For the folks here who were
heavily involved in pre-hospital care (EMT, Medic, etc.)...
Did you find 3rd year of medical school better or worse than M1/M2? Over in pre-allo they make 3rd year sound like hell on earth... I feel as if I would really enjoy it... I know it is different, but still you will FINALLY be interacting with patients... isn't that what we should all like to do anyways?? Because I know I will miss working in EMS once my time in the profession is over...
Or are they all just whiners who like books better than people or actual work?
I was also never involved in pre-hospital care, but I liked 3rd year way better than 1st or 2nd year. I enjoyed actually DOING something, as opposed to sitting in a classroom all day.
But, please don't dismiss people who didn't like 3rd year as "just whiners who like books better than people or actual work." It is no secret that 3rd year requires irregular hours (sometimes you may be assigned to night float or the overnight ER shift), and often requires very very early hours (my personal record was when I started rounding at 3AM as a sub-I on surgery). Some people do not like irregular hours, and some people really really hate getting up that early. And that's ok. As EMS, I suspect that you won't have a problem with this.
My boyfriend hated the subjective grading system of 3rd year the most, I think. At least in MS1 and MS2, the grading system is black or white. You got the test question right, or you didn't. You got an 85% on the test, so you did better than your friend who got a 75%. In MS3, however, it is extremely subjective, and sometimes is based on who happens to kiss a** the best.
Also, there is still, unfortunately, many places that do not fight for their medical students. There are a lot of very miserable doctors and residents and nurses, who take out their unhappiness on the med students (who often have no power and cannot speak up for themselves). In some places, the med students are an afterthought, so they are given rotation schedules that make no sense, and no one thinks to get the med students the basic essentials (like a badge that allows them in and out of the operating room suite, for example). A lot of my friends who had had jobs before med school had a hard time swallowing that kind of disrespect; you may also have a difficult time with this if it happens to you.
If you enjoy patient care and "doing stuff," 3rd year is way better. But it's still not paradise on earth, no matter how much you enjoy it.