Medical Admission Note

I’ve wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. Not only have I wanted it more than anything in the world, I’ve given everything I have to get to this point. Until you experience it, it’s difficult to imagine the sheer amount of knowledge crammed into our young minds at medical school, and the sacrifices required for that process. I’ve spent more Saturday nights with Talley & O’Connor than at parties, I’ve broken up with boyfriends who didn’t understand the hours and I couldn’t count the sleepless nights or cups of coffee if I tried. What got me through though, was knowing it would all be worth it when I graduated as a doctor. So what am I suppose to do now that I’m finally here. Now that I’m finally living my dream, only to discover that it’s not that great. This recent message from one of my favourite senior doctor tweeps hits very close to home:  It’s hard to believe that the first year where I’ve not been required to study all night c

Once again my Facebook newsfeed is apparently full of strangers. It’s April, or the time when final year medical students change their surname on Facebook because they are beginning to apply for internships. Despite a multitude of guidelines on social media and the medical profession, it’s still a topic most medical students approach with a fear cultivated by alarming medschool folklore. Let’s clarify a few facts about doctors and social media: Fact: Changing your name on Facebook is not the solution Before you call me out as a hypocrite – yes, I was guilty of this. I honestly believed that the ingenuity of using my mother’s maiden name instead of my own surname protected me from all the issues surrounding social media and job applications. The truth is, medical workforce units aren’t idiots. If you post a public status that says ‘Health Service X are pretentious wankers’ – Health Service X can find that and when the profile picture looks surprisingly like the