Is medical school worth it?
occasionally subtle
trying on a metaphor

izzy's playlists!
Three Goblin Art

No title available
Misplaced Lens Cap
Game of Thrones Daily
No title available

@theartofmadeline
Monterey Bay Aquarium
ojovivo
Xuebing Du
No title available
hello vonnie
YOU ARE THE REASON
đȘŒ
macklin celebrini has autism
tumblr dot com

Kaledo Art

romaâ

seen from Norway

seen from Lithuania
seen from United States
seen from India

seen from United States
seen from Ireland

seen from T1

seen from United States
seen from Germany

seen from T1

seen from T1

seen from T1
seen from T1

seen from T1
seen from South Africa
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States
@medschoolbound
Is medical school worth it?
Masterpost 3 out of 50: Finals GuideÂ
Iâm sorry right now Iâm too mentally tired to think of a description //
[ ask | + other content ]
@eunbloom
This is my dream
look, there are major issues with the way doctors are put on a pedestal and treated as infallible
when doctors are seen as always right, sick people who contradict them are always seen as wrong
when doctors are always believed, people who need medical help don;t get it because a doctor said there was nothing wrong with them
when doctors are seen as always knowing whats best, people go through the wrong treatments which can severely damage them
a climate in which people who hold power over vulnerable people are seen as unchallengeable is fucking dangerous and does literally get people hurt and killed
So well put
Trump picks anti-vaxxer to lead commission on vaccine safety
Trump on Tuesday asked a prominent anti-vaxxer to lead a commission on vaccine safety.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of Bobby Kennedy, said he agreed to lead the commission, which will seek to ensure there is âscientific integrity in the vaccine process for efficacy and safety effects,â Kennedy said.
Kennedy believes vaccines have led to a rise in autism, a claim thatâs been debunked by doctors and scientists.
Kennedy told reporters Tuesday that Trump âhas some doubts about the current vaccine policies.â Read more
follow @the-future-now
50+ million are going to lose healthcare and then theyâre going to weaken herd-immunity and create a spike in illness we havenât seen in decades.Â
Responsibility
People often say to nurses or doctors,
âHow was your day?â
âTell me how it is to be a nurse, how is it to be a doctor?â
Questions that perhaps give us the most pause.
Except, if you ask us, the work on the frontline feels anything but explainable, anything but extraordinary.
We wake up in the morning, we dread going to work, we hit the snooze button like any other, wishing the day wasnât Monday, wishing the 12.5 hours stretched before us wasnât today, wishing we could snuggle under the covers, away from the world. We surface, kick the covers off obstinately, brew our coffee/tea, curse the obnoxious commuters. We resemble any responsible adult when we go through the motions of everyday life. Â
Except; the responsibility hasnât even begun.
We punch in, walk onto the unit, surveying the waiting room as we walk in - a determinant of how the shift may be; large groups grieving, families arguing, solemn looks, crash cart lined up outside the room, empty nursing station warning trouble in one or more of the rooms, and we want to turn around and walk back off the unit.
Except, we donât.
We take our assignment for the day, the patient who is crashing in room 12, and another supposed low maintenance patient, awaiting step down unit. We peek at the low maintenance patient on the way to the crasher, heart already feeling the guilt that we are about to neglect this patient today while we deal with the storm next door.
Except, we donât have time for guilt - yet.
We spend the day in what could only be described as chasing our own tail; watching patients mercilessly who state âI wonât fall,â accepting blame when they do during the four seconds we turned the other way, we scurry back and forth titrating drips, sending copious labs, adjusting ventilator settings, participating in rounds, admitting, discharging, and transferring patientsâŠand ready to begin it all over again before the room is even properly dry from being bleached cleanâŠ.we spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning up after doctors, and other providers, a trail of empty gauze, sodden dressings, syringes, tape, packaging and other assorted items so they do not become trapped under patients, or invade what little personal space they have, we dedicate moments, and sometimes backbreaking hours with patients, turning and  positioning, and tucking them in snug and warmly - not just because a damn hospital policy tells us too, but because itâs the one little thing we can do to give them a little dignity, a clean environment while this room and this bed is their home. We escort families in, and tactfully shoo them out with the frequency of  cleaning escaping diarrhea around the flexi-seal tube, somewhere in the middle of this reflecting on the harsh realities and visuals of nursing that television shows will never depict.
We grapple with decisions, weighing the risks and benefits of what weâre about to do and often it occurs without anyone else in the room, the enormity of the responsibility so overwhelming, yet we cannot think and stew on it until the day is done.
Except, try as we might, weâre not sure we could articulate it well to the masses, either.
