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Should Organic Chemistry Be a Premed Requirement?
1-quack-4-malpractice writes "For the second time, the Wall Street Journal health blog has questioned whether premed students should be forced to suffer through organic chemistry. Dozens of doctors weighed in with comments, and many of them seem to think that the wry subject is an almost useless rite of passage. Wired Science points out that there are not enough doctors who do research in addition to seeing patients, and they are the ones who benefit most from a thorough grounding in basic sciences like organic chemistry."
In my experience, the kinds of people who succeeded in orgo were the ones who were LEAST likely to keep their minds open and actually think for themselves. Orgo can be and is most commonly (by premeds) passed purely by massive brute force memorization. It can also be done by having great intuition and scientific insight, but that is not necessary at all. The premeds suffer through the lab portion of orgo but not the test+lecture portion because the lab portion can't be memorized! The kids who do well in lab are the future researchers and scientists... not the future doctors.
--- "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." ~ Ben Kenobi, 'Return of the Jedi'
Actually, what you need are more mid-level providers. Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, and the like are probably the future of front-line medical care, while doctors will provide an increasingly overseer role. Hell, as a future doc, I'm not particularly happy about that, but it's the reality. I'd rather see fewer but better doctors surrounded by an army of trained nurses and PAs, than the converse.
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
During my undergraduate career I worked for the Chemistry department . . . I feel a lot better knowing that a good share of the more inept ones got filtered out . . .
Plus, the majors need some one to pull down the bottom of the curve.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
I'm not saying I think it's a *bad* idea for doctors to think like scientists.... but they don't. (speaking as a scientist who took classes with premeds)
Our current system for picking/grooming future doctors almost always selects for the least scientifically-minded students--science is the opposite of memorization, but the students who memorize the best are the ones who get into the best med schools.
MD-PhDs are very very different from regular MDs.
--- "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." ~ Ben Kenobi, 'Return of the Jedi'
To expand on your point:
o-chem is vitally important for medical students for the same reason basic electrical engineering classes on basic circuit design is important to us computer people. Sure, all I do is write software all day, and haven't had to touch a transistor in a long time. But knowing at least the basic theory of how the computer works has helped invaluably in some important cases.
Both doctoring and code-monkeying are applied fields, grounded in results instead of theory, but knowing at least the basis for the theory can let you apply your real-world technique in a lot more interesting ways.
I fear the doctor that just treats pills like some sort of magic black box as they don't understand any of the chemistry involved.
Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
Our EEs actually just take a semester of gen chem. I think the same applies to some of the others like Mechanical, Aero, and Construction engineering. I haven't taken any electronics courses but I can't really see where that would come in handy for you. So I second your motion of shenanigans.