So my situation is I have been a journalist for the past 7 years since the age of 25. I graduated with my undergrad from Syracuse University with a Bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Biology. I then went on to earn my masters in journalism from the Annenberg School at USC at the age of 24. Since then I have been working as a regular medical journalist for a local publication and a production assistant at a local television affiliate in my hometown in Tennessee. This past year I was laid off from both of those jobs due to cutbacks caused by the pandemic. I currently have no student loans from my first two degrees because of scholarships and the support of my parents. I have over 55k in savings as of now. I am thinking of becoming an anesthesiologist with the amount of time it takes to complete the education it looks like I’ll be in my mid-40s by the time I can practice. At this point in my life is it possible? practical? and would I need to go back a few more years or even get a second masters in something more medically related? What are your thoughts?
Is it possible?
Yes.
Is it practical?
That’s decision you’ll need to make based upon your personal situation and goals.
First things first:
- don’t count on being able to enter anesthesiology. It’s one of the more desirable specialties due to its lifestyle. Consequently, it can be competitive to match into.
If you’re not willing to enter into a primary care specialty (family medicine, internal medicine w/out specialization, geriatrics, pediatrics), then you probably need to rethink medical school. There are no guarantees. Your ability to enter a specific specialty will be dependent upon your USMLE scores, med school grades and the recommendation of your med school preceptors.
Plus I have to ask: “Why anesthesiology?”
If you just want to do anesthesia, there are quicker ways to gain entry into that field. CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) and AA (Anesthesiologist Assistant) both get into the OR faster and at a significantly lower cost. While neither CRNAs or AAs can practice independently, physician oversight for both professions is minimal and typically non-intrusive.
Info about AA–https://explorehealthcareers.org/career/allied-health-professions/anesthesiologist-assistant/
Info about CRNA–https://explorehealthcareers.org/career/nursing/nurse-anesthetist/
Both are 2 year master level programs that do not require a residency.
- You’re correct that you won’t be practicing until you are in your mid-40s.
You don’t need another degree, but you do need to complete the typical med school school science & math pre-reqs. And if you haven’t taken any science and mathematics classes recently, you may want to take a few pre-intro level refresher classes prior to enrolling in the pre-reqs classes since every science & math class you take will be included in your sGPA calculations (every bio, chem, physics and math you’ve ever taken at the college level). Your sGPA is the more important GPA used in med school admission.
Although you don’t need another degree, you need to complete the expected pre-med pre-reqs. There is a 5 semester chemistry sequence that all med schools require (gen chem, ochem, biochem) so plan on at least 2-3 years to finish that.
Then you will need to time to prep for and take the MCAT. (Most people spend 3-12 months doing prep for the MCAT. ) Med schools strongly prefer applicants have a strong score from a single sitting. Multiple attempts are often viewed negatively. So you should only take the MCAT once you are routinely scoring in your targeted score range on full length practice exams.
So 3 years to complete pre-reqs and get your expected ECs done. Allow a full year for the med school application process. Med school itself is 4 years followed by 4 years of residency for anesthesiology. Plus 1-2 additional years if you decide to do a fellowship to sub-specialize. So you’re looking at 11 years minimum( 3+4+4) before you will be able to enter practice.
While 42-45 isn’t too old to start working as a doctor, it does leave you very little time to pay off any student debt from med school and start saving for retirement once you are a full time physician. The medical education process may require you to put on hold other life goals–like buying a house or starting a family. Medicine as a profession is demanding and time consuming.
- Let’s talk finances.
The median cost of 4 years of medical school is around $300K currently. Expect that price to be higher 4 years from now when you’ll be entering med school if all goes perfectly There is little or no scholarship aid available. Expect to pay the full cost yourself using federal student loans–just like every other med student in the US. Med school loans are all unsubsidized–which means you will start accumulating interest from the minute the loans are disbursed.
So unless you have substantial savings, you will be in significant debt when you finish med school. Residents are poorly paid. Expect to earn in the mid $50K range during your residency years. Also expect to work 80+ hours/week during residency. Paying off loans on a resident’s salary while simultaneously paying your living expenses can be difficult, especially if you end up Matching in a high COL area. It’s not unheard of interest capitalization to double the original debt during residency.
(I will note here when working 80 hours/week, you may find your living expenses are higher than expected for things like prepared meals, house cleaning services, pet care services, child care services, professional wardrobe and dry cleaning, etc.)
