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I'm going to show you how to tell your story in your application. Again, that's premedworkshop.com if you are applying to medical school in 2022, be there or be square. You're listening to the medical school HQ podcast online at medicalschoolhq.net session number seven. Hello and welcome back to another episode here at the medical school HQ podcast. I am your host Ryan Gray and we are the podcast about medical school. From the premed process through residency, we hope to take your knowledge of becoming a physician to the next level. I have a very special host in here with me today or a co-host I should say. My wife Alison, I speak of her a lot. She's in the description of the show. We started medical school HQ.net together and this is the first time I've had her on the podcast. Hi, I'm Alison. Thank you. Happy to be here. Why don't you tell people a little bit about where you are in your path to becoming a physician? Sure. I am currently a neurology resident in my last year of residency. I'm at the partners neurology program, which is a combined program through Harvard at MGH and Berkman Women's Hospital. All right. Your path to becoming a physician, I said, you are a physician. I am. Am I? All right. Today, we got in an email from somebody that visited the site and was generous enough to send us a pretty long and detailed email that we wanted to share with you guys. We came up with a response to her email that we wanted to share with everybody because I think it's a valuable lesson for everybody. I'm going to read the email. I'm not going to give you a name or anything, but it's from a high school senior. She started off. I'll brag a little bit. She said, first of all, I enjoyed reading the stories and advice given on this website. I just found out about this website today and I just had to email you. My dream has always been to become a doctor. My few gifts are having compassion, patience, and I overall care for the well-being of others. Not to mention, I love science, especially biology and physiology. She goes on to talk about how she's a minority living in a disadvantaged neighborhood. She's faced many obstacles in life, including some troubles with her parents. And because of that, she's struggled a little bit in school. She's managed to maintain a 3.7 GPA in high school, which is great. She says she's not gifted academic-wise, but she has always given it her best. She has been put down many times when talking to others about her dream of becoming a physician. She says because of where she comes from and the fact that she is not an outstanding overachiever like others, some of her other classmates. She does say she has enthusiasm for health, science, and the well-being of others that will help get her through college and hopefully through medical school. And our question is what qualities are essential to have in order to get through medical school? Do you really have to be academically gifted and grow up in an advantaged family? She says thank you very much and I hope to hear from you soon. So in response to that, those questions, we came up with a list of about 10 or so qualities that would help you through medical school, help you through undergraduate as well, I think, and even through residency and beyond. So in no particular order, we have a list. And the first thing that we have is discipline. Alison, why do we put down discipline? So in order to be a medical student and a doctor, I think discipline is something that is definitely a requirement and I think it's something that anyone can have. Teaching yourself discipline, you know, that can come from your own motivation, it can come from your parents, your teachers, but at the end of the day, as a medical student and as a physician, you're basically agreeing to become a lifelong learner and you need discipline to be able to study really and keep studying. You study in the classroom and you keep studying as you go. That's studying that you do in high school, you know, continues on in college and then in medical school and residency and really beyond. So I think discipline, you know, having that discipline to save yourself, self, I need to go study despite the fact that my friends are going out, despite the fact that, you know, whatever else is going on in your life, that, you know, studying has to be a priority. Okay, that's a solid answer. I would agree that you definitely need the discipline. Studying all the time is something that is necessary, necessary evil. You can't give in to the peer pressure of friends going out to party and you have a test next week. There's always something to study. And even yourself, you've graduated medical school. You're now in residency and upstairs on the dining room table is a book that you're studying. That is true. I'm currently preparing for my neurology boards. Sometimes used to joke in medical school that you become a professional test taker. You get really, really good at hunkering down a study and then, you know, preparing for an exam. And then when you finish that one, you move on to the next one. And, you know, I actually am one of those weird people that like studying, but I think that, you know, medicine is a different career than a lot of others. You know, there's a reason that people have to