Whoa! Whoa! Calm down, people! We all know that I’m not a doctor… yet. But, be warned now: there’s a good chance that when I do become one, I may also become kind of a jerk (as in, I could become a doctor who acts like an asshole, as opposed to a doctor who specializes in working with the anus).
Have you ever met a physician who acts like he is the most important person in the world and anyone/thing that may inconvenience or waste his time is the scum of the earth? Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. But still, I’ve met quite a few doctors who act this way and I don’t like it one bit. Who do they think they are?! Why is his time more important than anyone else’s? This attitude gives the profession of medicine a bad face (and quite frankly, rubs me the wrong way).
“I would never act like that once I’m a doctor,” I had thought to myself. Then one day, about a month into medical school, I found myself complaining to a classmate about a required class on our schedule: “How dare they schedule that class on a Monday afternoon?!” Honestly, I can’t remember the class or even the subject. But I do know that it was lame and something that I had deemed a waste of my time. And I was pissed.
It was at this point that I realized that I was acting very similarly to those very physicians that I did not want to be like. How did this happen? I used to be such a nice person (well, at least I thought so)! The truth is, I know exactly what happened: Medical school happened. You see, we don’t have a lot of free time. In fact, our schedules are so busy that we are constantly being asked to make choices about our activities.
For example, “Should I go to powderpuff practice, go to Ob/gyn Interest Group, or study Biochem?” If I don’t go to practice, I may not make any friends in medical school, but if I don’t study Biochem, I may not make it through medical school anyway. If I don’t go to OBIG, I may not get a good residency! Such tough decisions!
A career in medicine involves making a lot of sacrifices. I’ve lost family time, friend time, personal hygiene time, hobby time, tv time, exercise time, relaxation time, blogging time (!), etc. all in the name of medicine. And I’m okay with it (mostly). I knew what I signed up for and I think (hope) becoming a physician and helping people will make it worth it.
What I’m not okay with is people wasting my time. Because I am constantly forced to make decisions between activities that I want to participate in, it is incredibly frustrating to make these sacrifices in order to do things that I don’t want to do, but have to. Medical school is filled with such activities. With time being such a precious commodity, I am acutely aware of how I would like to spend it. And when people waste my time, I get cranky. Suddenly, I find myself acting just like those physicians who I don’t want to be… and I’m only an MS1! Is “How Not to be an Asshole” covered in Clinical Foundations II?
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