<p>I was considering a few professions, as well as a few pre-professional college routes ie. (prep for law, medical and business schools). I must admit I have a more expressed interest in Law and Business and that my consideration of Medicine is due to my parents (but who knows how these interests will change in the next few years). Anyways, I was wondering what any practicing doctors could offer on their profession. Specifically, I'm asking what you love about your job, what you hate about it, if it's worth the schooling, if you'd care to break any common myths, and if you'd reccommend it to someone who's moderately interested in biology and neurology.</p>
<p>I'm not a doc, but have several close family members who are (brother, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, & many friends. My brother works for Kaiser & seems very happy -- he's an ophathamologist. My sister-in-law works part-time (MWF) as a dermatologist with a group practice & also loves her job. She loves helping patients & that she rarely has emergencies & only has a little dictation to do outside of office hours. She & my brother have two of their kids considering becoming docs because they think their parents lead pretty good lives. My brother-in-law is a urologist in private practice & seems to like his practice pretty well but has a lot more emergencies & "call." None of his 3 kids are at all interested in medicine because I don't think they feel watching him that the costs are worth the benefits. Another friend is an OB/GYN & he says neither of his twin sons are interested in going into medicine because they see his crazy hours & all the late hours he has to keep--about $1000 net for following a patient for 9 months & delivering her baby anytime 24/7!</p>
<p>As an outsider, I'd say you'd need a lot more commitment than "moderate interest" to get through the grueling internship & residency (much less graduate from med school--once you get in). My sister-in-law, the dermatologist graduated in nutrition & took the LSATs, MCATs & GREs & when she got into med school decided that's what she'd do.
Starion</p>
<p>3 docs in family--all primary care. Hours are long. Education/training is killer. Hate the stress, govt regulations, life/death decisions, "risk management." Money, job security can be good. Families/marriages can suffer because of the dedication to patients--on call, all the time-- that the profession requires. I don't really recommend it unless you are passionate about it.</p>
<p>The docs I know are passionate about practicing medicine. Like Atomom, they recognize the sacrifices & hassles of dealing with insurers, bureauracracies. Some of them candidly admit that they are not sure they'd do it again if they knew then what they know now.</p>
<p>In general, the specialists in group practices/managed care seem to have a better lifestyle--but perhaps less "job satisfaction" because they don't treat the "whole patient," and see the patient over as long a course of time. My family doc has been to the weddings of our extended family, as well as many of other family milestones; he is truly a friend of the family. The allergist & pediatrician have also gotten quite close to our family (unfortunately, this means we've seen docs WAY more than we'd like). They all are called when families have health issues & get a great deal of job satisfaction from treating the "whole patient," but it does take a toll on their personal lives & family lives. All of these docs have had to limit/stop accepting new patients.</p>
<p>Hubbell's dad here:</p>
<pre><code>I am a neurologist, so if you are interested in neurology I will tell you that that it is an exciting time to be in neurology/neuroscience, the breakthroughs in research and treatment are happening very fast. I enjoy my work and its a comfortable/affluent life-but it will not make you 'rich'(if you want to be rich, get an MBA and become an investment banker or play basketball really, really well). The outlook for physicians and neurologists in particular are quite good for the next 40 years-75 million baby-boomers heading into their "I need a good Doctor years" just when the majority of physicians(baby-bommers themselves) want to retire. Getting into neurology 4-years of college, 4-years of medical school, 4-years of neurology residency and often a 1-year fellowship in a sub-specialty(clinical neurophysiology, vascular neurology, neuro-ophthalmology etc..)-so you better have some real interest before you embark on the journey-but the destination is worthwhile.
</code></pre>
<p>I am an academic cardiologist at a top 10 med school. And a wife. And a mother. I am absolutely passionate about what I do and can't imagine doing anything else for a career. My husband is also an academic physician. He did a dramatic about-face in specialties after practicing in an every other night call, high stress specialty for 3 years, then retraining in an entirely different specialty which is more intellectual and gives him a great deal more free time to pursue his other love (golf). He is much much happier. For both of us, it has been a long long haul. 4 years undergrad, 4 years med school, 3 years internal med residency for me, 4 yr first residency for him, we both practiced in our primary specialty for 4 years (courtesy of Uncle Sam as we were paying back commitment), then went into secondary training (4 years of fellowship for me, 3 yrs additional residency for him), served another 3 years finishing our commitment to Uncle Sam and are now where we are above. I am on-call on average every 5th night (usually either 5 to 6 weekdays in a month or 3 weekdays and one 3 night weekend), my husband takes call one weekend every other month or so (he does not get called in at night ever). We don't make the 1/3 of the money that our private practice colleagues make since we are both assistant professors, but that's OK with us. Yes, we have the same hassles with Medicare, Medicaid, third party payers, caring for the uninsured that all physicians do. And the paperwork, oh the paperwork. But it's worth it. When I was interviewing for cardiology fellowship (at the time of the interview I had a 2 week old baby that the interviewers knew nothing about), I was asked why a woman would want to go into a field dominated by men with such long hours. I replied simply "Because I have fun doing it." </p>
<p>My D has no interest in medicine. She thinks what we do is "gross and disgusting", but I don't think it's because she doesn't like our long hours and crazy lifestyle, because she's choosing majors that can have even crazier hours. </p>
