How I Realized Practicing Medicine Wasn't For Me

[medicinesux]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Story of orthopedic resident who drops out of residency-


http://www.doublex.com/blog/yourcomeback/how-i-realized-practicing-medicine-wasnt-me

 

[Winged Scapula]

What's Step 4? 😕

At any rate, nice description of what little you are qualified for or can be hired for without finishing residency.

 

[275079]

What's Step 4? 😕

At any rate, nice description of what little you are qualified for or can be hired for without finishing residency.

Step 4—Get a job at an urgent care clinic where I could make enough money to live, pay off my $115,000 in student loans, and get an English degree without incurring more debt.


Yeah, poor choice of words.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Step 4—Get a job at an urgent care clinic where I could make enough money to live, pay off my $115,000 in student loans, and get an English degree without incurring more debt.


Yeah, poor choice of words.

Obviously, I skimmed the article pretty quickly. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[surgicalskills]

Of course, if one is truly unhappy and realizes that he or she is not a good fit for this field, then, they should find another path in life. We have all heard about those rare success stories where the resident quits and finds success in other endeavors.

However, I think most of us would agree that quitting your residency half way through is not a wise decision. It leaves you without proper training and a medical degree that hardly holds any value outside of medicine. Add to this the stigma that you quit and could not hack it when times got tough, it could look bad in your resume.

 

[ensuii]

This reminds me of a an ER episodes where one of the characters quits her TRI-Derm residency and can't find any job working at a mall or cafe. She goes to a temp company and the agent asks her what skills she has to which the character replies: "Well...let's see...if you were to be involved in a trauma, I could crack open your chest, inflate your lung and squeeze your heart..." or something like that. Pretty funny to think how 8+ years of post high school education doesn't qualify you to make coffee at some places 😛

 

[medicinesux]

Every person's situation is unique but I don't get the whole drop out of residency for good and stay in healthcare thing. M.D is still virtually useless at that point. Good Luck getting insurance and hospitals to credential you. And down the line with stricter requirements, residency completion will be mandatory to practice any medicine at all. Even after finishing a residency and not having board certification can restrict you. Maybe unless you want to move and practice in Zimbabwe with your state license. If I dropped out (which I thought of many many times), I would've left medicine and never looked back.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

I think she missed her calling by doing ortho. I think she either was 1.) all over the place in terms of interests and suddenly realized that ortho was too specific for her taste and the abuses of a surgical residency were too much to take on top of it or 2.) she was hoping to milk ortho as a cash cow to fund her real interests > writing.

She probably should have done EM or something a bit less hours-intense and a bit more diverse. Plus the structured shift work would give her some time to pursue her other interests, reading and writing.

I do feel sad for her that she made so much effort and left near the end, and I see a lot of her in myself - the diverse interests, the disillusioned ideals.

I hope she succeeds in her dream.

medicinesux: I agree. If finances weren't an issue, I couldn't conceived dropping medicine and then doing something health related: it would be like having a hot dog after filet mignon. I would go into something completely different, like art, archaeology, writing, zoology, translation/interpretation work, etc.

 

[docdaname]

I think she missed her calling by doing ortho. I think she either was 1.) all over the place in terms of interests and suddenly realized that ortho was too specific for her taste and the abuses of a surgical residency were too much to take on top of it or 2.) she was hoping to milk ortho as a cash cow to fund her real interests > writing.

She probably should have done EM or something a bit less hours-intense and a bit more diverse. Plus the structured shift work would give her some time to pursue her other interests, reading and writing.

I do feel sad for her that she made so much effort and left near the end, and I see a lot of her in myself - the diverse interests, the disillusioned ideals.

I hope she succeeds in her dream.

medicinesux: I agree. If finances weren't an issue, I couldn't conceived dropping medicine and then doing something health related: it would be like having a hot dog after filet mignon. I would go into something completely different, like art, archaeology, writing, zoology, translation/interpretation work, etc.

I think she made a common mistake...when she was 15 she decided she wanted to be a surgeon, likely without really knowing anything about it or what it really was like to be a doctor. Not faulting her. Id say thats true of most people in medicine. At some point in highschool they said "i want to be a doctor!" and just kept on convincing themselves that it would get better at each step.

 

[sirus_virus]

you know, it is really those that feel they are nothing without medicine that are handicaped.

 

[docB]

What's Step 4? 😕

You didn't take Step 4? Then your licenses aren't valid.😛

 

[Winged Scapula]

You didn't take Step 4? Then your licenses aren't valid.😛

Shhh...don't tell anyone! 😛

 

[maceo]

its funny now but it wont be when they make everyone take a step 4 exam after residency is over to make SURE that you can truly practice medicine unsupervised.. this will cost 1500. I heard talk of it cuppla months ago.

 

[lowbudget]

You know, I wonder if she could've gotten her license, get limited OR privileges and just work as a surgical assist for an ortho group, salary or even independent contractor.

 

[McGillGrad]

This is not about medicine or a wrong career choice. This poor woman is fighting her own demons and losing. She would be in the same boat if you would have replaced medicine with law school.

 

[peppy]

In one of the comments to the story it sounds like the author of that piece interviewed for Pathology residencies after quitting but then decided not to go through with before ranking any programs. I really do think that was a mistake. Pathology would have given her a chance to pay off her loans while still allowing for time to write on the side - and once the debt was finally gone, she could have done anything she wanted.
People should be warned that med school without a residency really isn't worth much in the real world job market. If you realize in your first semester of med school that medicine isn't for you, then I think quitting makes sense. Once you've gotten through med school and a few years of residency, though, I think in almost every situation finishing a residency in *something* is important. Pathology might not have been her dream specialty either, but at least unlike a surgical specialty it would have let her pursue interests like writing on the side while having vastly better income potential.
I have to admit that I tend to view planning on making enough money in a career like writing to pay off med school-sized debt to be only slightly more realistic than quitting medicine to pursue becoming a rock star or pro athlete. 🙂

 

[michaelrack]

This is not about medicine or a wrong career choice. This poor woman is fighting her own demons and losing. She would be in the same boat if you would have replaced medicine with law school.

She quit medicine 6-6.5 years after starting medical school. If someone quit law 6-6.5 years after starting law school, he would still be an established, fully licensed attorney who could use his legal experience and law degree to help him transition into another profitable career. A much better boat to be in.

 

[pillowhead]

It's a sad story and illustrates well one of things in medicine that most of us take for granted. Job security. Relative to other professions, it's still pretty rare for doctors to get out and out fired for economic reasons that are out of their control. Heck, it's rare for doctors to get fired, period, even when they should be. Yes, our working conditions may get worse and our salaries will go down, but being fired and jobless with no prospects is a totally different beast. I've watched my father and brother-in-law loose their six figure jobs in this downturn, and it's really really really painful.

I can't believe she couldn't stick it out for another couple of years. Once you're halfway through residency, take some time off and go work in a research lab for a little if you have to, but don't quit. It's just not worth it. Pop the prozac and finish.

I also think it's interesting she makes no mention of the student loans she has to pay off. Either she had some rich parents somewhere footing the bill all this time or she was and MD/PhD or was really really amazing to have gotten a full ride for med school somewhere. Knowing you'll have six figures of student loan payments come due if you quit residency is also a big motivator to keep going.

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

I also think it's interesting she makes no mention of the student loans she has to pay off. Either she had some rich parents somewhere footing the bill all this time or she was and MD/PhD or was really really amazing to have gotten a full ride for med school somewhere. Knowing you'll have six figures of student loan payments come due if you quit residency is also a big motivator to keep going.

You might want to re-read the article. It's under "Step 4"