Is being a doctor as miserable as people on here make it seem?

[EthylMethylMan]

I got an acceptance to an MD school not too long ago, and I've been ecstatic about it. But looking on SDN, med students, residents, and even attendings make the process of becoming and practicing as a physician sound horrible. While I'm not in med school yet, I'm familiar with what's expected: most of your free time will be eaten up through your residency years, and the volume of information is tremendous. I'm willing to do this because from my research and observations, being a physician sounds interesting and fulfilling. But is the end game as terrible as some make it sound? Am I about to work my ass off for seven years just to be married to my job and hate it?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Lamel]

I've noticed that people in every career make their respective career sound horrible.

That isn't to say that medicine doesn't have its downsides, but nothing is white and black. You take the positives with the negatives and roll with it. The reason senior people in medicine make it sound rough is because they have experienced the downsides first hand, while we as pre-meds necessarily haven't - but remember they all started out where we are today.

Edit: Awesome avatar btw.

 

[IncognitoGuy]

People on SDN love to complain, and people who have things going well for them rarely are going to shout it from the rooftops. Don't take SDN as representative of the populace.

 

[Palindr0me]

Human nature (in my experience) shows us that we are constantly stricken with the disease of dissatisfaction. I believe it is more about your attitude than anything. Why are you going into medicine? Is it a handful of carefully thought out reasons that align with what the career is truthfully about, or is it a lot of idealistic, romanticized aspirations that will lead you to a path of feeling broken from your career? It comes down to you as an individual, just like anything! That can be a great thing or a terrible thing. I like your question because I often wrestle with it. It has helped me to solidify, even if on a very basic level, why medicine fits my personality and ambitions. Congratulations on your acceptance! Keep it in perspective that these are other people judging how capable you are. Now you have to prove it to yourself more than anything that you're ready and willing.

 

[gyngyn]

I love my work and most of the people I know feel the same.

 

[W19]

SDN is place for med students to blow off steam... and the unhappy ones are usually more vocal here...

 

[KN.MD]

The journey is long and it can be crazy and stressful. I'm barely half way, and I find myself questioning/doubting the decision on the regular. But then I walk out of the OR after a nice case and go... WOW, that's why I love this ******* job. It will require some level of passion and fortitude, but it isn't without fantastic rewards.

 

[lazyindy]

I was pre-med but I did some soul-searching and found out that it was not for me, refer to my thread

I decided to ask the physician that I shadowed if becoming a doctor is worth it nowadays with reimbursement cuts and excessive regulation. His answer was that it is worth it only of you do it for the right reasons, being a doctor is a calling and if you don't believe that you will never be happy. I know you've heard this over and over again but its really true, you really need to have an insane desire for healing sick people and it needs to be so fulfilling to you that you're free time shouldn't really matter. Medicine will become your life and if you treat it as that and derive happiness from it then you're in the right path. If you treat it as a job then you will be miserable.

 

[Goro]

My clinical colleagues all love what they do.

I got an acceptance to an MD school not too long ago, and I've been ecstatic about it. But looking on SDN, med students, residents, and even attendings make the process of becoming and practicing as a physician sound horrible. While I'm not in med school yet, I'm familiar with what's expected: most of your free time will be eaten up through your residency years, and the volume of information is tremendous. I'm willing to do this because from my research and observations, being a physician sounds interesting and fulfilling. But is the end game as terrible as some make it sound? Am I about to work my ass off for seven years just to be married to my job and hate it?

 

[The Buff OP]

Nah, they are just betas.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I've got a pretty good life and enjoy what I do.

 

[Psai]

Just trying to dispel your thoughts of unicorns and fairies prancing around as people get healed from touching your robes. Seems like most people like their jobs as it is now but are pessimistic about the future. There's a lot of bullcrap in medicine and it's going to get worse. But humans are wired to look at the negatives of their situation and compare it to the positives of others. Doesn't change the fact that the sacrifice is real and this path is not for everyone

 

[Aubrey Graham]

I rather be a rapper than a doctor.

 

[ridethecliche]

I was pre-med but I did some soul-searching and found out that it was not for me, refer to my thread

I decided to ask the physician that I shadowed if becoming a doctor is worth it nowadays with reimbursement cuts and excessive regulation. His answer was that it is worth it only of you do it for the right reasons, being a doctor is a calling and if you don't believe that you will never be happy. I know you've heard this over and over again but its really true, you really need to have an insane desire for healing sick people and it needs to be so fulfilling to you that you're free time shouldn't really matter. Medicine will become your life and if you treat it as that and derive happiness from it then you're in the right path. If you treat it as a job then you will be miserable.

