Session 131

In today’s episode, Ryan and Allison talk about a great article on KevinMD which they ran into while looking for a topic for the podcast (which meant reading for hours). Allison was shocked at finding so many articles about a ton of medical students leaving medical school and who leave the medical school disgruntled and upset.

Ryan and Allison specifically tackle the article Leaving Medical School for a Startup. And With No Regrets written by Gina Siddiqui a former medical student. They feel too strongly about talking about this considering many listeners of this podcast are premeds who are about to step into medical school or eagerly trying to get into medical school to start on their journey and so the podcast seeks to continue to try to impart to listeners that this is well-worth doing and believing in and not worth giving up on.

Here are the highlights of the conversation:

Things about the article that were pointed out:

• The writer being excited she got her acceptance letter and going to a physician-friend (whom she looks up to) who encouraged him to leave medical school
• The writer was so much ready for it anyway until she read a New York Times op-ed article (Don’t Quit This Day Job) a couple of months after starting med school saying that the “cracks” began to show.
• The writer’s, along with her classmates, response in TIME magazine Can Doctors Have Work-Life Balance Medical Students Discuss

Ryan & Allison’s take:

• Change is inevitable.
• Embrace the future. Embrace the now. Deal with the fact that things have changed.
• It’s biased.
• If you want to go to medical school to help people then go do something else. There has to be something more than helping the community and making a difference.
• Doing other tasks (cleaning the floor, carrying a carton of urine, etc.) is part of learning the system, especially learning humility. They all serve a purpose. It’s all about paying your dues.
• As physicians, we are set up from Day 1 in a hierarchical structure to start at the bottom and learn and work our way up.
• Book on history of residency training: Started on unpaid internship
• Just 12% of your time of being with the patient should not shake the core foundation of who you are and who you want to be and your dream to practice medicine. Brush it off and march forward.
• Stay true to who you are and don’t let these things shake you.

Links and Other Resources

• 15th Annual Premeds Conference
  June 11-13, 2015 Los Angeles, California
• KevinMD Article: Leaving Medical School for a Startup.` And With No Regrets
• Op-ed article written by Karen Sibert: Don’t Quit This Day Job
• Episode 29:  Interview with ZDoggMD, Yes – He is a Real Doctor
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