Regret becoming a doctor?

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I'm a sophomore in High School and I want to become a doctor. But what I want to know from you is, for those of you who made is through med school and completed your residency, do you regret becoming a doctor? Do you wish you never even went to med school and took all those pre med courses? What would you rather be than a doctor? I'm only asking because I want to know if becoming a doctor is worth it.

Originally Posted by AspiringMD223

I'm a sophomore in High School and I want to become a doctor. But what I want to know from you is, for those of you who made is through med school and completed your residency, do you regret becoming a doctor? Do you wish you never even went to med school and took all those pre med courses? What would you rather be than a doctor? I'm only asking because I want to know if becoming a doctor is worth it.

Most of your responses, like this one, will come from pre-meds, not doctors.

Anyway, why do you think you can predict your own future through the experiences of others? If you do get responses from docs who regret it, they will be bitter and biased. Bias will come from the other side of the fence too--docs who couldn't be happier with their career choice.

Try to gain as much exposure to medicine as you can, as early as possible. This way you can determine for yourself if you want to go into medicine. Along the way, ask docs how they feel about medicine after having been in it for ____ years. Is it what they expected? How are things changing?

Good luck.

yeah man, you need to find out for yourself if its your passion or not.....experience, experience, experience....find out early and then you wont have reservations come time to kick butt in college and on the mcat

If you want to know what medicine is like read "The House of God". This will surely burst any overly ideal ideas that you have.

If you truly cannot see yourself in any other field, medicine is probably for you. If you are weighing medicine against several other fields... choose the other fields.

Things are bad in medicine these days and are only going to get worse before they get better (I only hope to see the 'better' during my own practice). The days of nice salaries, societal prestige, and professional autonomy are being steadily eroded away. I personally would not recommend medicine to others considering the field unless they are obstinately set on it. I was obstinate, but even I have questioned my choice a couple times. Always came out glad I chose this route, but the doubt was there. The thing about medicine is that its a rollercoaster of a field. Your best days will invigorate you, but the bad days are really, really bad. Frustration is common.

But its still one of the most unique, challenging, and rewarding fields out there, no doubt.

Originally Posted by ZagDoc

If you truly cannot see yourself in any other field, medicine is probably for you. If you are weighing medicine against several other fields... choose the other fields.

Things are bad in medicine these days and are only going to get worse before they get better (I only hope to see the 'better' during my own practice). The days of nice salaries, societal prestige, and professional autonomy are being steadily eroded away. I personally would not recommend medicine to others considering the field unless they are obstinately set on it. I was obstinate, but even I have questioned my choice a couple times. Always came out glad I chose this route, but the doubt was there. The thing about medicine is that its a rollercoaster of a field. Your best days will invigorate you, but the bad days are really, really bad. Frustration is common.

But its still one of the most unique, challenging, and rewarding fields out there, no doubt.

Shadow. I went to the ER and within 15 minutes knew that it was the kind of place I want to spend my professional life. I'm told that in Med school I'll find other fields I like, but for now, nothing appeals more to me than EM and I can't see myself doing anything else.

Also I would like to add that physicians are still in the top income brackets, and will be for the foreseeable future.

Originally Posted by ZagDoc

If you truly cannot see yourself in any other field, medicine is probably for you. If you are weighing medicine against several other fields... choose the other fields.

Things are bad in medicine these days and are only going to get worse before they get better (I only hope to see the 'better' during my own practice). The days of nice salaries, societal prestige, and professional autonomy are being steadily eroded away. I personally would not recommend medicine to others considering the field unless they are obstinately set on it. I was obstinate, but even I have questioned my choice a couple times. Always came out glad I chose this route, but the doubt was there. The thing about medicine is that its a rollercoaster of a field. Your best days will invigorate you, but the bad days are really, really bad. Frustration is common.

But its still one of the most unique, challenging, and rewarding fields out there, no doubt.

This post led me to your blog. Good stuff.

Originally Posted by AspiringMD223

I'm a sophomore in High School and I want to become a doctor. But what I want to know from you is, for those of you who made is through med school and completed your residency, do you regret becoming a doctor? Do you wish you never even went to med school and took all those pre med courses? What would you rather be than a doctor? I'm only asking because I want to know if becoming a doctor is worth it.

Regret it?

