Shortening the pre-med portion of the education process by one year would allow
those who are non-traditional students a break in that the system is one year
shorter. You could still encourage students to go for a BS. Adding two
classes to the SPARSE pre-med curriculum guidelines will not break anyone, and
in fact may produce better education in basic micro and biochem, as these two
seem particularly vulnerable to the curriculum knife in med school.
Making med school three years would also entail shortening the first section of
basic science from two academic years to one and one half,
allowing more pre-clinical instruction and time for rotations. As for the
frustration level, I can only speak for myself. I was SOO poor, that I
couldn’t do anything during the break beetween years one and two, and the short
break between two and three was taken up studying for boards. I had a whole
week off between year three and four, which was spent traveling home from my FP
clerkship. In my experience, you are in med school formally or informally all
four years, so why not make it three and cut the studs some slack.
Tuition can be lowered slightly and can be capped at current usurious
levels. That should be the AMA’s TOP priority re: new students.
The NY laws are an example of a good intention with bad results. The
houseofficers need overnight call for both medical and psychological education.
Call nights make you an independent physician because they are your opportunity
to practice independently. What we don’t need is to work 24hrs then be
expected to give grand rounds and admit four more patients and lecture to the
students during the next 12hrs.
The NY laws are too vague and don’t deal with the problem of the last 12 of the
36 hour shift.
I agree that we should clean our own house, but we will need some legal
support. If the American Board of Whatever inspects a rat-hole residency, and
orders it closed, it should be closed–Even if its Harvard. We should attend
to the problem of residency slave programs
at once, that should be the AMA’s top priority re: MD’s in training.
A residency program is not a system of finding cheap phlebotomists who have no
protection under the wage and hour laws, it is a training program which exists
to teach and train medical school graduates to be practitioners of a given
specilaty of medicine.
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