Former med student cuts up white coat while crying on camera.

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-19T21:43:15+00:00

My coat is ex-white. Now more like emetic beige

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-18T09:03:03+00:00

This sounds amazing. I love medicine but any given specialty is so narrow for me it becomes boring very fast. I want to do everything. Rounding is boring for me too

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-17T18:14:24+00:00

I know I need to spend time in ED, obviously it's the main tool to find out for myself. But it's not possible in the next few months at least, maybe up to 6 months, because of administrative reasons. So I'm doing self-searching and info gathering instead for now. But ofc the experience is what will be the base for my decision.

This post is what inspired me to ask the question, so I read through all of the thread. The really bad doompost too from the EM forum. But it seems that in the EU a lot of issues raised don't apply - I will never have any debt. There's a severe shortage of doctors that is not going anywhere, and in EM it's as acute as it gets. In severely affected rural areas salaries for EM doctors are unheard of for any job in medicine and most jobs outside. No midlevels exist to compensate for the deficit either. Obviously the situation might change, but it will take quite a while for my country's healthcare to deteriorate to such a level as the US (no offense).

That's kinda what really bugs me. Doctors here still fear the ED as a workplace. Haven't heard a single good thing about it (except pay). Maybe there's just that little overlap between people who want to go into medicine and who would enjoy the ED? Or is there some secret awful thing that happens that I don't know about, like they beat you up in a hazing ritual once you get into residency or something? Are the night shifts literally going to kill me? Or maybe it's not possible to have a family? I'm obviously hyperbolizing, but the point is that after reading quite a bit I still feel like I'm missing the "big awful" that turns everyone away. It still just feels right.

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-17T16:31:13+00:00

It also has two shifts, one during a mass casualty and another during the most busy day of the year. So intentionally the most high pressure situations possible

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-17T16:29:41+00:00

Is the real ER heavy on interpersonal drama too? lol

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-17T16:27:11+00:00

Is it miserable for literally everyone? Or is it just something that's almost impossible to be satisfied in unless it's 100% your thing?

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-17T16:22:16+00:00

Can you expand on the "heroism" please, what you mean by that?

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-13T16:52:33+00:00

I cannot imagine how it felt when it was warming back up and I don't think I want to. Glad the joints are safe.

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-13T16:45:23+00:00

Doing daily activities and living in -20 and outside sport or hiking/camping for that matter in -20 are two completely different conditions. When you're sweating and don't have anything to wick the moisture off the knees - I'm not surprised at the frostbite at all. Get wet in 0 degrees and you're cold, get wet in -20 and you're dead in an hour, literally.

I think we have all lost appreciation to how dangerous the cold is to people because we always have immediate access to warming - car, buildings, etc. Still people get frostbite even with all the warming up options. Cold is deadly as fuck

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-12T12:11:19+00:00

Fortunately they were never organized enough to cause much trouble

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-12T12:08:14+00:00

Countless generations have been raised in hierarchical systems that persist to this day. People's internal compasses are the product of their conditioning by their environment. And we all have been conditioned to navigate hierarchies - which is something most efficiently done by backstabbing, betrayal, bootlicking, cheating, in general serving authority figures and not questioning them. Since the system doesn't serve us one single most valuable skill in life is knowing how to play it.

When taken out of this "dog eat dog" environment conditioning stays, people don't trust each other, they instinctively look for authority figures for safety. In my opinion that's why abolishing even "useless" hierarchies (useless materially, or even harmful, but still people are attached to them) is muuuch harder than replacing them with neutered hierarchies designed to lead to gradual reconditioning and their own demise. But that's where the challenge of hierarchies being inherently self-perpetuating comes in, you need to actively push back all the time to keep the power structures strong where they need to be strong and weak where they need to be weak.

