The Making Of A Doctor was originally published on College Recruiter.
So you want to be a doctor. You wonder, though, what it takes—and whether you have the right stuff. I can tell you right away that a college education is only the beginning.
When I graduated from medical school, I had the tools to be a physician, but it took time to learn how to use them wisely. The fact is, you need a lot more than high grades and a stethoscope in your bag to be a good doctor. I’ve been a doctor now for 25 years, and I learn a little bit more about the art—as opposed to just the science—of medicine almost every day.
Aristotle said it thousands of years ago, and it still holds true today: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
Medicine is, above all, a people profession. Choosing pre-med as a course of study means committing yourself to a life of service doing what might be described as “helping people die young as late as possible.” Few careers are as rewarding.
Preparation Until recently, most medical schools expected a rigorous hard- science background. While basic science courses are still important, medical schools are also seeing the benefits of a broader liberal arts education. My experience indicates that medical students with a liberal arts background often have a more comfortable relationship with patients, which means they are able to achieve a strong doctor-patient bond.
In my first year in college I switched from philosophy to psychology to psychiatry as a career path. That’s not all that unusual: part of a college education is refining our choices while establishing a foundation for a career.
So if you want to be a doctor, consider a major outside the usual pre-med area. You need to be sure that you want to work with people, not in the lab.
However, biology, chemistry, and physics are still essential, especially for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and for your first year in med school. The MCAT is crucial to acceptance, so make a mental note now that when the time comes, you should definitely take MCAT practice tests. This exam will make or break you.
Also, it’s a good idea to volunteer in a hospital or job shadow while you’re in college. I spent one summer working for a psychiatrist after my first year of college, and that experience taught me a lot. Volunteering or job shadowing does two very important things: it lets you find out if medicine is really what you want in life, and it helps you justify your career choice during your med school interview. (When the med school dean of admissions asks you why you want to be a doctor, you’d better have a good answer!)
Another note to file away for future reference: getting into med school isn’t easy, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get in on your first try. Many physicians—including yours truly—had to apply more than once.
Med school Once you do get into med school, the cutthroat competition is over. At this point the failure rate is actually very small. However, a few students drop out because they haven’t mastered the multiple-choice game so prevalent at this stage of their training. Attempts are being made to find a better way of judging qualifications, but right now you do still have to be good at standardized tests to succeed in med school.
You can expect long nights and a lot of memorization, but that’s not surprising given all you have to master in this profession. Work out a routine, a schedule, and stick to it. Join a study group. Just as in other aspects of your life, you’ll have to figure out what works for you.
Practice Will Rogers once said, “The best doctor in the world is a veterinarian. He can’t ask his patients what is the matter—he’s got to just know.” Top-notch physicians not only know the technical details of medicine, they also understand human nature.
It’s no secret that many of our diseases are self-inflicted. Patients who lead unhealthy lifestyles may refuse to take responsibility for the behavior that is making them sick. Doctors need to let their patients know that health care is a partnership—good health care depends on the doctor doing his or her best with patients who are doing their best.
The longer I’ve been in practice, the more attention I’ve paid to the mind-body connection. Even for an experienced doctor, sometimes it’s hard to figure out why some patients make it and others don’t. While a positive outlook by itself doesn’t cure a cancer, attitude may make a difference. I’ve seen patients who had a bad experience with a doctor lose hope, and that can be a real problem. A good doctor—and medicine in general—should represent hope. I believe science works best when it’s tempered with human kindness. There’s a kind of circular benefit here: to be human is to hope, and hope forms the basis of a good attitude—which can, in turn, help science.
The challenges you’ll face You’ll learn a great deal of factual information in college and med school. But there are some things about being a doctor that may surprise you.
For example, I began my practice as a sub-specialist (I started out as a gynecology-cancer surgeon). I was surprised to discover that my livelihood depended not only on how skilled I was at surgery, but also on how much attention I paid to maintaining relationships with other doctors (and with patients who didn’t follow my advice). In cases like these, good people skills can make a real difference in your success as a doctor.
You also may not have thought much about “the business of medicine,” but these days it is part of being a doctor that you can’t ignore. You’ll be required to keep detailed files, process multiple forms, and keep abreast of changes in insurance requirements. The amount of paperwork is likely to increase in the future, so organizational skills will become more and more important.
The future Medicine is a rapidly changing field, and it’s time-consuming to keep up with new studies and discoveries. But it’s also exciting.
As you’d expect, the Internet has revolutionized access to medical information— it’s far easier to learn something by going online than by flipping through stacks of index cards as I used to do. These days I can find almost anything I need to know about a particular disease or drug within minutes, just by going online.
Each year brings new advances to support the idea that there are no incurable diseases, only illnesses for which we haven’t yet found a cure. In the last century alone, radiation, blood transfusions, and organ transplants have become essential tools in the medical arsenal. I look forward to cures for cancer and AIDS within my own lifetime.
The bottom line Practicing medicine has given me a lot of satisfaction; it has allowed me to earn a comfortable living while also making me feel good about the ways I’ve served my fellow man.
When I hear some colleagues complain about declining income, I look at the world around me and remember that as a doctor I am already better off than 99% of the world’s population. I am fortunate enough to have a respected profession, a lovely wife, four dogs, and a place in the country where I can make believe that I’m also a gentleman farmer. Life doesn’t get much better than this!
The truth is, I really love being a doctor. And if you go into medicine, I think you will, too.
Dr. Christensen recently added certification in addiction medicine to his board certifications in obstetrics/gynecology and gynecological oncology. He teaches at Wayne State Medical School and practices at Harper-Hutzel Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.
Article courtesy of www.careersandcolleges.com