Why are you still here?

 

[Catalystik]

Am I about to work my ass off for seven years just to be married to my job and hate it?

Are you a glass-half-empty or a glass-half-full type of person? If you tend to be upbeat, you'll probably stay that way and always find something about your life that you enjoy. I also love my job, like the other docs above do (even though I might complain about the EHR).

 

[NickNaylor]

There are downsides to every job. Medicine is no exception. The primary difference between medicine/other professional fields and, say, your run of the mill just-out-of-college career is the incredible up-front investment that you make in time and money and the delayed gratification. It becomes a bit grating after a while. I was a traditional student and am going into a field with a relatively short residency (4 years), yet I won't have an actual job until I'm almost 30. To add to that, it's the kind of thing where if you don't do your due diligence you might be stuck in a field that you're miserable in.

If you're honest with yourself, reflect on what you want out of your career and life, and make those things priorities, you will likely be fine. People run into problems when they get into medicine (or any field) for secondary gains that don't outweigh the downsides of the work. Personally I'm excited about my career, from residency to independent practice. That said, it's a grueling path.

 

[mimelim]

I got an acceptance to an MD school not too long ago, and I've been ecstatic about it. But looking on SDN, med students, residents, and even attendings make the process of becoming and practicing as a physician sound horrible. While I'm not in med school yet, I'm familiar with what's expected: most of your free time will be eaten up through your residency years, and the volume of information is tremendous. I'm willing to do this because from my research and observations, being a physician sounds interesting and fulfilling. But is the end game as terrible as some make it sound? Am I about to work my ass off for seven years just to be married to my job and hate it?

These are the kinds of things you are supposed to figure out before you apply.

Yes, things are as terrible as some make it sound, FOR THEM. Fundamentally, nobody can tell you how you will fare in medicine. I can tell you, I'm a PGY3 in a surgical residency and I love my job, despite on paper it should be one of the worst in medicine (never mind every other job out there). But, that should mean NOTHING to you, just like the other stories, positive and negative. If you took a hundred random 29 year olds and put them in my job, likely 90%+ would hate it and quit within a couple of weeks. But, that is why I am here and they are not.

Facts:
#1 Medical training is long. (7-11 years post bachelors)
#2 Medical training is hard.
#3 Medical training requires dedication (80hr+ weeks are standard in most specialties, not every week, but it happens)
#4 Medical training is expensive and the opportunity cost of all that education is huge.
#5 The only person that can appreciate what you will get out of a career in medicine is YOU.

We try our best on adcoms to screen out the people that the end result won't be worth what they give up. But, people lie to us and more importantly to themselves. They misrepresent themselves. And, in the end, it hurts them and they end up miserable.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Everybody complains in every field. I still keep in touch with friends in various other careers and they all have something to complain about.

You're on SDN, so naturally you should hear negative things about medicine. People tend to be more vocal about negative things than positive ones.

 

[And_so_what]

I think doctors are a bunch of arrogant people with god's complexes. Unfortunately for them they have not understood that happiness comes from within. If you are already happy wherever you are, doing anything more or less will have no significant impact on your level of happiness. It really does NOT matter what you do when it comes to happiness, happiness is a gift of the soul.

 

[Graywolf]

I think doctors are a bunch of arrogant people with god's complexes.

Everyone [the general community] says things like this until their life depends on a doctor, be it in acute situations and/or chronic disease management. Then they are very grateful them, and personal differences (i.e. personal beliefs) gets pushed to the side in the physician-patient relationship. Just putting things in perspective

 

[TooMuchResearch]

I got an acceptance to an MD school not too long ago, and I've been ecstatic about it. But looking on SDN, med students, residents, and even attendings make the process of becoming and practicing as a physician sound horrible. While I'm not in med school yet, I'm familiar with what's expected: most of your free time will be eaten up through your residency years, and the volume of information is tremendous. I'm willing to do this because from my research and observations, being a physician sounds interesting and fulfilling. But is the end game as terrible as some make it sound? Am I about to work my ass off for seven years just to be married to my job and hate it?

Work sucks, regardless of job. At least mine is still awesome when it sucks.

 

[Sust]

Apologies in advance if I sound negative, but in reality I think a lot of us are simply trying to keep it real.
I like OP's marriage metaphor because it's so true. Your relationship with medicine will have its ups and downs, and like all good committed relationships, you will have to continue to work on it and decide for yourself what you can and cannot tolerate based off of your expectations. Medicine does unfortunately come with a cast of societal characters who might intrude on your enjoyment of medicine and like others have already said, it's important to be honest with yourself if this will be a deal breaker.