re-certify every 10 years. You know, you medicine changes as science evolves. And as we learn more about the body and what, you know, all the different diseases and afflictions that people get. So, you know, hunkering down a study, you know, it's about being able to learn what you need to know on an ongoing basis over the years so that you can serve the patients that you're taking care of. All right. Number two on the list, persistence/drive. Right. So, you know, this falls in line a little bit with the first one. But I think, you know, a medical school is a long road. The journey to become a doctor is the long road. And the journey, you know, as a physician is a long road going forward, I think you have to have the drive to, you know, keep pushing yourself even when, you know, it gets hard, even when maybe a certain test didn't go well, you know, knowing that you're also investing a lot, you're investing a lot, whether it's your own money, whether you're, that you've taken out loans, you know, devoting yourself to this, to this school and this profession, you know, it's a big investment. And I think you have to be able to pick yourself up, you know, after each, you know, problem that you may encounter at medical school. And, you know, just like in every phase of your life, I think there are hurdles that you have to surmount. And part of being, you know, successful as a medical student is being able to, you know, just pick yourself right back up when something doesn't go well and just move on to the next task. And maybe you'll be one of those people who flies through medical school without any problems. And that's great. But along the way to becoming a doctor, no matter how smart you are, where you come from, who you are, you will always, I'm sure, you know, we've seen it in friends and ourselves. You know, you'll have things you run into and you need to be able to just pick yourself up and get over that next hurdle each time. So drive and persistence is really, really important. So the old cliche, it's not how you fall, it's how you pick yourself back up. I like it. All right. That is good. Number three on the list, humility. So this is a big one. I think, you know, Ryan and I have both run into people throughout our lives and all phases. But, you know, you run into people in medical school who, you know, really think that they're the best things in sliced bread or whatever that expression is. I think that humility is an extremely important quality and it's not necessarily something you teach or that you can learn, but I think it's something that you need to try to learn if you're not someone who is humble. You know, as you progress through medical school and as a physician, what you learn is that it's extremely important to be a good team player. People work with a lot of different healthcare providers, including nurses, technicians, therapists of different kinds, and then your own peers and colleagues of different levels. And it's extremely important that you, you know, remember that you have a lot to bring to the table because you have spent those hours studying, you know, you have really devoted yourself and you know a lot, but you always have to remember that there is, there's always more to now. The minute that you, I always tell my patients this too, I say the minute that you meet a physician who tells you, you know, that they know all there is to know about a subject, that's the time to move on to a different person, a different physician because like I said earlier, you know, being a physician is about being a lifelong learner and you need to always know that there are people around you and in the world who probably know more than you. So it's really important to just, you know, be the best that you can be and challenge yourself to be the best, the most knowledgeable, you know, but have the humility to realize that there are a lot of other people around you that also have skills and knowledge. I think that's one of the biggest things that I've learned over time is that it's impossible to know everything and you have to rely on other people and sometimes that's hard. Or some people going into the medical field, they want to be physicians because they want to be the person that knows it all and does it all and is the go-to person for all the answers. But in the end, there just is too much to know all by yourself and that's why you rely on others and work as a team and that was number four was team player and you kind of hit on that a little bit with that last one. I don't know. Is there anything else you want to say about being a team player? I think just, you know, really honing that skill, you know, that actually especially comes into play when you're a medical student, you know, in the clinical years. When you're on rounds, you know, a resident really, and I can tell you this now as a resident, you know, residents look for medical students who are willing to just be a team player. You may not always have the most, you know, amazing, fun task in front of you when you come in, you know, for work or, you know, school as you have it be every day, you know, in your clinical years, but being able to be someone who will just, you know, participate and, you know, do whatever it takes to help out with patient care, whether it's, you know, grabbing a