We forgo meal breaks  when a patient is decompensating; not because we desire the glory of trudging on, but because for this day, this patient is our world, our responsibility, and one hour away from them in an understaffed unit  - with a fellow nurse watching them alongside of his/her own catastrophic situation  - well, it isnât a meal break we will enjoy peacefully, so we tell ourselves weâll just catch up a bit more, then go. Just another 10 minutes, then 10 minutes becomes just another hour⊠until it becomes just two more hours to change of shift, just one more hour, just thirty minutes.
Except, on most days, we arenât even aware of how much time has escaped and weâre catching up on all the vital signs, the hourly intake, the interruptions and time seems to stand still in the moment when the patient arrests and the room is flooded with doctors and nurses trying to save this life.
Time stands still, even though an hour has passed and the patient is successfully resuscitated, and we go about the ordinary tasks of maintaining human function that the media will never portray, we go about cleansing the grime and gore that wonât stop gushing from all orifices - a sight we endure thatâs by no means extraordinary, but an ordinary function of what we do, we spend time that feels like hours scurrying after orders while patients circle the drain, when our voices have grown hoarse over days and weeks from pleading with the doctors to grow some balls and tell the families honestly their loved one isnât coming back, and itâs timeâŠtime to stop slaughtering them with invasive treatment, time to do whatâs humane, no whatâs good for ego, time to to stop and let them goâŠ.even though our hearts are shattered to admit defeat too. Most days we tell ourselves ordinary has to feel âenoughâ as we stare at the ceiling while sleep wonât come.
We spend sacred minutes, which is more than likely scattered moments with patients who are suffering, end of life, experiencing the agony of distressing news. We are at the bedside during painful procedures, we are at the bedside when no one else is there, no families, no friends, no one to speak of, We are the comfort of the brave, the solace of the strong, the restful place of the tired, and dying. And somedays we cannot leave it all there, so the caregiver role strain, the responsibility, the extent of what we see and feel in one day cannot be captured in any articulate sentence,
So,
When someone asks us how our day was, weâll just say, âfineâ
When someone asks us what it means to be a nurse, we are likely to simply say âresponsibility.â
..We punch out, the day is over.
The outside world looks for whatâs extraordinary.
To us, we find meaning in the ordinary.
50 Things I Learned to Succeed on Rotations
I think Iâve finally been a third year long enough to write a post on how to succeed during rotations without having to be a grand showman and intellectual prodigy. Iâve certainly made my fair share of mistakes and straight up screw ups, Iâve also had a lot more successes than I expected.
Hopefully, what I write is useful to those starting or already on rotations (though Iâm sure many of you are totally killing it already) and remember these are based on my experiences and of what Iâve learned from people I know so your experiences may be different. This isnât a âhow toâ guide, more a quick hit of helpful notes to take into consideration.Â
I also feel like maybe 50 wasnât enough to actually illustrate what rotations are like, so if anyone wants to add more to this please do.
Tried and True
Show up the first day, bright eyed and bushy tailed no matter how hard the last rotation was.
Always try to be there early, before the doctor, even if itâs just a little bit.
Read, read, read.
If youâve got a question, ask a question.
Keep reading
Friday the 13th AND a full moon?
Doctors/nurses/EMTs be like:
Hey beautiful people...I hope you all had lovely holidays, ate a lot and slept like you were ready for hibernation. I'm sending you all good vibes for this semester with hopes that you will achieve all the goals you set for yourself.
I've been MIA the past couple of weeks and have been thinking introspectively about my future since this is my last semester and all. I'm at a crossroad of sorts and I needed to take some time away from all of my social media/medicine (even though I did work at the hospital throughout the holidays).
I just wanted to let you all know where I'm at and if any of you are interested about hearing my thoughts, doubts and concerns about perusing medicine let me know and I will be more than happy to meticulously put them into words.
Have a wonderful semester.
If you guys ever need to get away from the health care community and look at pictures of nature and puppies to ease your mind you can always hop on over to my main blog https://www.tumblr.com/blog/wanderer-of-the-woods .Â
Hope you are all doing well frands xoxo
finals week like
friend: i can't wait to be home
me: i can't wait to be dead
Today I got to my theory class a little late, as did most of us. and my professor sat down and asked, âWhy are you guys here? Where do you want to be after you get your masters, where should i look for you in 5 years? Whatâs your dream?â
And is started out as a fun little exercise as a few people answered and shared that they wanted to be teachers or open up their own studios or be a conductor. But then Dr. Olander slowly went around the room and asked every single person to share. And each personâs eyes lit up and they smiled and they spoke softly about what lead them to this school and what they wanted to do with their degree, what their interests are and how they wanted to use their degree to help others or spread music or make a difference.Â
