Tips on Medical Student Well-Being
These bits of advice are taken from the Wellness Resource Guide for Medical Students, published by AMSA.
Suggestions from Classmates
- It will be impossible to keep up with your classes. Try to use the class notes and start charting out stuff on Pharm, Path, and Micro early. Boards are always on your mind, so don't worry about it, let your classmates worry for you. Try to have fun and stay involved in extracurricular activities such as AMSA Try not to neglect your friendships, your relationships and your health. -Jeff, M1.
- Have fun in the summer. Either make money or have fun, unless research is something that you must absolutely do. Also, keep good study habits. Study in a steady manner and learn it the first time through. Most of all, schedule fun into your dayand make it a priority. - Eric, M1
- Encourage your feelings in anatomy. Your cadaver is a human body. Speculate on who the person was: his/her aspirations, fears, loves, hates. The individual's body is your teacher now. Humanizing the body will humanize the process and might make the experience more comfortable. -David, M2
- Take care of yourself. Exercise! It's fitness for the mind, too. -Mike, M2
- Keep in close contact with your friends. Study with compatible classmates if you've studied together before, but don't change your study habits. If you are someone who learns better studying alone, then study alone. However, talk to your friends daily and meet them for meals/study breaks. Don't isolate yourself. -Nora, M2
- I go fishing. This is very relaxing for me. Also, I rollerblade three times per week, play rollerhockey, basketball and soccer. -Keith, M1
- When you write your clinical notes, read about pathophysiology or lab abnormalities and write about what you've learned. Teach your team. -Beatrice, M3
- Perhaps I see our roles as medical students a little differently than the others. I don't see us as merely apprentices of the medical trade, but rather as patient advocates. We have the time to sit and talk with our patients, to learn their fears and anxieties and to address their concerns. Be pro-active. We can make our residents aware of issues and help provide viable solutions. -Jenny, M4
- Find something you enjoy and find relaxing that takes no more than an hour a day and has nothing to do with medicine, and make time to do it everyday. I always like to watch TV or do aerobics after class or hospital to clear my mind before studying. But I also know people who save their relaxing activity for the end of the day as a reward for studying.
Notes for Concerned Medical
Students
by Patch Adams, M.D.
Medical education can be a stressful experience. For some, the academics seem gargantuan, for others the costs are stifling. But the most disconcerting feedback is the feedback that is centered around a depression and anxiety over the kind of climate in which health care is practiced in today's society. It is hard to find a joyous service-oriented practice in hospitals. So often it appears that economics and management come before patient care. Competition seems to be more the style than cooperation among health professionals.
This guide is created for the medical student who wishes a thrilling, joyous, heartfelt medical education in exuberant anticipation of a life in service to humankind.
Inherent in helping others is an intoxication of self-satisfaction in a garland of intimacy. The keys here are to assert your own motivation and to respect your wisdom... indeed to be bathed in the self-confidence that you can make your life a delightful adventure. We offer a few suggestions here to make your education a highlight of your life. Please share your feedback, suggestions, and dialogue with us and your contemporaries in creating a medical celebration.
- Don't wait until you are on the wards to practice and develop your interviewing skills... start now! Interview everyone with as great a depth as you dare. Medicine's fundamental thrill is intimacy. Find that kind of demeanor in yourself that delights others so they tell you their tales Be ecstatic for the gift that people give you in love, trust and intimacy. Find a way to let this journey together stimulate you and fill you with the excitement of a new friend.
- As you explore the glorious mechanisms of your body and life, let it electrify you in wonder and curiosity. Never get complacent over the miracle of life. Live in awe. Let this be the focus of your education...not your grades, which tell you nothing about the kind of doctor you will be. (When I was in medical school, I told them never to notify me about my grades unless I failed... which became very freeing.)
- Do not let the cost of education paralyze you. It is a privilege that you are so fortunate to be in school. When you finish you will pay your loans back as soon as you can. If you choose service-oriented Medicine, its gift is payback enough until funds come in. Don't let the debt trap you in a repugnant practice. Here creativity and exploration make great playmates. There is no debtor's prison. Community support can be key here.
- Cultivate intimacy with the health professionals and professors you respect. Invite yourself to their homes. Establish a thriving dialogue. Ask to come into their practice. Reach out for the same intimacy with aides, orderlies and nurses as you do with doctors and patients. The word here is friendliness, wherever you go in life; it will make your day thrilling.
- Please have support groups. Support in study. Support in play. Find like minds and fantasize your medical interests and futures. Practice being very deep and intimate with each other. Hold nothing back.
- Please get involved in the politics of Medicine from the very beginning. Belong to the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA), American Medical Student Association (AMSA), Office of Student Representatives (OSR) of the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), etc. Go to the meetings, especially the big ones, and talk with everyone. There is gold everywhere. Many are thinking about the same things you are. Your fantasy Medical practice may sprout in this climate.
- Yes, fantasize your most outlandish Medical fantasy. Your degree in Medicine is the freedom to choose exactly how you want to practice. The only limiting factors will be your fears and imagination. Band together and soar.
- Focus on Medicine as service. Medicine as a business is hurting everyone. The rewards in Medicine are in helping others and in self-discovery. Giving is an intoxication, intimacy is a by-product. Brace yourself for an avalanche of love.
- This is a whopper. Have outside interests! You are not a doctor. You are a person who has studied Medicine. You are all of your other interests just as well. Nurture all of your loves. Experiment with ways of integrating your interests with you Medicine. Weave these interests into the relationships you have with your patients. Be open to learning things from them... you will love the bonds that form.
- Finally, do not sacrifice your family for your Medical career. What you learn in keeping your family vibrant will serve you greatly with your patients. Please cherish your significant others, your lovers, your children, your parents, and feel the great health their love fives you. See your friends as a part of your family.