chart, whether it's, you know, calling another hospital to get other records, you know, it may not be, I'm not sure what the word is I'm looking for. It may not be the most glorious task in the world, but it's part of helping and that team that being part of a team really is pervasive throughout medicine. You can't accomplish anything, you know, anymore without a team, you know, you rely on nurses and occupational therapists, physical therapists, you know, MRI technicians, I mean, we all work together to make patient care the best that it can be. So it's just honing that skill as a medical student, even before you get into medical school, you know, whether you're working in a study group, you know, it's just a really good quality to have. The term is scut work. If you the listener have not heard that term yet, you will hear it. It's a term that's, it's thrown around a lot when you're working in the hospital, working on the floors and a resident, if you're a medical student, a resident asks you to go grab a chart somewhere or go just do the most minuscule task and you're like, I didn't go to medical school to do this, but you did, because being a physician doesn't only mean that you're doing patient care a hundred percent of the time. There's so much more involved as Alison was just talking about, and there's there's obviously a line if a resident asks you to go get his or her dry cleaning because they're busy, then obviously there's a line and that's a little facetious, but in the end, there's a line and just use your judgment. The smallest things can help a resident out in the biggest ways, so don't, don't think anything's beneath you. So number five, we have bright, now I'm assuming you mean bright doesn't smart, not bright doesn't shiny? I do, and I think, you know, the young woman who sent us that really moving email, you know, she was asking do you have to be academically gifted? So I don't think that, you know, you have to be your valedictorian, the valedictorian of your high school. You don't have to be, you know, the smartest person in your class, no. I think that to succeed as a medical student and as a physician, you do need to be a smart person, you know, and it's hard to really say what does that mean, you know, is that numerical? No, I mean, it's hard to quantify what does smart mean. I think, you know, you can look at your grades, your GPA and say, okay, you know, like the woman who wrote a signing mail, 3.7, that's a fantastic GPA, you know, you need to be someone who, you know, has done well in school. And the reason I say that is because medical school only gets harder, and residency after that, you know, you're always going to be trying to learn as much as you can all the time to take the best care of your patients. So you need to be someone who, you know, knows how to study, knows, you know, how to be successful in an academic environment. Once you're done, you know, with residency, you don't have to stay in an academic environment, you can go into private practice, you can, you know, do a whole myriad of different things with your degree, whether it's an MD or a DO. But I think that, you know, you definitely do need to be a bright or smart person. It sort of goes along with the territory. And, you know, that's not necessarily specific to being a doctor. I would say, you know, if you're going out there to find a lawyer, you're probably going to want a smart lawyer to win your case for you. So that's, you know, another quality that you need as a physician as well. Part of being bright, as some might interpret that is as knowing everything, and that kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier, is that it's impossible to know everything. So part of being bright is knowing how to, knowing how to know your limits and knowing what you need to look up, knowing what you need to ask help with, that that goes along with being bright as well. Absolutely. You know, using your resources is a huge part of being bright. You know, knowing, knowing your own limitations, I think, as you said it perfectly. All right. Number six, moving right along, adaptable. So this is a big one. When I was in med school, I used to think of myself as a chameleon. You know, you go through many different rotations in your clinical years, and you know, in the classroom years, you also go through many different courses. And you know, obviously in college, you'll have a similar thing. You have a lot of courses to take. But the reason that being adaptable is so important is that in medical school, you will be exposed to so many different teams of people. You will be exposed to different subject matter, and it happens really fast. So on a Friday afternoon, you finish your tests in, you know, surgery, general surgery, and on Monday morning, you've moved on to psychiatry, and it could not be more different. In surgery, you're in the OR all the time. You round at six in the morning, you know, you're done in 20 minutes, and you're off to the OR. You know, in psychiatry, you spend the bulk of your day talking to patients, and you know, obviously, there's no OR time. And you know, OBGYN is different. Medicine, I mean, one of the things that's amazing about medicine and so much fun is the shear variety and everything. But with variety, sort of, you know, variety demands, therefore, that