Every person. 15+ people. It took nearly the whole class period. And Dr. Olander finished and said she was just curious and didnât mean to take up the whole class talking about that, but she thought it was good to stop sometimes and remember why youâre here, where youâre going, who you are and what your dreams are.Â
I started crying in the middle of class bc it had been so long since i had stopped to remember why i love music and why i want a masters and how badly i want to use it to change peopleâs lives with music the way mine was.Â
So stop for a second. Donât think about how much youâve practiced this week, or your grades or your classes or scholarships or jobs or anything. Really stop. Stop and ask yourself,Â
Why am I here? Where do i want to be in 5 years? Why do I love this? What is my dream?
Remember who you are. Stop and dust your dreams off, and remember.Â
Iâm putting the âproâ in procrastinate
Hey guys. I hope you are all having a productive and efficient finals week...because Iâm not. At least I havenât until now. Iâm writing this as a way to keep myself accountable. I had my whole pre-finals week study schedule planned  out and it went to complete shit. Wednesday was our last day of classes. But for the last two days Iâve just been sleeping in (those of you who have been following for a while know I get up at like 6 am most days) and Iâve binged watched the whole 3rd season of The 100...in 2 days...do the math... Itâs been really really bad (but at least Iâve been going to the gym). So it ends here. My ochem final is on Wednesday and Physics is on Thursday. So I still have a couple of days to do some good studying. My plan of attack is just do problem sets, retake quizzes and Iâm leaving the practice finals last (with enough time to go over my weak spots).Â
I fudged up. But I took a shower, lathered my body in some hydrating body lotion (fuck you cold), I got my bottle of water on my desk and Iâm going to sit my toosh down and do some hard core studying. (tip: give yourselves a short break every hour of studying so you donât burn out.)
I hope you are all doing a lot better than me lol. Keep up the good work. (for some tips on what to do if youâre in a study time crunch I reblogged a master post on that not long ago).
Hey! I'm a Senior in high school. I just turned my college applications in this week. The major that I chose is Nursing. Any advice?? :)
Heeeey boo hey. I work with nurses and let me tell youâŠyou chose a very valiant and nobel career. Nursing is one of the toughest jobs out there but probably one of the most rewarding too. Its tough because sometimes it just feels like your passing meds all day and cleaning patients up and have to deal with noncompliant butthole people and yes sometimes shitty doctors but you are your patients advocate, you are in direct contact with the patient most of the day/night, you are not only there to console them physically but also mentally. Nursing allows you to travel if you want to and is so so so diverse as a career. My advice would be to not give up. Its a great job that has so many opportunities. Dont get sucked into the gossip or cattiness (?) that goes on behind the scenes in this heavily female populated career because that sucks and you want to always be the one to give a helping hand or a kind word to your peers because youâre in it together and you are a team. When you start working remember to take care of yourself! You need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. And never say anything bad about your patients behind their back at work. Sometimes you may feel like you need to vent but at the end of the day they are the ones in a hospital bed/are sick/dying and although I firmly believe that that still doesnât give them the right to be assholes especially to those of us who are trying to help,that also doesnt give you the right to be a horrible person in return. You can easily lose yourself in healthcare because you are constantly focused on othersâŠso donât. :) I hope this was what you are looking for. Good luck. Nurses rock!Any nurses/nursing students want to add on?
On Finding Your Purpose: An Extraordinary Letter by Hunter S. Thompson
"Dear Hume, You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal â to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself. I am not a fool, but I respect your sincerity in asking my advice. I ask you though, in listening to what I say, to remember that all advice can only be a product of the man who gives it. What is truth to one may be disaster to another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt to give you specific advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind. âTo be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether âtis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles ⊠â (Shakespeare) And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision youâve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I donât see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect â between the two things Iâve mentioned: the floating or the swimming. But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question. It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How can a man be sure heâs not after the âbig rock candy mountain,â the enticing sugar-candy goal that has little taste and no substance? The answer â and, in a sense, the tragedy of life â is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man. We set up a goal which demands of us certain things: and we do these things. We adjust to the demands of a concept which CANNOT be valid. When you were young, let us say that you wanted to be a fireman. I feel reasonably safe in saying that you no longer want to be a fireman. Why? Because your perspective has changed. Itâs not the fireman who has changed, but you. Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective. So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis? The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with tangible goals, anyway. It would take reams of paper to develop this subject to fulfillment. God only knows how many books have been written on âthe meaning of manâ and that sort of thing, and god only knows how many people have pondered the subject. (I use the term âgod only knowsâ purely as an expression.) Thereâs very little sense in my trying to give it up to you in the proverbial nutshell, because Iâm the first to admit my absolute lack of qualifications for reducing the meaning of life to one or two paragraphs. Iâm going to steer clear of the word âexistentialism,â but you might keep it in mind as a key of sorts. You might also try something called âBeing and Nothingnessâ by Jean-Paul Sartre, and another little thing called âExistentialism: From Dostoyevsky to Sartre.â These are merely suggestions. If youâre genuinely satisfied with what you are and what youâre doing, then give those books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.) But back to the answer. As I said, to put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors.WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES. But donât misunderstand me. I donât mean that we canât BE firemen, bankers, or doctors â but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal. In every man, heredity and environment have combined to produce a creature of certain abilities and desires â including a deeply ingrained need to function in such a way that his life will be MEANINGFUL. A man has to BE something; he has to matter. As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES. In doing this, he is fulfilling a need (giving himself identity by functioning in a set pattern toward a set goal), he avoids frustrating his potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to conform to his own abilities and desires). In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life â the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual. Letâs assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And letâs assume that you canât see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN â and here is the essence of all Iâve said â you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH. Naturally, it isnât as easy as it sounds. Youâve lived a relatively narrow life, a vertical rather than a horizontal existence. So it isnât any too difficult to understand why you seem to feel the way you do. But a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance. So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. But you say, âI donât know where to look; I donât know what to look for.â And thereâs the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I donât know â is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by DECIDING TO LOOK, you go a long way toward making the choice. If I donât call this to a halt, Iâm going to find myself writing a book. I hope itâs not as confusing as it looks at first glance. Keep in mind, of course, that this is MY WAY of looking at things. I happen to think that itâs pretty generally applicable, but you may not. Each of us has to create our own credo â this merely happens to be mine. If any part of it doesnât seem to make sense, by all means call it to my attention. Iâm not trying to send you out âon the roadâ in search of Valhalla, but merely pointing out that it is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that â no one HAS to do something he doesnât want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if thatâs what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. Youâll have lots of company. And thatâs it for now. Until I hear from you again, I remain, Your friend, Hunter"
Medical SchoolâA Not-So-Quick Walkthrough
Hey humans! Aunt Scripty here. This post is a submission by Brittany, whose Tumblr handle I surprisingly donât know. This post came through the Submissions Box. If youâre interested, I encourage people to submit articles to appear on the blog! [though it may behoove us both if you message me first, as I have a few posts in-progress and I donât want us to duplicate efforts]
Anyway, give Brittany some props! This is an awesome post, and Iâm CRAZY thankful she wrote in! And now, Brittany, take it away!
Disclaimer: This applies to the American medical system only, and may be biased by the authorâs experiences. Also note that this is the process for becoming an MD, not a DO (both MDs and DOs are fully licensed physicians, but DOs have a stronger focus on the musculoskeletal system and their schooling is slightly different).
Disclaimer Part 2: I swear, this was SUPPOSED to be a brief post. Â Oops.
The quick and dirty:
â4 years of undergrad
â4 years of medical school, 2 in the classroom and 2 clinical
â3-5 years of residency depending on what they specialize in. Can be longer if they add subspecialties or fellowships.
The in-depth description:
Getting in (Premed student)
Acceptance to medical school is hard enough to start with. Thereâs an estimate that 75% of applicants are qualified, but only 50% get in. Your character doesnât need to major in biology or pre-med, but there are pre-requisites: two semesters each of biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus, and physics, plus a couple biology electives, and I think psych and statistics have been added on since I graduated, but donât quote me on that. Thatâs pretty much 2/3 of a science major right there, so you can see why a lot of people just end up with that. During spring of junior year, theyâll take a giant standardized test called the MCAT that covers all of those topics and is notoriously difficult.