Every single day at one time or another. Sometimes I have good days but on bad days I fantasize about what my life was like before I got involved in this mother****er. I mean, it was no bed of roses and I worked pretty hard but I recall that I got to sleep every night, had and could expect to get most weekends off, and even felt reasonably sure that I would not be working on major holidays.

It's just a different way of life, being a second and third year medical student and then a resident. Your day is just so unpredictable...which can be fun of course but sometimes I wish things were more stable.

I am the ICU senior resident this month and except for call days, I get up at six-thirty to go to work and get home by about four, just like old times and my wife and I have been feeling pretty nostalgic about the days when this was normal and not something unsusual. We kind of looked at each other and she said, "You know, you haven't been home this early and not dog-tired in three years." (I have started my fourth and last year of residency this week.)

To be fair, my usual hours are not that bad. We work 14 12-hour shifts in every 28-day-block which leaves a lot of days off but when you work three 12s in a row that turn out to be 14s you just kind of get worn out, especially if all you do is scramble home, take a shower, eat something, and go to bed. Then on your first days off you tend to be sluggish and not want to do anything but sit around, sometimes dreading having to go back in for another round of wrestling with academic medicine.

You see, to me it's all about sleep. I have been a resident for three years and I cannot recall a time when I was not tired. I don't even have particularly bad hours now either, like I said, but in residency there is always something conspiring to interfere with what I really want to do which is to rest, just rest.

Blessed rest. The ability to lay on the couch doing nothing at all without a shift looming in a few hours or a call night to look forward to.

Now, it is true that many if not most residents work harder and have worse hours than I do but I don't care. Life is not like Comparative Religion. I don't care how hard other people have it. In other words, if you say, 'Well, Panda, you could have been a surgery resident and then you'd really have something to complain about," this admonition will fall on my deaf hears. I'm tired. I don't care. You scurry around in your private perdition and leave me to mine.

Panda Secret 104: I have no drive and no ambition. My friends and family look at my credientials (former Marine, Registered Professional Civil Engineer, Medical Doctor and one year away from being a board-certified Emergency Physician) and they think I have had a very successful life and that I am some kind of over-achiever but in reality, all I want to do is rest.

Originally Posted by Panda Bear

Regret it?

Every single day at one time or another. Sometimes I have good days but on bad days I fantasize about what my life was like before I got involved in this mother****er. I mean, it was no bed of roses and I worked pretty hard but I recall that I got to sleep every night, had and could expect to get most weekends off, and even felt reasonably sure that I would not be working on major holidays.

It's just a different way of life, being a second and third year medical student and then a resident. Your day is just so unpredictable...which can be fun of course but sometimes I wish things were more stable.

I am the ICU senior resident this month and except for call days, I get up at six-thirty to go to work and get home by about four, just like old times and my wife and I have been feeling pretty nostalgic about the days when this was normal and not something unsusual. We kind of looked at each other and she said, "You know, you haven't been home this early and not dog-tired in three years." (I have starting my fourth and last year of residency this week.)

To be fair, my usual hours are not that bad. We work 14 12-hour shifts in every 28-day-block which leaves a lot of days off but when you work three 12s in a row that turn out to be 14s you just kind of get worn out, especially if all you do is scramble home, take a shower, eat something, and go to bed. Then on your first days off you tend to be sluggish and not want to do anything but sit around, sometimes dreading having to go back in for another round of wrestling with academic medicine.

C'mon Panda. Every chick wants to be married to a doctor. I know you were married prior to becoming a doctor, but we both know that every once in a while, something snaps, and your wife goes into a trance, forgets your flaws, and thinks to herself, perhaps not even consciously realizing it, this stud husband of mine is a doctor! <amorous moments ensue>

I look forward to your book.

Originally Posted by piss ant

C'mon Panda. Every chick wants to be married to a doctor. I know you were married prior to becoming a doctor, but we both know that every once in a while, something snaps, and your wife goes into a trance, forgets your flaws, and thinks to herself, perhaps not even consciously realizing it, this stud husband of mine is a doctor! <amorous moments ensue>

I look forward to your book.

Aw, it's pretty cool being a doctor. I don't know why some people say there is no prestige in it. I get a lot of respect automatically from most people who know that I am a doctor and my wife is very proud of me, even though now that she knows some of my friends she has a more realistic view of what doctors are really like.

