Hello all,
I've been lurking around SDN for a few years now but I only created a profile today just so I could ask the above question (I never felt I had the right to chime in to other conversations, so I just watched.) I am currently an ABD ("all but dissertation") PhD candidate in medical anthropology. I'm actually in Guatemala right now finishing up my dissertation research.
The issue is that I've always known I wanted to go into clinical practice. I took most of the medical school pre-reqs during undergrad (although since it's been more than five years now, I'll have to re-take them if I want to use them), but after shadowing a bunch of physicians my senior year, I pulled back. Many of them seemed unhappy and more than once I heard the phrase "cog in the machine". Most were dissatisfied with the scope of medicine they were able to practice and the amount of time they were able to spend with patients. One physician told me, straight out, that "there isn't much 'practicing medicine' in the practice of medicine anymore."
After undergrad, I was confused, so I retreated to the lab to give myself some time to think. I spent two years working as a technician studying cellular signaling biology in cancer cells. During this time, I read- a lot- and discovered the field of applied medical anthropology; a branch of anthropology that is directly and immediately concerned with finding solutions to many of the medical issues plaguing the worlds' poor (at its heart, though this being academia, there is of course a ton of politicking around any and all claims of "what is" anything.) I applied to a good R1 university with a history of applied work and got in-- I was even one of the four students in my year to be fully funded. I've done ok in grad school; my GPA is good (3.84), I've had great success with funding (my PhD research is fully funded on a government grant), and I've gained fluency in Spanish and moderate fluency in a Mayan language used in my fieldsite. I have one publication already, one under review and another two on the burner...and I should have three or four more by the time I defend my dissertation and graduate. I've taught, presented at national conferences...blah blah blah yaddah yaddah.
As desperate as the academic job market is, I feel like I'm a decent candidate. But working in Guatemala on and off for the past five years, I've realized that being a professor isn't enough for me. (There's nothing wrong with it, it's just not for me.) I get frustrated simply studying the sick and not providing care beyond a bandaid and some phone numbers-- and I've been extremely lucky in that I've been able to see work I've done get integrated into clinical practice in the field...seeing our work actually become bench to bedside is a dream for many of us.
So I feel ungrateful and a bit like a jerk for not feeling satisfied with the work I've done and the work I'll be privileged to do, but when it comes down to it, I still want to treat patients. However, I still believe firmly that the majority of your health destiny is decided by the circumstances in which you live and the choices that you make-- choices that are guided by structure, by poverty, and by culture; all things that I have been trained to research and to understand. I want to continue my work as a researcher and an anthropologist-- and I'd like to continue teaching. Hopefully, eventually, in medical schools, to young physicians.
I'd like to practice in underserved areas and I think with my background I'd be a decent candidate for the National Health Corps Services Scholarship-- for either the PA or the MD. I'm 30 years old, and I should graduate with my PhD by 32 at the latest.
Any advice? Please? If I go the PA route-- which I am considering due to its brevity, focus on direct patient care, lateral mobility, etc-- will I hit a wall in regard to getting funding for projects, being able to work overseas (still under a physician, obviously), publishing in academic journals or teaching? Will I regret not going for the MD?
Has anybody run into anything like this? I've scoured your forums, but there aren't a lot of medanthros out there on SDN that I've seen.
Thank you all so much, in advance, and I apologize for the length of the post.
I've been lurking around SDN for a few years now but I only created a profile today just so I could ask the above question (I never felt I had the right to chime in to other conversations, so I just watched.) I am currently an ABD ("all but dissertation") PhD candidate in medical anthropology. I'm actually in Guatemala right now finishing up my dissertation research.
The issue is that I've always known I wanted to go into clinical practice. I took most of the medical school pre-reqs during undergrad (although since it's been more than five years now, I'll have to re-take them if I want to use them), but after shadowing a bunch of physicians my senior year, I pulled back. Many of them seemed unhappy and more than once I heard the phrase "cog in the machine". Most were dissatisfied with the scope of medicine they were able to practice and the amount of time they were able to spend with patients. One physician told me, straight out, that "there isn't much 'practicing medicine' in the practice of medicine anymore."
After undergrad, I was confused, so I retreated to the lab to give myself some time to think. I spent two years working as a technician studying cellular signaling biology in cancer cells. During this time, I read- a lot- and discovered the field of applied medical anthropology; a branch of anthropology that is directly and immediately concerned with finding solutions to many of the medical issues plaguing the worlds' poor (at its heart, though this being academia, there is of course a ton of politicking around any and all claims of "what is" anything.) I applied to a good R1 university with a history of applied work and got in-- I was even one of the four students in my year to be fully funded. I've done ok in grad school; my GPA is good (3.84), I've had great success with funding (my PhD research is fully funded on a government grant), and I've gained fluency in Spanish and moderate fluency in a Mayan language used in my fieldsite. I have one publication already, one under review and another two on the burner...and I should have three or four more by the time I defend my dissertation and graduate. I've taught, presented at national conferences...blah blah blah yaddah yaddah.
As desperate as the academic job market is, I feel like I'm a decent candidate. But working in Guatemala on and off for the past five years, I've realized that being a professor isn't enough for me. (There's nothing wrong with it, it's just not for me.) I get frustrated simply studying the sick and not providing care beyond a bandaid and some phone numbers-- and I've been extremely lucky in that I've been able to see work I've done get integrated into clinical practice in the field...seeing our work actually become bench to bedside is a dream for many of us.
So I feel ungrateful and a bit like a jerk for not feeling satisfied with the work I've done and the work I'll be privileged to do, but when it comes down to it, I still want to treat patients. However, I still believe firmly that the majority of your health destiny is decided by the circumstances in which you live and the choices that you make-- choices that are guided by structure, by poverty, and by culture; all things that I have been trained to research and to understand. I want to continue my work as a researcher and an anthropologist-- and I'd like to continue teaching. Hopefully, eventually, in medical schools, to young physicians.
I'd like to practice in underserved areas and I think with my background I'd be a decent candidate for the National Health Corps Services Scholarship-- for either the PA or the MD. I'm 30 years old, and I should graduate with my PhD by 32 at the latest.
Any advice? Please? If I go the PA route-- which I am considering due to its brevity, focus on direct patient care, lateral mobility, etc-- will I hit a wall in regard to getting funding for projects, being able to work overseas (still under a physician, obviously), publishing in academic journals or teaching? Will I regret not going for the MD?
Has anybody run into anything like this? I've scoured your forums, but there aren't a lot of medanthros out there on SDN that I've seen.
Thank you all so much, in advance, and I apologize for the length of the post.