Along with the classroom work, theyâll have to get clinical experienceâmost commonly volunteering, shadowing, or working as a medical scribe, but you can get creativeâand usually do a little research of some kind. Med school is hard and being a doctor is harder; they want to know that youâve got an idea of what youâre getting into. If your character does all that right, they interview with medical schools during the fall of senior year, and hopefully get accepted!
Year 1 (MS1)
Your first year is classroom based. You get daily lectures on very complicated medical topics, with relatively little patient interaction this year. Schools will include more practical classes as well, including a cadaver dissection, pathology (where you train to look at cells and understand what a healthy vs. diseased one looks like; some schools are old school and have people still work with slides and microscopes, others like mine do it virtually), and standardized patient encounters (where they hire actors to come in and work with us so we can practice histories and physical exams and basically get a baseline on things like âwhat does a normal lung sounds like?â).
Patient interaction varies from school to school, but generally is pretty low. You can shadow a certain specialty youâre interested in, volunteer in free clinics, join different clubs/interest groups, or do various electives that will focus on teaching certain aspects of patient care (nutrition, medical Spanish, global health, etc.), but you have to go look for them. If I hadnât done any of that, I would have seen maybe⊠two patients a month? Most students will branch out with those other opportunities, though.
Year 2 (MS2)
Similar to MS1 in that youâre still on classroom duty, still not seeing many patients. Typically you learn more sensitive physical exams this year (urological, gynecologic, breast, etc.), and youâre finished with the cadaver dissection, but things are otherwise the same. At the end of your characterâs MS2 year, theyâll take their first board exam, called STEP 1. You can take it one time only unless you fail. Low scores or a fail are really frowned on, and can limit the specialty your character goes into, so you can imagine the pressure.
Year 3 (MS3)
Yay! Your characterâs now ready to be let loose on the clinic/hospital!
Boo! This year kicks. your. ass.
This year is all about making your character feel like an idiot putting what your characterâs been studying for two years into action. The schedule is broken up into rotations, which are periods of 4-8 weeks where students focus on a specific specialty each time. These courses are: pediatrics, family medicine, psychiatry, ob/gyn, neurology (usually), emergency (sometimes), surgery, and internal medicine. Difficulty varies by rotation, with surgery and ob/gyn being the worst (12 hour days with only one day off a week, max; surgery adds in occasional 24 hour shifts too, just to spice things up). Occasionally youâll land on a nice one, like psychiatry, with 10 hour days and free weekends.
On a more day-to-day level, third years are usually part of a small medical team that cares for a set of patients. The team consists of an attending (fully licensed physician), residents (physicians who are training in their particular specialty), and medical students (MS3s and MS4s both). MS3s will usually get a small subset of hospital patients they care for every dayâtake their histories, do their physical exams, list what you think they have, and suggest treatments/testsâbut because youâre not licensed, you basically take all that to the attending/resident who hears you out and then says âyeaâ or ânay.â As the year progresses, hopefully you hear more âyeasâ and fewer ânays.â
At the end of this year/the beginning of 4th year, thereâs another board exam called STEP 2. Half is your typical multiple choice test, with a numeric scoreâmuch like STEP 1âwhile half is a pass/fail practical where you work with standardized patients.
Year 4 (MS4)
Hopefully by now your character has figured out what they want to specialize in. I can go over specialties in another post if anyoneâs curious, but the biggest ones are basically the same as the ones listed as core rotations during the MS3 year. Thereâs a giant application/interview process that takes up the lionâs share of the summer/fall/winter for interviews with residency. At the end of the process, everyone ranks the residencies they interviewed with from most to least favorite, and at the same time the residencies rank their interviewees from most to least. The whole thing goes into a giant computer algorithm to give as many people as possible as high a choice as possible, and then on the same day of the year, at the same time, MS4s across the country take a deep breath and open envelopes saying where they âmatched.â
In addition, with those pesky core rotations out of the way, the character has time to take electives that may or may not be applicable to their future specialtyâme, Iâm going for emergency medicine, so Iâm doing several rotations in EM as well as EMS, but Iâm also doing a two week course forensics because it sounds awesome.
Otherwise, 4th year is widely known as the âtake a breathâ year. People get married or have babies during this time, travel, and generally start to act like human beings again. Thereâs space in your schedule thatâs offâitâs generally intended for interviews or studying for STEP 2 if youâre taking it late, but people will use it for anything.
Residency
