best (yep, that's actually how she's known in our family!) says that lots of doctors are really condescending and rude to the nurses so she goes out of her way to be nice to them. She says nurses can help make a doc's job much easier or much harder.

True!

I'm a second-year med student. I worked an ER rotation this block, and I made sure the nurses liked me (brought them candy, pens, etc.). If they like you, they will make sure you don't kill any patients by accident. If they don't like you, they will make sure your attending is around to see you kill patients by accident. :p

Why does Scrubs pop into my head right there? :p

My best friend from high school is in med school at Wisconsin - you people are insane. It makes law school seem like pre-school.

I don't mean that nursing is easy. I'm an EMT and it's my experience in EMS that made me decide to pursue nursing to begin with. My mother's an RN. What I like about nursing (and hate about EMS) is the rapport you can develop with your patients and seeing them from beginning to end of treatment. When I have a patient in my ambulance, I have about 20 minutes tops to chill and get to know them. Then I don't see them again (if they're lucky and not repeat customers).

Nurses do work extremely hard, especially to earn their RN, but doctors study even harder and have to do harder classes to get to medical school.

EMTs should also go out of their way to make nurses' lives easy. My company keeps candy jars filled, and hands out pens, notepads etc. It makes them happy and keeps us in business and we don't get a hard time. I will never work as an ER nurse though. Nursing there holds the aspect that I hate about EMS.

centaur-I second that! We do work hard!

GP- I met some 3L students last night at a party. I was thinking in my head that they were so lucky to be getting out of school soon, and into the real world to make some $$ and pay back all those loans. Meanwhile, I'll still be slaving away after I graduate, earning less than minimum wage as a resident... of course, it ain't about the money-but a girl's gotta eat!:D

Seriously - the end of law school is just the start of med school. You add in residency and fellowships, and it seems like it goes on forever.

Hats off to anyone who is doing it - I have a couple of friends who are in the middle of it right now.

Is there anything that would disqualify you from being accepted into medschool aside from mediocre grades and a drug offense involving prescription drugs? Using Law School as an example, could you be denied entrance due to a discredited character?

If you fail to pay your med school tuition...

On most law school applications, they asked if you've ever been arrested, or disciplined for academic or work-related misconduct. I'm sure that comes into play when they're looking at candidates.

My opinion of Derm...

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...iver/pass1.gif

^^^ LOL
I won't even post the pic for infectious diseases when it comes to HSV-yech! I'm sure you can imagine...I still want to do OB/GYN though.

Yes nurses can! Doctors need nurses. If not there wouldnt be nurses.Being rude and mean to the nurses doesnt do anyone any good and the patient is the one that usually suffers. So nurses out there, stand up for yourselves and dont take crap from doctors! It's not worth it (and i've found those doctors usually end up respecting you more when you make it known you arnet going to put up with that nonsense).So future doctors out there, please be kind to your nurses and the nursing students!

Quite a few nurses actually these days change bedpans BTW and they do teach that along with all of the other PCT/CNA duties in nursing school (or they do in mine in the pre-nursing courses). Having said that--having worked as a sorta nurse this summer as an intern, being in nursing school, and currently working as a PCT/CNA I firmly believe that all nurses should have to be a tech/CNA first or atleast see what it's like to have to do all their work plus their own tech work (which will happen sometimes anyway due to staffing issues and low patient census on the floor). Like the doctors needing nurses, nurses need the tech's or there wouldnt be any. Nurses should also be kind to their tech's. They too have a hard job and usually have juggle more patients than they do at a time. I'll step off my soapbox now!

Oh and for those that dont know a PCT is a Patient Care Tech.,the apparent new politically correct term for a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant).

I dont know about law schools, but I know the three medical schools around here wont accept (or shall i say generally wont accept) anyone that doesnt have extra-curricular activities on their application somewhere. I know of atleast one person who was told he was denied entry into UK's medical school despite having a clean record and a 4.0 GPA because he did not have any volunteerism or extra-curricular.

IN nursing school if you have anything on your record at all pretty much other than a parking ticket or a speeding ticket (though you better not have been arrested for how fast you were going or drunk when you got it) they will not let you take the NCLEX licensure exam. My school did a state wide criminal record check when i applied to get in the program and prior to taking my NCLEX next year a nation wide criminal check will be done.

www.giantmicrobes.com

Get your loved one gonorrhea for Christmas!

lol the bf's brothers all got those for christmas last year. They're 25 and they ran around fake sneezing on people with their flu and common cold stuffed animals. Weird little stuffed animals (haha and weird brothers too, but that's IMO)

I can't believe I missed out on this thread! My GC time has steadily decreased over the past couple years (mainly due to med school)...

Second year here as well. Test on friday over pulmonology and a joke of a section on ENT...it's funny to see all my other friends freaking out over finals - it's the one week where they get a glimpse of what nearly every week is like in medical school.

