Surviving Medical School

Based on years of studying and working with medical students Surviving Medical School offers an orientation to the hectic, anxious area of medical education and practical advice for thriving in that environment.

Topics covered include: students' expectations in relation to intellectual and emotional capacities; career doubt and alienation; clinical experience; physician fallibility, internships; and professional practice.

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

Once the honeymoon of acceptance and admittance to medical school are over, most medical students suddenly find themselves faced not only with the grueling basic sciences course work that precedes even more harrowing clinical studies, but also with questions of self-doubt, resocialization, alienation from friends and family, and career angst. The medical school experience turns out to be not the imagined flight of intellectual self-actualization but rather a grinding struggle to cram too much information into too few hours, with precious little time for recreation or a social life. And every step of the way the student is haunted by the question, did I do the right thing? Based on years of studying and working with medical students, Robert Holman Coombs’s book offers both an orientation to the hectic, anxious realm of medical education and a resource for coping with and succeeding in that environment. Coombs begins with questions regarding expectations and intellectual and emotional capacities. The author then examines matters related to career doubt and alienation often experienced by medical students. Following an orientation to the clinical experience, the book concludes with discussions about physician fallibility, residency, and professional practice.\

Based on years of studying and working with medical students Surviving Medical School offers an orientation to the hectic, anxious area of medical education and practical advice for thriving in that environment.

Topics covered include: students' expectations in relation to intellectual and emotional capacities; career doubt and alienation; clinical experience; physician fallibility, internships; and professional practice.\

Dwayne A. Ollerich

This book provides an accurate account of the developmental passages encountered by medical students during their professional education. Practical ways of dealing with the numerous stresses experienced during this time are also described. The purpose is to give voice to the experiences and thoughts of medical students in order to provide ""accurate expectations"" for other medical students as they progress through medical school. The author also describes his own experiences with medical students to enhance the book. It is written for medical students at all stages of their professional education. It would also serve as an excellent resource for pre-medical students, faculty, counselors, student affairs officers, and for the families of medical students. It features quotations and vignettes from the experiences of medical students to emphasize the topic under discussion. Each chapter closes with a highly informative, thoughtful and empathetic section called ""Insights"" written by Dr. Bernard Virshup. The medical school experience is augmented in the last chapter with brief descriptions of residency, medical practice, and even retirement. This book is extremely well done and will provide an excellent resource for medical students and for those who teach, advise, and support medical students. It makes clear the numerous developmental hurdles that most medical students must clear on the way to becoming physicians.\

Coombs, Robert Holman (UCLA)\