I'm just saying that I don't like being tired all the time, especially since it's not the kind of tired that comes from an honest day's work. I was a landscaper for a while installing lawn sprinkler systems and I could dig ditches all day in the hot sun and go home tired but a good night's sleep, fairly earned, recharged me completely for the next day. Medicine is stressful, annoying, and you never really get away from it. I have dreams about difficult patients and I fret and toss in bed sometimes untill I remind myself that they were admitted or sent home and I never have to deal with them again. On a day off I can go back to sleep with relief but if I have a shift it's just a night spent getting flawed rest and I'm that much more tired when I go in.

Worst feeling in the world: A difficult shift with difficult patients (not medically difficuly but social and behavior difficulty), feeling ill, maybe with some rota diarrhea or some mild nauseau from some viral syndrome going around, fuzzy-headed, dehydrated, bladder full but too busy to urinate, tired of dealing with patients, their families, the highly dysfunctional American medical system, attendings, and the job in general...and then looking at the clock and realizing that you are only three hours down in a 12-hour shift and have what most people consider a full work-day left; a work-day, I must add, without breaks, without a half hour for lunch, and without the possibilty of slowing down as long as the patients keep pouring in.

And then you realize that much of what we do is either totally useless or only marginally effective and that most of the money being spent on health care may as well be flushed down the crapper and it's not hard to get demoralized.

And I kid you not, I have a reputation for always being cheerful, happy, and hard-working.

As one of my friends put it, a guy who graduated last week and is going to his first real job as far away from academic medicine as he can possibly get, he said, "Panda, this ****er will suck the life out of you. You will give it all at work and go home to find you have nothing left to give to your family and friends."

Which is true. My wife noticed last year that I was getting sullen at home and didn't feel like doing much so she kind of pushed me to get out in the sun and exercise every day as well as making sure that I get enough sleep when I come home from night shifts.

Originally Posted by Panda Bear

My wife noticed last year that I was getting sullen at home and didn't feel like doing much so she kind of pushed me to get out in the sun and exercise every day as well as making sure that I get enough sleep when I come home from night shifts.

Well there ya go man. Not to simplify life, but you've got the dream: a challenging job and a wonderful woman. Can't get much better than that (aside from a badass dog and a little kid running around).

Originally Posted by Panda Bear

Aw, it's pretty cool being a doctor. I don't know why some people say there is no prestige in it. I get a lot of respect automatically from most people who know that I am a doctor and my wife is very proud of me, even though now that she knows some of my friends she has a more realistic view of what doctors are really like.

I'm just saying that I don't like being tired all the time, especially since it's not the kind of tired that comes from an honest day's work. I was a landscaper for a while installing lawn sprinkler systems and I could dig ditches all day in the hot sun and go home tired but a good night's sleep, fairly earned, recharged me completely for the next day. Medicine is stressful, annoying, and you never really get away from it. I have dreams about difficult patients and I fret and toss in bed sometimes untill I remind myself that they were admitted or sent home and I never have to deal with them again. On a day off I can go back to sleep with relief but if I have a shift it's just a night spent getting flawed rest and I'm that much more tired when I go in.

Worst feeling in the world: A difficult shift with difficult patients (not medically difficuly but social and behavior difficulty), feeling ill, maybe with some rota diarrhea or some mild nauseau from some viral syndrome going around, fuzzy-headed, dehydrated, bladder full but too busy to urinate, tired of dealing with patients, their families, the highly dysfunctional American medical system, attendings, and the job in general...and then looking at the clock and realizing that you are only three hours down in a 12-hour shift and have what most people consider a full work-day left; a work-day, I must add, without breaks, without a half hour for lunch, and without the possibilty of slowing down as long as the patients keep pouring in.

And then you realize that much of what we do is either totally useless or only marginally effective and that most of the money being spent on health care may as well be flushed down the crapper and it's not hard to get demoralized.

And I kid you not, I have a reputation for always being cheerful, happy, and hard-working.

As one of my friends put it, a guy who graduated last week and is going to his first real job as far away from academic medicine as he can possibly get, he said, "Panda, this ****er will suck the life out of you. You will give it all at work and go home to find you have nothing left to give to your family and friends."

