A little encouragement for us premeds

[cfdavid]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to pass on a really cool experience I had today.

We often hear of the horror stories and nightmares that go along with the whole med student process. But, it'a always nice to hear the flip side of things.

I'll make a long story short. I met with an old friend of the family today. The guy's now 33, and just earned his board certification in anesthesiology. I met him at the hospital where he works, and ended up talking to him for 2 hours! He was super generous with his time, very frank about the profession, and very helpful and encouraging.

The bottom line is that he loves what he does, and would do it again.
I asked him all kinds of questions. Again, his bottom line:

*He has a great job that pays extremely well.
*His med student experience, including residency, was not as hard as he thought it would be.
*He was able to get married and grow a family (2 little kids now)
*His schedule has not proven to be a problem with his wife
*He's easily able to pay back his loans, and still live a very nice life
*He has a job with a considerable amount of respect
*His job is quite stable and secure
*The malpractice is not as bad as one would imagine (20K, but out of his pocket). But he indicated that it all depends on the state (he's in Michigan)

The only major pain that he indicated was all of the repeated exams etc., and all of the studying (seemingly never ending). But, he wasn't really all that down about that stuff either. It's just part of the process.

Anyway, I thought I'd pass this info on to those that may get down from all the negative stories.

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[it.]

even more bottom of a line (from reading many posts on sdn): it's different for everybody. you won't truly know how medicine will be until you actually get into it.

the end

 

[virilep]

even more bottom of a line (from reading many posts on sdn): it's different for everybody. you won't truly know how medicine will be until you actually get into it.

the end

for sure. i agree. it's nice to hear, but until the shoes are there to fill, we don't know how the walk is.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to pass on a really cool experience I had today.

We often hear of the horror stories and nightmares that go along with the whole med student process. But, it'a always nice to hear the flip side of things.

I'll make a long story short. I met with an old friend of the family today. The guy's now 33, and just earned his board certification in anesthesiology. I met him at the hospital where he works, and ended up talking to him for 2 hours! He was super generous with his time, very frank about the profession, and very helpful and encouraging.

The bottom line is that he loves what he does, and would do it again.
I asked him all kinds of questions. Again, his bottom line:

*He has a great job that pays extremely well.
*His med student experience, including residency, was not as hard as he thought it would be.
*He was able to get married and grow a family (2 little kids now)
*His schedule has not proven to be a problem with his wife
*He's easily able to pay back his loans, and still live a very nice life
*He has a job with a considerable amount of respect
*His job is quite stable and secure
*The malpractice is not as bad as one would imagine (20K, but out of his pocket). But he indicated that it all depends on the state (he's in Michigan)

The only major pain that he indicated was all of the repeated exams etc., and all of the studying (seemingly never ending). But, he wasn't really all that down about that stuff either. It's just part of the process.

Anyway, I thought I'd pass this info on to those that may get down from all the negative stories.

That's very encouraging. (But I do note that his malpractice insurance for an anesthesiologist in Michigan is well below the average in that state, based on my quick google search, so nobody get too excited about that part of the post.)