Medical Students v 2.0

Hoover  13 Dec, 2007  Medical Students

Lately I see more and more talk of “arrogant, entitled, lazy, and non-caring” medical students coming mainly from attendings. They’re actually referring to these students as the “new generation of medical students.” You see, they don’t understand why some of you guys are finally starting to “get it.”

Enter Medical Student 2.0

You guys are starting to wise up, and it’s about fucking time. I couldn’t be more pleased. Long gone are the training days of 1953, where students and residents practically lived in some run-down shit hole of a hospital room. Back during these wild west days, students would do just about anything that was asked of them. I can see the changes even from my training days just a few years ago. The balls are getting bigger, so keep eating those Wheaties.

This isn’t to say all of my work is done as it will never be fully complete. There will always be that subset of students who will kiss ass to get ahead. Ignore them as they will very soon be in the minority.

Majority Rules

One thing this new generation needs to keep in mind is the power of majority. If you have a majority on your side, you can get away with a hell of a lot more. What are they going to do, punish 80% of the class? I don’t think so. Ask for forgiveness, not permission. Your time will come when the majority of your class will be comprised of this “new generation” of medical students.

How Do You Become Part of the New Generation of Medical Students? Follow These Simple Rules:

  • Always, always question authority. Medical training is extremely inefficient, so questioning authority in the medical training setting is appropriate more times than not.
  • If an unreasonable task is asked of you, simply refuse to do it.
  • Never, ever complete menial tasks for residents or attendings such as fetching food or coffee. Tell them to pick up their own dry cleaning. Remember, they knew what they were getting into when they matched into their specialty. They sowed the seeds, now it’s time for them to harvest the crops.
  • You are paying for your education, therefore you are owed an education. This goes with the above bullet point. You aren’t paying $xx,xxx per year to run copies or obtain vitals. You’re paying to learn. Make them teach. If an attending doesn’t want to teach, he should get his pretentious ass out of academic medicine.
  • If you don’t want to participate in a procedure, tell them. Studying for your shelf exam is much more productive than “assisting” on a chest tube insertion. If they give you any lip, remind them that you’re paying for your education and that you get to call some of the shots.
  • Never skip conferences in lieu of scut. Conference time is break time and it’s often protected time for students at most medical schools. If an attending or resident demands that you skip conference to play human retractor or to complete some other meaningless scut, report them to your Dean. If they need someone to retract, they can pay an OR tech $20+ an hour to do it.

I hope that MSH can continue to shape future next-gen medical students and stop the abuse. All I can do is to continue to spread the word.

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4 Comments so far »

  1. MSG said

    December 13 2007 @ 12:54 pm

    Here’s my thing: there is no more “priviledge” to being a doctor than there is in anything else. Back, long ago, when docs were one of the “elite”, rich, and could charge and do just about anything without big brother being all over their ass you would kill to be amongst them.

    Now, we’re seeing a new breed of docs: smarter, stronger, and more savvy about the actual business of medicine. We are understanding more and more that the investment isn’t paying off nearly what it used to, that you don’t have to be a doctor and nothing else to do good by your patients, and that burning out due to a 24/7/365 lifestyle is retarded.

    The old guys still remember it as it was, but forget that the times have changed, people are more complicated, and the census often runs a lot higher with more turnover then they ever experienced.

  2. Half MD said

    December 13 2007 @ 10:46 pm

    Complaining to the Dean will absolutely do no good. I brought up plenty of informal and formal complaints with our administration regarding our faculty and nothing, I repeat nothing, has ever been done. I even filed an official demerit with the niversity against one surgical attending because of his unprofessional and mean-spirited behavior toward students. He is still teaching here.

    While I certainly think that students get away with a lot more than we would have in the past, there is certainly a long way to go. Students are still treated like secretaries. And when upwards of 50% of the grade comes from evaluations, sometimes getting copies is all that we can do to get the high enough grades to match into a competitive residency program.

  3. p said

    December 15 2007 @ 4:48 pm

    I think that there is SOME truth to what you’re saying.

    Currently I am on my [horrid] surgery rotation, and there are 4 students with me. From day 1, we all secretly agreed that not one of us would come in on Saturday, and no one has ever asked us about it. I already work an easy 60 hours a week not including call, so I’d like to use my weekends for something other than writing notes.

    (Although at the hospital I am at, they aren’t even allowed to just use our notes, they have to write a lot of their own stuff down, so now I just go there for show.)

    However, my other take on it is that every older generation complains how the current one is going downhill, yet we always manage to not destroy human existence.

    And I have to agree with the person above….I am part of a rep council at my school, and the complaints I’m bring up as an MS3, I heard as an MS1. Nothing changes in med school. There is so much red tape, no one cares and we’re just labeled as “whiners” (which really did happen to my class).

  4. Someonect said

    December 22 2007 @ 6:58 pm

    ah yes, generation y … the slackers. or was that generation x …. the slackers. or may be the baby boomers. well it really doesn’t matter, the older generation always views the younger generation as “slackers”. are medical students slackers? well in my view they didn’t work as hard as i did. but, you know that was my perspective. in truth, they probably work just as hard. i can say they are more likely to refuse to do something.

    on my site i have posted a number of times on the generational issue. It is something i have looked at and tried to understand. many of the younger generation speak about the inefficiencies in medical education. i would agree that many inefficiencies exist. many of the younger generation say that they could make the system more efficient. but, they have yet to come forth with alternatives.

    we typically concentrate on things that frustrate us, such as, scut work, long meaningless lectures, and holding “hook”. students concentrate on the learn testable material for the shelf exams, and boards. the problem is that i have never met a test that as treated a patient. if one is going to treat patients, one must treat patients. watching clinical examination and patient-physician interactions is extremely important for those going into clinical specialties. understanding the nuances of a patient’s body language or ways of asking questions to elicit the proper answers can not be read. most of these techniques can be read about but the application must be observed.

    the reason that many of the “new generation” is seen as “arrogant, entitled, lazy, and non-caring” is because they are more likely to leave early to work out than console a crying mother. when asked to help with a case that is uninteresting, they refuse; but when an interesting case appears, they want to do the procedure. yet as the attending surgeon, none of these cases are beneath me.

    i enjoy teaching medical students. i am known for stealing a medical student from the 5 on general surgery, and making them do a case (i mean actually do a case. sew, reduce a fracture, or drain the abscess, etc.) when i evaluate a medical student, i look for someone that i would want to be a physician for my family. as a medical student, they should want to be that kind of physician.

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