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Episode 23: Doctor Dan outlines Phase 1 in the Evolution Of A Physician-In-Training, part of his work/life balance initiative that seeks to prevent burnout among medical students and doctors.
SEE THE FULL REPORT HERE: Evolution of a Physician In Training: Effects of the medical education pipeline on personal and professional development.
Daniel M. Williams, MD
The 5 phases of a physician in training are general categories that describe the professional and psychological changes that students can expect to face. These have been organized into a Medical School Mindmap full of 179 peer-reviewed, scientific articles that describe the processes necessary to become the consummate physician.
The Phases are as follows:
- Standing At The Precipice: The Premed Syndrome
- Adaptation
- Assimilation
- The Let-Down
- Reemergence
This area of research is meant to provide the foundation for a Health and Wellness Initiative among physicians. Physician Health is a top priority with Dr. Daniel Williams and each area is broken down inside the Medical Mastermind Community that has grown up around this ideal.
Here is an excerpt from the original draft:
Phase 1: Standing at the Precipice
Premedical students engaged in the early medical education pipeline frequently share similar goals and ambitions. The most commonly described premedical student traits are hard working, competitive, motivated, goal-oriented, altruism, and prestige-seeking (22-24). Fairly early in their premedical experience they begin to learn of the imperfection in the system.
A number of frustrations faced by these bright, enthusiastic students begin before even entering medical school. The challenges face by these future physicians can be categorized as follows:
- Selection Bias. Learning that affirmative action exists without understanding the need for diversity can be a shock (143,145,156).
- Academic Preparation. Realizing their undergraduate premedical and M.C.A.T. preparation may not actually predict how competent they will be as physicians can be disheartening (46,45,48).
- Premedical Advising. Many students encounter premedical advisers, though wonderful guidance has been published for decades (11,15,17).
- Admissions Criteria. The paradigm shift being birthed in premedical curriculum, which seeks to broaden one’s humanities background and foster empathetic relationships, is taking a surprisingly long time (4,6,27,28,30,31). The transition period as more medical schools are changing their admissions criteria and interview process can leave the premedical student confused about what is important in their preparation (184).
Because these sytstem-wide messages that contradict their altruistic nature, it is not surprising that the majority of students matriculating into medical school already have a well established ethical framework that is difficult to mold (26).
Further, two of the most historically trusted sources of information flat fail the premedical student attempting to learn about medical education. First, institutions of higher learning remain hyper-focused on grade point average though is associated with mere surface learning in medical school and the “MCAT Myth” of requisite rote memorization had been debunked by the mathematical application of Bloom’s Taxonomy (46). Second, nationally syndicated journalists yield influence in the ranking of “top medical schools”, but their method are ill-conceived; are unscientific; are conducted poorly; ignore the value of school accreditation; judge medical school quality from a narrow, elitist perspective; do not consider social and professional outcomes in program quality calculations; and fail to meet basic standards of journalistic ethics (32).
Sadly, the more idealistic and altruistic the nature of the unsuspecting premedical student, the greater the expectations in their career, and the greater the disappointment that comes in later phases in their evolution.
If we can be of any specific help to you, please feel free to contact us through the Ask A Doctor page.
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