Which is true. My wife noticed last year that I was getting sullen at home and didn't feel like doing much so she kind of pushed me to get out in the sun and exercise every day as well as making sure that I get enough sleep when I come home from night shifts.

Wow man...here's to the House of God Part II.

Originally Posted by Dedikated2liftn

Wow man...here's to the House of God Part II.

Modern residency is nothing like House of God, at least in my experience. It's just a grueling job and, as medical schools are selecting for a certain type nowadays there are very few eccentric characters. Most of us just plod along doing our work and when we are done get as far away from the hospital as possible. Most of my colleagues are married with families so it is not the hedonistic free-for-all described in that book either and we are also a good deal less attached, if that's the right phrase, to the institution. We have other important interests competing for our attention which is probably the biggest difference between residents now and when House of God was written. The old school attendings want total devotion to medicine and 100 percent of your effort to its service but that's impossible. Times have changed and medicine, while a good career for the most part, is no longer worth the slavish devotion (although you can be forgiven for being so single-minded as you apply because it is almost required).

Originally Posted by piss ant

Well there ya go man. Not to simplify life, but you've got the dream: a challenging job and a wonderful woman. Can't get much better than that (aside from a badass dog and a little kid running around).

Well, to be honest I was kind of depressed. I'm getting back into physical shape and disciplining myself to get back into normal life but it was not just a question of a challenging job and it's not much of a dream either. It has been harder on my wife than on me and she cordially despises the whole residency training system, rightly pointing out that the problem with medicine is that everything is a ****ing emergency nowadays.

That's one of the reasons I gave up my blog, by the way. It was just cutting too much into my own time and I regularly worked on it when I should have been sleeping. I am really enjoying not having to write the stupid thing.

Originally Posted by Panda Bear

Modern residency is nothing like House of God, at least in my experience.

A lot of it has changed, but I think it's a good book for folks to read who are supposedly going into medicine with the vague notion that they want "to help people". That book does a nice job of bringing some future physicians' lofty aspirations down a notch, as well as making patients into commodities the physicians sometimes despise, disparage and try to turf to another service at the earliest opportunity. From my limited exposure, I'd have to say you still see quite a lot of turfing and blocking of patients these days. Saying this service or that "dumped" an undesirable patient on you, or describing patients as "rocks" that never move off your service are part of the vernacular. The more non-PC acronyms don't get said out loud, but are still thought.

Read Tobias' last post. He said "DON'T DO IT!"

Originally Posted by Doctor D

If you want to know what medicine is like read "The House of God". This will surely burst any overly ideal ideas that you have.

I really have to start reading that book...

Originally Posted by Panda Bear

and then looking at the clock and realizing that you are only three hours down in a 12-hour shift and have what most people consider a full work-day left; a work-day, I must add, without breaks, without a half hour for lunch, and without the possibilty of slowing down as long as the patients keep pouring in.

In comparison to many office jobs, where many of the workers tell me that they really only work 2-3 hours out of a day (talk to the Bobs about this for details).

Originally Posted by s1lver

I really have to start reading that book...

I thought it was dumb and sold it to a used bookstore after reading about half of it. A better book about residency is Sid Schwab's book "Cutting Remarks."

im in high school and i volunteer in the cardiac/transplant O.R. i get to watch surgery and view procedures from in the room. i know my opinion is not the one you want but... i have thought about the same thing you are asking about, i am friends with several cardiothoracic surgeons, nephrologist's, and one absolutely amazing anesthesiologist and when im at home thinking i start questioning my self is this what i want ect. but then when i got to the hospital and im in that environment and i assume that role, i know that there is no place i'd rather be. i see myslef growing old in a hospital (hopefully). the point im making is that you may question and second guess yourself and you'll most likely continue to do so for the rest of your life but... you'll also know that you wouldnt be able to do anything else.

Originally Posted by haydo

im in high school and i volunteer in the cardiac/transplant O.R. i get to watch surgery and view procedures from in the room. i know my opinion is not the one you want but... i have thought about the same thing you are asking about, i am friends with several cardiothoracic surgeons, nephrologist's, and one absolutely amazing anesthesiologist and when im at home thinking i start questioning my self is this what i want ect. but then when i got to the hospital and im in that environment and i assume that role, i know that there is no place i'd rather be. i see myslef growing old in a hospital (hopefully). the point im making is that you may question and second guess yourself and you'll most likely continue to do so for the rest of your life but... you'll also know that you wouldnt be able to do anything else.

