10 Things You Learn Only After Starting Medical School

Your medical school experience may not exactly be like an episode of Scrubs, but it’s still going to be a satisfying five-year journey.

AsianScientist (Jul. 19, 2016) – Medicine is often over-romanticized, especially by television shows like Patch Adams, Scrubs, 24 Hours in A&E and House. There is a saying that the best parts of medical school are the day you get in and the day you graduate.

Sounds like a nightmare? Perhaps, but medical school is also a satisfying journey where you can learn so much about the human body and yourself. Here are ten things outside of the curriculum that medical school will also teach you.

  1. People have weird study habits

    After a year of medical school, you realize that everyone has weird study habits. Some need absolute silence, while others need to reward themselves with candy after every paragraph they read in the textbook. Even worse, there are those who just stare at the textbook, hoping that knowledge, like molecules, will diffuse from an area of high concentration to low concentration.


  2. Boy, can you cram

    Despite your seniors telling you not to procrastinate on your revision, you always end up with a mountain of notes to go through three weeks before the exams. Thankfully, your brain is a wonderful device. In desperate times, the sheer amount of information you can cram into your brain is simply amazing.


  3. You start to lose contact with non-medical friends

    People give you weird looks when you go on and on about dissection classes. Some people might even think you’re being arrogant, seeing how you talk medicine all the time. The truth is, that’s the only thing you know how to talk about after spending ten hours a day surrounded by medical jargon. But hey, you will meet some of your closest friends, and maybe even your life partner, while studying medicine.


  4. People start to ask you for medical advice

    For some reason, people assume that you know everything just because you are a medical student. Your ‘patients’ list their symptoms and expect you to ‘fix’ them. On the contrary: the more you study, the more you realize there’s so much you don’t understand.


  5. Wikipedia becomes your best friend

    Despite many professors warning you not to trust the content on Wikipedia, you find that this crowdsourced website is your saving grace in dire times of need—like 15 minutes before ward round starts, when you’re frantically trying to understand the patient’s symptoms so that you don’t embarrass yourself in front of the senior consultant.

    Heck, some might even credit Wikipedia for helping them to graduate with an MBBS degree.


  6. You start to call out the inaccuracies in medical TV shows

    Identifying the mystery killer from a strand of hair in just two minutes? Who are you trying to fool here? After attending lectures on forensic medicine, you will know that genome sequencing takes at least 24 hours! I see what you did there, Dr. Bones.


  7. You will, at some point, be mistaken for a doctor

    It may be your lucky day when a patient high on painkillers sees you standing next to him and asks, “What is this medication that I’m on?”

    You then panic and run through that pharmacology textbook in your head, desperately looking for a particular paragraph on page 109. You sheepishly explain to the patient that you’re just a fourth-year medical student, but you’re secretly bursting with joy inside.


  8. You can’t help but ‘diagnose’ everyone around you

    You find yourself suddenly playing ‘doctor’ everywhere you go, from the dinner table to the train ride home. Subconsciously, you start noticing and diagnosing symptoms exhibited by the people around you.

    “Clubbed fingers, difficulty on exhale with slight wheezing, excessive sputum—definitely chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” you think to yourself.

    Sometimes, scoring a correct diagnosis becomes a fierce competition amongst your med school friends—with bragging rights on the line.


  9. You may lose interest in the specialty you were originally attracted to

    You came to med school with lofty dreams of becoming a cardiovascular surgeon. However, over the years you’ve attended so many conferences and placements that you are convinced you are suited to at least five other specialties. This leaves you in a dilemma.

    Although some people have crystal-clear goals, it’s alright not to know what specialty you want to work in, because your ideals and inspirations may change over the course of time.


  10. You will wonder if it is all worth it

    Medical school is a long journey accompanied by a lifetime of learning. It comes as no surprise that you will sometimes lose focus of your goals and start questioning why you wanted to pursue this career in the first place.

    It feels worse when everyone around you is either getting married and having kids or progressing up the corporate ladder, while you’re still studying for your medical exams with crippling student loan debt.

    But at the end of the day, you know that despite all the long hours spent in the wards, endless lectures and countless other struggles, there is nothing else you would rather do. As the saying goes, medicine is only for those who cannot imagine doing anything else.



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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

Godwin is currently a 2nd year medical student at the University of Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc in Anatomy along with a newfound obsession with microglia cells. Outside of academia, he rows for his university and enjoys wakeboarding when the sun is up.

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