Confused Sophmore Biological Engineering Student

[ksiem]

Hey guys.. I'm a sophmore in Biological Engineering at the University of Arkansas. I'm technically a junior by hours but I'm only a Sophmore in the curriculum. I've been checking out this site periodically for about 6 months but I've never posted anything. Regardless, you all have been very helpful. I appreciate you all taking time out of your days and careers to help give us young people some answers. I'm pretty torn right now. I picked my degree because I know it's as very diverse program but I would also like to begin to narrow down my career search. I'm interested in becoming a physical therapist, doctor, optomistrist, and a pharmacist. I have no clue in which to persue. I love to weight lift. I like to train people and see them get stronger, bigger and etc. I've always been a big advocate of excercise so that's why I'm very interested in becoming a PT but I wonder if I will be fully compensated for the hours that I put in the job. I would like to make around 80k eventually. 60 is a great start but I would like to some room to expand my responsibility and salary as a PT. The PT program is obviously through a transistion phase right now and I'm not sure how it's going to come up of it. I would hope that it would keep rising and surpass inflation. If I went to med school I would become a DO and concentrate a lot on holistic health. I only want to work 40 hours a week after my education so I can concentrate on family and other aspects of life. If I was a D.O. I would probably become a pediatrition or stick with some other low stress med job. Maybe PM&R. But the downside is I don't know if I can motivate myself enough to go through the mcat, med school, and residency. Pharmacy seems to have great pay vs the education and time required; but the job.... no offense.... sounds pretty empty. Optometry sounds fairly interesting. Especially since you can easily be an entrepreneur and help people. It's not as hands on and definately does not involve weight lifting or any sort of real rehab. I have breifly thought about doing reasearch as an engineer or working on biomedical equipment, but I think that I would enjoy the health field more. If you all could help direct me in getting answers or where to go for them I would apprecaite it. If I have misconceptions please address them. Thanks

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[truthseeker]

A good friend of mine went from being an athletic trainer to medical school and is now a pediatrician. It's not as low stress as you think. imagine telling parents that their daughter has leukemia, or dealing with parents who have learned that their newborn has a heart defect that is irreparable and they have no other option but to watch their baby turn blue and die. If you want low stress, medicine is a tough sell. Derm maybe, PMand R somewhat, but even those specialties deal with terrible, terrible things at times.

Pharmacy - less emotional stress, quite a bit of tedium. If you want retail pharmacy, lots of stress dealing with changing insurance policies. Our local family owned pharmacy (two or three generations) was hit by a large employer switching insurance policies so that the insurance co. recommended buying meds online and in larger quantities. Those folks with that insurance only shop at the local pharmacy out of loyalty and if the price differential gets any bigger, they will have to stop.

optometry - not sure about this, but saying "1 or 2" a million times per day would get a bit boring to me.

PT - top end of salary would easily exceed your stated goals. Somewhat less autonomy than the others (except pharmacy) but that is evolving. Patient types are wide and variable. (no boredom unless you choose to do exclusively inpatient which, to me, is often a waste of my skills) 40 hours per week - check. weekends - depends upon where you work.

I chose PT for many of the above reasons 20 years ago and have not regretted it ever. I carry no beeper, I get to watch and help people improve their lives, and I am able to bug out and coach my son's 5th grade basketball team, volunteer in my daughter's 2nd grade class, and leave every Wednesday at 11 for my weekly excursion into professional gambling on the golf course.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[ksiem]

thanks alot man, what do you mean inpatient gets boring? if anyone else has any advice I'd appreciate it.

 

[truthseeker]

thanks alot man, what do you mean inpatient gets boring? if anyone else has any advice I'd appreciate it.

the ortho cases that you see are more cook-booky than most i.e. total knees and total hips.

Many physicians who are hospitalists, think of PT as the people who just get their patients out of bed and walk with them. That's all well and good if we are assessing safety, or teaching them more efficient or safe ways to walk, but it quickly becomes non-skilled.

A lot of the referrals we get for hospital patients are the ones that can't walk because of renal failure or COPD or some other medical condition. Our intervention doesn't mean bupkus. Getting their potassium right does. Diuresing 30 pounds of water off of them does, dialysis does.

In my personal opinion, the exciting part of our patient load is outpatient ortho where someone may come with a referral that says "R leg". That shows me that the prescribing physician trusts us to do the ortho eval and let them know if something doesn't fit with NMSK system.

Keep in mind that there are many who LOVE inpatient therapy. Some love cardiac rehab, some love neuro rehab. I personally don't but am glad that others do so I don't have to do as much.

PT is a broad field where you can see a very wide variety of patients. You might like them all, you might like some. The trick is to find the work setting that trips your trigger. Its a lot better to love what you are doing than make 6 figures. doing both is a gravy.

 

[ksiem]

So what sort of setting would be the most rewarding/challenging/non-monotonous? Also what do you think the deal is with Physician Assistants? They require less education and get paid quite a deal more than PTs. Why do you think their job is less desireable? Because they are constantly supervised? Thanks.. I'm cramming so much research into my head. Hopefully I can figure this out soon.