<p>In any case, as I've said before. There is ONLY one reason to go into medicine. And that is because you have a passion for it. If you are not happy, the sacrifices will not be worth it to you. Good luck!</p>
<p>My husband has been a physican for twenty plus years. The culture of cost cutting, corporate profits, and malpractice has burned him out. He aims to retire ASAP.</p>
<p>We have three college aged kids. None of them have an interest in practicing medicine. My husband has steered them away from it. In his group of physicians, none of the physicians' children, a total of eleven college students, is headed towards medicine or health care.</p>
<p>One of our daughter's has a friend in a 6 year BS/MD program. As incoming students, they were told "If you can imagine yourself being happy in ANY other career, go for that career. Pursue medicine if it is the ONLY career that will make you happy."</p>
<p>My H is a primary care physician--a pediatrician for very low-income families. He is passionate about what he does, which is why it was darn near killing him. Between little support or interest in these families by society in general, insurance nightmares, long hours, and constant stress and worries, there is no doubt he is severely burned out. </p>
<p>He is leaving his position Friday, and in a month, will start his student teaching to become a high school bio teacher, which he is very excited about.</p>
<p>The kids did medical school, residency, and the rest with him---no way in the world would either choose to follow him in to this profession, though both have enormous respect for what he does and will find other ways to put service to others in the forefront of their professional aspirations.</p>
<p>Another practicing physician here who is generally happy with her lot. There are so many different ways to practice medicine, that there is something for most personalities. The hard part is knowing yourself, and foretelling the future well enough to know what specialty is for you. The time investment and financial investment is so much that doing what Quiltguru's husband did is truly hard.
I see, though, many highly dissatisfied docs. Things have changed so much over the last 20 years, and most of the change has led to less autonomy, and more hassles for practicing MDs.</p>
<p>Part of the problem with deciding on a course in medicine is that I don't think anyone really knows what practice will be like in 20 years when 09 high schools seniors would be practicing physicians. Medicine is so many different types of "work" that is hard to know if it is right for you until you are actually doing it - that means that it is hard to know whether or not pre-med is for you, and then in med school it is often hard to know which specialty is "right" - look at Quiltguru's spouse.</p>
<p>I think some of the things an MD needs is a passion for scientific topics (but not necessarily a passion for doing science); intellectual curiosity, particularly for figuring things out, puzzles; adaptability!!!!; and a life outside medicine, or the ability to distance yourself in a sense, in order to survive. We desperately need people like Paul Farmer and Garland's husband, who give and give - whose passion is as much for selfless service as it is for medicine as a pursuit - but the hard truth is that in today's medical world these people get ground up, because all of the barriers seem meant to stop you from just doing your job and caring for sick people. An MD, particularly primary care docs, have to be able to separate themselves from their calling enough to have a life, and to see that they are doing good, even when it seems that nothing is being accomplished. That is really hard - just ask Garland's husband.</p>
<p>I am a gastroenterologist in private practice.....all opinions above legit. Primary care is quite demanding and these docs seem to be the least content. The specialists, particularly derm, path, radiology,etc. have a better lifestyle....by far! Also a two income family can take the pressure off and permit a job with less hours, less call....</p>
<p>I believe consensus opinion is don't do it unless you truly desire to be a doc...the sacrifice is too great otherwise.</p>
<p>Garland: I hear you. Burnout is a big problem in primary care, especially when working with the poor. I admire your husband. It takes guts to do what he's doing. He sounds like the kind of physician that we'd want to stay in medicine, but I'm sure he'll take his passion with him to the classroom.</p>
<p>Cangel, atomom, thanks for the kind remarks. Everyone does say that it's a shame he's leaving medicine, but then they follow that with saying they understand perfectly. I think he'll make a great teacher, too!</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for this thread. I knew it was bad, but who knew it was this bad???</p>
<p>It isn't for everyone Suze.</p>
<p>Geez, it's not awful it's just tough. Wears you down....often that can be managed by a change of venue.</p>
<p>Thanks so much to all of you who posted on this thread. My D wants to be a doctor; she will be a college junior. It's a scary thing to watch as a parent. It seems kind of insurmountable to me, but she is one determined young lady.</p>
<p>It can seem insurmountable but readily achieved...just takes awhile. As noted there are means to adjust the workload to make things tolerable.</p>
<p>Bookiemom, Its not so bad, there are tough times in college, med school and residency, AND later in practice, but a lot of it is learning to cope. There are many ways to modify your workload once training is finished - one way the MDs have one up on the lawyers, is that we as a profession have done things to take better control of our hours - sure there are docs that work long uncontrollable hours, but a lot less than 20-30 years ago.
The truth is everyone wants their doctor to work hard, be the best, be available - all MDs, even us slacker pathologists, are to some degree workoholic, worrying, anal-retentive/OCD types - if you don't buy into that to some extent, you probably won't make it through the gauntlet to med school.</p>
<p>On other hand, just an observation that 90% of Indian doctors kid chooses medical profession unless the kid cannot qualify. More and more Indian kids try to be a doctors, dentist, or engineer or computer science. Comparatively few apply for liberal art profession or even law profession.</p>
<p>Redstar, I think that's more of culture and childhood grooming.</p>