Are you a sellout if....?

[brand990]

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You have your MD and decide that medicine isnt right for you and you decide to go work for a business and use your degree to get the job?

 

[drlexygoat]

Why would you put yourself through an MD degree just to get another non-medical job anyway?

 

[BklynWill]

There are many roles for MDs besides patient care (researchers, educators, administrators, etc...). Saying that "medicine isn't right for you" is pretty vague. Perhaps patient care isn't right for you. Medicine can not perpetuate without MDs/DOs contributing to the business, law, R&D, educational, and organizational needs of the profession.
If you have a good idea how an MD degree will help with your aspiring business career, then I say go for it if you are willing to sacrifice the time and money.

 

[Childe]

how would that be selling out again?

 

[Bad Mojo]

I don't think it would be selling out, but years 3 and 4 would really suck if you don't ever want to practice medicine in any way.

 

[BushBaby]

Originally posted by brand990
You have your MD and decide that medicine isnt right for you and you decide to go work for a business and use your degree to get the job?

Not sure why you would call this "selling out".

I am all for doing what makes you happy. If you go through your medical training and end up hating the field, then by all means leave and go do something else that will make you happier. It's not selling out, it's being honest and knowing you have options. That's the great thing about getting other degrees besides your MD...you always have options incase you get bored or vexed with medicine.

 

[modelcitizen]

You're only a sellout if you:
1. go to harvard med school;
2. do your residency in cardiothoracic surgery at MGH;
3. become the director of a major university transplant center;
and then
4. use the degree to get a business or political job.
😉
http://www.senate.gov/~frist/

 

[ptanpit1]

No!

The medical profession needs people with different talents, especially those training in law, business, science research, education, public health, etc.

If you go into business and one day run an HMO, however, don't forget that it's not all about the bottom-line.

-P

 

[Fermata]

Originally posted by modelcitizen
You're only a sellout if you:
1. go to harvard med school;
2. do your residency in cardiothoracic surgery at MGH;
3. become the director of a major university transplant center;
and then
4. use the degree to get a business or political job.
😉
http://www.senate.gov/~frist/

As far as politicians go, there are much worse than Frist.

 

[Jordan 1]

Hell No!!

no way u'd be a sellout..more power to you...the MD degree is just that a degree...if you feel you'd be more effective using the degree in some other capacity then go for it!

 

[skypilot]

How about using your skills to turn around a failing hospital? How about becoming the president of an HMO?
Go to a third world country and found a clinic?
Manage a group of other doctors?

 

[modelcitizen]

Originally posted by Fermata
As far as politicians go, there are much worse than Frist.

Agreed. I was being sarcastic.

 

[Naphtali]

It's your degree. You paid for it. To what degree (pun intended) you use it is you business, not anyone else's. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably a rabid pre med who's obsessed with the notion that someone's going to "steal their spot."

Naphtali

 

[finnpipette]

naw...that's not selling out. I think if medicine was your dream and you pursued business rather than medicine because of the money...then it's selling out. after you get your md, if you support a drug company's new panacea despite contrary evidence, then you're selling out. however, if you get an md, realize that it's not right for you, and then do something else...that makes you human. i mean, just look at all the people who used to do other things, i.e. fighter pilots, musicians, etc. who change their lives to pursue medicine...it's what makes us human, trying to find out exactly what it is that makes us happy. go for it. but if you don't really want the md...then save the spot for someone who does...it's only fair that they get their chance.

 

[uclacrewdude]

Originally posted by Childe
how would that be selling out again?

medicine is principally a dedication to public service. i think pursuing anything that wouldnt be considered a public service job would be selling out, b/c you bailed on your responsibility to serve others in favor of serving yourself.

 

[skypilot]

Originally posted by uclacrewdude
medicine is principally a dedication to public service. i think pursuing anything that wouldn't be considered a public service job would be selling out, b/c you bailed on your responsibility to serve others in favor of serving yourself.

I wish this were true. If it were we would already have universal health care in this country and less of medicine would be oriented to the pursuit of dollars. 90% of health care dollars in the U.S. are spent on a person in their last year of life.

Is running a hospital or an HMO any less public service than being a physician?

 

[LauraMac]

i agree that it is not selling out.

i'm sick of people acting like when you get your m.d. you have to use it for what you're "supposed" to use it for.

like that post about the women who got m.d.'s and decided to be stay-at-home moms and not use their degrees... what is wrong with that? it is your life and you should do what you want. even if you get it just to impress people, that is your decision.

no one's spot is getting stolen. if you're worried about it then study harder and do better on the mcat then the person who is just getting their m.d. for ****s and giggles. then you'll get in instead of them and it won't matter.

personally, i don't see why on earth you would want to get an m.d. if you didn't want to really use it, but to each his own.

 

[DoctorDoom]

No, it's much better to avoid having random self-anointed saints think you are a sell-out, stay in medicine and be miserable and a bad physician to boot, it's your responsibility to the hive!!! 🙄

Do what you want. We have one life, a short chaotic existence. In a hundred years no one will know or care, so try to do something that doesn't make you miserable and help some people along the way. If private practice isn't the way to do that don't beat yourself up about it.

 

[bigdan]

OP-
I'd say using your degree to get you what you want is intelligent, not selling out.

dc