Confidence? Pfffft

Any of you who have been reading this blog for a while know how I feel about returning to medical school. Feels something like this:


Today I had a meeting with the Dean of Student Affairs, who wanted to talk with a group of us MuD-PhuDs about the trials and tribulations of entering the clinical curriculum after 4+ years hidden away in the research lab. Her survey of past returning students indicated that MD-PhD students tend to do not as well as their MD student counterparts in the first couple of rotations, and she wanted to advise us of steps we could take so we could hit the ground running.

Among the options:

• Sit in on the Biology of Disease course, currently being taught to second-year students (informative, and would ideally be one of the best options, but impossible due to the time required)
• Shadow a physician for two intense weeks, suggesting opportunities with the Departments of Internal Medicine or Pediatrics
• Ensure that we schedule one of the 'easier' clerkships first, i.e., pediatrics, family medicine, or psychiatry

If you recall, my GOOD FRIEND DAVE advised me to go with surgery first, the logic being that everyone is equally clueless in surgery, especially if it's the first clerkship. You can see my scheduling preferences here. What did the Dean of Student Affairs have to say about this?

No, not the best plan because:

• The surgery clerkship is intense, much more so than pediatrics/family/psychiatry
• Success in clerkships has much to do with student confidence, and MuD-PhuDs tend to be least confident in their first couple of rotations, and surgery would be the LAST place you want to look like a wimp.
• Attending physician/resident understanding of the fact that MuD-PhuDs have been in the research lab for the last several years is variable. But she suspects that surgeons are probably the least likely to accept that fact.

So instead of flying as high as a kite, my confidence levels look more like this:





So Thanks, Dave, old buddy old pal ;)