What qualities do you need to study medicine and make a good doctor?
November 19th, 2009 | by Michael |
Girl asked:
I have pretty good grades but did not take Chemistry, only Biology and higher level Mathematics. I’m interested in medicine, more in the patient rapport area than the research area. What qualities are necessary to study medicine? How can I decide if this is what I should go for? I usually score around 123on IQ tests.
WADE
I have pretty good grades but did not take Chemistry, only Biology and higher level Mathematics. I’m interested in medicine, more in the patient rapport area than the research area. What qualities are necessary to study medicine? How can I decide if this is what I should go for? I usually score around 123on IQ tests.
WADE
2 Responses to “What qualities do you need to study medicine and make a good doctor?”
By Roboy2k on Nov 22, 2009 | Reply
You pretty much have to take chemistry.
Studying medicine involves an interest in chemistry.
Perhaps some other area in health would be better, such as psychotherapist, psychiatrist, nutritionist, etc.?
Psychotherapy and nutrition specifically involve a very high reliance on patient rapport.
By C C on Nov 23, 2009 | Reply
I’ve dealt with both doctors and patients for over 40 years and beside being able to deal with all the schooling you have to go through (4 years of college in pre-med then 4 years of medical school) plus any specialization you want, and all of the financial debt, you need to maintain a willingness to be called by your patients at all hours. The best doctors are those who care for their patients and have a good rapport with the nurses.Doctors listen to all the aches & pains, and even if the patient may be having emotional problems, they STILL listen. They don’t ignore the symptoms that are presented. I had one patient, who previously was post op from removal of a left ovary, who kept complaining of left sided pain.The doctor gave her Lorazepam and told the family it was “all in her head”, and told them she should be referred to a psychiatrist. Then her abdomen became swollen, pain became unbearable & she went to the ER. They did emergency surgery & found that during her previous surgery, her left ureter had been sewn SHUT, forcing the urine to gone back into her kidney, which had now been so damaged that it had to be removed. You can imagine the law suit that we all knew would happen. If he had just listened to her, and CARED it could all have been avoided.And please listen, too, to the nurses, for they are the guardian of the patients, and often see things when you are not there at midnight.They may be the one seeing unexpected bleeding start, or may see a patient becoming confused & clammy, and know enough to do vitals on someone who “just doesn’t look right”.From what you say, being away from people is not what you want, you want to know them. That quality alone is what I would want in my doctor.