I'm a college student right now. I just finished my junior year. I've now completed general biology, general chemistry and organic chem and did reasonably well in them (I got a B+ in them all except for O-chem where I got a B-). I took the MCAT a few days ago and I'm waiting to get the results from that. I've shadowed doctors and volunteered in hospitals for the past two summers and I'm doing the same thing this summer. I think that it is very cool that doctors are able to help very sick people feel better and increase their quality of life and it's a job I'm very interested in doing. I have also had experiences in the past when doctors were able to help me. For instance, when I was a kid I had really bad asthma and had to be hospitalized. And I've had two kidney stones before. The pain was really bad and I thought it was really cool that doctors were able to determine what was wrong with me and get rid of the pain. The problem is I don't know if I can handle the lifestyle. I'm fine with working hard, but it seems to me like working hard takes a whole new meaning in medicine. From what I've heard medical school is very difficult and the hours you work as a resident seem impossible to me. My dad told me he was usually in the hospital from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and that he sometimes worked on Saturdays. It seems like medical students have no time for anything else and having a well rounded life is important to me. I don't even understand how someone can work that hard without it taking a toll on their health or without burning out, no matter how much they may "love" medicine. I want to be able to have time to eat and sleep and probably date, seeing as I don't have a girlfriend yet and I may not have time to find one if I'm focusing on my physics class senior year and applying to medical schools. And I'd like to get married at some point, even if I don't have kids. So how can I determine if I can endure the back-breaking work of being a medical student and resident?
I don't know if I can do medicine
- Thread starter rses
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Wait, if your father is a physician then why do you think they can't eat or sleep or have a family? Surely you've seen him eat before. And he presumably had enough of a romantic life to impregnate someone?
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Yeah 12+ hour days are common and you will have to work weekends and holidays. People don't stop getting sick and hurt just because it's not 9-5 M-F.
But you can still have time for a life. No matter what you do, you will have to find a work/life balance, it's part of growing up.
But you can still have time for a life. No matter what you do, you will have to find a work/life balance, it's part of growing up.
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While I agree that doctors and med students work very hard, there's really not much different in any other competitive field (ie. banking, corp law, consulting, etc)
Completely false. I'll copy @WedgeDawg to verify on this one.
Not a valid reason to be single. Break your boundaries.
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Come join us at the pre-dent forums 🙂
D
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Are you though? You're whining about work you haven't even done yet.
Is your father a physician? If so, talk to him about the workload, and about issues of work-life balance. Presumably he would be a very helpful resource for you.
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Yes you work long hours. Yes it's hard to conceive of working those hours if you are a premed and you've never worked before. Yes you'll find time to do that which is important to you. (I.e. Dating, family, eating, working out now and then). You find a balance that works. It may mean giving up other things (eg TV) though because time is finite. I am a lot further down the road and still have trouble fitting everything in and finding a balance, though, so don't listen to anyone who says it's easy.
And yes a doctors job is often "cool". 🙂
And yes a doctors job is often "cool". 🙂
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Pre-clinical you can do other stuff. Will report back in 7 months re: clinical. Or if I don't then you have your answer.
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just date a girl in your physics class
go on study dates and couple visits to the professor's office hours~~~
kill two birds with one stone
go on study dates and couple visits to the professor's office hours~~~
kill two birds with one stone
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Genuinely curious — if you knew this information, why did you pursue a pre-med courseload?
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the answer to this
I believe most docs fit the simplest criteria for addiction:
"continued use in the face of increasing harms"
you've recognized the workaholism
get out now before you're further seduced by addiction to medical science
if you're premed you're already addicted to social approval
(check out Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families website, just cuz)
there are other ways to get that helping/teaching/science fix without destroying yourself for a medical career
plenty will pop in here and say I'm wrong, most "make it", many even thrive
but make no mistake there are some people totally ruined by the pursuit
financially, physically, or spiritually destitute
the regret of not pursuing it will never be as bad as pursing it and being crushed
this is not a case of "better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"
or any of the other typical chase your dreams meme-ery BS that floats around
this reminds me of another thread where someone was saying just experience as a patient is enough
and I likened being a doctor in a room with a patient to a theater act
the fact is, on its face medicine is about healing, but that's *only for the patients*
the people working in that industry, they are merely stocky workhorses of a huge money-making human gristmill that squeezes every "provider" tighter than a python for its once weekly meal, it's every bit as cutthroat as any other big money industry only with more hypocrisy and self-righteousness than say law or finance
#HowAnimalFarmRelatesToMedicalTraining
