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Happy Medical Training: An Oxymoron?

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Medical school and residency training usually decrease one’s happiness for several reasons. Happiness researchers have demonstrated that a feeling of control and the amount of spare time one has both correlate with happiness. Both of those factors are limited during med school and residency. Relationships are also correlated with happiness, and those can be squashed during medical training as well.

I’m not trying to be a downer here! I want to encourage applicants to consider this happiness quotient when selecting an institution and training program. If you are able, maximizing your contentment by choosing an institution that fosters your greatest happiness is key. Geography; proximity to family, friends and community; and a location that provides an opportunity to enjoy hobbies during limited free time is significant.

Excellent training is important, but, in the end, many programs turn out equally qualified clinicians. At least consider your well-being as a factor in selecting where you might be for the next three plus years of your life.

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Do-It-Yourself Exit Strategy: How I Stitched Together My Own Golden Parachute

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Over a decade ago, I was seated in the emergency department with a colleague when I inquired about another one of our physician co-workers I’d not seen in a while. “Oh, she’s on the Mommy Track,” my colleague said and picked up another chart, without giving his words a second thought. To me, selecting a career path that sacrificed career advancement for more time to raise children was legitimate. My colleague’s pejorative “Mommy Track” made it clear that to him, it was not.

At that sad moment, I resolved to pursue a non-clinical supplement to my emergency department work, colloquially known as an “exit strategy.”

Read more on Student Doctor Network here…

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Emergency Medicine: Queen, Rodney Dangerfield, and George Clooney All Rolled into One

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Check out the below, a great post called “We Are the Champions?!” written by Crispydoc (Dr. David Presser) on burnout in emergency medicine, a field that towers over the others in burnout statistics:

It’s official: a study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings showed that as of 2014, Emergency Medicine (EM) took the top slot for physician burnout (59%).  Suck it, critical care (50%). In your face, OB/GYN (56%).  We’re #1, we’re # …huh?

How did my beloved field of EM win the race to nowhere?  When I was in medical school, the pioneering faculty insisted that EM’s reputation for early burnout was based on the fact that those docs who’d burnt out had trained in another field, couldn’t hack it in their chosen specialties, and ended up woefully underprepared to spend their careers in EM.  As a medical student, I saw EM transform from Rodney Dangerfield disrespected to George Clooney sexy.  A full 13% of my class at UCSF matched in EM.  We smugly believed we knew what we were getting into, and we took for granted our ability to work as lifers.

Read more of this article (and see an awesome Queen video to boot)…
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White Coat Investor Scholarship Winners Announced

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For the past few years, the White Coat Investor has funded a scholarship for full-time professional students, including those in medical, osteopathic, dental, law, pharmacy, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, optometry, and podiatry schools. The goal is to both reduce the winning students’ debt burden and spread “an important message of financial literacy throughout medical, dental, and other professional schools.”

This year’s first place winner’s essay is here. It’s great and worth a read. Second through fifth places can be found here. Keep your eye out for next year’s contest. The financial support is significant.
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Be an Adult: Don’t Accept Helicopter Parenting

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Check out this hilarious (and sad) piece in the New York Times about helicopter parenting and note that two of the anecdotes are physician related. (Can you imagine interviewing for an attending position with your dad present?)

My policy at Insider is to work exclusively with applicants (not parents or spouses) to maintain confidentiality, avoid redundancy, and ensure candidates assume primary responsibility for their work. It’s a winning strategy.

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more

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Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the White Coat Investor podcast:

Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the FeminEm podcast: