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Medical Students Have Long Road Of Hard Work, Sleepless Nights

Alexandra Zachi

Being a medical student takes commitment - six years to graduate school and another three to seven years to qualify as a specialist. But for Mihaela Pătru the sacrifices all seem worthwhile.

Pătru, a third year student in general medicine, likes to think that medicine students are special because they have chosen "the long way" to achieve their professional goals. Medicine students have a heavy workload - genetics, physiology bacteriology, anatomy, immunology. And they have to learn how to give people bad news - sometimes the worst news they can hear - as well as good.

"Believe it or not, we learn how to give bad news. We learn to be 'more human' in courses like medical psychology in the first year and the science of human behavior in the second year," Pătru said. "Also, you learn how to behave like a real doctor, how to treat your patients and your colleagues also - you learn how to become a professional."

Pătru talks about her life as a medicine student with pleasure although she says it demands a strong vocation and lots of determination and persistence. "You don't have too much free time, you can't lose the nights because in the morning you have to learn or you have to go practicing in a hospital and you can't miss that," she said. "When your high schoolmates are finishing university, you are only in the middle of it. That's sad."

Another thing that she complains about is the price of text books, which are very expensive. "Some can be found at school, others you have to buy. I've been lucky because my parents gave me money to buy them," she said.

So what's a typical day like in medical school? "I don't always have time to drink my coffee. Around eight in the morning I get to school, waiting for the course to start. At half past eleven, we go to the next class, then at two, the next. Some evenings, there are optional courses. You get home late and you can't do much."

And on weekends, more work. "On Saturdays or Sundays you can go to the hospital for more practice - we stay near a doctor and try to learn," Pătru said. There's never enough time to learn in medical school.

Ultimul număr tipărit (mai 2007, format PDF):