SLPs wishing they'd gone into medicine: Your thoughts?

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Hello forum,

I have been recently "advised" by one of my professors that I should go into medicine.

I am graduating with a BA in CSD this May, and was asking my professor about PhD and clinical doctorate stuff, asking him what he would do if he were me. He said he would go to medical school, and so should I.

Another professor in our department, teaching our neuroscience class, let the class know over and again how she wishes she had gone into medicine.

Is this a common feeling among ambitious, high-achieving SLPs?

Is the "glass ceiling" a real problem for SLPs at the doctoral level (clinical or research)? We get so much knowledge, on par with many physicians, but don't have the level of patient care, or access, or responsibility as do physicians, or the "earning potential", or "prestige" so we feel as though we aren't being used to our full potential?

Any feedback you can given will be greatly appreciated!

I could be starting the MA in SLP this coming fall, or going premed. I hope to be well-informed when I make that call.

Thank you.

if you finished all your prereqs and have already taken the mcat then go for medical school, if you are not anywhere close(2+ years) to applying to medical school, I would suggest against it. Being an MD is not all its cracked up to be, go on the medical sub forums, tons of people unhappy or pissed, its a long tiring road, and unless you end up in a hot specialty the money in the end really isent worth it, im assuming you like 22, you are going to be in your mid 30's or even later when you start practicing, and youll likely still be paying off you loans at this time.

Like i said before, if your like 90% complete to apply to med school, but if not, **** it and just go so slp school finish up in 2 years, youll be making good money and enjoying your life instead of slaving away in some rotation or residency, my 2 cents

good luck

ps everyone has some kind of reget (md should have become investment banker, ceo should have been slp, mechanic should have been engineer, blah blah)

Originally Posted by SLP

if you finished all your prereqs and have already taken the mcat then go for medical school, if you are not anywhere close(2+ years) to applying to medical school, I would suggest against it. Being an MD is not all its cracked up to be, go on the medical sub forums, tons of people unhappy or pissed, its a long tiring road, and unless you end up in a hot specialty the money in the end really isent worth it, im assuming you like 22, you are going to be in your mid 30's or even later when you start practicing, and youll likely still be paying off you loans at this time.

Like i said before, if your like 90% complete to apply to med school, but if not, **** it and just go so slp school finish up in 2 years, youll be making good money and enjoying your life instead of slaving away in some rotation or residency, my 2 cents

good luck

ps everyone has some kind of reget (md should have become investment banker, ceo should have been slp, mechanic should have been engineer, blah blah)

Thanks for your response, SLP. I greatly appreciate your perspective and input.

I am 28-years-old actually. I am married and have a child on the way. I have been around the block, and have nearly a decade of diverse experiences that have taken me all over the country. I will be near 40 when finished, if I start now.

My wife is a family doctor. She is 2-years out of her residency at this point, and she works for a local FQHC, and has participated in the NHSC, which effectively paid-off all of her student loans (that is to say she has zero debt from medical school).

I certainly know of physicians who hate the work and regret having gone into the field. One of my wife's closest friends is this way. She only moonlights now (as a family doctor also out of residency), 8 or 9 days a month to maintain a comfortable lifestyle--modest, to be sure; but comfortable.

On the other hand, I know many physicians who can not even fathom a scenario in their minds where they would be doing anything else. The complexity and diversity of their work, the ability to go anywhere, at anytime, and serve populations in need. The job security, solid pay (no one is arguing it is the best in the world, though it is among the highest), tangible skills, and opportunity afforded by the profession...it cannot be beat.

First off, I am not interested in it for the money.

I am not interested in it because of some perceived "easy-ride", or because I don't think it's tiring or grueling. I'm convinced it is a downright brutal rope to tow.

With that said, I think you make a good point about being finished in 2 years. How tempting!

Yes, the money will be good right out of grad school. But I don't think the money is good over the life of the profession. There is little room for advancement in speech pathology. I know about the most advanced speech paths in the country, and they hit the ceiling long ago.

The highest-achieving SLPs are in academia. The highest earning of those I know are around the 120K range, after 35-40 years. They are dept. heads and do rotations in medical school as clinical educators.

Actually, a close colleague of mine (with whom I am doing research), is a SLP and the assistant chair of research of Internal Medicine at a medical school. He works in a cleft lip and palate clinic 8 times a year, and is a former head of speech pathology at a major university. But now he works at a med school. Doing research and helping medical students do research.

