Right now, I’m thinking about going on the track of medicine. However, many people told me if I want to be a doctor, I’m gonna study very very hard. And all my life after is studying, working, no vacation or break at all. I was scared by that… I feel like that’s like a robot’s life. I don’t mind the hardness I will experience in the process of becoming a doctor. However, I hope if I can be a doctor, my life will be pretty relaxing, I can travel around, do things I love, and of course, earn a lot money. Can someone tell me what’s a doctor’s life really like?
There is no prototype doctor’s life (that is one you finish residency). The day-to-day depends on what field of medicine you choose, the type of practice select (hospital v clinic based, employed v private practice) and medicine is changing so you do not know what it will be in 8+ years when you are ready to start. The advice I have given students over the years is to choose medicine if you are passionate about taking care patients and are willing to select a profession that requires you to make some sacrifices (working nights, weekends, holidays). Many of us cannot imagine doing anything else.
If you just want to make a lot of money there are much better fields to go into. Be a doctor if you want to help people.
Figure that you will be working much harder than your peers in high school, college, medical school and residency. Evenings, weekends, holidays - people get sick 24/7 and someone has to be available and the more junior you are, the more likely it is to be you. By the time you finish with your training, you will be in your 30s - and then your lifestyle depends on all the variables that anonymous26 mentioned. It could be more of the same - or a lot more manageable. That depends on the choices you make after residency. Nor is making a lot of money assured - the economics of medicine are changing and uncertain - there are easier ways to do it as Ksty1098 says.
My S mourns the loss of his 20s, especially when he compares his schedule to his friends’. He already knows he will not be an equal parent with his spouse who has chosen a more flexible profession. He already knows that he will miss a lot of holidays, birthdays, and kids soccer games. But he loves what he does and can’t imagine doing anything else.
So, if being rich matters to you, if you can see yourself doing something less demanding, if you want more time to pursue other interests including family life, this might not be the right choice for you. There are many other careers in medicine and in other fields that could potentially be a better fit that won’t make these kinds of demands on your life.
" I hope if I can be a doctor, my life will be pretty relaxing" - it will NOT be relaxing. It depends on your specialty though. There is a huge life style difference between being a surgeon and dermatologist.
Somebody in another thread just nailed it correctly. M1 student described her life as “miserable and amazing”. I imagine that if I asked my D. who is 1st year resident, she would agree. She works 30+ hour shifts sometime, but she would agree that it is “miserable and amazing”. D. is planning to go on her vacation. She does not care to travel / visit, try some activities. All she thinks about is to relax on the beach and do NOTHING on her vacation, she does not care about doing anything at all. Cannot comment on how it is after residency. D. will turn 30 when she is done with residency. She has only 4 years of residency, her friend who is plastic surgeon has to be in residency for 7 years…
“Relaxing” is in the eye of the beholder and can mean different things to different people.
My field of pediatric critical care often gets singled out as an anti lifestyle field. I totally get it, we deal with the sickest of the sick, kids die in the PICU which is terrible, and the unit has to be staffed 24/7 including nights, weekends and holidays…but when I go home for the day, or sign out my service at the end of the week, I’m done, free and clear. I won’t ever have to be at dinner and get called back into the hospital (barring some sort of mass casualty event), someone else will be watching my patients. Yes, I’ll always have in-house call nights, but for a more finite schedule that separates my time neatly between at the hospital vs home, it works for me. Not having that risk of interruption is more relaxing to me then having an orderly clinic schedule but call nights in which I’ll never be able to plan. I wasn’t smart enough to be a dermatologist (nor does it fit my ICU personality) so that idealized schedule was never going to be my reality.
Relaxing can also mean financially stable, which medicine provides. It rarely makes one rich though and never, ever provides generational wealth in this day and age. But was I able to afford a decent home? Will I be able to afford a decent car? Go on vacations with my family? Finance my retirement adequately? Pay for my kids to go to college? Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. That’s piece of mind. I’ll never be rich, and my wife will probably always work, but we’ll be comfortable, which is relaxing.
Just keep in mind that the financial stability with all including “able to afford a decent home, Will I be able to afford a decent car, Go on vacations with my family, Finance my retirement adequately and even buy a second home in better climate, Pay for my kids to go to college” is all possible to achieve outside of medical career and even in not very highly paid positions. I do not know if this is called relaxing or not though. There are simply different set of work related stresses outside of medicine. They are not any close to the level of stress in medical career. However, take for example me who is passed full retirement age. Well, I am at my job #9. Yes, it is very stressful for some people to deal with the issues when loosing the job. I took it as an opportunity, I felt that way all 9 times. But you can read even here that some people loose the job and have to idea how to deal with it. It depends on personality. But I never heard of the unemployed MD. So, when my D. realized that science / math is her area of interest, I told her my story about being unemployed 9 times and what it takes to get another job and learn anew at every single place that I have worked. I told her to consider medicine very highly. Since it seemed to fit her personality, she decided to take my advice seriously. Now she feels that she is at the right place where she belongs. And that is the most important thing, not anything else.
All the financial aspects above, every single one and more, my H. and I achieved outside of medical field and not being in the highly paid positions and even with all the time that I was unemployed. It takes a bit of frugal financial planning and setting up priorities.
Being happy after those cruel 30 hour shifts and being excited that you possibly saved somebody life because of early diagnosis that the person got from you, this is invaluable. But again, it is not for everybody, not at all. In my eyes, after I learned what it takes to be an MD thru my D’s experience, all of you guys who went this path, are all my heroes!
Do you think being a dentist will be better in this case? Their life and time will be more manageable? Or maybe pharmaceutist? I do want to have a career related to medicine and science. I’m really interested in them. However, I don’t want my life to be working 24 hours a day for the rest of my life. Do you have any suggestion for me on that kind of career? A career that will require me to work hard at the beginning but I can have a relaxing life and have fair amount of money?
Besides, I think if I’m choosing to be a doctor, I will choose to be a internist.
Do you think being a dentist will be better in this case? Their life and time will be more manageable? Or maybe pharmaceutist? I do want to have a career related to medicine and science. I’m really interested in them. However, I don’t want my life to be working 24 hours a day for the rest of my life. Do you have any suggestion for me on that kind of career? A career that will require me to work hard at the beginning but I can have a relaxing life and have fair amount of money?
Thanks a lot for your information. Your comment really surprised me. I asked people around me about this and everyone is telling me that if I want a relaxing life and go on vacation when I want to, I should never choose to be a doctor. To be a doctor means I have to work very hard throughout my life and almost no break. They also tell me that because I’m a girl, there is really no point for me to work that hard…
My friend in nursing says that’s the way to go: High quality of life, flexibility, and with advanced training you can earn an attractive salary and good job security. As the health system evolves, nurses are increasingly given more training and more authority for patient care. A nurse anesthetist earns on average $157k. A surgical nurse earns around $90k. So does a cardiac nurse. I don’t have a lot of information about this field, but might be worth looking into if you want to remain close to the patient and quality of life matters to you. Many nurses end up in hospital and healthcare administration as well.
But ignore the nonsense about ‘no point for me to work that hard’ because you are a girl. The days when a woman could assume she was going to be supported indefinitely by her parents until a husband takes over that role ended in the 1950s. Not only should you not assume you are going to be supported - you should assume you are going to be at best the co-breadwinner and possibly the only breadwinner in your household until circumstances permit otherwise.
" I do want to have a career related to medicine and science. I’m really interested in them. However, I don’t want my life to be working 24 hours a day for the rest of my life. Do you have any suggestion for me on that kind of career? "
- Dermatology.