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The value of my current field to me is approaching zero. The work is meaningless, and I hold everything about it except the paycheck in a sort of frothing contempt.
I agree that it takes time, but I am not one for half measures like taking a few night courses once my mind is made up.
This is where you need to start then. Unlike most other careers, med school adcoms require (not prefer, not give bonus points for, but REQUIRE) applicants to show that they have some idea of what they're getting into. I would absolutely vote to reject someone like you without even an interview based upon the answers you've given so far. You can talk all you want about how much you "love" surgery from your armchair, but talk is cheap, and medical training is not something you dabble in or jump into without really doing some due diligence.No clinical work or shadowing to date. I do know a surgeon personally, and he loves what he does, finds it meaningful and challenging. I am drawn to surgery for those reasons.
If you have a personal physician, start there and ask about shadowing with him/her and/or with his or her colleagues. If you run into a block there, or don't have a doctor, you will need to do what other pre-meds in similar situations do and start cold-calling physicians. You can get some volunteer experience in at a hospital or free clinic, and make contacts that way as well. Since the volunteering will be needed for your application anyway, it won't be time wasted if you do pursue this.He is in NY. I am in SF temporarily and travel extensively for work. How else does one gain clinical experience besides knowing someone?
you pretty much just called a bunch of non-trads on this forum "passive" even though you didn't stop to consider that many might have no other choice but to work full time and their only option is taking evening classes while working full time. If you took your time to do some research you would see that many "passive" non-trads have actually completed their goal and made it to med school or beyond. Calling hard working people who work all day then study at night "passive" and akin to taking "half measures" is offensive. You should tell adcoms during your future interviews--if you make it that far--that working adults who did pre-reqs part time at night are "passive" people who only take "half measures." See how far that gets you.Taking a few night courses to effectuate a huge career change is passivity.
No clinical work or shadowing to date. I do know a surgeon personally, and he loves what he does, finds it meaningful and challenging. I am drawn to surgery for those reasons.
This is where you need to start then. Unlike most other careers, med school adcoms require (not prefer, not give bonus points for, but REQUIRE) applicants to show that they have some idea of what they're getting into. I would absolutely vote to reject someone like you without even an interview based upon the answers you've given so far. You can talk all you want about how much you "love" surgery from your armchair, but talk is cheap, and medical training is not something you dabble in or jump into without really doing some due diligence.
You're lucky enough to have an in, so ask your buddy to let you shadow him and/or his colleagues. Surgery isn't just about being in the OR, and in fact, that's the minority of where most surgeons spend their time. Sure, go in the OR, but also spend a few mind-numbing eight hour days seeing boring post-op cases in clinic with him. Many surgeons do work 30+ hours straight, even in the community. So go to work yourself all day, then stay up all night with him while he's taking call, and then go to work again all day the next day. Go hang out in the ER and see consults with him. After you have some hands-on experience with seeing what surgeons do on a day-to-day basis and some of the crappy sides of this career, if you're still wanting to go to medical school, then come back and we'll talk about how you get from here to there.
You misunderstand the purpose of shadowing. It's not to let premeds know if they'll enjoy medicine; you're right that shadowing or clinical volunteering isn't very specific (lots of false positives). However, it's very sensitive (few false negatives). As such, it's a great screening test to weed out the premeds who know for sure that they *won't* enjoy medicine. Anyone who realizes at this early stage that they don't like patient care has come out far ahead of those who learn the same fact after getting partway through med school or residency. Not only have they avoided wasting years of their life training for a career they dislike, they've avoided going into six figure debt for a career they dislike.To everyone else: this isn't a med-school interview. This is how people think about career changes. Regardless of what you may think, a few hours of shadowing here and there isn't enough to let anyone know if they'll enjoy medicine, and it's all very much a leap of faith, because by the time you're done with your education, you are a completely different person than when you began. Predicting the future is as an art, and the best person to make predictions about your future self is YOU.
No clinical work or shadowing to date. I do know a surgeon personally, and he loves what he does, finds it meaningful and challenging. I am drawn to surgery for those reasons.
Please, please....please shadow a surgeon. I am training to become an L&D nurse (from the ER) and witnessing my first stat C-section almost made me pass out. Literally. I was so pale and nauseated that the staff thought I needed to sit down. And that's being in the background. Traumas, no problem. GSW, fine. Stabbing, sucks but lets get you sewn up. A person with a normal body that is purposely cut open (and then the uterus was taken out...oh my...), I may have to go back to the ER since I don't want be a witness to that.
You really need to see it. You won't get up close and personal due to the sterility of the patient/surgery area but you'll see enough. I know I did. No thank you.