Friday, August 29, 2008

School: A Humbling Experience


So I was asked the other day if I was still breathing after starting medical school at UCLA. I chuckled a little but then began to reflect on this whole process of becoming a physician. The desire to help people is a strong motivator when schoolwork hours become arduous, but still, the motivation dwindles specially in times of frustration. The volume of content required to understand is unnerving. Every day we learn staggering content and paradoxically feel more unprepared to treat patients. In the body of all possible knowledge there are three parts.


1. Things you realize you know
2. Things you realize you don't know
3. Things you don't realize you don't know
 

Ideally, you want to diminish the yellow and red pieces and increase the green. At this point, the red piece of the pie seems enormous and I am oblivious to the yellow… I guess this is a natural process in my education and it is unsettling. As of yet, no attending has pimped me, but I hope not to become discouraged when they do.
 

I don’t care what any classmate tells you, med school is a humbling experience.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see med school has turned you into pacman

Anne Marie Cunningham said...

Hello
Just came across your blog tonight and think it is great.
Please keep posting. It's good to hear your voice.
Anne Marie