A Medical Student's Reason.

Due to my infrequency on this site, I am terribly sorry.  I will try my best to remain up-to-date with the blog to help my fellow premed colleagues.

Congratulations!   By reading this blog you have shown some interest to attend medical school but the question frequently is posed to us "why do you want to be a doctor?"  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked myself this question and have trouble coming up with a concrete answer on the fly.  There may be some of you who know exactly why you want to go into medical school; described as an “ah-hah” moment, a decision influenced by past experiences or personal challenges that had to be overcome.  There are some of you who may not know when you chose this field; you are the folks I want to help as well.  

From the beginning of my studies at the undergraduate-level, my pre-medical advisor asked me immediately why I wanted to be a doctor.  To be honest, I didn’t have an answer and any answer I provided she refuted with the proposition of different careers in medicine.  It seemed as if my pre-medical advisor didn’t want me to go to medical school to become a doctor.  Also while at the university, I didn’t have my act together and had bad grades and a mediocre MCAT score; more reasons preventing me from pursuing medical school.  Our main idea of medical students and doctors is that they are insanely smart with perfect scores and GPAs to which we constantly judge ourselves and actions.  This may be why some are driven from the field; people choose fields in nursing, in healthcare administration, scribes, and so forth.  These aren’t bad decisions as long as it is what you want to do.  We are bullied throughout our undergraduate career into believing that we need to be in an elite class to attend medical school when in actuality we do not.  It is all based on your mindset.

Undergrad is an experience in itself.  Have fun in undergrad but remain focused if you want to go into medicine since many schools still embrace the old method of basing students on their GPA and MCAT scores.  However, in light of recent events, schools are now embracing the “holistic model” where they do not simply look at your test scores since some of the best doctors aren’t great test takers, so they look at activities you have done, leadership positions, how you affected your community.  So just because you have bad grades doesn’t mean that you can’t go to medical school, so don’t get discouraged from applying anyway.

It suddenly dawned on me recently that my advisor had it wrong, at least for my situation.  I was so fixated on comparing myself with others to answer the question "why I want to be a doctor" but I should have been asking myself "why shouldn't I be a doctor?"  The main thing is that doctors are human and they are definitely not perfect; we are all susceptible to errors and I know I make a ton of mistakes.  With this change of perspective I have gained a better understanding of myself and indicated areas of weakness that I can currently explore to see why I love the medical field so much. How can you see yourself as a doctor (what have you done, how can you envision yourself as a physician)?   What skills or things do you have that you think can contribute to the ever-growing medical field?  How can you help patients? Shadowing and volunteering are great ways to understand why you want to go into medicine, especially seeing what physicians do and if you can imagine yourself doing that for the rest of your career, since this is ultimately what you are choosing to do.  Many come into this field thinking it's about money, power, and/or respect and in a sense they are right (as a physician these will come naturally as you help patients over time) but that shouldn't be it;  what will keep you in this field, what are you interested in, how can you see yourself as a future physician.  

What I want to tell you is that you don't need a concrete answer.  Heck, you could be drawn to the field and won't know it until later on.  Some will have an answer, such and such affected my decision or this happened to my family member which motivated me to go into medicine, but you don't necessarily need to  have one.  Some of you may simply be in a rush to get education done so that you can work which is good as long as it is for the right reasons.  If you can't honestly tell yourself you are going into the field for the right reasons, maybe it's time to take a baby step back and reevaluate your intentions for the medical field.  Never let that thought in the back of your mind prevent you from chasing your dream, even though you may be discouraged along the way because it will be worth it in the end.  The main goal is that you want to help other people, and becoming a doctor is a fine way to not only help others but also to give back to the community that has made you all into the person(s) you are today.

-Mike Shimo