I’m a medical student almost finished my degree. For the last two and a half years of it, I’ve been on unpaid placements at various hospitals. I used to try my absolute hardest, stay for the full day and pretty much do the job of a junior doctor minus the money. I’ve worked part time outside of full time uni for years and it’s allowed me to take some weight off my parents from supporting me, but man am I tired.
Now, just don’t care anymore. The backlog from COVID is real and I refuse to be exploited. I’ll do anything at this point to avoid doing work on placement. Take multiple toilet breaks, eat snacks, have a coffee or two or three, study, go home. Most of the doctors I encounter on placements are happy for me to do whatever the fuck I want, they went through this and know it’s unfair.
Funny enough, it’s only the faculty that bitches about attendance going down, the same faculty I have paid several hundred thousand dollars to for a substandard medical education. They’ll even try to stop us from attending catered teaching sessions at the hospital, those greedy fuckers. One of my recent blocks had the nerve to roster us on from 1pm-11pm, then a 7am start the next day. I live 1h 15m from the hospital.
For anyone who’s wondering, majority of placement is spent picking your nose while docs do admin jobs. I’ll always participate in a good teaching session and do plenty of study in my own time. I’m also competent based on my evaluations. I’m just anti unpaid work. You’ll see me try when I get a paycheck for my efforts.