The Devil Wears Scrubs

One of the blogs that I have been following since last year is by Dr.Fizzy McFizz: A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor. She complains a lot, which sometimes gives me a mis-sense that she, too, is one of those doctors who regret going to medicine. McFizz always give the right amount of medical information that satisfies the eager doctor-wanna-be pre-medical students/post-bacs, which is what I love the most about her blogs. I also love her blogs with cartoons that often seen a bit sarcastic; but nowadays, everyone seems to appreciate satire rather than just plain funny. It seems like McFizz is often on the defensive side about her blogs, against the comments, in her biography, etc. It certainly seems so in her Q&A section, which gives a very detailed description about herself.

Recently I have been hunting down a book to read. And it just so happens that Dr. Fizzy wrote a book! And it is about (surprise surprise) medicine. I admit that I have not been reading her blog recently, because otherwise I would have known about this book which was published last year. The writing style of the book is how she writes all her blog posts, and the stories seems very similar to real life experiences. This is an excellent read for students who are thinking about the field of medicine. It gives pre-medical students a realistic view of the turmoil a doctor will go through.

Yesterday I went to visit one of my all-time favorite role model: my family doctor. After telling her about my upcoming MCAT exam, she was extremely encouraging. She told me the serious of hoops she had to jump through: taking the MCAT, followed by the 3 steps of USMLE, then residency, finally the Boards. Yet despite all of those challenges one had to go through to become a qualified doctor, she still would not regret her profession. She told me, that no matter how bad the patients she encounter, and how ridiculous the paperwork gets, she still enjoys every single day of her profession. Not only my family doctor, my all time favorite mentor (whom also happens to have a blog: Rainbows Ahead) was also very encouraging about my dream of becoming a doctor. It is true that pre-medical students have doubts about the problems they face, such as having the highest suicide rates, guilt going through after misdiagnosis, and not able to show any weakness, etc. Medical schools have classes that center around morality, empathy, altruism, etc, that will train you to face those tough situations. So if you are a pre-medical student having doubts about whether you can be a good doctor, I say if you are really enthusiastic in doctoring, fear not.