Not going to give too much detail about it, seeing as how your character is technically a doctor at this point, but residency is basically 3-5 years where your character trains in a specialtyâyes, theyâre physicians, but they donât know everything about their particular field and need trained. Youâre in this weird limbo between student and employee; you make a salary (although a very low one considering the number of hours) and can prescribe medication, perform procedures, etc., but an attending is responsible for you, you still attend a weekly lecture, and you canât practice independently. To give you an idea of how hard these years are, they recently had to limit things like âdonât make residents work more than 36 hours in a row,â and âdonât put the doctor who graduated med school a month ago in charge of an entire floor of ICU patients for a night with no backup.â Incredibly, some of the old-school attendings think said changes are a bad idea and will produce doctors who are âweak.â
Also, you thought your character was done with standardized tests? You sweet summer child. STEP 3 has to be finished before you can complete residency, and is usually done during intern year. The good side of this is, youâre in a residency now, so as long as you pass, no one cares about the score.
Random notes:
âThis is a sample timeline, following your âtraditionalâ student. Itâs becoming more and more common for people to take a couple of years off after undergrad and apply for medical school after that. If you want a chance for your character to gain some non-medical life experience (travel, other skill sets, becoming a parent, etc.), this is a good chance for them to do it!
âIâve been asked by a writer I know in RL how young someone could potentially become a doctor. I think she wanted to put in a prodigy kind of person. The problem with that is that medical schools donât just look for smarts, they look for maturityâimagine having someone who looks like they canât drink yet tell you youâve got a terminal disease, and you can see why. That said, there are a couple of accelerated programs, where Iâve seen people graduate undergrad a year early and go straight into medical school, or where they condense medical school into three whirlwind years because the personâs on track for a specific primary care residency. So if most people graduate medical school at age 26-27, you could have someone out at 25 or maybe 24, but probably no younger. And remember, theyâll still need residency training from there.
âNot gonna lie, medical school is incredibly difficult.  That said, I think the best students/doctors are the ones who maintain an outside interest or two, so donât feel like your character can only have medical skills (*cough*Grey'sAnatomy*cough*) .  Give them a few side interests to maintain their spirit.
âI can give more detail about any and all of these if anyone asks; these are supposed to help you understand what your character has had to go through to be a doctor, not be a full detail spiel. I can also do âday in the lifesâ if someoneâs writing a med student character and wants an accurate description, but letâs be real: most people want to write the master, not the pupil.
Took me a bit to realize that this excellent summary is actually aimed at writers who are writing about a med-student/resident character. Great post!
Biology
Masterposts:
Great masterpost with links and tips from @highschooleringâ
Guide with a-level info from @areistotleâ
AP biology masterpost from @ellielearnsthingsâ
Biology resource page from @studygeneâ
Resources for biology from @studentcombeferre
Bio help from @humanltiesâ
IB biology from @etudiaireâ
Studyblr biology from @joolshallieâ
More biology resources from @study-wellâ
Resources:
Crash Course biologyÂ
Biology study guides
AP biology flashcard decks
Bio courses online
National Science Foundationâs bio resources
Biology teaching & learning tools
The Biology Corner
Khan Academy biology
Biology Q&As
Physics
Masterposts
Physics links from @outcastmagazine
Tips for physics success from @hexaneandheels
Physics masterpost from @physicsnerd
More physics from @areistotle
Physics with Professor Feynman from @thefictiontree
Topics in AP Physics 1Â from @mondaysnights
AP Physics tips from @noarasseo
How to succeed in physics from @motivatedhealthysuccess
Resources
How to study physics
Physics.org
AP Physics study guides
Learn AP physics
Another physics study guide
Last study guide, I promise
SparkNotes physics
KhanAcademy physics
The Physics Classsroom
Physics at BHS
Physics C ref sheet
Chemistry
Masterposts:
Fantastic AP Chemistry guide from @etudiance
Chemistry note-taking from @somestudy
Studying for chemistry from @caffeinatedcraziness
Chemistry resources from @study-well
IB Chemistry from @rewritign
Chemistry masterpost from @intellectus
Resources for chemistry from @digitalstudy
Functional groups in organic chemistry from @compoundchem
Notes on chemistry topics from @sciencescribbles
How to study for chemistry from @he1975
Resources:
AP Chemistry notes
Royal Society of Chemistryâs periodic table
Chemical equation balancer
Crash Course chemistry
ChemCollective
KhanAcademy chemistry
General chemistry resources page
Chemtutor
Chemistry lecture notes
Chemhelper
More
Subjects:
APES flashcards
Computer science/engineering masterpost from @algorhythmn
Computer science masterpost from @productiveravenclaw
Space + the universe from @areistotle
Other:
Follow all the science blogs
Free science books
Science resources from @highschoolering
Ultimate science masterpost
Science galleries
How I study for science from @hideandstudy
Good luck with your sciencing! You can request a post here and see my other original content here.