I also am in high school, how do you go about volunteering at a cardiac OR? I am very interested in heart surgeons and surgery. Any and all help will be appreciated!! Thanks

Originally Posted by AspiringMD223

I'm a sophomore in High School and I want to become a doctor.

I stopped reading after this one and the title. Enough said.

Originally Posted by 8744

Aw, it's pretty cool being a doctor. I don't know why some people say there is no prestige in it. I get a lot of respect automatically from most people who know that I am a doctor and my wife is very proud of me, even though now that she knows some of my friends she has a more realistic view of what doctors are really like.
...

Which is true. My wife noticed last year that I was getting sullen at home and didn't feel like doing much so she kind of pushed me to get out in the sun and exercise every day as well as making sure that I get enough sleep when I come home from night shifts.

OK, here are a few facts. First I'll start with things that prepared me for the crazy up-and-down world of medicine. After I got my bachelor's degree in psychology, I needed just 2 more credits to officially graduate (however, they did let me walk), so the administration told me I could take just one course at a community college and transfer the credits back to get my diploma. It turns out I had always had an interest in medicine and in the helping professions (which is why I majored in psych in the first place). So, I enrolled in an EMT-I course at my local community college and "caught the bug" so to speak. I LOVED and still love emergency medicine. My EMT-I education allowed me to spend a good deal of time doing rotations both on ambulance rigs and in the ER. This experience was invaluable!

But, as everybody knows, life is unpredictable. Remember that old saying, "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."? A month after I got my EMT-I certificate, I was offered a job at the American Institutes for Research doing psychological research, running cognitive lab trials, conducting focus group studies, and writing up reports on my findings. As such, I never worked on an ambulance because I landed this research job before I could get my emergency vehicle driver's license. As a recent psych grad, this was a dream job. Still, the calling of the ER was there. So, I volunteered with the Good Samaritan Hospital Auxiliary in San Jose, CA while still working for the American Institutes for Research. Every Wednesday night after work I would put in a 4-hour shift doing such things as delivering meds from the main hospital pharmacy to the ER, stocking supply cabinets with clean linens, IV drip sets, 1000cc NS bags, syringes of varying sizes and needle gauges, 4x4 gauze pads, tape, etc. I also got to clean up the sometimes bloody mess in between patients, but it didn’t bother me at all. While doing this volunteer position it was also the first time I had ever watched a person die. But the best part of this volunteer position was that when my duties were done or otherwise had any down time, I got to shadow the doctors, PAs, and nurses. I learned SO much over my one year of just watching and asking questions.

Which brings us back to my day job as a psych researcher. While I enjoyed it quite a bit, there was a certain PhD there who didn’t care for me very much. The reason was because I could do in one day what he expected me to do in 5 work days. Though I was 5 times more efficient than he expected me to be, he called me into a private meeting one day and told me point-blank, “I’m the PhD. You do things exactly as I say even if you think you can do things faster your way. I am your boss and you work for ME. End of story. Got it?” Needless to say, I was perturbed by his response, so much so that I brought it up to his superior, the director of research. While the director applauded me for my work efficiency, he sided for his colleague, stating that as an entry-level research associate, you must always do exactly as you are told so long as what you are told is not unethical or illegal. The next day, I tendered my resignation.

Now, back to medicine! I next made the mistake of enrolling in an uber-accelerated 11-month private nursing school program to get my LVN/LPN certification and to get the classroom and clinical hours needed to qualify to sit for the NCLEX. The one and only reason I went the private school route was that the public nursing school programs are so impacted, some have 3-4 year waiting lists!!

Now, let me say first that my nursing instructors were fantastic. I really mean that. The problem was that the volume of knowledge and practical skills they had to impart to us in just 11 months was simply too much. As one example, we had to learn basic pharmacology in just 10 days. That included roughly 200 drugs, their chemical class their functional class, their indications, their contraindications, their S/E, their Black Box Warnings if applicable, their nursing considerations (ie, what follow-ups are needed after administration), and their client teachings (what you as a nurse must instruct the patient on regarding taking the medicine). At the risk of sounding conceited, I got the highest grade in my class. What I did really, really like about the nursing program though was all the clinical hours we got. After the first semester, we spent 3/5 of our time in clinical rotations. It was great to spend time with REAL patients, as opposed to plastic dummies in the classroom, and to do minor procedures like performing Foley catheterizations, performing wound care, passing meds, suctioning tracheotomies, and performing G-tube bolus feedings, and more, all on real patients.

