So, you want to go to Medical School?. Daniel C. Merrill
So, you want to go to Medical School?
What every pre-med student should consider before applying to Medical School
by
Daniel C. Merrill MD
Copyright 2011 Daniel C. Merrill MD,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0104-1
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The information presented herein represents the view of the author at the date of publication. While every attempt has been made to verify the information in this report to make sure it is accurate, neither the author nor any of his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions of any kind. This book is for informational purposes only.
About the author
The Merrill brothers, Dr Merrill’s father and uncle, were pioneers of the Seventh Day Adventist Colony in Eel Rock, California in 1933. Eel Rock is located on the banks of the wild and scenic North Fork of the Eel River, about 20 miles upriver from its’ junction with the South Fork at Dyersville.
Because of the educational limitations of this sparsely populated rural area, the Merrill’s ultimately moved to Myers Flat on the more populous South Fork of the Eel River in 1948. Dr Merrill was one of only 72 graduates from the South Fork High school in 1955. He subsequently graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with honor and a degree in Physiology Four years later; when Dr Merrill graduated from the University of Southern California Medical School; he became the first student from South Fork High School to become a MD.
After completed his internship and a year of surgical residency in California, Dr Merrill moved to Minnesota where he performed his Urology Residency under the late Don Creevy at the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center in Minneapolis. After completing his residency, Dr Merrill performed a NIH special fellowship in Urology at the University of Minnesota and subsequently joined the staff of the Urology department at that institution.
In 1973 Dr Merrill was recruited by the University of California Davis to administer their Urology training program at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Martinez California. Dr Merrill served as Chief of Urology in that institution until its closure for seismic considerations in 1991.
Although Dr Merrill spent most of his professional life as an academician teaching residents the skills necessary to become successful Urologic surgeons, he also spent some time in private practice. He was a pioneer in the field of impotency and in the early 1980s was one of the leading implant surgeons in the world having pioneered the Mentor inflatable penile prosthesis and several other implantable medical devices.
This book, however, is not about Dr Merrill or his medical career. Rather, it deals with the deterioration of medicine, as he sees it, over the years that he has been a physician. It is Dr Merrill’s hope that his observations over the past 60 years will be beneficial to those who are considering a career in modern-day medicine.
Introduction
Sixty years ago when I was trying to determine what to do with my life, the medical profession was one of, if not the most, honorable professions. I think it still is, for the most part; however, the public’s image of MDs has changed greatly over the past 50 to 60 years.
In the 1940s and 50s the local general practitioners were held in great esteem and respect by the members of our rural communities. MDs still are well thought of by the community, but not to the extent they were when I was a youngster growing up in Southern Humboldt County. At that time when my father meet our local Seventh Day Adventist doctor, Dr. Atteberry, on the street he would move to the side of the sidewalk , remove his hat and give a small bow and a greeting to the good doctor. I would have done the same if I had owned a hat and was not so awestruck by the good doctor that I was, for practical purposes, speechless.
For a variety of reasons doctors of medicine are not held in such high esteem today. I ask you, would you even recognize one of your local MDs if you meet him or her on the street? I’ll bet you would not!
Dr Atteberry also was one of the wealthiest individuals in Humboldt County although you would never have know it if you visited his modest home after office hours as I did when an inadvertent cast by my father put a fishhook in my scalp. At that particular Sunday afternoon we found him plowing one of his fields on his small farm in Fortuna’s Campton Heights. He was a very humble and down to earth man despite his professional status and wealth.
The point is this. In those days if you came from a relatively humble background, as I did, and wanted to make something of yourself you did everything possible to become an MD. Furthermore, your family was willing to make ever sacrifice to make that happen, especially if they were poorly uneducated and relatively poor as mine were.
There are always exceptions to any rule, but a great deal has changed in the past six decades and I no longer believe that you will be able to achieve your childhood dreams by becoming a member of the medical profession. More importantly, I question whether or not you will reach your full potential if you chose to become a MD. If you dream of becoming a medical research scientist, that’s one thing, but a member of the healing arts profession no way, not in this day and age.
In any case, I am writing this eBook in the hopes that someone who has lived through it all can stop you from making a gigantic career misstate. No, unless you are pretty much unqualified to make something significant out of yourself or consider yourself to be 50% Mother Teresa and 50% Mahatma Gandhi put this career option behind you. It’s not for you, start looking for a challenging career that will make you some money, yes that’s the stuff that will put food on the table and put your children through college. Hopefully, there will be enough left over when you are my age for a decent retirement.
The goal of this book is to convince you and your parents that what I say the medical profession today is true. For your sake, I hope that I am successful in this endeavor!
What will you have to invest to become a Medical Doctor?
Well, there are a lot of ways to look at this question. For starters let’s begin with your investment in time. You are going to have to be willing to invest a minimum of 12 of the best years of your life after high school before you will even begin to see the light of day from a financial standpoint or, for that matter, get good nights sleep. This will put most people in their early to mid thirties before they draw their first decent pay check. If you are interested in becoming one of the remaining real money makers, for example a Neurosurgeon, this period of indentured servitude can drag on until you are well into your late forties.
This means that you will have to defer any thought of having a family until you are squeaky close to middle age. For example, when I went to my first high school reunion in 1974, after returning to California after an extensive period of training in Minnesota, I won the prize for having the two youngest children, ages 3 and 5, of anyone in the class. No one else had a child younger than 12, and that youngster was the product of a third marriage! Even more depressing was the fact that several members of the class of 1955 had grand children older than my girls.
Along the same lines, while, at that time, I was just beginning to make a reasonable income several of my high school classmates were already looking at retirement. At that moment it struck me like a bolt of lightning that being voted the most distinguished member of the