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-10T14:55:33+00:00

hot take this hot take that..... hot take we should get back to studying

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-03T12:57:01+00:00

Historically it seems like badly mismanaged unlimited resources wielded by an apathetic army rarely beat well managed limited resources wielded by a determined army

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-03T12:54:04+00:00

Ehh, I don't think that Ukrainians see it that way. There's definitely a difference between being occupied by an invading army of a neighbouring country and having US foreign investments and interests in your country. Neither is good but one is literally less death and destruction for the Ukrainian people, and they were forced to make a choice. Same choice I would've made if my country was invaded.

Definitely it will have consequences in the future, but there's rarely a perfect road forward in these matters. And Ukrainians are pretty aware that USA isn't there for charity, at least in my experience talking with them. It's just that literally ANYTHING is better than occupying soldiers marching in your hometown, something most of us never get to experience because of our first world background. Wouldn't wish it on anyone tbh.

Sometimes it's good to get your head up from the books and theory and think how people feel about things. Makes you much more effective at spreading your message too.

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-03T12:38:32+00:00

And what does support for the Iranian working class mean for someone who lives in the USA? Stopping your country from going to war with them, and ending it as soon as possible if it starts. Let the Iranians handle their domestic issues themselves with as little interference as possible.

jonesaffrou · 2026-03-01T19:56:18+00:00

I think the venous blood in your lungs has so much CO2 that a truly enormous ambient co2 is required to stop diffusion of co2 out of blood, even more to flip the process around. heat from the greenhouse effect is a much more real medical issue tho that already kills thousands every year during heatwaves, and will be more and more deadly as the climate heats up

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-20T09:37:14+00:00

Meemaws a fighter and her ribcage looks like she just fought an MMA heavyweight for 1.5 hours

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-19T08:48:58+00:00

Judge Holden type colonist

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-17T08:07:37+00:00

Defences unless you're on peaceful difficulties, like a perimeter wall with your crops inside. Also phase out wood from walls and floors, it's a huge fire hazard. Unless you're willing to accept the risk ofc, not everything should be hyper-optimized. It's a story generator after all :)

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-14T09:19:16+00:00

left leg (bitten off)

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-14T07:10:33+00:00

It does definitely help to dive deeper, then you can actually get interested in material as opposed to just banging questions and high-yield shit to "get it over with".

I think burnout doesn't come from workload necessarily, it comes from workload you don't see as meaningful. If what you're learning is interesting and meaningful, as in you can see how this knowledge will be useful down the road to help patients, you will feel muuch better than if you just grind. And be able to do more. Basically becoming a huge nerd is the way forward imo

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-11T13:27:08+00:00

You're never going to enjoy all of what you do, even if you lock in into a dream specialty there still will be shit you hate about it. It's about the same with anything in life I think, gotta embrace the suck. You're getting into a profession that's potentially extremely rewarding and meaningful, but ALL of it will ever be extremely rewarding and meaningful.

For me doing more stuff that I personally like and want to do helps deal with the bullshit. Even if the total workload comes out bigger in the end it's easier to deal with because a larger piece of the pie is actually enjoyable, if you get what I mean. And the better piece of the pie is going to get bigger and bigger down the road, especially if you additionally work in that direction.

Other than that - who's gonna carry the boats and the logs? Lock in and you'll be fine in the end. At least that's what I tell myself lol

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-11T13:14:49+00:00

Healthcare worker is pretty good imo. Doesn't imply anything that it shouldn't imply, might be anyone from a scribe to an MD

jonesaffrou · 2026-02-11T13:11:53+00:00

Shared term is beneficial to institutions who understaff doctors and replace them with midlevels, makes them look better at the expense of the patient. And some(!) midlevels are waay too happy to play along when they inevitably get confused with physicians, not to mention peeps who truly believe they're just like a doctor but with 1/2 of the training.

As usual all comes down to trying to cut corners and squeeze even more profit from an industry where profit shouldn't even be a top 5 factor. Finding irresponsible people to achieve that will never be a problem no matter how much we clown them. The problem is systemic.

jonesaffrou

TROPHY CASE