What would my Doctor Self tell my Medical Student Self (Part 3)
Obviously I was a problematic medical student. I had many issues and quirks both within me and around me. My parents did help me whenever they could but coming from a different generation, they also had trouble properly reaching out to me.
I never had a mentor (nor did I ever think of searching for one) who would have guided me on my road to becoming a physician or even an older sibling who was also in the same field. It would be a dream to have my doctor self go back in time to set me straight during my medical school days.
So here I go again talking to my medical student self.
“Hey, you have an exam in Pediatrics tomorrow. What are you doing hanging around here? Shouldn’t you be back in your dorm studying for it? You don’t like the subject so you study it last?? So when do you plan to start reading Nelson’s? At 2 am??”
“Let me tell you this and I mentioned it before that learning and emotions are intertwined. The more you dislike a subject, the less you will learn from it no matter what you do!”
“Think of the subject you like least as a big frog that you have to swallow. You have to swallow it no matter what and the longer you procrastinate the bigger this frog becomes. So swallow the frog now while it’s still small. Not doing so only makes it bigger and the task becomes harder. Stop procrastinating!”
“Studying anything during the time that your brain should be resting is counterproductive. Many medical students see studying during the time they should be resting as a security blanket and they have this false notion that doing so increases their chances of passing. Nothing could be more further from the truth than that!”
“Our brains need to rest. You may have a mountain to climb but if your legs are tired how can you even do so? It’s the same with your brain. It has limitations and it gets tired. The only way for it to be productive is if you give it the right amount of rest it needs. The only way to do that is to properly manage your time. Do it now while in medical school because in the hospital it’s going to be a completely different story!”
“Complaining that you have too little time to study? There is a good seven hours from the time you end the day at medical school to midnight. What did you do with those seven hours?? The problem is that many medical students are not able to properly manage their time. Dinner and other rituals should take no longer than an hour or two. There is at least five productive hours you have left till midnight so why not take advantage of that?”
“Another problem you have is you have this mentality that you shouldn’t study when there is no test or exam the next day. If you are a medical student, it is given that you should spend at least two hours a day in self-study even if there is no exam the next day.”
“Doing so allows your brain to slowly take in information and enables to you learn it faster when the time comes that you need to go through that information again in preparation for a test. Think of your daily self-study as practice for the big game, which is the exam itself. The more you practice, the better you will perform during the exam. Repetition is the key. The more you read information, the more it will become ingrained in your mind.”
“You know group study helps too. Some of your classmates most probably have a good grip of the concepts you need to learn. Having them explain it will help you immensely. In order to properly learn anything, you must first understand it and your classmates probably do.”
“Associate yourself with like-minded people and those on the same journey as you. Medical school is not a competition. You need to learn cooperation, as healthcare itself is a collaborative endeavor.”
“I think it is time to stop hanging around with your non-medical school friends. They have a different journey and different priorities. They can afford to spend hours on end after work hanging around doing nothing. They don’t have tests or exams to study for. They don’t need to juggle all the information that you have to do on a daily basis.”
“So, you’re not studying Gynecology because one of your classmates gave you the leakage of tomorrow’s exam?? My question is; will that classmate of yours be around in the future to tell you what to do when your patient is in cardiac arrest in front of you???”
“Honestly, cheating can get you through medical school. Believe me I have seen it happen too many times but when you cheat to get your MD degree did you really cheat the system or yourself? Remember, you are in medical school to learn how to save lives or at least improve the quality of life of the people who put their trust in you.”
“Cheating in medical school is also cheating your future patients! When you cheat you miss out on properly learning the lessons needed to properly treat your patients or even understand their condition.”
“As a physician, it is expected that you be armed with the knowledge to properly handle a patient’s condition. There are many times that there will be no one else around to tell you what to do and how to do it. However, if you cheated your way through medical school, would you still be armed with that life-saving knowledge??”
