Does graduation from medical school prepare people to succeed?

[Boojatta]

Is there considerable variation, depending on what area of medicine students choose to specialize in?

For example, consider psychiatry. What percentage of psychiatrists who attempt suicide eventually succeed? What percentage succeed on the first attempt?

If you believe that success should always be measured in money terms, then by all means post a reply in this thread to support your point of view.

[Pharlo]

1. This question reminds me of the

story line in ER when Neela began to doubt her career choice. Although she had a considerable amount of education, about all she was able to find was a job in a local business - either a diner or a convenience store. When she was interviewing for positions and she was asked what she could do, she replied to the effect that she could open a persons chest and perform heart surgery. Apparently, not much of a need for that outside of the medical profession.

As for your example of the success rates of psychiatrists who 'successfully' commit suicide is one that would need to be part of a more inclusive study.

From one perspective: percentage of psychiatrists who attempt suicide and their 'success' rate compared to persons in other occupations - say police, firefighter, pilot, factory worker - and their percentages and 'success' rates.

From another perspective: Psychiatrists who attempt suicide and their 'success' rates compared to other physician's specialties and their ability to survive medical issues in their respective disciplines. For example Oncologists who are diagnosed with cancer and the percentage of Oncologists that ultimately have listed as their primary cause of death being something OTHER than cancer. Same for Cardiologists and heart attacks, Neurosurgeons and strokes, etc.


I guess I'm just not quite clear on what, specifically, you're asking here.

[Boojatta]

3. "I guess I'm just not quite clear on what, specifically, you're asking here."

More important is what comes to mind when you read an Original Post that I write. In this case, the Original Post seemed okay as a vague idea, but became morbid, uncharitable, and unpleasant when actually drafted. I should have looked at the finished product standing alone. I shouldn't have allowed the satisfaction of completing the draft to influence my quality control procedure.

[undeterred]

2. My doctor graduated from medical school...

He is intelligent, compassionate, and ethical. He is a great listener. So, in my eyes he is a success... he went into medicine for exactly the right reasons.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Without training, experience, and the benefit of learning from errors and mistakes,

it's possible to graduate from medical school and still not be fit to take care of a patient's wellbeing.

When I graduated from law school, I felt incompetent. I didn't know the procedure from drafting a Complaint, motion practice, whom to ask for information I didn't have, you know, the System . . . I was certain that I was a walking invitation for legal malpractice. That's why I never started my own practice. I worked for more than a dozen years as a secretary and paralegal, learning the guts of law practice, and I have finally have a position as an associate where I have a partner who supervises my work. At graduation, all law school prepared me to do was to pass the bar exam if I was lucky. Now, the benefit of law school is invaluable as it's paired with experience and professional knowledge.