Good mentor

I've been pretty lucky during my rotations. For nearly every rotation I've had a doc who actually likes to have students and is willing to take time out of his day to teach. Each doc has a different style, but at this stage in my career that is a good thing for me. It allows me to figure out exactly what my style is going to be. I can borrow some of the things I like and ignore any of the things I don't.

Sometimes we delve into more personal issues. Today we ended up talking about retirement and personal finance (my current doc is a bit older and nearing retirement). He was telling me about how important it is to begin saving early and to make sure that you have an actual investment advisor. You need someone to make sure you are staying on track and who will give you good advice to grow your investments.

This was one of the rare instances where I actually knew all about what he was talking about. I was a business major in undergrad so I at least know the lingo. I've also been saving for retirement in a Roth IRA since I was 18. I definitely appreciated him talking to me about this though. Most doctors never learn anything about the business side of medicine which is a shame.

It's great to have mentors who will talk to you about things like this which fall outside of what they are required to help you learn. I've learned so much in the past year about medicine and becoming a physician. I've also learned a great deal about life in general. There are really quite a few amazing physicians out there. I hope that one day I can contribute to a medical student's future career like my docs have done for me.