My Future:The Effects of Being a Med Student

The life of a medical student can almost be seen as a burden. To be a physician, science and mathematics based classes should be taken in college. The American Medical Association website states that anyone wanting to be in the medical field should do the following, “four years at a college or university to earn a BS or BA degree, usually with a strong emphasis on basic sciences, such as biology, chemistry, and physics.” Later on in the article it states that the next programs to enroll in after college are medical school, a residency program and fellowship. The medical field requires so much science and math based courses followed by rigorous training that it puts pressure on medical students. At times this pressure can becomes too much to bear.

With intense training comes unmanageable stress. Medical students find the training to be so intense that physiological problems arise in them as the result of stress. At times, medical students turn to drugs as a way to cope with the stress. Because stress in medical students has become so prominent, many studies have been taken to prove this. One survey done with 1200 physicians by a Physician Morale Study noted, “In response to job stress, participants reported a variety of psychological symptoms. For example, 77.4 percent of participants reported fatigue, 66.7 percent emotional burnout, 34.2 percent marital or family discord, and 32.2 percent depression. Surprisingly, in this physician sample, 4.4 percent of respondents reported suicidal ideation related to job stress.” Stress is only the beginning of a medical student’s problem. Stress can lead anyone to developed signs of burnout even prior to becoming a physician. The signs of burnout can start as early as medical school.

Burnout...

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