I've figured out some simple facts about how I want to spend the rest of my life thanks to my surgery clerkship here in the good ol' M3 year of school.
For starters, leaving for work at 4 am, then getting home from work around 6 pm 6 days out of the week is not how I want to live life. For those who can tolerate the hours and can maintain interest, more power to you, but it's just not me. Now I know that for some in the corporate world this type of lifestyle can be typical, but I remind you, during these 14 hours you never have to write about the quality and consistency of a strangers bowel movements.
Secondly, I can't work exclusively with the type-A personality. They manage their subordinates with disapproving looks and stern talks; I guess the concept of positive reinforcement hasn't quite reached them yet. Perhaps this attitude is some Freudian expression of how they were raised as kids, I don't know. I just can't learn when everything I do wrong is met with a sigh and a shake of the head in disapproval.
Thirdly, I want to give my patients more time than 3-4 minutes when examining them. I've seen too many patients become supremely pissed at being woken up at 5 am, briefly questioned about poop, pee, gas and pain, then prodded at by a bunch of 20 somethings to think that this is a good idea. Sure we may have 50 patients we need to see, but that doesn't mean that I want to be "that asshole doctor" when a patient talks with their friends about the hospital.
So there you go, when I grow up I would like to get more than 5 hours of sleep, work with a diverse group of people and treat my patients with the respect that I would want as a patient. Simple, huh?
I don't want to sound like I'm hating on the whole surgical field, I still think that surgery is one of the more amazing specialties in that they literally work inside patients. Also they can certainly be efficient because of the low threshold for bullshit from their peers. It is nice when people aren't always concerned about hurting other's feelings. But all in all, if it's not something that I love, I can't imagine myself dedicating so much of my life to it.
Oh well, I guess the M3 year is all about narrowing down your options.
