medical school

Anna

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It happens 9 out of 10 times I go into public wearing my scrubs. “Are you in nursing school?”, “Are you a nurse?” No, I’m going to be a doctor, I’m in medical school. I preface this with my appreciation of nurses, as I will depend on them heavily as a student and when I become a doctor. It also bothers me to hear people talk about nurses as “b-team” medical staff. They aren’t. I’ve been told numerous times I should “just” be a nurse, as though such a thing was possible. How can one “just” be a nurse? People choose careers for a myriad of reasons, but “just” being this or that doesn’t describe my journey, or that of any of the nurses I know. They are nurses because they are intelligent, hard-working, and caring people. Understand, it’s not that I mind being called a nurse; it’s that most people assume that as a woman, I’m probably not a doctor.

A.

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I am a first year female medical student in Germany. I had a very good experience talking to the two male professors during my interview. My best friend didn’t. When she was asked what she would do if she didn’t get into medicine this year she answered that she would look into doing an apprenticeship as a nurse (which is exactly what I told the professors interviewing me and what most people would say) and then reapply after the waiting semester (which is what german students need when they dont get into uni right away, for medicine you need approximatly 14 waiting semesters). He said that she should just do that and stay there since that would be the proper job for a girl. Not being a doctor but being a nurse. During our oral histology exam a fellow female student of mine was told by her male examiner to draw a square. ‘Now draw four circles into that square. You have drawn a stove and that is where you belong.’ She failed because she hadn’t studied enough but so have other male students, yet they were told to be better prepared for the reexamination. They weren’t publically insulted in front of their peers. She was. While working in a hospital during the winter break a female doctor told me that sexism will always be a part of our job. Women will always be the ones addressed by the patients as the nurse. When I go into my Practical Year (the year we have to work in the hospital before we take our final exam) I will always be the nurse while my male peer will be the doctor. Yet when I try to talk to my male peers about these issues the only responses I get are ‘Get over it.’ or ‘You can’t change it anyway.’ or ‘But there are more women studying medicine than men at the moment.’ Yes, because that certainly solves everything.