I dont know what I want to become but I really like helping people out

[undecided613]

Hello
My problem is that I like helping people but I dont know which field is the best for me. I jumped from wanting to become a doctor to a dentist to a nurse and still dont know what to do. Can someone give me advice so I can finally decide on what to become?
Thank you

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[Apollo1]

Hello
My problem is that I like helping people but I dont know which field is the best for me. I jumped from wanting to become a doctor to a dentist to a nurse and still dont know what to do. Can someone give me advice so I can finally decide on what to become?
Thank you

Literally every single job on earth involves "helping people out" in one way or another. IMO, you first have to try to bridge your desire to help people with how healthcare would be the ideal vehicle for doing so. After that, look into the different aspects of healthcare and see how conducive each of them would be in furthering your goal.

 

[undecided613]

I wanted to go to the medical field bec thats the best way to help out people like when they are sick or in general. And I have a burning desire to help thats why I thought of becoming a doctor then a nurse and then a dentist. Right now I dont know what I want to become and its driving me insane

 

[Goro]

Have you done any patient contact volunteer work?

I wanted to go to the medical field bec thats the best way to help out people like when they are sick or in general. And I have a burning desire to help thats why I thought of becoming a doctor then a nurse and then a dentist. Right now I dont know what I want to become and its driving me insane

 

[silleme]

I would say get a lot of shadowing experience under your belt. If you want frequent, direct patient contact you may be happier as a nurse or PA than a doctor. If you're somewhat of a control freak or always need to know why things are, then you may be happier as doctor. You haven't even mentioned Physical Therapist or Psychologist, which are also extensions of the medical fields. Look around, talk to people in these careers and see what things, specifically, appeal to you. Hopefully you'll get a better idea then.

 

[undecided613]

i am most probably going to try to volunteer at a hospital to see how a nurse/PA talks to the patients and deals with them emotionally. i never really looked into psychology because i dont think its for me because i like helping people to get better.and i am looking into physical therapist to see what it offers. thank you very much silleme for helping me out
can anyone else give me advice on how to deal with this confusing time in my life?

 

[Jamie561]

Hello
My problem is that I like helping people but I dont know which field is the best for me. I jumped from wanting to become a doctor to a dentist to a nurse and still dont know what to do. Can someone give me advice so I can finally decide on what to become?
Thank you

Be a social worker.

 

[jl lin]

OP are you genuine? This is like standing at Baskin-Robbins vacillating over which flavor of ice cream to order?

What makes you a non-trad? What is your age? How much education do you have? What is your work and/or extracurricular experience? Have you sought help from a college advisor or a career advisor or a h.s. guidance counselor?

 

[crazy87]

I agree that you should shadow any job youre interested in. I shadowed a PA, an OT and physician. And I worked with nurses a lot. It was really helpful for me to see what each role does. I suggest shadowing and not just volunteering but I know it might be easier in the beginning to volunteer (as in easier to find opportunities)

 

[torontopharm]

.

 

[undecided613]

To answer your questions I have been doing resarch for the past year and half trying to figure out what I should become in the future. I asked around to see what was the best profession that I can help out people. Everyone gave some ideas like doctor, dentist, nurse, pa. So right now I am looking into nursing and pa. If anyone has any idea's that is similar to nurse and pa please tell me

 

[ehwhatsupdoc]

I think for most people who go into medicine are not doing it to help people, at least this is not the main motivation, otherwise they'd be happy as a CNA or EMT other profession that u can help people and not have to do as much schooling. I think the main reason they go into medicine is intellectual curiosity in medical science, the challenge, the pay and job stability. Lets not kid ourselves here. So if money is not a big driver for you and you want to help people with their health and wellbeing then I suggest Paramedic or nurse. If you want to do more procedures or make more money than do PA. If you really want to be at the forefront of medical science and want to diagnose and treat patients with limited to no supervision then pursue medicine.

 

[ehwhatsupdoc]

So you have to ask yourself is pay a major factor? Also do you want to help people one at a time or whole groups of people? If its the latter than think about public health or teaching. There are many other kinds of healthcare careers like respiratory therapist, medical technologist, radiation therapist, x-ray tech etc... Which career would help the most people is really not a good question. A garbage collector probably helps more people than anyone since they keep the streets clean and reduce the chance of disease and waste from taking root. Likewise a farmer helps a ton of people stay healthy by growing the food we eat or a medical researcher saves a lot of lives by helping to develop a new drug.

 

[Law2Doc]

To answer your questions I have been doing resarch for the past year and half trying to figure out what I should become in the future. I asked around to see what was the best profession that I can help out people. Everyone gave some ideas like doctor, dentist, nurse, pa. So right now I am looking into nursing and pa. If anyone has any idea's that is similar to nurse and pa please tell me

Just stop. None of these fields is about "helping people" any more than any other job on the planet. If you can't express your goals in words other than "I want to help people" you really aren't ready to pick a career. "I want to help people" is something you say before you spend an hour at a soup kitchen, not before you drop $200k and ten years of your life into some professional career training. sorry, but if this is as far as you have thought through things you aren't ready to pick a career. get out there and see what each of the jobs you described actually do. On a day to day basis it's not ABOUT helping people, although plenty of people do end up getting helped. It's about personal enjoyment and interest and fulfillment. Find something that interests you (for concrete articulable reasons) and let helping people just be a happy side benefit, if it happens, not your primary goal and you won't sound so naive and half baked. I'm a doctor and honestly if I described my job and all the things I do each day it would be a very long list before I got to more nebulous concepts like "helping people". It's certainly a nice benefit but certainly not the main reason one should want this (or any) job. People in healthcare aren't Mother Theresas who do this job because we are saints. We do it because there are lots of things, personal and professional that attract us to the field. Figure out what drives/excites/interests you and then pick a career. if the best you can come up with is I want to help people, go back and try again.

 

[Ronald Kris]

this is a good point. I like to help people too, but I'm a leader who likes to make impactful decisions, as evidenced in past experiences, and my instincts, which is why at some point I aspire to be a doctor should conditions be right to pursue it.

 

[MedWonk]

Hello
My problem is that I like helping people but I dont know which field is the best for me. I jumped from wanting to become a doctor to a dentist to a nurse and still dont know what to do. Can someone give me advice so I can finally decide on what to become?
Thank you

I hope you're not relying on an internet forum to choose your career for you. Figure out what you like to do and do it.