The Real Lives of Doctors

While browsing what was available to me on broadcast TV yesterday, I happened upon PBS – Nova Doctor Diaries. I normally don’t care to watch doctor shows but somehow this caught my attention. Maybe it was the striking similarities that I felt I shared with each participant or just how real this reality TV was. I couldn’t believe that the 7 physicians who entered medical school in 1987, when I was merely a pup, had gone through what I and many of my colleagues have given that I entered medical school in 2000. Worse, I wondered what lay ahead of me as I approach what I’ve always deemed to be “the grand finale”.

That should give an insight into my current state of mind, that a part of me actually sees the end of formal medical training as THE goal, when in fact physicians in practice will tell me it is just the beginning. Just the beginning?Oh no! Never mind that I already feel “cooked”. Watching the show allowed me to easily stereotype the stages of medical training as follows:

Premed student – Optimistically naïve, very altruistic

1st/2nd year medical student – Still optimistically naïve, plenty proud even boastful

3rd/4th year medical student – overwhelmed, excited, disillusioned (ie. I’m smarter and more efficient than my intern and I’m going to make the best doctor ever)

4th year medical student at Match Day and after – ON TOP OF THE WORLD! (caveat – only if you actually matched)

Intern – overwhelmed, shock, dismay, exhausted ((after all you at the very end of the totem pole – below the nurses, below the porters … DEAD last)

Resident/Fellow – defeated, still exhausted, very numb ((it truly gets no better)

Afterwards – Who knows? The second part of The Doctor Diaries has not yet aired!

I certainly hope for my sanity that things get better. That my sacrifices and delayed gratification will pay off eventually. But just reading the previews I wonder if medicine will prevent me from getting married, or if I’m destined to have several failed marriages, or if I will still have financial difficulties, or if I will still be practicing medicine 10 years from now. At least it seems most of the participants are happy being doctors and happiness is the key to life right?