In a survey of 6 doctors of my area, all of them said it was not worth it.

[Slowpoke]

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I have observed a common theme in threads similar to this in the past.

It is this:

Pre-meds will defend their career choice till the death. Pre-meds wouldn't even think twice about their career choice even if all the physicians in the world were gathered and unanimously agreed that this career is not what they expected. Perhaps Pre-meds have a right to dream, but just be aware that medicine may be far from what you think it is.

Then.. after you jump all the hoops and obstacles and get into medical school. You find out medicine is not for you - too late. You're knee deep in debt. And then you start telling yourself you need to continue to pay off the debt.

It is a sad thing. What is even more sad is I have acknowledged this, and I still for one reason or another continue to push onward. Why do I still continue to work my ass off?

Well, because I can dream can't I? Maybe I'll be one of the few who like the profession.

It is a terrible dilemma.

 

[raynor123456]

You will hear many people complain about the length of commitment and crappy hours. It really does suck. As much as I enjoy medicine, I often think that I may have been happier going the WAY shorter route and just becoming a PA or something. Maybe programming, engineering, physics... lots of good options out there that would be intellectually fulfilling, provide me with a decent paycheck, not leave me with a quarter million in debt, and still provide me with a much better quality of life during training.

Having said all that, you'll need to ask more than 6 physicians. On top of that, they've done studies on this. The number of physicians who wouldn't do it over again is still very high, but definitely not approaching 100%. lol

P.S. All of you weenies who think that expecting a decent salary for a highly skilled service that requires an ungodly time and emotional investment is somehow immoral need to grow up. Sure, nobody should go into medicine FOR the money alone, but you're an idiot if financial and job security don't factor into your life decisions.

 

[osumc2014]

You will hear many people complain about the length of commitment and crappy hours. It really does suck. As much as I enjoy medicine, I often think that I may have been happier going the WAY shorter route and just becoming a PA or something. Maybe programming, engineering, physics... lots of good options out there that would be intellectually fulfilling, provide me with a decent paycheck, not leave me with a quarter million in debt, and still provide me with a much better quality of life during training.

Having said all that, you'll need to ask more than 6 physicians. On top of that, they've done studies on this. The number of physicians who wouldn't do it over again is still very high, but definitely not approaching 100%. lol

P.S. All of you weenies who think that expecting a decent salary for a highly skilled service that requires an ungodly time and emotional investment is somehow immoral need to grow up. Sure, nobody should go into medicine FOR the money alone, but you're an idiot if financial and job security don't factor into your life decisions.

plus some of us are just type A personalities, honestly I wouldn't be happy if something was easy, sure studying during test week may suck but it makes for a much more satisfying post test celebration

 

[alwaysaangel]

plus some of us are just type A personalities, honestly I wouldn't be happy if something was easy, sure studying during test week may suck but it makes for a much more satisfying post test celebration

You must be pre-clinical. The studying or 'difficulty' is NOT the problem in med school. Med school is awesome first and second year. Tons of free time, only responsibility is studying for a couple tests. I'd kill to go back to that 🙂

No one regrets medicine until they actually start practicing medicine during rotations. Thats when all the suckiness comes into play, and it has very little to do with how 'hard' it is.

 

[raynor123456]

Med school is awesome first and second year. Tons of free time, only responsibility is studying for a couple tests. I'd kill to go back to that 🙂

I personally hate anything and everything to do with studying. lol. There are VERY few intellectually challenging aspects of pre-clinical education, and rote memorization makes me want to pound my head against a brick wall. But, I do really like the fact that I have next to no responsibility and that I don't have to study nearly as much as I anticipated prior to starting.

plus some of us are just type A personalities, honestly I wouldn't be happy if something was easy, sure studying during test week may suck but it makes for a much more satisfying post test celebration

Then, aside from a few select courses / topics, you're not going to like the first couple years. It's almost all straight-forward. The most difficult part, next to not falling asleep, is the memorization process.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

But in a series of 100 coin flips, you shouldn't be surprised to see a string of six in a row. try it.

Probability = ~2%. However statistics requires the principle of random selection or else you cannot use them. It's a required condition for probability calculations. As such this n= 6 is completely worthless. Furthermore.. what is the probability of any person hating their career ( control)? I'm inclined to believe it is very similar.

 

[Swiss Medical]

Statistically negligible.... Beta is low. 🙄

I loved AP stats!!!

Anyways, the "long and random hours" are necessary, else they would not be where they are today....

 

[Lokhtar]

The plural of anecdote is not data.


Also, can I have your spot?

 

[WeAreNotRobots]

Probability = ~2%. However statistics requires the principle of random selection or else you cannot use them. It's a required condition for probability calculations. As such this n= 6 is completely worthless. Furthermore.. what is the probability of any person hating their career ( control)? I'm inclined to believe it is very similar.

I didn't ask you to do a calculation (because getting the real answer takes more work than you think), I suggested you actually try flipping the coin, so that you believe getting long runs of repeats in a random set of 100 flips actually has very good chances of happening.

The question is: what are the chances of getting X in a row of a sample of Y?
Which is very different from: what are the chances of getting X in a row in the first X you sample?

http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2009/06/stochasticity/

 

[slatermd]

Medscape just published a very pertinent study on this. Check it out:

Who would have guessed that Derm is the most satisfied specialty?

Since we're such slaves to sample size and methodology:

And, people rail against the pre-meds who suggest business and law as alternative careers. Anyone in the mood to flame anonymous attending physicians?

This is the source (you'll need to create a Medscape account to check it out, if you don't already have one. Medscape is an excellent reference): http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/compensation/2011?src=ptalk&viewreporttext

 

[Lokhtar]

Lol alternative career is law. Would love to see lawyer satisfaction ratings.

 

[BairN]

Medscape report.......beautiful

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I didn't ask you to do a calculation (because getting the real answer takes more work than you think), I suggested you actually try flipping the coin, so that you believe getting long runs of repeats in a random set of 100 flips actually has very good chances of happening.

The question is: what are the chances of getting X in a row of a sample of Y?
Which is very different from: what are the chances of getting X in a row in the first X you sample?

http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2009/06/stochasticity/

Well I did the multiplication rule of probability (Guess my stat teacher has really taught me nothing lol). Secondly if you have a Ti-83 you can conduct a coin flip with a ( P = .5) in around 5 seconds. Point being you'd have around a 2% chance of getting 6's tails in a row. But my point is that since this is not a randomized sample you cannot use binomial probability (One of the conditions is it requires randomized sampling).

 

[thegame11]

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

 

[raynor123456]

Lol alternative career is law. Would love to see lawyer satisfaction ratings.

👍 haha

 

[NurWollen]

93% of dermatologists would choose the same specialty all over again. Lol.

 

[NurWollen]

All of us premeds tend to worry somewhere in the back of our minds about the seemingly low job satisfaction rates among physicians, but you know what, who doesn't complain about their job? I bet the job satisfaction rates are similar across the board.

 

[NurWollen]

Sorry for the multiple posts but I keep having things to add...

I don't know what I'll want to do with my life in 20 years.... so I might as well do what I want to do with it now and hope for the best.