Advice for the Next Generation of Doctors
If you're thinking about becoming a physician, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about what you need to do to get there. Take the right classes. Get good grades. Find meaningful experiences. Apply to college. Eventually, apply to medical school.
Having now gone through college, medical school, and residency training, there are a few things we think are just as important—but don't always make it onto the traditional pre-med checklist.
1. You don't have to know everything.
One of the biggest misconceptions about doctors is that we're supposed to know the answer to everything. Medicine is far too vast for any one person to know it all. Becoming a good physician means learning how to think through uncertainty, recognize what you don't know, ask good questions, and continually learn.
2. Stay curious.
Some of the most valuable learning starts with a simple question: Why? Why did we order this test? Why does this medication work? Why did two patients with the same disease respond differently? That curiosity will take you much further in medicine than memorizing information simply because you think it might be on an exam.
3. Medicine is about people as much as it is about science.
You'll learn an enormous amount of biology, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology.
But you'll also sit beside frightened patients. You'll explain complicated information to families. You'll meet people whose lives look completely different from your own.
The ability to listen, communicate, and understand another person's perspective matters tremendously.
4. Don't choose every experience because you think it will "look good." Follow your passions! Cohesive application > long list of random activities.
It's easy to spend the pre-med years thinking about how every activity will eventually appear on an application. Instead, give yourself permission to explore things because you're genuinely interested in them. Volunteer somewhere you care about. Learn about a medical topic that fascinates you. Pursue a project because you want to know the answer. Those experiences often end up being the most meaningful anyway.
5. Don't spend the entire journey waiting to arrive.
The path to becoming a physician is long. There will always be another milestone ahead—the next application, exam, rotation, graduation, or stage of training. Work hard toward the future you want, but don't forget to build a life you enjoy along the way. If medicine is the path you ultimately choose, there is an extraordinary amount to learn and experience ahead of you. You have to enjoy the journey!
One step at a time. You don't need to have it all figured out yet.
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