Words of wisdom: How my mentors helped me see beyond my textbooks

In my shadowing experiences before medical school, I had numerous physicians warn me, “It isn’t what it used to be!” Others incredulously asked me if I was sure I wanted to be a doctor.

I was sure enough to apply to medical school, interview, and start classes at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine (RowanSOM) in Stratford, New Jersey. But in my first year of official medical training, I’m acutely aware of how long this road will be. At best, I’m looking at 3.5 more years of medical school, then at least three years of residency.

I’m hopeful that my sacrifices today will yield a rewarding career tomorrow. But the skepticism I encountered in my superiors gave me pause. And it didn’t help when I came across a study that found, “burnout is more common among physicians than among other U.S. workers.”

With doubts making me uneasy, I decided to ask several of my physician mentors about their experiences. The results? They did mention various frustrations, such as electronic health records. But everyone I talked with had good things to say about practicing medicine. They were all happy—and felt lucky—to have taken this challenging path.

Some of my mentors talked about how much they love patient care. It’s a perk of medicine that isn’t always tangible to medical students, who often struggle to see beyond the vantage point of their textbooks.

“There is no amount of money in the world that can be as rewarding as handing a mother her newborn baby after delivery, watching a previously blind person walk away by himself after cataract surgery, or receiving a box of cookies from a lady whom you resuscitated the previous week,” Austin Bach, DO, MPH, an ophthalmology resident in South Miami, Florida, told me.

Other physicians I spoke with discussed the fact that medicine is rapidly evolving.

“The business of medicine has changed dramatically in recent years, as it did in the 1990s and I hear it did in the 1960s.” says Robert R. Goodman, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon in the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.

With the rise of EHRs, many feel that the increased use of technology leads to less time with patients. Also, several physicians advised me not to go into medicine for the money. If your goal is to make money, you can do that more efficiently in other fields, they noted. As a nontraditional student, I’m well aware that a career in finance would likely be a more lucrative and less taxing path.

But I’m pretty sure it would also be less gratifying for me.

“Few other career paths will offer as much fulfillment as medicine,” says Dr. Goodman, who notes that many doctors still have self-satisfaction and respect from others.

And Jennifer Moriatis Wolf, MD, a hand surgeon and professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Connecticut in Farmington, points out, “The medical landscape is changing, but the patients needing treatment have not.”

Talking to my mentors helped me realize that medicine, like any field, has its pros and cons. Despite the rigorous path to a medical degree and the constantly evolving field, some things, like the joys of patient care and the opportunity to meaningfully impact—and even save—lives, never change.

To remind myself of that light at the end of the tunnel, I’ve since made more of an effort to work with patients by volunteering at RowanSOM’s free clinic and my local hospital. Interacting with patients has helped me stay excited about medicine. I am grateful for this opportunity to fulfill a dream and pursue a career that allows me to serve others.