Career: Doctor vs pharmacy

[titanlord1]

i dont know which career to go into. iv made med school and thinking of possibly switching into pharmacy school. but im not entirely sure. can someone help me.

the thing about me is that
I really like the idea of making so much money as a doctor
im quiet, a good listener
i have social anxiety disorder
i really like the prestige of becoming a doctor
i like how pharmacists have less interaction with their patients
i think a doctor has a little bit too much interaction
im smart
i enjoy biology more than chemistry ( but chemistry is a close second)
i love the detective nature of the doctor (diagnosis..etc)

thats all for now. please help

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[Nct16]

Going into a career for money or prestige is a bad idea. Pharmacists in the retail setting do interact a lot however either field does have opportunities to do research or specialties that don't have as much interaction. Note that pharmacy is becoming saturated.

To clarify are you in a medicine program (MD or DO)?

 

[titanlord1]

Going into a career for money or prestige is a bad idea. Pharmacists in the retail setting do interact a lot however either field does have opportunities to do research or specialties that don't have as much interaction. Note that pharmacy is becoming saturated.

To clarify are you in a medicine program (MD or DO)?

im in a MD program ( in the caribean)

 

[Nct16]

Probably your question would be best on the Allopathic pages.

 

[mcloaf]

You don't like talking to pts and you're apparently only in medical school for the money and prestige. You're likely going to hate your eventual career as a doctor, and that's only if you can match somewhere out of the Caribbean.

I can't speak to pharmacy, but it doesn't sound like where you are now is a very good fit for your interests or long term success.

 

[titanlord1]

You don't like talking to pts and you're apparently only in medical school for the money and prestige. You're likely going to hate your eventual career as a doctor, and that's only if you can match somewhere out of the Caribbean.

I can't speak to pharmacy, but it doesn't sound like where you are now is a very good fit for your interests or long term success.

its not that i dont like talking to patients its just that im very shy at first. i also love the detective nature of the doctor (diagnosis...etc)

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

Wait, so you are in a Caribbean med school and you are asking whether you should be a doctor or pharmacist? Isn't it a little late for this discussion?

Also, just LOL at going into medicine because you like the prestige and so much money. I also wouldn't exactly say that medicine is like being a detective. This isn't House.

 

[ciestar]

With retail pharmacy, you'll spend a LOT of time talking to patients. You cannot appear shy or not confident, or they're not going to trust you.

Honestly, I feel as if you're in the wrong field if you can't talk to people.
Unless you want to do research or something..

 

[oanjiwks]

You could consider one of the non-patient contact fields. Radiology seems like a great fit. They deal with issues from every specialty and need to have a very broad understanding of medicine to correlate what they see on the scans with the clinical picture. None of this is detective work, but they're thinking for a living and figuring **** out - very cool stuff. However, even though it isn't as competitive as it used to be, it is still a difficult specialty to match into. This is doubly hard coming from a Carib. school. Pathology could be another consideration as well. There aren't that many spots, but luckily there aren't many people trying to match into it. Anesthesia? Near constant patient interaction but they're asleep >1/2 the time. You just have to put up with surgeons + competitive-ish match (for US allo grad.)

I switched out of pharmacy school to go to med school once I realized that liking biology vs chemistry or whatever doesn't matter and I really enjoyed seeing patients as opposed to counting pills being a counter at CVS (hospital/clinical pharmacy aside - those guys are great.) Regardless of the "prestige" you may have as a physician, seeing sick people 60+ hours a week with weekends and calls (that's after the whole residency/fellowship bit) is going to be miserable if you don't get a buzz from seeing patients.

Good luck.

 

[streampaw]

PharmD is a pharmacy doctor

 

[ciestar]

PharmD is a pharmacy doctor

I'm going to interject, but do you understand what the means, being a pharmD?

 

[STLbamf]

I mean isn't the whole point of becoming a doctor or pharmacist to be there for the patients? It sounds to me like you just were a fan of some cool medical TV shows, googled the salaries of doctors, and hopped on a plane to a caribbean med school...medicine isn't just something you go into for prestige or money it's a calling! If you want to be a good doctor you've got to really reflect on it and ask yourself "would I do this if the salaries were ordinary? Would I do this if people didn't think I was "cool" for being a doctor?" If the answer to those are NO WAY then you definitely shouldn't be in medicine....pharmacy maybe, but that's certainly no cakewalk either

 

[Funke]

If you're already in med school, I would implore you to stay there. If you don't like pt contact and like the detective side of medicine, pathology seems like a great fit. Or just do research. Start now and try to find an area of interest. Not all doctors went to medical school because they had some Mother Theresa complex. Some go because they love the science. Stay in med school and get into research ASAP to get some credentials. You may end up enjoying a certain specialty in your clinicals. You never know.