A poorly kept secret amongst recent med school grads is the fact that the last year of medical school is a complete joke and waste of time. Most 4th years will do rotations in July and August in the specialty they hope to match in, for the purpose of cozying up to attendings for recommendation letters. But after that, it's a 6 month vacation until match day. I did a surgical ICU rotation in July and then followed that up with a stint on cardiothoracic surgery. I spent the rest of the year half assing my way through rotations like radiology, anesthesiology, and pathology case studies. Most days I got to the gym around noon for a 4 hour session of pick up hoops. And oh yeah, I borrowed about $35,000 to finance that lifestyle.
There are two main reasons to reorganize medical school education along the lines of a three year program. One, it's a waste of loan money and squanders a year of earning potential. Two, it just may be a contributing factor in driving more students out of internal medicine, primary care, and general surgery.
Let me explain. If you eliminated the fourth year, students wouldn't have the oportunity to rotate through subspecialties like dermatology and radiology and cardiology and orthopedics. Hence, less chance to be brainwashed into thinking that general medicine and surgery were beneath them. The third year curriculum would expand the exposure to internal medicine and general surgery and family practice. Someone who really really wanted to do a cardiology rotation could do so, but would have to eliminate either OB/gyn or psychiatry. As it is now, the entire fourth year is built around the idea of winning praise from subspecialist academic physicians. Is it any wonder that medical students look down upon the "mere generalist" professions?
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