Having said that, I'm a non-trad PGY5 who loves being here despite the crap loads of paperwork to wade through and the govt bureaucrats telling me what to do. There is room for a lot of good to be done here and people need you to meet them where they're at. As I get to know my patients and see them get better over time I definitely feel the warm fuzzies, but there are people who are really complicated for reasons beyond clinical medicine and I have to accept that boundary line. However, that boundary line doesnt mean you cannot advocate for change and fight harder for a leadership stake in a system that's slipping away from us. Personally, I look forward to seeing the level of tenacity and persistence in upcoming generations of leaders in medicine. When dealing with the system, It's easy to get burnt out, cynical, and withdraw, but if enough of us band together then who knows what can happen.

 

[Reinvented_Virginian]

I think Physicians are a very lucky group of people. If you go into this profession for the right reasons, because of genuine interest in the material, as well as wanting to help others, or to reach a new level of self-satisfaction within yourself, it gives you as much as you put in.

In my opinion, people who are discouraged with their careers in Medicine are most likely those who didn't give enough forethought to the path they wanted. I've shadowed two physicians who told me if that if they had a second chance, they wouldn't do the speciality they were in. They said they'd have wanted to pursue a fellowship, or worked harder for higher scores and pursued a different area of Medicine.

So OP, I think it's imperative to note that if you forge ahead wholeheartedly and give a good amount of thought to what will make you most happy, you will not be amongst the group of physicians who are unhappy with their decisions.

 

[Hospitalized]

I think the most underrated portion of medical training portrayed on this site is the fact that you have everything in front of you. Most people go into careers with an uncertain future, not knowing if they will get raises, be moved, have enough time to pursue hobbies, etc. There's a lot of uncertainty in the professional world. Very few jobs will hire you right out of college and lay out how your next ten years will go down.

With medicine, it's all there for you to see. You need the pre-reqs/ECs/grades/MCAT to get in. You will have to go through the entire application process. Interviews. Rejections. Acceptances. Decisions of sacrifice. You become a medical student. You know you have to take USMLE and decide on a residency, take the boards, and so forth. The timeline is there. It's daunting.

Two years ago if you asked me where I thought I would be now, I would have answered something completely different from where I am. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with myself. Today, if you ask me what I will be doing two years from now, I will look to the process and tell you where I will be.

 

[tima]

There is a difference between what's said on internet forums and reality. Check out some specialty forums and see some of these exaggerations (unemployed radiologists, midlevels taking over jobs, etc). .

 

[Feelgood Inc]

All jobs have their share of problems.

Law? You'll hear people talk about their six figure debt while being unable to find a job/having a relatively low paying job after graduation, especially if they don't graduate from a T6 school.

Investment banking? High attrition rate, insane hours that make the wage/hr rate lower than people here expect, frequently on call, dealing with potentially frustrating management. Yes, this applies to Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, etc.

Nonprofits? A number of people go into nonprofits thinking with an idealized perception of the field only to find out that the reality isn't all sunshine and rainbows as they thought.

Consulting? Varies per type of consulting; some people hate the traveling, others hate their hard work, presentations, and recommendations go to waste when/if they aren't implemented by their clients, etc.

Go onto top-law-schools and you'll see a number of people complain about the field. Go onto wallstreetoasis and you'll see a number of people complain about the field. Go onto any forum and you'll see a number of people complain about the topic. See what I mean?

SDN offers a ton of information but you have to sort through biases as well.

 

[cyclopes93]

Whoever referred to doctor's having god complexes...........GET OVER yourself. Please, some OR physicians will treat you like crap but for most part the ones outside of this scheme will be very nice and kind (even when you call them when they are not supposed to be called..think night or when they are having a nice meal at home). Medicine overall is rough sometimes and it honestly feels like a roller coaster when some people just continuously target you to vent out their stress. But, like any job, this job requires you to have a tight network of people that can protect you and also in a way YOU have to be at your "A" game so that those whiny people don't keep putting you down and seeking you as a source of their problems. Just be happy and make sure that you have a life outside of medicine. I feel that when you are involved in other activities, you don't get roughed up on the details of work when you are actually out of the setting. If you don't like the clinical environment, start thinking right now of dual degrees or correlating paths that still require an MD but offer a different work setting. At the end of the day take care of yourself and be damn selfish about what sort of person you want yourself to be projected or reflected as. The wrong job can change a person for worse and make them miserable even when they could have gone any other way they liked. Medicine is and always has been for people who consider it their calling. Nothing has changed thus far (save for the policies...so cut all that nonsense your being fed and all the dreamy past stories of how amazing medicine was cause if you would have done medicine back then for the right reasons, those reasons still hold true today and even the future).