All of this is not to say SLP is worthless. I love the autonomy SLPs have in a clinical setting. In the hospitals they get lots of patient contact, write their own reports, and don't really have to answer to anyone. That's nice. The money is livable for sure. I think the quality of life is a big one for the SLP.

Thanks again for your response. You make some good points, but you assumed I was much younger, and possibly much less informed than I am re: medicine, and what it will take to be a doctor (and how long).

I am weighing all you said. Thanks very much.

I agree, I think it is the ambitious nature of an SLP! I have thought about this too. However, I am currently 6 years out of school and I have worked in a range of settings. Home health was the most profitable, earning 6 figures, but REALLY working hard, lots of driving, working at home after hours, planning, etc. I now work at a hospital and my quality of life is SO MUCH better! When I am off at 4:30 I am off! I miss the flexibility of my days/hours, but it is nice to leave work at work.

I feel that I was getting bored with home health as it was a lot of the same disorders, etc. I feel now at the hospital that my desire to become a doctor has been met! I am pretty much on my own, see all types of disorders, very interesting diagnosis, never a dull day!! Now that I work with doctors and see how much of their time is demanded by the job, I am pretty happy with my choice and setting! Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by MSCCCSLP

I agree, I think it is the ambitious nature of an SLP! I have thought about this too. However, I am currently 6 years out of school and I have worked in a range of settings. Home health was the most profitable, earning 6 figures, but REALLY working hard, lots of driving, working at home after hours, planning, etc. I now work at a hospital and my quality of life is SO MUCH better! When I am off at 4:30 I am off! I miss the flexibility of my days/hours, but it is nice to leave work at work.

I feel that I was getting bored with home health as it was a lot of the same disorders, etc. I feel now at the hospital that my desire to become a doctor has been met! I am pretty much on my own, see all types of disorders, very interesting diagnosis, never a dull day!! Now that I work with doctors and see how much of their time is demanded by the job, I am pretty happy with my choice and setting! Hope this helps.

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate your perspective very much.

I think for the medically inclined, hospital/acute care speech pathology is the only logical direction. So many of my classmates, as with the majority of SLPs, are interested in working in schools. Such a setting is SO uninteresting to me. The fast-paced and diverse environment of hospital acute care is where it's at, no question. The amount of autonomy and responsibility, as well as the complexity of Dx and Tx is really great. I'm happy for you that you found your niche!

I have decided to withdraw my acceptance to a master's program and pursue medicine, instead.

The future is greatly uncertain (shoot, just even getting accepted to a medical school!), but I feel confident that I can return to speech pathology if I discover in a couple years that I just can't get accepted for some reason to medical school.

Speech pathology will always be here. My ability and opportunity to pursue medicine will not. With this in mind, I am forging ahead into a great unknown. It's pretty exciting.

I have the utmost respect for SLPs, and have been greatly influenced for good by many of them.

I wish you the very best in your career as you continue doing extremely valuable service.

This is a late reply:

I know a significant number of doctors at all levels (friends, former classmates, as well as their parents), and my sister is an SLP. I'm in grad school to be an SLP.

In my opinion, the two paths are apples and oranges. While that may seem like an obvious statement, what I mean to convey is that I believe that the fields too far apart to be productively compared other than from the perspective of enjoyment. That is, if one seems like it will be more enjoyable to you than the other, than that is a worthy point of comparison to consider. Otherwise, the professions aren't comparable unless you have to make 200k+ at all costs. The money ceiling in medicine is about as good as it gets. It is only limited by your personal ability to compete. Personally, I hate the hospital environment, and so that's a large strinke against enjoyment for me right there for many physician job descriptions (as well as many SLP positions). So, considering this, my personal career analysis of the two career paths would be limited to positions outside of hospitals - which would change the results considerably.

My best advice to anyone considering the two fields would be to assess their personal potential in medicine. If I thought that I would be competitive enough, in a student pool of mostly above average individuals, to become a specialist in an area that I thought I might find professional satisfaction in, then I would consider medicine. If I were relegated to family practice or a fair professional equivelant, then I wouldn't assess the extra school time, tuition, pay, paperwork, business logistics, and stress to be worthwhile enough to pursue medicine. I'd much rather start my own SLP practice and rake in a similar pay to an fp on salary while working with kids all day. A lot of lower tier places in medicine are forced to provide high volume service, which I would hate from a physician service perspective. Also, I place a high value on avoidance of bodily fluids, body crevices, smells and rashes up to a certain rate of pay that surpasses the average fp salalry, but that's just me.

