<p>I think your first step is to a little research on what type of career you're looking for. A "career in medicine" can mean a lot of different things. </p>
<p>Is your idea to become a physician or a pharmacist? Would you be better suited as a nurse? Could you be happy as laboratory or radiology tech or a certified medical assistant? These all have very divergent paths, but all would allow you be involved in patient care in various ways. But some of these will take more than a decade to fulfill and some you could be out in the workforce within 18 months.</p>
<p>If your goal is to be a physician, then you'll need to work towards a bachelor's degree first, taking a year of biology, a year of general chemistry, a year of physics and a year of organic chemistry - all with lab. You'll also need a semester of calculus and a semester of stats, along with whatever is required of you to complete your degree. If you quit your job and went to school full time, including summers, this could probably be in two to two and half years. You'll also have to prepare for the MCAT, and at a minimum do some sort of clinical experience. Campus and community involvement including research would take on less importance as a non-trad, but if you could manage them, all the better. Assuming you have the scores and grades you can apply, interview and hopefully be accepted to medical school. Med school is 4 years - non-negotiable. It requires loans to pay for tuition. Complete that and you have 3-7 years of residency to complete your training, but at least you get paid - about $45k a year. Only after finishing residency would you be a fully practicing physician. </p>
<p>On the opposite end of the spectrum you have the CMA courses run out of places like Kaplan University, Vatterott, DeVry and ITT Tech type schools. These relatively short courses teach you basic medical concepts, teach you how to take vitals, draw blood, give injections and so on. You'd most likely end in a physician's office. Average salary is ~$30k, but experienced CMA's may make up to $40k a year. </p>
<p>I don't know what your finances are like, what type of sacrifices you (and your wife and kids) would be willing to make, and how you'd feel about the uncertainty of admission into medical, dental or pharmacy school (>55% of allopathic (MD) med school applicants are rejected from every medical school they apply to). </p>
<p>Other options include Physician Assistant, Occupation or Physical Therapy, Child Life Specialists, the various levels of nursing (LPN, RN, BSN), and quite a few other fields. Take a deep look at your situation, what you imagine yourself doing, how that fits with your current situation and so on, and then go for it. If you want to be a physician it's an extremely long road, but if it's what you really want to do, the reward will be worth it. If you think nursing or something else is a better fit, then attaining that position will be worth it. There are a lot of options, take a look around.</p>
<p>One other place to look and get support from other non-trad students would be the non-trad forum over at forums.studentdoctor.net</p>