It is possible to pay off a $250K med school debt within 5 years of finishing residency providing are willing to live like a resident while earning an attending’s salary. But do you really want to live like a student while you’re in your 40s? This is something you need to think about.
- Lack of control over your life.
This is something that isn’t discussed much, but it’s something you need to think about before you make any decision.
Your life will not belong to you from the minute you start med school until you’re tenured member of your practice group. Maybe longer. You will need to apply broadly to 2 dozen or more med schools to have the best chance for gaining an admission. You go where you get accepted. The majority of med school matriculants get a single acceptance.
You don’t get to choose where you do residency. That is decided by a computer program via the National Residency Match Program. Expect to have to relocate at least one for residency. (Since anesthesiology requires a transitional or preliminary internship year in IM before you start anesthesia training, you may have to move twice. Once for intern year, once for anesthesia.)
During residency, you have little control over your hours or the location where you will work. You go where you’re told and work when you’re told. Residents are expected work an average of 80 hours/week. Those hours will include overnights, weekends, holidays and rotating shifts. ( BTW, those 80 hours are on-the-books hours; many residents find they need to work off-the-book hours as well just to keep up with their paperwork.) Plus there is an expectation that residents will engage in professional activities in their free time–things like clinical research, membership in professional organizations, journal club, leadership positions at their residency locations, etc
A new attending physician, you will be the low man and will get the most undesirable schedule until you gain seniority within your practice group. All physicians (except for EM docs) will have call (overnight in-hospital shifts) and home call (where you need to be available to go to the hospital immediately if called).
Medical practice is changing. Corporate management groups (CMGs) --for profit corporations that contract with physicians and sell their services to hospitals and clinics-- are making huge inroads in all types of medical specialties. The private practice is rapidly disappearing. The practice model you will end up working in may be quite different than what you’re familiar with.
Although the above highlights all the negatives, I don’t want to wholly discourage you.
Every year hundreds of people in their 30s start med school and go on to have successful careers. (About 1% of newly matriculating meds students are 35 or older per AMCAS.)
But only you can decide if a medical career is worth the sacrifices…
One more thing.
During this period of economic difficulty, many people look at medicine as a recession-proof job.
It isn’t. The physician job market right now is terrible and newly graduated residents are have trouble finding employment.
Hospitals have seen huge revenue drops due to patients avoid routine and elective medical care because of Covid-19. All hospitals are hemorrhaging money right now and many–particularly smaller and rural hospitals–are in danger of going bankrupt. Even large, well funded hospitals like those at Yale and Harvard are facing major losses of revenue. Consequently, doctors everywhere have had their salaries cut, their work hours reduced and their hourly compensation rates cut by as much as 50%. Many hospitals are furloughing (laying off) anesthesiologists and surgeons due to lack of demand for their services.
Even in specialties one would think would be in huge demand right now–like emergency medicine–physicians are receiving pay cuts, being given reduced work hours and offered only part-time employment.
Nothing wrong to have a change of heart in your life and try to switch careers towards medicine. Medical schools LOVE non-traditional applicants like you: from a different field and out of school over 5 years. Plenty of success stories. However, it is a long road to success than those out of school mavericks.
First, read as much as you can on SDN forum, there is an entire section devoted to “non-traditional”. You should weigh your own situation against those posters, ask questions as you go.
Second, make sure medicine is your passion and you will be devoted to that career. Many students back out of the medicine not because they do not qualify academically, but other factors prevented them to take it on, such as afraid of seeing blood, don’t like to cut up flesh and cannot tolerate the idea of dealing with death… etc.
Those are two fundamental factors you should consider before getting into those academics, ECs, or job availability.
I appreciate @wayoutwestmom writing these elaborate answers which detail all the nuances.
I was talking to several doctors over the weekend and surprisingly it was on the topic of currently unemployed anesthesiologists. A semi working anesthesiologist who has been working for 35 years said that there is enough work out there since most procedures are back on in texas but many of the younger graduates dont want to take on all the different time slots that exist like evenings and nights etc. The other complaint was that a lot of the work is being taken up by nurse practitioners and physician assistants (I guess they are called AAs for anesthesiology) who only need to pay 3-4k for insurance while an anesthesiologist has to sign off on their work but pay 30-40k in insurance. Apparently the nurses and AAs are well paid with lower costs and risks in this field.