I'm not an expert on the subject of medicine-as-a-profession, and so I'm fully ready for some med student to come in and rebut everything that I stated as my opinion. However, the above stands as my current perspective.

Originally Posted by slp2doc

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate your perspective very much.

I think for the medically inclined, hospital/acute care speech pathology is the only logical direction. So many of my classmates, as with the majority of SLPs, are interested in working in schools. Such a setting is SO uninteresting to me. The fast-paced and diverse environment of hospital acute care is where it's at, no question. The amount of autonomy and responsibility, as well as the complexity of Dx and Tx is really great. I'm happy for you that you found your niche!

I have decided to withdraw my acceptance to a master's program and pursue medicine, instead.

The future is greatly uncertain (shoot, just even getting accepted to a medical school!), but I feel confident that I can return to speech pathology if I discover in a couple years that I just can't get accepted for some reason to medical school.

Speech pathology will always be here. My ability and opportunity to pursue medicine will not. With this in mind, I am forging ahead into a great unknown. It's pretty exciting.

I have the utmost respect for SLPs, and have been greatly influenced for good by many of them.

I wish you the very best in your career as you continue doing extremely valuable service.

Based on your comments I'd say this is the right decision for you. Sure, medicine is a long road, but it's definitely a doable one. The variety of avenues you can pursue with medicine is what I found most attractive. Anytime I considered other healthcare professions I just felt like I would be too constricted in the long run. Way to be bold!

By the way, I started med school at 29 with two kids so don't let that discourage/worry you. In fact, I actually feel like it is an advantage at times. It would be super depressing to go through med school alone!

I think I posted on another thread - but I am an SLP who wants to go into medicine. I've tried to make speech as medical as I can - but I want to be involved more with patient care. I honestly find myself feeling bored... Yes, speech can be important... but I just want more. Is anyone on FB? We could make a SLP to MD group...

I am one year out of my masters as an SLP, working in a medical setting. I have always been interested in the medical field, and thought medical SLP would suffice my desire to help others.

Boy was I wrong. I do not feel as though I help anyone as an SLP. Patients hate the repetitive and condescending questions involved in cognitive therapy. Patients with dysphagia don't cooperate with thickened liquid. MDs hate SLPs because they think thickened liquid = dehydration. You are 3rd most important in allied health, with OT and PT being most important. You conduct your therapy around their schedule. Just read the EBP on ASHA for cognitive therapy. Most of the results are not promising.

The only time I feel that my work benefits my pts is when working with pure aphasics. But they are slim to none, most of my work is with cognitive deficits. The behavioral and psychological changes in pts with cognitive deficits are counter-productive to therapy.

I struggle every day with trying to help those who do not want to be helped.

I would love to become an MD. I love the science, the puzzle behind each patient and providing and ANSWER. There is hardly ever an ANSWER with SLP.

Sorry if I discouraged anyone from the field. But I wish I knew the realities before I dedicated 7 years of my life to school (yes 7 years 4 years undergrad and 3 year graduate program)

Originally Posted by juicy123

I am one year out of my masters as an SLP, working in a medical setting. I have always been interested in the medical field, and thought medical SLP would suffice my desire to help others.

Boy was I wrong. I do not feel as though I help anyone as an SLP. Patients hate the repetitive and condescending questions involved in cognitive therapy. Patients with dysphagia don't cooperate with thickened liquid. MDs hate SLPs because they think thickened liquid = dehydration. You are 3rd most important in allied health, with OT and PT being most important. You conduct your therapy around their schedule. Just read the EBP on ASHA for cognitive therapy. Most of the results are not promising.

The only time I feel that my work benefits my pts is when working with pure aphasics. But they are slim to none, most of my work is with cognitive deficits. The behavioral and psychological changes in pts with cognitive deficits are counter-productive to therapy.

I struggle every day with trying to help those who do not want to be helped.

I would love to become an MD. I love the science, the puzzle behind each patient and providing and ANSWER. There is hardly ever an ANSWER with SLP.

