Instant Gratification

Instant gratification is a notable reality nowadays which is leading to a culture of fast food, instant messaging, and immeidiate rewards. Medical students are usually people who have postponed many pleasures and made sustantial sacrifices to get in. However, how long will this delayed gratification last?

From what I have witnessed, the average Latin American Medical student spends about 6 years studying medicine before starting 2 years of clinical exposure, and they start at the age of 17 right after highschool. On the other side, the average North American Medical student has to build up a competitive portfolio while finishing a university degree before applying to Medical school. Once accepted, there is an average of 1.5 years of studying before the clinical rotations start. All this while the medical students seems all their friends starting a life, finding a job, and buying property.

It is usually in the years before the clinical rotation which a student seemingly has time to participate in many of the causes which the profession advocate. In Latin American , students have an average of 6 years to participate in social causes. In North American schools, students have 1.5 years.

It is during this short time which a North American medical student has to build up a competitive portfolio for residency. Hence, the concept of delayed gratification is blurred for such students as they are looking for effective and impressive results they can put in their curricullum in the shoretest time possible. Hence, projects and exchanges are so popular in Canada while a long time commitment project would require a little bit more of thought.

Before I leave, I noticed that the participation form other countries involves fullfletched dctors. Why is it that there are no doctors from US nor Canada participating in this conference?