What new docs need to know and never learned in med school

"10 Things Medical School Won't Tell You"  (WSJ, Pub. Oct 14, 2012 by Jonnelle Marte):

1. Verbal and psychological abuse is commonplace and a rite of passage.
2. Increasingly, an approach to stem errors is "holding all health care providers — including nurse practitioners, physician assistants and anesthesiologists — accountable for a group’s mistakes and encouraging them to speak up when something seems amiss."
3. Collaboration is expected and that may create uncertainty about the physician's role versus other members of the team (including mid-level practitioners and those who are the keepers of the guidelines, standards and protocols.
4. Beyond high test scores hand having attended the "best" schools, there's professionalism, demonstrable listening skills and an affinity for teamwork.
5. Transferring undergraduate schools, regardless of reason, may earn you a demerit.
6. Primary care physician shortages, notwithstanding, getting an M.D or D.O. degree is just the beginning of post-post-graduate training (like residencies, fellowships, experience) and, in some cases, being required to pay for more than ever before.
7. "Offshoring is not just for factories anymore."  There's major competition for positions in U.S. schools and getting a medical degree abroad presents further difficulties and expenses.
8. Test scores and ratings from one's training program may be worse for those internationally trained, yet better clinical outcomes may be realized by them, e.g., in the management of congestive heart failure or acute myocardial infarction.
9. The shortage of primary care physicians mentioned in #6, above is aggravated by the severe indebtedness incurred in training.  Besides  specialists making more, their quality of life is better.
10. But, going into medicine is no "prescription for riches."

The following was originally posted by Martin Young at Consentcare.com:

   The "euphoria of qualifying as a doctor" ...wears off

 Your education costs are of no interest to others, "particularly when it comes to your salary scale."

 "You will need business savvy to run a successful practice – hard work alone is a rough road to financial failure."

 "No matter how good you are, or how hard you try, some patients will just not like you."

 "Patients come first – above your family – and your life partner will not understand."

  "Balance your job and family life?  Forget it!"

  "Redefine 'success' in your own mind before you embark on your career – if money features too high on the list, you are in the wrong profession

   and........

   .....any other job after medicine will seem trivial and meaningless by comparison!

   Enjoy your career!!"

Truncated - see "21 things new doctors need to know that medical schools do not teach!"

Posted by Martin Young at 10/2/2010 12:45 PM GMT on Doc2Doc, a doctor's blog from BMJ Group