Medical Socialization

Socialization is very important in the medical community. For a caregiver, it could mean losing a patient, or worse, a lawsuit. Sometimes caregivers do not like to be very social about a patient's emotional needs, only about their physical needs.

Socialization in the medical field varies on the status of the caregiver. Nurses are given many communication classes. They tend to help the patients with emotional needs more than physicians do. As for the physicians, it depends on the physician. Some schools teach the physician to just focus on the physical illnesses and other schools teach to be more open. Dentists do not many communication courses and not feel as comfortable communicating with patients about anything other than the work they are performing.

According to our textbook, a medical student who enters at the age of 22 cannot become a licensed practicing physician until he or she is age 29. The students have to undergo years of training. The training can be torturous and tiring. The students can be embarrassed, draw blood that can be risky to their lives, and have to work up to 120 hours a week!

The reasons the schools are hard on the students is to ensure the students are ready to handle high pressure situations when they are a licensed physician. The schools also believe the chains of command are for the residents own wellbeing. This makes the residents learn how to act in certain situations. It also helps the medical student learn to make decisions clearly and easily. Medical school also teaches group camaraderie and social skills. It enables the medical students to work with each other and learn what it is like to work in a group physician setting or with other physicians. The last great socialization skill medical school teaches is the rite of passage. The students feel privileged and accomplished when they graduate with such a high honor and degree.

The new reform rules are trying to cut back intern hours. This would allow the medical students more time for rest and possibly studying. This would be great for some of the students who feel they have been pushed to the limit and cannot proceed any further due to sleep deprivation. In the textbook it stated some of the students are punished because of mistakes; maybe with more time off of intern hours, fewer mistakes would happen and less punishment would occur. Some of the medical schools also think that psychology and social impact of illness classes should be required. This would help the physicians learn when it is not a physical illness that is wrong with the patient, but a mind over matter illness. The physicians would be able to communicate better with their patients.

Some other reform rules that may help with medical school would be to lengthen the amount of textbook studying time. The students are overwhelmed with how quickly they have to learn all the medical practice procedures and terminology. Another reform that should be looked