<p>@jalfred Thank you! All that needed saying.</p>
<p>According to their website, “Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid health care program.” </p>
<p>As for being an anesthesiologist, whenever I’ve had students shadowing me in the past, they’ve been overwhelmed by how busy I was. On my busiest days, I may have 160 patient encounters. Yes, 160! From preop, induction emergence, discharge, regional blocks, codes, and lines. It’s not by choice, just the staffing changes made by large management companies. But not all practices are like mine. I look forward to the boring days but those are rare. </p>
<p>I do receive a lot of satisfaction. I have a lot of patients who are my Facebook friends. I saved someone’s life recently and they are a new FB friend. Trust me, I prefer never to be in those situations; they are emotionally and physically draining!</p>
<p>I know money is a draw to the profession but I want folks to see the big picture. Physicians are here to take care of patients. Hopefully, those patients can pay, some will pay very little, and some just can’t pay. We should do whatever we can, without detriment to ourselves, to do what we can to minimize the patients we turn away. I’ve bought groceries for a patient, I’ve paid for another patient to see a psychiatrist for depression, and I’ve visited others in hospice. You aren’t going to go broke because you’ve chosen to do what’s right.</p>
<p>@dina4119 “I don’t think they’re necessarily discouraging you because they don’t like their work, just that they may want you to see the reality of it to keep you and other pre-meds from naive notions about physician life.”</p>
<p>Oh definitely, they wanted to make sure I knew about all the sacrifices I’d have to make and about all the hardships and ethical dilemmas doctors face and whatnot. I appreciate that too as I did have a lot of naive, idealistic ideas of what being a doctor was like. They were just looking out for me and making sure I was 100% certain that this was what I wanted to do in life. However, in making sure I knew of the cons, they kind of forgot to mention how rewarding it can be. That’s why I really appreciate frugaldoctor’s posts because they are a reminder of the immense satisfaction and rewarding relationships one experiences as a doctor. I wanted to be a doctor because I loved science and medicine and having a job where I could serve others and really make a difference was extremely important to me. Frugaldoctor helped assure me that it wasn’t all negatives, and that the reasons I wanted to go into medicine would still be a part of being a doctor (if that makes any sense; excuse my confusing wording).</p>
<p>If I could, I would recommend that aspiring physicians volunteer at a hospice. Remember that the whole premise of medicine is to prevent or delay death. But we never learn what death is until we experience the death of our loved ones. IMO, doctors should begin their training in reverse by helping those in the last few days of life. It is quite sobering to learn how to manage the pain, family dynamics and the end stages of diseases. I think it would help redirect the perspectives of most CC aspiring physicians to what is truly important. After you’ve learned how to speak to dying patients, you learn how to really care for your typical patient. I am at a loss to find the words to convey the education you get from the experience. Either I am really getting old or things finally started to click in the past year with the hospice patients I care for. I am sure your local hospice would welcome your time.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you so much @frugaldoctor , you don’t know how invaluable your advice has been. I will definitely look into volunteering at a hospice. I might also pm you with some specific questions later on if that’s alright with you.</p>
<p>sapere31,
Stand on your own. I actually know th opposite case. Mom really wanted D. to be a PA. Then I learned that D. is actually in Med. School. I watched them discussing th issue (while back in HS). Basically mom was just talking, and D. was just nodding. Thinking back, it looks that D. was a very smart cookie, who knew what she wanted and she also knew how to behave with her parents. The kid was in my D’s High School class. And you are absolutely right, lots of people out there are not walking the walk, they are just talking. I have listened to my dad advice and burnt. I was very adamant about correcting it and I did not listen to anybody at that time. It was lots of ney sayers, I did not care that I lacked skills, I had a passion and I followed my heart and it paid off in a big way. </p>