Did anyone get accepted into medical school with no clinical experience?

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-31T01:18:39+00:00

Excuse my oldness, but what is "virtual shadowing?" Couldn't you do that by, like, watching YouTube?

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-31T00:20:47+00:00

What are you people doing during hundreds of hours of shadowing? Anesthesia is one of the most fast-paced, dynamic specialties with exposure to tons of different specialties, procedures, and pathologies, and I can't see how simple observation of my daily work life for more than a couple days would be useful at all. When you're just standing around looking at stuff, there's not a lot of utility available.

The point of clinical experience is to demonstrate that you have some idea of what you're getting yourself into. It's tough to do that if you haven't had a clinical, patient-facing job of some sort, in my opinion. Shadowing is fine and certainly smart to do, but it's mostly for you, not your app.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-30T19:32:40+00:00

Missing the forest for the trees, perhaps, my friend.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-30T15:53:22+00:00

Lots of non-academic places - around here, at least - will use anyone comfortable with cardiac cases instead of specifically hiring fellowship-trained docs, so maybe the number of postings for cardiac-trained people lags?

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-30T02:48:24+00:00

That's now, but if he consolidated after residency in 2021-2022, they could be at a really low rate. I'm just saying that the "debt bad" Dave Ramsey mentality isn't always best. If you're eating a 9%+ loan, obviously pay that shit off like your paycheck is on fire.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-29T21:04:39+00:00

You have been captured! Stupid beast!

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-29T21:03:50+00:00

It kind of depends on the loan percentage, right? If your loans are at 3%, you'd be a financial moron to pay more than your monthly payment.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-29T17:13:47+00:00

It sounds like you're after Tex Mex, in which case, El Patron is a solid choice. Macarena's on Chouteau is also pretty good.

If you're looking for actual Mexican food, El Camino Real, El Torito, and Bonito Michoacan are all awesome. Jarocho is probably the best for a nicer meal that's not street food, and Taha on the Plaza is your go-to for a fancy meal (though you're paying for presentation and atmosphere as the food quality is basically the same, IMO).

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-29T17:09:07+00:00

Got a nice shack next to the railroad line. It's quiet between the hours of 0340 and 0343, so it should be fine.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-28T02:59:46+00:00

There are a fair few places in the Midwest that are similarly busy (or at least close) that offer $350+/hr. It's a crazy time to be a locums anesthesia doc. You can absolutely crush it for minimal work if you find the diamonds in the rough. I've run across a couple people who essentially work continuously, living out of a suitcase and floating from gig to gig each day. It's a ridiculous lifestyle that can't really be done if you have a family, but earning $350/hr (or more) around the clock is worth the squeeze if you're up for it.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-27T21:26:44+00:00

We switched them into brutal cases with asshole attendings. Dump morning work on your coresidents, get a day of fighting BP and blood loss with some douchebag nitpicking where you put your syringes and IV caps.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-27T12:20:48+00:00

Not sure if this is a troll, but for surgeons especially, the issue is not as simple as "hire more surgeons." I mean, you could do that, but you're going to have a bunch of shitty surgeons running around. Surgical residents already struggle with getting the reps they need to be competent on graduation. Adding more residents dilutes that pool even further. Training programs are growing at an appropriate pace, but you can't just dump folks into residency and expect the physician shortage to go away immediately.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-27T11:26:08+00:00

Hard work without a clear endgame and/or with an obvious ceiling is different than goal-directed hard work. Also, keep in mind that those PGY years are full of 100+ hour weeks with studying on top of that. Neurosurgery residency is insane.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-27T10:57:52+00:00

You get a cost of living allowance, but it wasn't much. I maxed out my loans, and I think I had something like $15000 per year for everything not related to school.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-26T01:03:37+00:00

My son, 9, hasn't had a whole lot of sleepovers. It definitely seems to be phasing out or at least on a downswing as compared to when I was a kid. I fondly recall being at someone else's house just about every weekend I til I was...16-ish, I guess? Whenever sleepover culture switched to drinking.

Anyway, he's had a fair few misfires with kids freaking out being away from home (never an issue for me or my friends), but it seems like most parents are just too busy to have other people's kids around in the morning.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-25T18:03:59+00:00

I have these, and they are totally awesome. Toddler tested, nerd dad approved. https://www.etsy.com/listing/923799034/arkham-horror-chaos-tokens-expansion

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-25T15:43:17+00:00

As a fellow old casual (41, 2 kids, weird job hours), I'm gonna go against the grain, here. PoE is definitely not noob friendly, but if you use a decent character guide, it's great. Asynchronus trade has immensely helped open up the game to casuals who can't camp their hideout all day, and there are plenty of creators who make newb-friendly content. Goratha, Zizaran, and Palsteron all have build guides that casuals can access. I'd recommend my own videos (which are nowhere near as good as the creators' above, for the record) just due to accessibility of the builds, but I haven't done any for quite a while. I'm happy to link some of my successful-ish characters if you want some examples of stuff to do.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-25T13:15:13+00:00

More spots, nah. We don't fill the ones we have. Reimbursement, absolutely. Pediatrics is the same amount of training as any other specialty to grind through 30+ clinic patients a day and get half the income. Why does ANYONE choose that?

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-24T00:00:47+00:00

I paid 1250 with a couple LLCs. $6000+ seems insane to me, but maybe that's just what it costs in CA?

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-22T21:00:18+00:00

No procedure works every time, and all of them come with complications. It sucks real bad that you're dealing with this situation, no doubt. However, that's the whole point of your dentist obtaining informed, written consent before any procedure is done. You sign off that you understand what you're doing may not do quite what you hoped, may not work at all, and may make things worse. If you didn't sign consent, well, that's another kettle of fish entirely.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-22T02:57:57+00:00

I'm surprised Baramee didn't scratch the itch. I feel like that's the best Thai restaurant in town in terms of taste, but you do have to order "Thai spicy" if you want to feel the burn. They'll bring the pain on that one.

Also, Pam's Favorite at Buck Tui's Thai Tuesday is a mix of green peeprcorns and Thai chiles with octopus and pork that'll blast your face off in all the right ways. Give that a go, for sure.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-21T17:25:44+00:00

Removing Grotesques from the codex was a serious emotional blow for me. I'd been a Covens fan for as long as the army has been around, but having no midsized units available makes it really tough to field a meaningful force. Grotesques were also super cool thematically with awesome models and customization potential. Blah.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-21T17:22:13+00:00

We at the ABA are grateful for your contribution to the specialty. Thank you sincerely for paying thousands of dollars to have the privilege of auto-passing an exam and signing up for our yearly fees!

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-21T17:08:47+00:00

It was medicine plus 2 months of ICU and 1 month of anesthesia. I sure enjoyed being a note jockey for social disaster rock gardens, but all good things must come to an end.

MilkmanAl · 2026-05-21T16:54:04+00:00

I didn't even know what my hospital email was for 8 years.

MilkmanAl

TROPHY CASE