I have a specific opinion about PharmD to MD switches based on having to deal with mid-career burnout placements in my agency:
1. I highly respect the ones that get their pharmacy degree, work for a couple of years, decide either that pharmacy is not for them or is not fulfilling enough, then start the trial to get to medical school and are motivated to complete the journey. These people tend to have an appreciation for both sides of the working line, and will generally be content with medicine as they quite understand what the negative alternative is in pharmacy. I'm not saying that pharmacy is worse than medicine (it certainly is not for me), but for those with past experience and better motivation, they understand the bad as well as the good in the business. They will generally work harder than most of their peers and have less friction/motivation issues as they understand medicine for what it is and isn't. They understand the problems of the "second act".
2. I generally do not respect those who are straight from pharmacy into medicine without intervening practice, because you end up dealing with someone who has the letters but not the experience, and does not really appreciate medicine for what it is and what it isn't. I would actually say that without any practice experience, it was a bad recruitment to pharmacy, as we could have had someone who actually would practice. That said, there are the exceptions. The rule is though that they should have taken an alternate undergraduate major if no practice is done, but they actually have a worse than normal chance of career dissatisfaction for having enough time to work out if the problem is pharmacy or the problem is with themselves with the work offered.
And yes, practice long enough, and you can tell the difference. I really do not encourage any pharmacist to apply for medicine until they have at least a year or two in practice, so that they can work out for themselves whether or not the investment is worth it, but also, whether they are driven enough to endure the bad to taste the good. Because, that transition is not and never will be a pure win for the applicant, I find that the only good reason that anyone should convert is that they would enjoy the practice of medicine period rather than any other material gains as I still think that the opportunity cost is too high to justify that.
And if you want to argue ad hominem, please realize that I myself gave up four years of a very hot practice career for something much lesser, but I wouldn't exchange that time, nor the opportunities that it opened, nor the work that I have now for 12 practice years. That's the original reason I joined this board.
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