What's the best way to start exploring medicine as a career?

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andys6

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I'm at the early stages of considering changing careers and have a question for you nontrads out there: what have you found most helpful in terms of deciding whether medicine is the right career for you? A lot of posts discuss clinical volunteering, shadowing, and the like in terms of getting into med school. But I'm not sure whether I want to go to med school at all--I'm just trying to find the best way to learn what being a doctor is like.

As to my background, to the extent it matters, I studied history and math in college, was in the Army for four years, went to law school, and just started my first legal job. I liked law school a lot, but to be honest, I've been pretty dissatisfied with my job so far and can't imagine doing this for the next several decades. The main things I don't like are the lack of social interaction (I spend almost my entire day reading and writing alone in my office) and the feeling that my work doesn't matter much, although I think other types of law jobs might be better in that regard. I'm planning to stick with this for at least a couple more years though to see if my experience changes.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I'd love to hear what you found helpful or unhelpful.

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If anything, most hospitals have volunteer opportunities you can do in your spare time. That would be the easiest place to start. More than likely, you will be able to meet doctor's, nurses, pa's, etc and pick their brains on what their careers are really like, and see it first hand. It sounds like you are still pretty young? mid 20's? so you've still got plenty of time to do your homework and make it happen.
 
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clinical volunteering and shadowing are not just for making your med school application pretty and competitive, they're also the best way of exploring the field and finding out if a career in medicine is right for you. you should try it.
 
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Great, thanks. It sounds like the best place to start would be volunteering at a hospital, especially since it looks like there are some opportunities on nights and weekends. I just want to get started with something instead of sitting around thinking about it.

I'm 29 and single, so I think I'm in a pretty good position to make the switch if I decide to.
 
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