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  • It felt like yesterday that I was a pre-med in college and eager to begin the journey

  • of becoming a doctor.

  • Now that I have my M.D., I'd like to share with you some realities that you may not be

  • aware of.

  • These are the things I wish I knew before I became a doctor.

  • What's going on guys, Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.

  • First, I'll start by saying medical school

  • is awesome.

  • In some ways, I even enjoyed it more than college.

  • One of the many rewarding aspects of medical school is the amount of fascinating information

  • you'll learn about the human body.

  • It's a lot of information to go through in just four years.

  • You'll likely hit the peak of your medical knowledge after taking Step 2CK at the end

  • of your third year, after which it's all downhill.

  • In your fourth year, you'll begin specializing towards the field you want to pursue.

  • Your knowledge will no longer be broad, but rather will become more specialized to your

  • field of choice.

  • From broad and shallow to narrow and deep.

  • That's how your knowledge shifts.

  • Number two, Nurses Can Be Your Best Friend, or Worst Enemy

  • I'm lucky in that I never (at least to my knowledge) got on the bad side of any nurses,

  • but I've seen multiple colleagues and classmates who have.

  • As a medical student and resident, nurses can be your best friend.

  • While nurses won't have more medical knowledge than you, they often have much more experience.

  • And when you're new to clinical rotations or just starting residency, that's something

  • that you lack.

  • Stay on their good side and you'll be glad you didwhether that's helping catch

  • your mistakes or choosing not to page you over silly insignificant matters, they can

  • make your life much easier.

  • On the other hand, if you're on their bad side, expect to be paged incessantly about

  • trivial matters, and don't be surprised if they make you look bad.

  • Number three, People Skills Are a Must, Including Public Speaking

  • As it is for many, public speaking was one of my greatest fears.

  • I took comfort in the fact that as a doctor, I wouldn't have to speak in front of large

  • audiences.

  • Right?

  • Actually, public speaking, and multiple other social skills, are necessary to be a leader of the

  • medical team and an effective physician.

  • If you despise public speaking, don't worry, I once did as well.

  • But I overcame my fear of public speaking, and even grew to enjoy it, during my time

  • in medical school.

  • The details of that journey will be posted in a separate video on my personal YouTube

  • channel.

  • Link in the description below.

  • After entering the medical field, I've spoken in front of hundreds of attending plastic

  • surgeons when presenting my research at conferences.

  • This is arguably the scariest of my public speaking experiences, since surgeon personalities

  • are not the most forgiving.

  • It's not just research conferences, though.

  • You'll also have to effectively convey information in a variety of other situations, like group learning situations, or among the medical

  • team, which you will lead as a physician, and also when teaching colleagues or students during

  • didactic time.

  • Number four, Not All Specialties Are Created Equal One of the beautiful things about medicine

  • is the diversity of the field.

  • You have to go through medical school to become either a plastic surgeon or a pathologist,

  • and everything between.

  • For this reason, medicine is highly flexible and most people can find a specialty they

  • love that is suited to their personality.

  • That being said, some specialties will have

  • significant impacts on your life outside of the hospital.

  • For example, surgical specialties make it difficult to live a balanced life, particularly

  • if you go into something like neurosurgery or trauma.

  • Expect long and unpredictable hours.

  • On the other hand, some specialties have shift work, making your hours clearly defined, like emergency medicine

  • Other specialties like primary care have more standard and predictable

  • working hours.

  • Even as a medical student, prior to entering

  • a specialized residency, the specialty you intend to match into will dictate your lifestyle.

  • To have a shot at matching into a solid plastic surgery program, I had to try much harder

  • than my colleagues going into other specialties.

  • That meant I needed to target the top grades in all my rotations, top scores on my Step

  • and shelf exams, and publish as many research articles as possible.

  • Living a balanced life was a challenge.

  • I had two friends in medical school who were beasts in the gym.

  • They spent 2 hours lifting each day, and both entered and even had podium finishes in bodybuilding

  • competitions.

