I always love to help others, it’s just one of my passions that I have, so therefore I’ve always wanted to have a career in healthcare. At first I wanted to become a pharmacist, but then I didn’t like it as much when I was working as a pharmacy technician. I usually observed my pharmacist in my work, and I would say I would probably not work in pharmacy field for my entire life. So then I thought of becoming a physician because, I would say it’s more interesting, and you’re more interactive with the patients. I would also say my physician and others doctors I’ve met inspired me to become a doctor.
But the question is: how challenging is it to become a doctor?
It’s quite challenging, but not impossible. It is more difficult to gain admission to med school than it is to pharm school. The training is also substantially longer (7-10 [or more] years for physicians vs. 4 years for pharmacists)
Be aware that the competition to get accepted to med school is fierce. Last year only 37% of applicants got a single acceptance. Every pre-med needs to have a Plan B in case they don’t get accepted.
Also before you commit yourself to this path, I strongly suggest you do some clinical volunteering at a free clinic, hospice, nursing home or similar site. You need to know if you can deal with the sick, chronically ill, injured, mentally ill, demented & elderly, and the dying plus their families all day everyday. It’s not something everyone can.
You sound very idealistic about medicine as a career, but medicine probably isn’t exactly what you envision. It’s sad to say but patients are seldom grateful and are very often non-compliant (and then will blame their doctor when their health doesn’t improve…). It’s a tough job.
There are dozen and dozens of healthcare careers–all of which help people.
Try checking out some of them–
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/careers/careers
How challenging?
Challenging - expensive - and certainly not for those who cannot handle the concept of delayed gratification.
However - taking care of people is an honor and a privilege. In spite of the bureaucracy, electronic medical records, continually changing payor system, and malpractice insurance costs, it is still a career that I find gratifying.
The one tip I will give you: keep your undergrad cost as low as possible and go to undergrad somewhere you can excel relative to your peers (a good state uni).
While doctors certainly “help” people, the process of becoming a doctor and the “lifelong learning” needed in the career, make it something that requires a lot of self-discipline, and hard work that is often done by yourself (not while helping others).
There are many field where you can help people. Many in the medical area that don’t involve being a doctor with the attendant costs and sacrifices. Look into being a Physicians Assistant, a physical or occupational therapist, a speech pathologist, nursing, hospice work, healthcare admin, clinical psychologist, etc…If after looking more widely at the options available, you are still convinced that medicine is your goal, then have at it.
How to explore these other options apart from reading about them? Go to your career center and ask for the contact information for alums who work in these fields. Many of them will be happy to do informational interviews with you to talk about why they chose their fields, what they like most and least about it, what the best pathway is if you decide to pursue it, and what they would advise someone starting out in the field. Make this a summer/holiday project. It’s time well spent.
The process is cruel, I do not know any other way to express it.
However, if you feel that you are up to the task, the only way to figure out how challenging is to go thru it.
So, basically, what I am saying is that you will never know how challenging unless you go thru the process yourself.
There is no other way because the level of challenge is not comparable to anything else. This is based on the experience of my D. and her classmates, most of who (not all!) have successfully matched to residencies in March of this year. She knows the stories of the next class also as she has many friends who are being interviewed this cycle and D. herself was participating in the pre-interview dinner at her place of residency.