I’ve heard mixed views on this- since “intellectually rewarding” is one of the main reasons I’m thinking about this career- 'd like to know a little more. Some say that doctors just memorize a bunch of stuff that OTHER people have discovered-and the actual “thinking” is done by scientists. True? Is medicine intellectually challenging? Is it possible to be creative in this profession (like it is in, sa, engineering)? Is there variety? I know that med school is just memorization- but how about the actual job? Does it give mental satisfaction? Thanks
Also, how hard is it for MDs to go into research? Academics or otherwise (institutes)? How about working in pharmaceutical compnies? Do MDs get to do basic research?
When one is entrusted to care for life itself, I cannot think of a more noble, emotionally and intellectually rewarding career than medicine? Clinically, trying to diagnose a condition from a set of signs and symptoms that may or may not be related to the disease, and recommending the most educated treatment option based on ones judgment can be a challenging, rewarding and humbling all at the same time.
From the research perspective, while some doctors do engage in basic and translational research, most others, if they continue to be interested in research, engage in clinical or “application” research. True, basic scientists may be more instrumental in discovering a new drug, or a new pathway that better explain disease, but these still need to be applied to the human body in the safest and most ethical and compassionate way. I would argue that clinical research, when testing the efficacy and safety of a new drug or device or intervention, requires an equal amount of dedication, creativity, attention to detail, careful and cautious interpretation as compared to basic research.
After graduating from medical school and finishing residency training, most doctors choose to primarily become clinicians, some become translational researchers, others are “hybrids” and engage in clinical research while sustaining a busy clinical practice, or medical education + clinical practice, and a few go to the industry to help develop new drugs and treatments for various illnesses, or perhaps join the Food and Drug Administration or National Institute of Health to help regulate drugs and medical research.
Good luck in your career selection. I hope you find your passion.
Yes, medical school is a lot of memorization but it’s definitely not entirely memorization as no two clinical scenarios are exactly alike. Additionally real people are usually not textbook cases (hence the term “textbook cases”), so medicine is very much an on your feet, application based practice. Whether or not you find that rewarding is up to you. There is certainly plenty of room for creativity and variety if you’re dealing with a variety of cases and more complex cases (this is in contrast to say, a PA or an NP where I would say you definitely do not have lots of room for creativity and variety in your patient care).
MDs can do basic science research but it’s more common to be doing clinical research since basic science work is much more time, technique, and resource intensive than clinical research. There is also a big difference between “being involved in research” and being a primary investigator. Tenure track research positions are incredibly hard to get for even people with PhDs (people with PhDs are more likely to get them and even now only ~15% of people entering graduate school will end up in a tenure track research position) and as a straight MD, you’re looking at a significant pay cut (as is the hospital) the more time you devote to research instead of patient care.
Are you a high schooler or a college student? What year are you? What real life exposures have you had to either basic science research or clinical medicine.
OP, I don’t think that you are cut out to be a doctor.
I’m just going to start college- major-most prob biomedical engineering…I just wanted to know a little more about the nature of work in medicine.
@TomSrOfBoston : And why do you say that?
You need to have a passion for caring for people. That is not evident in your post. You may make a good medical researcher but not a care giver.
Some MDs do basic research, but an MD-PhD degree is the preferred pathway. Just be aware that research dollars in many fields have dried up dramatically.
I hope you don’t think I was trying to shut you up. I was just trying to get a sense of where you are in this journey and what you may or may not know from a real experience vs. what “some people” say. The good news is that these paths don’t significantly diverge for a few more years so you can embark on the road of studying biology or BME and go either way. Are you going to a university with a medical school? I think it would be good for you to try and get some exposure to what clinical medicine actually looks like. Especially academic medicine.
Also, while it’s going to be above your level, you could take a look at the NEJM case studies for neurology/neurosurgery (which seems to be the specialties most closely aligned with your stated interests in your other thread) http://www.nejm.org/medical-articles/clinical-cases#qs=%3Fcategory%3Dclinicalcases%26topic%3D1 Obviously your average day isn’t going to be a slew of these types of cases, the cases on here are typically very complex or difficult - that’s why they get written up, but they’re common enough to be worth studying and often provide insight into how physicians need to approach patients because, as stated above, the practice of medicine is not a simple recall of facts and can be quite challenging.
Additionally, it’s not like scientific research is just ground breaking intellectual thought all the time either. A large part of the “thinking” of my PhD is planning out how to get all the experiments I need to done. e.g. keeping my cells growing and ready for experiments, when should I do something to them if the next step is x hours later and I also have other time commitments and experiments going on simultaneously etc.
@iwannabe_Brown : Thanks! You were right, I checked out the website, and those kind of went over my head. And yes, I will definitely try to get experience in the clinical fields. Are you a MD-PhD?
@iwannabe_Brown : Though I understand now what you mean when you say medicine is intellectually challenging too. About what you said about PhDs- I have heard this too- my mother actually did her PhD (ChemE) but she hated it by the end, and said that there is not really as much creative or intellectual work as people think, its mostly grant-writing. (She actually hated the publish-or-perish env and is now STRONGLY discouraging me from going into any kind of “research” career). I’ve researched about this a bit and read that apparently 65% of post-docs are in life sciences (the PhD glut seems to be specially bad in life sciences), so now I am hesitant about pursuing a career with a bio/chem major which limits me to research. That’s why I’ve been looking into medicine- I do love helping people out, (though I’m a little introverted) but whether its the right career for me- I can’t tell without shadowing/experience.
As I said, I’m interested in working in biotech/biopharma/pharma companies too- how is the scope for those? Will a BME/bioengineering major help me there? Basically I LOVE chem, like bio (i like biochem too) and hate physics. Plus, I’ve always had dreams about contributing more to what we know about neuroscience and genetics- and I’m just trying to find a career that fits all of these.
ALSO, would it be a good idea to go into academic medicine?
I am a 6th year MD/PhD student.
It is definitely true that as you move up the academic ladder, your job becomes much less lab based and much more writing based. I personally enjoy writing and think that’s where you get to stretch your mind the most (in contrast to lab work) but that’s coming from a biomedical perspective, not a chemE perspective. My only chemistry research knowledge is organic synthesis (which I have no idea how much that aligns with what your mom was doing) which definitely seems to be way more challenging than my experiments FWIW.
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Publish or perish is really only true of tenure track academic research. There are many other careers under the umbrella of scientific research than tenure track academia.
Indeed, there is definitely a PhD glut in regards to academia. I’m not really sure it’s fair to say there is an absolute glut. Plenty of other careers in industry, policy/regulation, writing/communications, research support, non research based academia. Medical degrees are really just for learning about diagnosing and treating patients. You either need to want to do that, or want that to be a part of your career goals for it to be worth it.
It would be way too early for you to accurately rate your skills and interests (but feel free to give it a whirl), but http://myidp.sciencecareers.org/ has a lot of great resources about all sorts of careers for people with science PhDs (some of which would require extra schooling like patent attorney or physician). For example, here is a list of careers they mention with resources about each one:
PhDs are really more about process than specific knowledge. Being a good student is more important than what you specifically know. If bio,chem, or their engineering counterparts are the subjects that will motivate you to study your hardest in college than you should pursue them. Where are you going to school?
I have actually taken a gap year (due to some circumstances which are too complicated to explain, therefore i don’t usually mention it), so I’ll actually be applying to colleges for 2016.