Tragedy struck though in my final semester of nursing school. My father, who I love dearly suffered bacterial meningitis, then just two weeks later, suffered a CVA which rendered him A&O x 0 and so dysphasic that he could only make a grunting sound. I ended up spending so much time visiting him in the hospital that I went from the top of my class to a flunk-out. My teachers, knowing how bright I am and how well I work with patients made an appeal on my behalf to the administration of the school, but the director said that regrettably it would cause a disturbance in the school if a student who had technically flunked out was allowed to continue despite extenuating circumstances.

Now, as a 3rd year med student I can honestly say that the 11-month nursing program was slightly more intense. Key word here is “slightly”. But, once again, I LOVE rotations. I’m a people person and I am loving working with patients again.

So as to the original question. Sorry this post ended up being so long!! Is it worth it to become a doctor? In my opinion, YES, emphatically so. BUT, ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I willing to spend a GREAT deal of time away from family and friends?

2. Am I aware that the salary-to-education ratio of medicine is actually quite low? For example, I know a number of MBAs who are making close to $200,000 and they are the same age as I am. And I know for a fact, they partied HARD every weekend while I was hitting the books.

3. Do you have no other passion in life that you think could fill the void of practicing
medicine?

Thanks for reading my novella of a post!!! And best of luck!!!

- Mark

Originally Posted by Mark Forest

OK, here are a few facts. First I'll start with things that prepared me for the crazy up-and-down world of medicine. After I got my bachelor's degree in psychology, I needed just 2 more credits to officially graduate (however, they did let me walk), so the administration told me I could take just one course at a community college and transfer the credits back to get my diploma. It turns out I had always had an interest in medicine and in the helping professions (which is why I majored in psych in the first place). So, I enrolled in an EMT-I course at my local community college and "caught the bug" so to speak. I LOVED and still love emergency medicine. My EMT-I education allowed me to spend a good deal of time doing rotations both on ambulance rigs and in the ER. This experience was invaluable!

But, as everybody knows, life is unpredictable. Remember that old saying, "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."? A month after I got my EMT-I certificate, I was offered a job at the American Institutes for Research doing psychological research, running cognitive lab trials, conducting focus group studies, and writing up reports on my findings. As such, I never worked on an ambulance because I landed this research job before I could get my emergency vehicle driver's license. As a recent psych grad, this was a dream job. Still, the calling of the ER was there. So, I volunteered with the Good Samaritan Hospital Auxiliary in San Jose, CA while still working for the American Institutes for Research. Every Wednesday night after work I would put in a 4-hour shift doing such things as delivering meds from the main hospital pharmacy to the ER, stocking supply cabinets with clean linens, IV drip sets, 1000cc NS bags, syringes of varying sizes and needle gauges, 4x4 gauze pads, tape, etc. I also got to clean up the sometimes bloody mess in between patients, but it didn’t bother me at all. While doing this volunteer position it was also the first time I had ever watched a person die. But the best part of this volunteer position was that when my duties were done or otherwise had any down time, I got to shadow the doctors, PAs, and nurses. I learned SO much over my one year of just watching and asking questions.

Which brings us back to my day job as a psych researcher. While I enjoyed it quite a bit, there was a certain PhD there who didn’t care for me very much. The reason was because I could do in one day what he expected me to do in 5 work days. Though I was 5 times more efficient than he expected me to be, he called me into a private meeting one day and told me point-blank, “I’m the PhD. You do things exactly as I say even if you think you can do things faster your way. I am your boss and you work for ME. End of story. Got it?” Needless to say, I was perturbed by his response, so much so that I brought it up to his superior, the director of research. While the director applauded me for my work efficiency, he sided for his colleague, stating that as an entry-level research associate, you must always do exactly as you are told so long as what you are told is not unethical or illegal. The next day, I tendered my resignation.

