You Will Lose

I know, I know, this is not a happy sentiment. Yet, I feel that it is essential to know that for many third-year medical students, clinical training is the first time in their lives that they will lose. Let’s be absolutely clear, in the next year, you can expect to: mess up presentations, feel tired most of the time, forget basic information, get lost in a stairwell, mix up patients, and not eat lunch. You may even find yourself passing out in an operating room, crying in a bathroom stall, watching a patient pass, standing in shock when a patient that reminds you of someone receives terrible news, becoming a hypochondriac, seeing the effects of abuse, neglect, violence, or anger. I know I did. You may even begin to question why you or anyone goes into medicine in the first place. It is a sobering realization to recognize that ultimately, we all lose in a way, in that we all will die. Yet, I have come to find that life and medicine are not so much about losing or winning. It is about living and choosing. Medicine for me is simply helping others live and choose the best options for the time they have left.

You Will Lose, Voices from the Wards by Derek Woodruff, MD