To change the culture, start with clinical education

The hardest thing about medical school isn’t learning medicine. It isn’t the hours. It isn’t the tests. It’s that you sign away control over years of your adult life. When I started my clerkship year in January, I felt like I was stepping onto a conveyor belt and would not be allowed off for twelve long months. For the entirety of 2018, my days are planned for me, my hours are set, and my attendance is mandatory. I have the distinct feeling that this year is happening to me. My classmates and I are currently marching through a pre-determined set of rotations, the lowest-ranking members on every team we are a part of. What this translates to is a year in which we no longer even have control over when we go to the bathroom. We joke about the kidney injuries we have no doubt sustained rounding and retracting for hours. We joke about it because there isn’t really anything else we can do. Better to take a hit to our creatinine than take the risk of complaining to the same people who are evaluating us. As we approach the halfway point in the year, I have watched my friends grow increasingly disenchanted with and frustrated by their experiences in the hospital. A friend who was dead-set on going into OB/GYN is having to rethink her future after spending six weeks being belittled and ignored on her OB/GYN clerkship. Multiple friends have been blindsided when they discovered that residents who’d given them nothing but praise during their medicine clerkship had absolutely s...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Education Medical school Psychiatry Source Type: blogs