I'm not a med student, but earlier this year I took to reading the public blogging site for people studying at the University of California, San Francisco. (They had the only pediatric surgeon in the West specializing in my rare birth defects when I was growing up.)

At one point, a student put up an interesting post about the lengths UCSF goes to be supportive, reduce stress, and generally avoid having them burn out or become depressed. She pointed out that it's unique in that regard -- other university medical programs are quite the opposite. Many posts from others have expressed amazement at how caring and supportive the professors (doctors) are; rather than stress, what I most often saw expressed was thoughtful excitement as they started a new rotation. Not that it isn't a rigorous school (it's one of the best), from what I can tell; it's just careful to not damage the students despite pushing them hard.

In comparison, the ancient autobiographical book Making of a Surgeon by Dr. William Nolen has long been described by physicians as accurate despite the decades that went by. People are still making that kind of comment over at Amazon or other sites, at least as of this year, disturbingly enough.

If other schools are having serious problems in that regard, based on the programs & efforts she described, they ought to look into what UCSF is evidently doing right. The student blogging site is Synapse, in case anyone is interested in seeing what their lives are like in comparison with what Slate reports.

From direct, personal experience, let me assure you that UC San Francisco medical students also commit suicide.

Kitty,

The LAST THING a med student need is mandatory sensitivity or counseling sessions to "help" them. They have enough on their plates without wasting time on that.

No offense but I just looked at Synapse wedsite - there is one 3rd year med student listed as having a blog and he says that in his spare time he enjoys word games, reading magazines, playing basketball... It can't be accurate because a 3rd year med student uses spare time for eating, sleeping, personal grooming and best of all reading the medical literature about the rotation he's on. The rest of his life he is prepping for rounds, going on rounds with his resident, going on rounds with his attending, seeing patients at various places depending on the rotation, perhaps rounding again in the evening, and then there's prep for grand rounds and M&M. If you have spare time, you aren't working hard enough.

accio,

Remember though that these are the residents and medical students causing the medical system to change to hospitalists because they don't want call, ANY call, as it interferes with their lifestyle.

Bondsman - so true, plus it's California where you schedule your job around your surfing schedule!