you be someone who can really shift, you know, just be becoming adaptable to different situations, different teams, different subject material all the time. And it will serve you well, you know, if you end up going into medicine in, you know, my first year of residency is an intern, you know, you're exposed to different areas of medicine all the time. Take care of patients with GI problems, you know, with pulmonary problems. So, you know, you're constantly, you know, adapting to different things, and it's just something that will serve you well in every way in medical school. Part of what you're adapting to is not only what you're doing, but who you're doing it with. That's one of the harder things that I found with going through medical school and then internship is that every few weeks you're switching teams, and you have a different boss, basically, with a different attending, and every attending wants something different. They work a little bit differently. They want their notes a specific way. They want the flow of rounds to be a certain way. And part of being adaptable is not getting pissed off all the time at the fact that you have to change how you're doing it because you're part of the team and the attending, the boss, once it's a little bit different. Yeah. And, you know, once you're done with residency and you move on, you know, once you have sort of your ultimate job, and again, that can change, you know, you can do so many different things with your degree, you know, you'll have the opportunity to sort of really define, you know, how do you want to do things once you're attending. But as, you know, you progress through medical school as a student and then on as an intern and a resident, you will be subjected to so many different switches, you know, constant team changing. It's really part of the culture of medicine now with all the handoffs that occur really because of duty hour regulations and, you know, that's a conversation for another day. But a really, a lot of that, it doesn't stem from, you know, a desire for anyone to trip you up or make things harder for you. It's just, it's part of the culture of medicine now. So, you know, being able to just go with the flow and just, you know, adapt, you know, you'll have a new set of patients, you know, that'll change as well. So change is just part of it. And it really is fun, you know, it's, I'm someone, I'm kind of a variety junkie. I love, I love change and just different aspects of, you know, of life. And I think, I think a lot of physicians enjoy that as well and medical school. You'll get a whole lot of it. So being adaptable is just, it's a great thing to, you know, honestly, it's a great sort of human quality just in life. But I think it'll serve you really well as a medical student. All right. That was number six, adaptable. Number seven, another great human quality, empathic. Yes. So what is empathy? So for those who don't know, so having empathy means being able to really, you know, put yourself in another person's shoes and imagine what their life is like, what they're experiencing. It is not sympathy. So people say, well, how can I have, you know, sympathy for, you know, the drug addict who comes in looking for more pain, pain meds, you know, it's not sympathy, though. You know, it's really something different. And why is empathy so important? So you're going to, as a medical student and student and also as a resident and beyond, you know, you'll be taking care of patients of all walks of life, you know, poor, rich minorities, you know, you'll take care of people from different countries, you know, from the United States who speak all different languages. And you may take care of inmates as well at a prison. There was a prison at our medical school and a lot of, you know, I mean, inmates have to be taken care of if they get sick enough to be in an emergency department or hospital. So my point is, you know, you'll, you'll take care of so many different kinds of people and you need, even if you come from the absolute opposite background of someone, you really to provide the best care that you can for that person, you need to be able to say, you know, gosh, this must really be awful what they're going through and really put yourself in their place. It's, you know, it's something that I don't know that you can teach and they certainly do try to teach it in medical school in our, in one of our classes, they teach about empathy and how important it is. And it really is not a cliche. It really is, you know, a foundation, one of the key things to being a good physician and a good medical student. And it's not something you have to know initially, you know, maybe, maybe you have come from a privileged background and, you know, you haven't had a lot of troubles. Maybe you haven't, maybe you've been through a terrible, you know, ordeal in your life and, you know, what it's like to suffer, you know, through different things. But no matter what, you know, it's, it's so important to be able to just separate yourself and say, gee, if I was that person, if I was in their situation, you know, what, how, how awful or how, you know, what might this, what must this be like? I can't echo that enough. I think you said it well. It is of the utmost importance that your biases, your judgments have