Attending Physician vs Med student

Imagine being 21 in med school. When I was 21, I didn't even know like what I was doing in my life. They keep changing it so many times. I'm like this old guy right here. I'm not old. Welcome back to the channel. I just flew back from Hawaii. It was an overnight flight. I'm a little tired. I feel like I'm hungover, but not because of alcohol, because pretty much got no sleep for, what was it, 24 hours? Hawaii is six hours behind New York City. So I flew overnight, flew into New York City at 7 a.m. and basically stayed up the whole day. So probably like 36 hours. It's kind of bringing me back to the being on call days, that fellowship. But nonetheless, here I am. I have a pretty cool video for today. I have a special guest coming by. We're going to film a few videos. Maybe I'll throw him on here as well. Talk about a few things and go from there. Should be fun. I'm excited about it. I'm a little tired and hungover, but I still have a job to do. I'm going to try to work out right now and get this show on the road. Let's go. All right. So the very special thing I was talking about today is I am joined by a very special guest. None other than Andy Nguyen, MS2, second year med student, just finished first year med student. How are you? I am so much more relaxed than I was a couple weeks ago. I am glad I am here in the beautiful city of New York. And I'm just like, I'm free. I'm free. He probably feels how I do now. I'm done and you're done with your first year med school. First year med school is the hardest. Well, probably gets worse. You're not helping me. I thought it was the worst, and I was like, now I think about it. I think second year is probably the worst. I have six months until I hit clinical rotations for awards because we start earlier than most med schools. Six months? Yeah. We start in January of 2022. They keep changing it so many times. I'm like this old guy right here. You're not that old. Andy's here. We filmed a video. You should go watch it on his channel. I try to post every Sunday at 11 over my channel, NDMD. Go follow him over on his channel. We just filmed a sick video that you should watch as well. It should be out by the time this video comes out. Probably. Check that out. But I just wanted to kind of run some questions by him since he's a med student and I just finished as an attending physician now. So, you know, we're like a decade apart, but still he's on the path to become a doctor and an attending. So I'm not going to pimp him like we're in the OR or something. Whenever a doctor is like, I'm about to ask you some questions. That's when like the med student PTSD kicks in. Like you want to run. All right. So which phase of my toes? No, I'm just kidding. I'm not going to go that way. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself. So my name is Andy. Like you said, I'm a first year. Well, God, I'm not a first year anymore. Second year. It still feels surreal. That's why I say it. I am from Georgia. Go to school in Georgia. See, that's why, you know, this is why we connected. He's in Georgia. I'm from Georgia. Let's go. I was in a seven year combined BSMD program. So definitely a unique path to medical school than most people would traditionally go through, but I wouldn't have it any other way. That's like the exact opposite of I did. He did med school and undergrad in seven years. And I like finished undergrad and went back to do more undergrad and then to med school. So I mean, this is the way to do it. Let me ask you one more question. Well, I got a few more questions. They're not hard. So why did you go into medicine for those med students and premeds out there? I think genuinely it's a feeling I haven't exactly fully accepted yet. It'll hit you when you walk into a patient room and that patient is looking at you fully trusting that you can help them. I think it's a super unique feeling in medicine, and I've only experienced it a couple of times because I worked at a few free clinics. That moment when they're like, can you help me? And to train to be able to say, yes, I can. It's a feeling that's unrivaled. Yeah. I totally agree with that. I think that if you don't have that feeling, you're in the wrong field. But I felt the exact same way. I still do to this day. All right. Next question. What is your favorite thing about med school so far in your one year experience? Meeting people. And I know that's a super cliche answer, but genuinely all the way from the students that I've met, my fellow peers that have encouraged both my medical and creative work to preceptors who are not just medical coaches, but life coaches. Yeah. I've had them hug me and walk me through telling me at times I'm doing way better than I think I am. And those are the mentors and the people that just make such a powerful impact on their lives. You meet so many good people throughout this whole path and you'll only meet more and you'll become best friends with your co-med students and then your colleagues in residency