Sorry if I discouraged anyone from the field. But I wish I knew the realities before I dedicated 7 years of my life to school (yes 7 years 4 years undergrad and 3 year graduate program)

I graduate in May with my MS in SLP and you hit the nail on the head with this post. I want to do more. I'm not satisfied with my SLP experience so far, but I need to finish for obvious reasons. I begin the rest of my pre-reqs for medical school in May.

I am 4 years out of my SLP masters program. I totally agree! I'm headed back to school for audiology this fall.

Hi, I'm a lurker on your board.
I'm a 4th year clinical psych phd student, married to a soon to be SLP who is doing "medically oriented" SLP type stuff- interest in cleft palate, stroke type things. She has experience working on a Trauma 1 facility, and loved it. Felt it fit her perfectly.

Someone up above said something to the effect of "everyone wishes they went into another profession." Though there are many in my field who feel that way, I fit in my field perfectly. I think (?) my wife does, too, as a SLP.

In regards to whoever made a statement about cognitive therapy not being effective-- that's an interesting statement. I assume you mean SLP version of cognitive therapy done by SLP's is not supported as being effective. FWIW, Beck's style cognitive therapy done by psychologists has been found to be very effective, with decades of support (> 40 years). Makes me wonder how well controlled the studies are, and how well trained the SLP's that are doing this therapy are, as well. Just food for thought.

Every person is on their own journey. Maybe SLP is not for you, maybe medicine is, maybe medicine is not.

It sounds like you have a plan and best of luck!

I'll still throw my 2 cents in and say that I always took others advice very lightly (unless of course I heard the same thing independently from a bunch of people; then I would give it more weight).

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I had a lot of time to think about what I really wanted and what really piqued my interests and aptitudes. I hope everyone takes time, maybe not as long as I did / had to, to do this. Hopefully, you can boil it down to things that are intrinsic to your strengths and personality and that way it can always be more substantial to you than hours or lifestyle or advancement opportunities etc... (not that you are doing that).

I really lean toward the notion that it is never too late to follow your dreams and if they change, then you should follow where they lead. Best of Luck!

I am a Dermatology Resident married to an slp so I thought I would give some input. Although my wife hates the medical setting and loves working in schools I made it a point to talk with and work with all the hospital employed speech pathologists that I have come across. One of the benefits of speech path in my opinion is its diversity. If you hate schools work in the hospital or an outpatient clinic dealing with cognitive deficits/aphasia. If you do not like doing swallow evals but love kids then work in schools or better yet private practice and then truly cater your practice to whatever your strengths and likes are. There are not many career paths that give this much flexibility with a relatively short degree to obtain (meaning 2 year masters program.) At all of the hospitals I have worked with the speech paths have been competent and seemed very fulfilled. All of the allied health professions at times in the hospital setting experience dealing with patients where they have little role. As in doing a swallow eval on a comatose patient getting total parenteral nutrition... And yes I have had to order that once due to protocol.

From the posts above it seems like multiple people are unhappy because they feel that they are not wanted or appreciated in the inpatient hospital setting. I must say that future applicants must take this with a grain of salt because that is dependent on so many variables. Do the doctors not know your true value? Are they simply working with egotistical people who put down very one around them? Or does the hospital simply have a protocol where to cover their butts from a patient choking every single patient over a certain age or with unknown cognitive abilities needs a swallow eval? To the statement above where doctors hate slp's because thick diets cause dehydration I am more than puzzled. First off hospitalized patients need to have an iv in place to get meds or fluid. There are very few patients you will encounter without an iv because this is often a required criteria to admit a patient to the hospital and actually get paid in the long run. If a doctor is worried about dehydration in the hospital caused by diet they should be more than able to calculate what dose of normal or 1/2 normal saline is needed to solve this dilemma. In an outpatient setting this can get somewhat trickier though.

Lastly the grass is always greener on the other side. I have many friends and bosses in medicine who are miserable. Unless you are the top of your class you will likely not be able to get into the specialty you desire. Medicine is becoming harder to practice due to government regulations forcing your hand and insurance companies influencing how you practice because they will or will not pay for certain meds/procedures. What people also don't realize is that with more power comes more responsibility and much more stress and liability. Although it seems fun to everyone to play the role of doctor there are becoming more and more doctors who are getting burned out. I luckily am not one of them. Best of luck to you all!