no, they have no place in the patient room and the bedside. And I think some people have a hard time doing that. And to be an excellent physician, you can't, you can't let those biases and your judgments of somebody alter your, your treatment and your thoughts. Absolutely. I completely agree. All right. Number eight, a good attitude slash enthusiastic. So this certainly comes into play as a medical student. You know, if you're in the library and you're studying in your academic years or your classroom years in medical school, you know, do you need to be really enthusiastic? I would say it comes in handy because you'll definitely, you know, sort of have more self motivation to, to get through the material and do well in the exams. But when it comes to the clinical years and you're rotating through medicine and surgery, it is so important that you maintain a positive attitude and that you are enthusiastic. And I really say that wholeheartedly and honestly, again, you know, thinking as a resident now, you know, when we, when we look at the medical students who join our teams, you know, you're always, always excited and just pleased to see and to work with a medical student who's really enthusiastic. It makes your job more fun. You know, part of being a resident is also teaching and we do a lot of teaching for medical students. And, you know, if you think about it being a teacher in that role, you know, how much much more fun is it when the person who you're teaching is actually really engaged and interested in what they're learning? Is it true that you have to, you know, go through a certain number of rotations in medical school to graduate? Yes. You know, you have to complete psychiatry, medicine, et cetera. But you know, it's, it's, you don't have to go through it with a positive attitude. You can kind of, you know, get through it and move on and go to, you know, let's say you're really interested in an orthopedic surgery and you know, you're, what you really want to do with your life is being the OR and work on bones. Well, that's awesome, but you know, to, you got to pay your dues and part of, you know, being successful in medical school is putting your really solid good, you know, effort into each thing you do. So, you know, remember that just like in college and, you know, even high school, you'll get letters of recommendation from people. And the last thing you want to do is be someone who is awesome and excellent in surgery in the OR and in every way. But then when it comes to medicine, you kind of, you know, you couldn't really be bothered. I mean, that's, it's not going to be a recipe for success down the line. Again, once you have the freedom, you know, to kind of define your career and the way you want to do things, you, you don't have to ever really deal with medicine again, you know, except if your, your patient becomes sick and you need to get a medicine consult. But my point is, you know, it's, it's so important to just have that enthusiasm, you know, keep that going and, and really throw yourself into each rotation, each, each class, you know, each part of medical school with a positive attitude, it'll, you know, reflect so well on you when, when you look to apply to residency. And it will just foster, you know, your own knowledge, you know, the, the more interest you have in a subject material, the more you'll, you'll take it with you. And then maybe down the line, you know, 20 years from now, you'll, you'll be with a patient who becomes ill and, you know, and you'll be in the OR, maybe you'll be in your office as a surgeon, you know, and the, they'll have a, an MI, a heart attack, MI stands for myocardial infarction, you know, maybe you'll say, gee, I know how to deal with this. So it's these things, you know, that you learn, you will always take with you. And I think it's people respond really well to someone who has a positive attitude and it will serve you yourself as well. Well said. Let's move on to number nine, having a sense of humor. So Ryan laughs at me because he thinks I have a delinquent sense of humor. I think I think it's pretty good, but. The link went as it takes you 10 minutes to get a joke. So clearly that's not what I mean by having a sense of humor. What I mean by that, and, and yes, he's right, I am a little slow with jokes sometimes. What I mean by that is being able to laugh, you know, in medical school, and certainly as a physician, you will be exposed to really tough stuff. You will see people die. You will see people suffer through some of the worst things that, that human beings can go through terrible accidents, horrible diseases that really strip away people's sense of self and families that are suffering along with, you know, their loved ones as they watch them in the hospital. So, you know, you need to be able to sort of build, you know, a buffer, a way to really to laugh to not to laugh at what you're dealing with, but to find humor in, you know, the process and to be able to, to talk about what's going on, you know, and not let it get you down. You know, people, some people have said, you know, to me, "Oh God, I could never be an oncologist." And to be honest, I don't know that I would want to be an oncologist either because they deal with cancer, you know, all day long every day. But, you know, even