and so on. As you know, I met all my friends, well not all of them, but like my close, close friends in med school because they get it. They know what you're going through and it's nice to share that bond with them. On a opposite note is what do you dislike the most about med school or least favorite courses? Like what's your, what do you hate the most? In one of my most recent videos on my channel, reflecting on like my first year of med school, I mentioned something called imposter syndrome. If you've been in med school, you probably know what I'm talking about. But when you take like the top 5% of a ton of universities and you just pack them into one place, there's going to be one point in time when you're just going to feel stupid. And like, it's a very much internal battle to stop comparing yourself to others. And I'm grateful that my curriculum is pass fail. So there, I've heard horror stories from other schools. Mine wasn't. Oh, I'm sorry. I wish it were though. Maybe you can understand when like people try to undercut each other just to like the gunners out there. But like, even without that, you still feel the need to compare yourself. And me being 21 in med school, most of my peers are 25, 26. They were EMTs, nurses. Can you imagine being 21 in med school? When I was 21, I didn't even know like what I was doing with my life. Well, that's the thing. Those people have like had the time to figure that out. And they just have like, simply because they've been on this earth longer than you. I think genuinely getting over that kind of mental battle is one of the hardest and most difficult parts of being in med school. But if you just approach it with the attitude of not, you're way better than me, how can I stand next to you? And more of it? What can I learn from you? That makes it so much better. Yeah, even I mean, in residency and so on, you still have that imposter syndrome type feeling. There are some days where I'm like, do they really let me do this stuff? Like, they're like, you know, you feel like you shouldn't be doing I don't know, it's weird. You can only really describe it. But like, when you go do a procedure by yourself, you're like, I mean, I know I know what I'm doing. But like, does everybody else think I know what I'm like, you feel stupid. It's hard to explain. But I totally agree with that. So next question. Two more questions. Okay, so this one is what do you want to specialize in? And why is it radiology? What I've been telling people lately is that I'm trying to decide which side of the magic protective blue curtains I want to be on. Yeah. So it's either surgery or anesthesia. At the moment, IR has definitely interest me. And funny enough, in my CBO, which is case based learning groups, whenever we have radiology images on there, my group always likes to dog me as like the group radiologist because I have experience in like film photography and everything. So they're like, now you're a radiologist. Apparently, according to them, you know, I did a surgery intern here and everybody knew I was starting radiology residency. So they would be like, we would always pull up a CT scan. They're like, Oh, Michael, you got this. Come show us how to do it. I'm like, I don't know what I'm like, I haven't started a resident. I don't know anything. But you get pinned as like the radiologist or whatnot. Yeah. All right, Andy, you're only in the hot seat for one more question. I can deal with that. And this is so like we said earlier, he's a YouTuber in D&D, go follow his channel. What is your ultimate goal with YouTube? I tell this with everybody that wants to do any sort of creative work is that your purpose has to be greater than just getting followers and getting famous. So for me, I wanted to present an image of med school that is one, you know, real and raw, but also in a way that I don't have to tell you outright, like you should come to med school, you can just see it and go, wow, I really want to be there. At the end of the day, I'm going to have these memories to look back on my classmates are going to have these memories to look back on who are in my videos. And if I can inspire someone to be the future of medicine along the way, then I'll I'll gladly do that. Sounds good, man. I totally agree with that. So like I said, go follow him on NBMD channel link up here. And anything else to say? Thank you so much for having me up in this beautiful city and hosting. Of course, man, anytime. Open door policy. And again, go check our video on his channel that we did. It's awesome. And we'll see you on the next one. For sure. Thank you, guys. All right, so that officially concludes this video. I hope you all enjoyed his insight on being a current medical student. Shout out to him again for coming over and filming these videos. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments. Oh, no, I died. As always, make sure you smash that subscribe button, follow me on Instagram and TikTok if you don't already. And I'll see you all on the next video. Peace.