It’s difficult to know what to expect on your first day of medical school. I imagine most people are nervous about the workload or the responsibility. Other people might be itching to get started and soak up as much knowledge in as short a time as possible. Still others, like myself, are just excited to walk through the corridors and sit down at their seat in the lecture hall.
When you childhood dream finally comes to fruition, it’s never exactly as you’d imagined. When I thought about what my first day would be like, what subjects I’d start with, and even what the dean’s welcome speech would sound like, the images in my head were perhaps a bit naive. My most significant motivation for a career in medicine was my desire to help people, to connect with patients and make a positive impact on the health and well-being of those around me. As such, I expected the dean’s introductory address to be a motivational pep-talk, akin to one that a coach would give his team before their first big game of the season – something to reaffirm their confidence and justify all the effort that led up to this important day. Regardless of their motivations for choosing medicine as a career, every student has the same goal; to be a good doctor and make patient care their primary focus.
But patient care wasn’t the focus of my first day of medical school. After wading through the seemingly endless talks about student loans, managing our time, and balancing our social and professional lives, the main point that was hammered into our heads wasn’t about quality of care or the interests of the patients. It was about how to avoid getting sued. Granted, the administration seemed to regard the perfunctory lectures on the legal aspects of a career in medicine with the same dismissive attitude that the students all seemed to share. Still, it’s somewhat disheartening that the first big day of medical school was spent addressing legal precautions rather than focusing on the reason we were all there in the first place. Did you know that admitting fault and apologizing sincerely can significantly reduce the likelihood of being sued in the event of a medical mistake? Maybe if we spent more time learning the proper way to care for patients, addressing both physical and emotional concerns, we wouldn’t have to worry so much about getting sued.
That isn’t what I would expect for a first lecture, either! It’s sad these days that people have to worry so much about lawsuits…