Now, back to medicine! I next made the mistake of enrolling in an uber-accelerated 11-month private nursing school program to get my LVN/LPN certification and to get the classroom and clinical hours needed to qualify to sit for the NCLEX. The one and only reason I went the private school route was that the public nursing school programs are so impacted, some have 3-4 year waiting lists!!

Now, let me say first that my nursing instructors were fantastic. I really mean that. The problem was that the volume of knowledge and practical skills they had to impart to us in just 11 months was simply too much. As one example, we had to learn basic pharmacology in just 10 days. That included roughly 200 drugs, their chemical class their functional class, their indications, their contraindications, their S/E, their Black Box Warnings if applicable, their nursing considerations (ie, what follow-ups are needed after administration), and their client teachings (what you as a nurse must instruct the patient on regarding taking the medicine). At the risk of sounding conceited, I got the highest grade in my class. What I did really, really like about the nursing program though was all the clinical hours we got. After the first semester, we spent 3/5 of our time in clinical rotations. It was great to spend time with REAL patients, as opposed to plastic dummies in the classroom, and to do minor procedures like performing Foley catheterizations, performing wound care, passing meds, suctioning tracheotomies, and performing G-tube bolus feedings, and more, all on real patients.

Tragedy struck though in my final semester of nursing school. My father, who I love dearly suffered bacterial meningitis, then just two weeks later, suffered a CVA which rendered him A&O x 0 and so dysphasic that he could only make a grunting sound. I ended up spending so much time visiting him in the hospital that I went from the top of my class to a flunk-out. My teachers, knowing how bright I am and how well I work with patients made an appeal on my behalf to the administration of the school, but the director said that regrettably it would cause a disturbance in the school if a student who had technically flunked out was allowed to continue despite extenuating circumstances.

Now, as a 3rd year med student I can honestly say that the 11-month nursing program was slightly more intense. Key word here is “slightly”. But, once again, I LOVE rotations. I’m a people person and I am loving working with patients again.

So as to the original question. Sorry this post ended up being so long!! Is it worth it to become a doctor? In my opinion, YES, emphatically so. BUT, ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I willing to spend a GREAT deal of time away from family and friends?

2. Am I aware that the salary-to-education ratio of medicine is actually quite low? For example, I know a number of MBAs who are making close to $200,000 and they are the same age as I am. And I know for a fact, they partied HARD every weekend while I was hitting the books.

3. Do you have no other passion in life that you think could fill the void of practicing
medicine?

Thanks for reading my novella of a post!!! And best of luck!!!

- Mark

I love your post!

necro bump. nice work.

I am in high school and I want to be a neurosurgeon...

Originally Posted by Koosalagoosagoo

I am in high school and I want to be a neurosurgeon...

I think this is sarcasm. If so, well said.

I also like how this is from 2008.

Originally Posted by coyotelime

I think this is sarcasm. If so, well said.

I also like how this is from 2008.

I totally did not see that until now.

I love that this necro thread has some posts by Panda Bear. I wish he was still around...

Originally Posted by coyotelime

I think this is sarcasm. If so, well said.

I also like how this is from 2008.

Yeah, well said!!! However, if the original poster is serious, I don't mean to discourage him. You do have to understand though, this original statement "I am in High School and I want to be a neurosurgeon" sounds Doogie Howserish...

I do not regret becoming a doctor. In fact, I do not know any doctor that regrets becoming a doctor.

*

Originally Posted by TheRadiologist

I do not regret becoming a doctor. In fact, I do not know any doctor that regrets becoming a doctor.

Really?

Originally Posted by Mark Forest

Yeah, well said!!! However, if the original poster is serious, I don't mean to discourage him. You do have to understand though, this original statement "I am in High School and I want to be a neurosurgeon" sounds Doogie Howserish...

not serious

Originally Posted by AspiringMD223

I'm a sophomore in High School and I want to become a doctor. But what I want to know from you is, for those of you who made is through med school and completed your residency, do you regret becoming a doctor? Do you wish you never even went to med school and took all those pre med courses? What would you rather be than a doctor? I'm only asking because I want to know if becoming a doctor is worth it.

Have you seen House?

Totally worth it.

Originally Posted by TheRadiologist

I do not regret becoming a doctor. In fact, I do not know any doctor that regrets becoming a doctor.

Conclusion: He does not know any doctor.

Originally Posted by Morsetlis

Conclusion: He does not know any doctor.

Yeah, seriously....