I really just don't care anymore, I really just want to be out on the wards and actually talking with people rather than holed up with my lecture notes and my ipod.


As for the admissions - overall way tougher than law school. When 55% of applicants don't get accepted anywhere, it's tough and a lot of things will keep you out. I'd actually say that grades are the least likely thing to keep someone out. I've had friends not get in for not having enough "doctor experience" (she apparently had plenty of patient encounters, but the adcom didn't think she really understood what it meant to be a doctor - bizarre), another bomb his interview and was thus rejected (as an in-state resident no less). Another friend was passed over at my school for being out of state b/c they assumed he would get into his home state school. His home state school kept him out b/c he went to undergrad out of state. Luckily he reapplied to my school, and they treated him as an in-state resident the second time around. There are plenty of crazy stories out there...

Psychiatry test Wednesday, then I'm done! Wooo hooo!
Happy Holidays!

I just saw this post/thread- I have the whole set for my classroom. The kids (even the high schoolers) love them!

ahhhh! my friend was presenting her biology thesis and next to her poster she had e. coli and strep. so my friends who went to see her thought this was great, so the girl presenting got each of the seniors on the crew team a giant microbe!

i got syphilis, and my roomate got gonorrhea. it was pretty funny.

bump! It's a new school year, any 1st years out there?! I'm happily enjoying the joy of rotations that is 3rd year. Anyone else?

I got "The Clap" for my husband for our 4th anniversary! Actually, I walked around all day at work, handing it to people then telling them that I just gave them gonnorhea! Invariably, everyone dropped it like a hot potato!

blackngoldengrl, enjoy 3rd year....it was easily my favorite year of med school! Sure, 4th year is cake, but 3rd year is exciting!! Still want OB/GYN? I came soooo close to doing OB before I made the insane decision to do Surgery. After two grueling years of 120hr work weeks and q3 call, I made the best decision of my life and switched to Radiology. Awesome field! You might consider it...great options for practice!!:D

Ahh Surgery?!! You were a trooper to stick it out as long as you did, and before the 80 hour reform?! Hats off!
I'm still thinking ob/gyn, but I have yet to do the roation. So far I've liked family and psych. Next rotation is medicine...q4 call.:(

My husband is Med/Peds , Board certified in both but doing a fellowship at Hopkins in Peds Endocrine. He thought he'd do surgery or neurosurgery, then he did medicine and knew it was for him. Despite all the rounding, it's a lot more intellectual than most surgical fields. He ended up specializing in peds just because the subspecialties of peds tend to be more challenging than the adult subspecialties in his opinion. In my opinion, I HATE peds! We didn't have a family medicine rotation...instead we had a student clinic called Comprehensive Care Clinic that was precepted by the FM attendings. We learned a lot, but it was universally hate and called Incompetent Care Clinic! I liked Psych too, but I only did emergency psych...gotta love those actively psychotic patients!

MSIII here... just finished Surgery and am now on Psych. 3rd year is truly a breath of fresh air after the Step 1...

Have you decided on a specialty yet?

Agree, being an M3 is soooo much better than any of part of the first two years. Actually doing things has made me hate the first two years that much more so.

I started on Surgery - really loved the two weeks I spent on Pedi Ortho. Have spent the last 4 weeks on Peds. Have 4 weeks left, 2 at the University Outpatient clinic, then 2 weeks on inpatient.

I'm pretty sure I want to do Peds, then either a cardio or GI fellowship (maybe neonatology), but my time on Pedi ortho had me considering an ortho residency, though my Step 1 score isn't fantastic. Not sure I could handle an Ortho residency anyways.


AOII Angel - I've been thinking about the Med/Peds route as well, then doing the peds fellowship. How did your husband like it? Does he think it was worth it? I've had a lot of people tell me that it's a dying residency path (even though it's pretty new), as well as describing the residents as red-head step children, and a bunch of other negative things. Did it help him in his search for a fellowship position? Does he plan on focusing just on peds patients, or is he expecting to spend time on following kids as they become adults too? Any sort of info you could give me would be great!

Residency Matching
 

I didn't want to start a new thread, so sorry if this seems like a hijack...

Recently I've met a huge group of fourth year med students at Medical College of Georgia (they just started frequenting my place of employment). Last week, they all found out where they matched for next year for their internship and residency. The process reminded me a LOT of recruitment and bids matching, so of course I was fascinated by the whole thing! :) Does anyone know more about how the process works, if it is in fact similar to bid matching? Just curious!

Yes...it is very similar to bid matching. The difference is that you apply for the residency programs that you would consider going to. I applied to 11 general surgery programs when I went through the match, but some people apply to over 90 programs for the more competitive programs (ie Dermatology, Orthopaedics, ENT.) The programs invite you to interview based on whether or not your meet their criteria. At the end, you make a list of the programs in order of how you liked them and the programs do the same with the applicants. The two are secretly matched in the same way.