oncologists, you know, many, many oncologists I know have some of the best sense of humor because they just really know, they know how to live their lives and, you know, be present to the fun, the humor, the things in life that make you laugh. And it's really important, honestly, you know, as you go through medical school, you know, dealing with your emotions is something that's really not taught in medical school. And it's something that is not really focused on in residency much at all. But you think, "Well, gee, isn't that ironic because you're dealing with some of the toughest stuff and wouldn't you want a forum to be able to talk about how difficult some of the stuff is?" But it's not always really there. And so I think, you know, it's something that as you think about going into medical school and if you're a medical student now, you know, it's just really important to be able to laugh, to find the humor in things, even if you are slow with getting jokes. I think that I completely agree with number nine here, and we're talking about the ten traits of being a good medical student, number nine, have a sense of humor. My father died when I was 17, and so death kind of is different for me, and I have always been pretty good about getting patients to laugh with me in the room, whether we're talking about cancer or any kind of disease, whatever we're talking about, it's just my personality to get them to laugh, because I like to laugh too, and laughter many people will tell you as a form of healing. And I'm not trying to tell you that you need to go and feign laughter with somebody, but if you are good at it, don't hide it. You'd be surprised at the different kinds of situations that you could be in, and a patient is willing to sit there and laugh with you, even if they're crying at the same time. So that was number nine, number ten, and the last trait of being a good medical student is confidence. So confidence is very important, and if you think about it, you know, when you go as a any person, if you think about going to the doctor, you would, I imagine, want someone who really knows what they're doing. That's, you know, if you go to a good stockbroker, a good lawyer, a good doctor, all of these things, you know, you want someone who's going to take the best care of you. So with that comes a responsibility. You know, it's an enormous responsibility to take care of another human being, and you need to be able to develop your own confidence around that. And that doesn't mean being arrogance, and this is something, again, I can't echo enough. You know, you'll meet a lot of arrogance as you go through your life, you know, or arrogance comes in all varieties, but, and you know, people, sometimes people say, well, gee, you know, do you need to be a little arrogant to be a really good surgeon, you know, to put somebody under the knife, and maybe you do, maybe you need a little arrogance, but what I would say is I, you know, don't confuse confidence with arrogance, because the last thing that a patient wants when they come out of, when they go into a doctor's office is to really be condescended to, and to be made, you know, to feel like something, someone that's lower. I've had so many patients tell me, you know, just how disappointed they were in a certain visit or a certain, you know, at another hospital, and I'm certainly not toodling my own horn. I just to say that, you know, you'll see people who seem to really think that, you know, again, the best thing since sliced bread and, and it goes back to, you know, what we were talking about at the beginning, you want to be able to develop confidence to know that gee, I, I really, I know how to do this, you know, I know how to take care of this person, and I'm going to exude that. I'm really going to express that, you know, to this patient to make them feel like they're safe and in safe hands, but to a fault, because again, if, you know, overconfidence leads to arrogance and arrogance leads to mistakes, because when you think, you know, everything, arrogance, when, you know, you've really lost your way, and again, I, I say this as a young physician, I certainly don't presume to know it all, but I do know that it's really important to, in taking care of people to really, to take responsibility for that when you're taking care of people that, you know, you really make them feel like they're safe. Confidence, you'd mentioned you need some form of arrogance, and I would disagree with that arrogance has no role in what you're doing. You need to be extremely confident when you're in the operating room and cutting somebody open, but arrogance is, is not part of that. The, the form of confidence, and it's, it's kind of weird. You go from medical school, you go through your first two years of medical school, which are the preclinical years, and then the third year, and this is the, the traditional format and some schools are changing, but the traditional format as you do, you're two preclinical years, and then you do your clinical years in the hospital, and that first day in the hospital, your confidence is at about negative 20. How the hell am I going to take care of patients? I've been studying for two years, reading a book, I have no idea what it's like to actually see somebody come into the OR, or see somebody come into the