“So if you feel cheating is the way to go. Go ahead. Your patients will pay the price for it in the future!”
“Many students cheat because they don’t want to fail. The truth is that failure means there is something you need to improve on. You fell short on the things required for you to pass. Professors and schools set standards not to make life difficult for students They set these standards because students need to demonstrate that they have garnered the required knowledge from that subject. That’s it. You don’t make the cut, you don’t pass. It’s as simple as that!”
“Well sometimes despite your best efforts you still don’t make it. If you fail remember that nothing is wrong with you but it means you need to do better the next time around. You lost a battle but that doesn’t mean the war is lost.”
“Failing today does not mean you will be a failure tomorrow and forever!”
“I tell you these things because I had to learn them the hard way! I want you to be an excellent doctor so why settle being average?? You have it in you to become extraordinary so why be content on being ordinary or mediocre???”
“You have the potential to reach out to others and inspire them to be great. So why are you resting on your laurels? Always strive to be the best you can be and reach for the skies. Life is meant to be lived forward and not backward. You are a lot better than you think you are. Trust me, I know!”
So, what’s my point this time around?
1. The more you dislike a subject, the less you will learn from it no matter what you do!
2. Think of the subject you like least as a big frog that you have to swallow. You have to swallow it no matter what and the longer you procrastinate the bigger this frog becomes. So swallow the frog now while it’s still small. Not doing so only makes it bigger and the task becomes harder. Stop procrastinating!
3. Studying anything during the time that your brain should be resting is counterproductive.
4. Our brains need to rest. You may have a mountain to climb but if your legs are tired how can you even do so? It’s the same with your brain. It has limitations and it gets tired. The only way for it to be productive is if you give it the right amount of rest it needs. The only way to do that is to properly manage your time.
5. Think of your daily self-study as practice for the big game, which is the exam itself. The more you practice, the better you will perform during the exam. Repetition is key.
6. Think of your daily self-study as practice for the big game, which is the exam itself. The more you practice, the better you will perform during the exam. Repetition is the key.
7. Associate yourself with like-minded people and those on the same journey as you. Medical school is not a competition. You need to learn cooperation, as healthcare itself is a collaborative endeavor.
8. If you are a medical student, it is given that you should spend at least two hours a day in self-study even if there is no exam the next day.
9. Remember, you are in medical school to learn how to save lives or at least improve the quality of life of the people who put their trust in you.
10. Cheating in medical school is also cheating your future patients! When you cheat you miss out on properly learning the lessons needed to properly treat your patients or even understand their condition.
11. So if you feel cheating is the way to go. Go ahead. Your patients will pay the price for it in the future!
12. The truth is that failure means there is something you need to improve on. You fell short on the things required for you to pass. Professors and schools set standards not to make life difficult for students They set these standards because students need to demonstrate that they have garnered the required knowledge from that subject. That’s it. You don’t make the cut, you don’t pass. It’s as simple as that!”
13. If you fail remember that nothing is wrong with you but it means you need to do better the next time around. You lost a battle but that doesn’t mean the war is lost.
14. Failing today does not mean you will be a failure tomorrow and forever!
15. You have it in you to become extraordinary so why be content on being ordinary or mediocre???”
16. Always strive to be the best you can be and reach for the skies. Life is meant to be lived forward and not backward. You are a lot better than you think you are.
If you reading this and it has touched you in some way then my efforts are not wasted. Learn from me what I was not able to teach my medical student self.
Everything I write in my blogs are a product of years of trials and experience which I hope will enlighten those who read it.
The last things I can say for now is that I am not done saying things I need to say.
If you missed the last two parts here are the links to them:
https://docfrance.wixsite.com/blog/single-post/2019/02/13/What-would-my-Doctor-self-tell-my-Medical-Student-self-Part-1
https://docfrance.wixsite.com/blog/single-post/2019/02/17/What-would-my-Doctor-self-tell-to-my-Medical-Student-self-Part-2
So till next post - Doc France