  • Both were also set on entering orthopedic surgery (big surprise, right?), but their

  • dedication to fitness was difficult to balance with the time and effort required to be a

  • top student.

  • In the end, neither was competitive enough for a field like ortho, and they matched into

  • family medicine and ophthalmology, both of which are substantially less competitive.

  • I go over which specialties are the hardest to get into in my top 5 most competitive

  • specialties video.

  • Number five, You'll Never View Death and Suffering the Same Again

  • It's a privilege caring for people in their darkest and most trying hours.

  • A reality of that situation is dealing with death.

  • It will be tough on you, and it will be tough on the families.

  • There's a silver lining, though, in your experience dealing with death.

  • Earlier this year in 2019, my grandmother passed.

  • While I was sad, I had a unique perspective as a physician.

  • From experiencing deaths in the hospital, to discussing these issues in my medical school

  • small groups, to reading books like When Breath Becomes Air

  • and Being Mortal, I had a more mature and realistic experience

  • of life and death.

  • Too many patients die in scary hospital rooms under traumatic conditions in order to extend

  • life at all costs, even at the cost of their quality of life.

  • When my grandmother passed at the age of 89, she was in the comfort of her own home, surrounded

  • by her family and loved ones.

  • She passed peacefully in her sleep, and because she was DNR, there was no CPR, and no broken

  • ribs, and much less suffering.

  • She lived a good life, and she passed in the best way possible.

  • Before becoming a doctor, it would not have been natural for me to have this perspective.

  • And number six, You Still Won't Know the Answer to a Lot of Common Questions

  • It's impressive how much knowledge of the human body we have amassed in modern medicine.

  • This ties in to the first pointit's truly awe inspiring how much you'll learn

  • in medical school, and yet still realize you've only scratched the surface.

  • At the same time, it's also amazing how much we don't know.

  • You'll receive countless questions from non-medical people that you won't know the

  • answer to.

  • Contrary to what the public thinks, doctors (and modern medicine) don't know everything

  • about the human body.

  • As you've seen on my personal channel, I have Crohn's disease.

  • Even for a question as simple aswhat is the best diet for someone with my condition?”

  • we don't have an answer.

  • I've been experimenting with different options, from plant based, to gluten free, to the specific

  • carbohydrate diet, and many more.

  • The key point is this: Medicine contains much more gray area than black and white. You'll note that true

  • experts speak in the gray area and acknowledge the limitations of current medical research.

  • Rather, it is the ignorant that speak in absolutes.

  • Take diet for example.

  • There are die hard fans of ketogenic diets, paleo diets, vegan or plant-based diets, and

  • many more.

  • A true expert on nutrition, and someone who has critically examined the literature, will

  • tell you that there's a great deal of conflicting data, and that the research in nutrition is

  • plagued with problems that obscure the truth.

  • But check out the YouTube comments and you'll find countless emotionally charged keyboard

  • warriors that claim to know better.

  • If you enjoyed this video, you should also watch two additional videos.

  • The first is the Perks of Becoming a Doctor, and the second is Do Not Go to Medical School

  • (If This is You).

  • If you're currently a pre-med or a medical student, Med School Insiders has the resources

  • and services that will strengthen your application and maximize your odds of gaining acceptance

  • to a medical school or residency program.

  • We don't believe in cookie cutter approaches, and that's why we have over a 99% satisfaction

  • rate.

  • As you guys know, I'm a huge proponent of optimizing systems to produce repeatable and

  • desirable results.

  • We've painstakingly optimized our own systems over several months of development, and our

  • results speak for themselves.

  • Check out MedSchoolInsiders.com to learn more.

  • Thank you all so much for watching.

  • If you enjoyed the video, let me know when a thumbs up, and comment down below if you

  • have any questions.

  • New videos every Saturday morning, so hit subscribe if you have not already, and make

  • sure you have the notification bell enabled.

  • Much love to you all, and I will see you guys in that next one.

It felt like yesterday that I was a pre-med in college and eager to begin the journey

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