emergency room and actually take care of them. And your confidence, hopefully skyrockets from that point forward because you, you do have the skills. They were taught to you the first two years, you just haven't used them yet, or you, you've used them very little. And then the same thing happens, you graduate medical school, and all of a sudden you are the residents, you're the intern that's taking care of these patients, you no longer have that buffer, and your confidence is right around negative 20 again, and very quickly you realize that your medical school actually knew what they were doing and taught you very well, and your confidence does grow from there. So confidence is hugely important, not only in your ability to continue through the day, but it shows when you talk to your patients the confidence that you have in your diagnosis, in your treatment plan, what do they say a dog can smell fear on you? A patient can smell lack of confidence in what you're talking about, and so you need to be able to portray that confidence in when you're talking to your patients. Yeah, I think, you know, thinking back, probably day one of my internship was this scary. One of the scariest days of my life, because you really realized it's up to you, and again, it's not up to you alone, it's up to you and the rest of a team taking care of a patient. But there is that shift, now you're a doctor, this is it, and I remember being terrified, but then like you said Ryan, having that realization that you do know what you're doing and you just need to apply what you know and work at it. With every year in your training as a medical student and then in your postgraduate training as a resident, that confidence builds, and it's something that you can always work on. So if you're one of those people who feels like you don't have a lot of confidence and you're someone who is more timid or more shy, don't be afraid necessarily, don't just cast off or put aside your dream to be a doctor because you think you're a shy, timid individual. Some of my friends in medical school probably would describe themselves as quite introverted or quite shy. And I know that they're going on and doing wonderful things now as pediatricians, having just finished their residency last year. So they're all kinds of people, doctors are people, so they'll come in all different shapes and sizes and levels of confidence and not, but I think the point we're trying to make is that having confidence and building that confidence is something that is really important as a medical student and beyond as a physician. All right, well folks, that's the 10 traits to be. What about the freebie? What's the freebie? Well, if you want just one more just for fun, there's a number 11, I think. Because you've got to be able to deal with blood and guts. And again, if you're someone who faints at the side of blood, you might want to reconsider if you're thinking seriously about being a doctor, that's sad. You can definitely get over fears like that. But I think it's something that you will definitely see. Just know that. If you're thinking about medical school and being a doctor, you'll definitely be exposed to blood and other assorted bodily fluids and you don't have to spend your life dealing with that. I mean, if you go into psychiatry, other fields in medicine, you don't necessarily have to deal with any of it on a daily basis. But certainly, certainly on the road to becoming a doctor as a medical student, you'll be in the gross anatomy lab, you'll participate in an autopsy, there'll be definite times. And then certainly on the wards, when you may be collecting blood yourself, you may be doing different procedures of different kinds and you're taking care of sick people, so you'll see a lot of that not pretty stuff. And if you're someone who is really not looking for that, you might want to think about it. But really, it's not that bad, so. There's a very fun test out there. It's called the Goo-Tolerance Index, the full-proof method for choosing a medical specialty. I'll link to that in the show notes, which you can find at medicalschoolhq.net/session-7 for all the show notes and a link to that, the Goo-Tolerance Index. You answer a couple of questions and then based on your score, it tells you what kind of a specialty you might be good at. But if you can't handle blood or guts at all, then that's not good because you need it to get through medical school before you get to a very dry specialty, like psychiatry. Dry as in noble and guts, not dry, the other dry. Anyway, that's it for today's show. I want to thank my lovely wife, Alison, for joining me on today's podcast. Thank you for having me. I had a great time. I hope you, the listener, got something valuable out of today's information. I want to thank the individual that sent us the email, a very personal email. I appreciate it. If you have a question, you can give us a call at 617-410-6747 and leave us a voicemail, which we can play here on the podcast, or you can just shoot us an email through the website itself at medicalschoolhq.net. All of the 10 traits plus our little bonus trait will have a list in the show notes at medicalschoolhq.net/session-7. Until the next time, I hope you enjoy your path to becoming a physician. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
