Techno-science is a very powerful tool used in today's world and future physicians are being affected. Like most in this class, I was a student who always did well in school from K-12th grade. I will refrain from using the word "smart" because this is a word used often incorrectly to label those who get good grades. My sophomore year was my most challenging year to date. That year I was distracted by certain events in our country and learned to prioritize certain things in my life over "how fast does an object of X mass travel if dropped from an 80-meter building?" As we all know medical schools want the best of the best-- essentially the "smart people." Everyone always says make sure you get the best grades in your class and you will make a great candidate for medical school and an amazing doctor.
As I began taking a class called The Future Physician, I realized it took more than a GPA and MCAT score for people to get into medical school. Our professor said she had seen students reach near perfect MCAT scores with 3.9 GPA's and still get declined for the U of M's medical school. When I heard this, I was in shock because as all pre-med students know, these academic milestones are near impossible to achieve. As I began paying more attention to the presentations of different doctors in the class, I heard a reoccurring theme that I cannot get out of my head. These words ring loudly inside my head every time I feel like giving up and feel "stupid" for not understanding certain concepts of tough classes. "Good grades alone won't get you into medical school."
There is more to a physician than his grades, there is a huge portion of the humanities we hardly seem to focus on when we think of good medical school candidates. I now believe that under an academic performance scale, "good doctors are in fact bad doctors" and under this same scale, "bad doctors, are good doctors." This is not to assume that ALL students who get near 4.0 GPA's and a perfect MCAT score and become physicians are bad doctors because they lack their humanities component. On the contrary, with a high degree level of the humanities under their experience, these academic achieving students have a potential of being among the greatest physicians we have ever seen. I recently read an article where physicians answered ethical questions relating to their practice. One physician said that they get confused when patients say that they want to see the "best doctor" because according to him, the best doctor isn't only the best doctor because of his expertise. The doctor needs to reflect compassion and other characteristics that take time to develop and are often exchanged by many pre-med students for "good grades" because they want to become the "good doctors."
Through this techno-science perspective, I can affirm with greater confidence that although it truly helps and matters, but "good grades ALONE won't get me into medical school and they won't make me the 'best doctor'"
Hi! I totally agree that the humanities are important and may greatly aid one in the medical profession. I would say it is a lot easier to earn A's than to truly have good ethics and compassion when working with people. This is one of the reasons why I plan to major in Biology, Society, and Environment. The BSE major offers the foundations for careers in the medical field but also includes many humanities ranging from sociology to gender, women, and sexuality studies. The humanities are often overlooked because sometimes it seems to describe "common sense" but often times people don't acknowledge it. Moreover, the humanities helps give different perspectives of the world, the systems that are in place, and touches on similar topics that we discuss in class, questioning our reality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post and knowing this thinking is what has inspired to me continue pursuing becoming a physician. When I joined the BSE major and had to take that intro class I remember reading an article titled "Linking Professionalism to Humanism" which I still have saved in my favorites on my laptop that speaks to this exact topic and how it produces better physicians. Every doctor should have some exposure to the humanities because the patients they deal with on a daily basis aren't just some science experiment they are people.
ReplyDelete