Why do this?

The number one premed faux pas has to be, “I want to help people.”

What the person really means is that becoming a physician has an allure of being smart, wealthy, respected, and attractive to the opposite sex. None of those things are true. The majority embody the antithesis of these attributes.

Ah, you REALLY want to help.

How about an example of how not to help? So you’re a full fledged doctor at a well respected institution, in fact it’s world renown for a particular illness. You’re micromanaged, have a large case load, and are supposed to be conducting research simultaneously. What’s the over worked to do? You guessed it; take several weeks off to attend an international conference on the Continent. Keep in mind all your patients will remain in the U.S. and are relying on you for their various therapeutic regimens. Surely you’ve thought about writing orders for your patients and have left instructions with your nurses. Nope. You jet off, putting off people with aggressive things growing inside. They have to wait until you get back to get all the things you normally order for them like blood tests, imaging, medication, things like that.

Oh this can’t be true you’re thinking. But it is.

So after training, in the face of burn out, illness, administrators, and your colleagues, your decisions really do have an impact.