What's It Like Being A Doctor/Medical Student?

I'm a prospective mature student deciding on a uni course and (very, very slightly) toying with the idea of applying to do Medicine.

Aware me on what exactly this is like, please? I'm mainly asking out of curiosity, TBH...

Soz if this is the wrong forum - there are so many related ones I wasn't sure which to post in

It rocks. Except for when it doesn't. Which is sometimes. But not all the time.

Ask a broad, non-specific question...

How much does it rock on a scale of 0 to 1000?

More seriously, the question was meant to be open-ended to gain a broad range of answers.

actual medicine course is really really high intensity work

if you fail resits you're out

Today? It's been a fairly mediocre 550, I have to be honest with you. I got grilled like a haddock by my consultant in the morning and I left the ward feeling only slightly rubbish and a letdown to myself, my firm and the NHS - but the day did get somewhat better after that.

Last week when I got a green venflon in on the first attempt? Yeah that was a solid 800, maybe even shading an 850...

Have you heard of such a thing as too broad a question? Seriously, if you were just a bit more specific I'd be very happy to give you my thoughts - but what exactly do you want to know about? What you study? How difficult it is? The social life? Very few people here will be willing to write you a massive essay so you're better off asking some slightly more specific questions...

It's a right chuckle and a massive privilege. Also it's exhausting.

Interesting, thanks - how is it a "chuckle"?

I've noticed this about my friends who went to med school/are doctors, but it could be totally untrue - they sometimes seem to have a bit of a weird/dark/morbid sense of humour (concerning death and injuries and stuff like that). Especially the guys. It does creep me out. Does that grow on some people naturally as a result of having to deal with med school day in day out, or has nobody else noticed this?

Ah, so that's why you seem a bit grumpy? (no offence )

Any walk of life where you're regularly dealing with people means that you're dropped into the most weird and wonderful shared human experiences. People are naturally hillarious. We're walking contradictions. Little bundles of energetic ridiculousness and idiosyncrasies. Being in medicine exposes you to a weird mix of human tragedy and hilarity.

Being a doctor/student gives you a very unique and special privilege whereby people are staggeringly honest and open with you about very intimate parts of their lives. You develop immediate trusting relationships with complete strangers within seconds. The interpersonal aspect of the job is so fueled and high intensity that you see the best and worst of human beings.

Generally, what I'm trying to say is - laughing at patients is wrong. Laughing with patients is everything.

Ah, yeah, I can imagine - obviously loads of jobs require interacting with the general public, but for doctors/patients it must be that must more personal.

I kind of get and don't get what you're saying by "laughing with patients" - do patients often view their problems with humour to some extent? I didn't think it would be common, could be wrong though and obviously depends where one works Would it be appropriate for a doctor to treat a patient lightly/with humour in order to try to "lighten the mood," or do you mean that, if a patient views something that way, the doctor often follows suit?

Also - if this isn't a rude question, how many doctors have you met with poor social skills? (I don't have to worry about that myself, but I was just curious, given the nature of the job).