What High School And Premed Students Have To Fear About Medical School
It is worth understanding that studying medicine is tough. When it comes to medical school, that is tougher.
It is no easy task because having a good CGPA in pre-med (or another degree) and acing the MCAT is not an easy job. There’s a competition!
The field of healthcare and medicine has no fixed routine. There is no 9 to 5 here.
Graduates can work either all day or all night, end up burning out and even the possibility of enduring fatigue.
A lot of medical graduates ruin their own health ensuring the patients’ lives are not on the line through the provision of the best possible care provided.
Whether a student studies at Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Free University of Berlin, an Accredited Caribbean medical school, University of Melbourne or another medical school; they must study hard, work smart, be diligent and be ahead of others.
They may need to put aside video games and lose their sleep (But they must sleep more as it is important).
At times, the way students fare in medical school can become a cause of concern.
Students can end up sleep-deprived, lose grades, fall down financially, find it hard to study during a hard routine and vice versa.
Clearing the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1, 2 and 3 is possible once students have graduated and are eligible to participate in those exams.
Apart from their studies, the quality of life of students is badly hurt.
Can they balance the impact of the disbalance in education and life, because this can lead them to serious fatigue and burnout?
What do students fear about medical school?
The following are the fears and concerns students face when they study in medical school:
A tough academic life
Many medical students are reminded many times about how tough medical school is.
Regardless of their pre-med scores, they are not always completely prepared for medical school.
Intelligence, perseverance, and resilience can help them go through medical school.
In limited time spans, students must go through dense learning material so they can be prepared for upcoming lectures.
Balancing studies and life
The majority of students will reside in the dorms when they study at medical school. Some reside outside the campus due to a part-time job.
They often try to study well so they can graduate with zeal.
Many times, social gatherings, frat parties and other activities can tempt students, but they would then end up tired and sleepy.
They must organize everything neatly.
Students also need to take good care of their physical and mental well being when studying medicine. They must eat healthily, sleep well, drink healthy, exercise, relax and hustle.
A change in environment isn’t exactly helpful
A change of environment can be tempting sometimes, quite welcoming and at times, very challenging. Going away from home to a new place cannot be as same as the comfort of the bedroom cannot be replicated in the dorm room.
A small-town student can adjust to the big city but can take some time.
Meanwhile, a student from a large city can find it hard to adjust to the life of a small town.
For instance, a New Yorker student would adjust to the intellectuality of Boston but would find it hard adjusting in Ann Arbor, Seattle, College Station, Tampa or Boulder.
Studying the desired specialty can be hassling
Being a student of medicine, they should study from the perspective of physiology, pharmacology, anatomy, and pathology of every organ of the body in detail.
Clinical experience can be tricky because students must go through each field, pathology, patient, and procedure carefully. This determines their aptitude and that will help them choose the specialty they can study with zeal.
Not all students have the same age
The American Association of Medical Colleges revealed that the average age of a student starting medical school is 24.
This is not just due to the GPA requirements of premed required by medical schools but also the need for a relevant bachelor’s degree as a pre-requisite for the Doctor of Medicine (M.D) program.
What worries students is the barriers they face with fewer years of experience in comparison to their peers.
This could impact their skills to care for patients as well as any other social opportunity that arises in medical life.
About Author
