Day 11: Things to look forward to

It's always a joy to hear about the hardships of medical school application process. It is, however, a necessary evil to get into medical school. It was very generous of Dr. Catalana to donate his time and talk to us about how the GHS school looks at applicants. Seeing it from the admissions standpoint is very informational because as an applicant its not easy to get inside the mind of what the admissions committees really want.

After the Q&A we listened to a panel of rising M2 students from the GHS Medical School. One important thing that I took away form this session is that it is possible to have a life outside of studying; many of them are married, engaged, or are doing things outside of their classes. It kind of gives me hope for/if I can get it there will be other things to do rather than study. Listening to all their different opinions, including Dr. Catalana's, has made me think about taking a gap year more. There are some positives and negatives from taking a year off to either work or get involved in a yearlong project and right now its difficult to weigh those and decide but at least I have time to think about it.

The "Doctor Diaries" program was certainly interesting, and the second time I've watched it actually. When I first watched this program it made me hesitant to think about entering medicine; many of these physicians were in stressful work settings and had difficult personal lives. I certainly see myself getting married one day but I would hope that the stress of medical school and residency wouldn't get in the way of that. It seems much more complicated than I thought. It does seem possible, however, after listening to the M2s talking about their medical school experiences so far and most of the doctors I have shadowed are also, and seemingly, happily married. As much as I believe that this series gives a realistic view on the lives of physicians I also think that some of theses cases are the exception. These students attended Harvard medical school, one of the most prestigious medical schools in the country. To be accepted into this kind of program I believe that you would need to have a strict, Type A personality that is very much devoted to their work. I think that that may be one of the reasons why some of these physicians had such a hard time balancing their work-life and home-life. The program did do a good job though of following a wide variety of people on their journey through medicine and I think that that did a good job at seeing the different sides of it. Personally, I think that if anyone has the drive and the right academics they can become a physician. So far, from what I have seen, it is a grueling process that taxes you not only academically but emotionally as well. You need to be able to remind yourself of the reason why you want to become a physician in the first place to help carry you through the tough times when you want to give up.

But the question always is: what are you going to do next? I'm the type of person that makes a list for everything, its how I keep track of what I've done and make sure I prioritize the right thing. It seems, however, that the to-do list for medical school constantly keeps growing, and growing, and growing; I check off one item and have to add two more. Im only an undergraduate and it already seems exhausting but the fact that my goal is achievable is one of the many things that keeps me going. For me my Freshman year was important: I secured my grades, leadership roles, a job, and a research position. Now, the next step for me is to keep the future in mind but still stay focused on this upcoming school year: my independent research study, my RM job, my grades, ect, ect. There's of course the MCAT and AMCAS application to look forward to but there are a lot of smaller steps in between as well.

Between watching the Doctor Diaries today, Dr. Epright also continued her lecture on autonomy in healthcare. Today we focused mostly on patients in PVS and the steps to take to determine what their wishes would be if their is no documentation. The cases of Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan, and Terri Schiavo were all very sad case, not only for the patients themselves but for the aftermath that the families had to deal with. Even with the South Carolina Adult Health Care Consent Act it seems as if there are still cases that are difficult to resolve and that there cannot be a win-win set of rules for everyone.

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