I am a medical doctor but I chose not to do residency because I was not in a good place mentally. I got my ass kicked so badly in third and fourth year. I never failed an exam and honored most of my rotations but the culture was baseline harsh and at its worst outright abusive. I don’t think any of this had to do with my capacity to learn facts or to empathize with patients. I just didn’t like the people I worked under. I was so miserable. Fourth year was better than third but overall I learned the hospital wasn’t a place where I wanted to be.

I am still in contact with my school and they are being nice but since they are all academic physicians they don’t know about what my path could look like without residency. I have been looking up what my alternatives are, but I don’t have a mentor who would be able to guide me about this specifically and I feel so lost. My family don’t know anything about it and can’t give any advice. I just want to talk to someone who can show me a light because right now it seems like I did all this to go nowhere, and I’m not suicidal but life does not feel exciting or hopeful right now.

  • YawningNostalgiaOPM
    3·
    5 days ago

    This comment was so thoughtful it’s taken some time for me to formulate a response, but I do need to push back a bit. You can do residency in Canada and not have the repeat it in the US actually, which is great, and something I’m considering. My old mentor did residency at McGill and didn’t have to repeat it when he moved to NY. If I do residency in Canada I can always come to the US and practice here without repeating residency. If I do it in any other country, I won’t be able to, and that’s another 3 years off my life.

    “An abusive caretaker” is sadly apt. Thanks for taking the time to type that all out.