Inevitable Misery in Medicine?

[InTempore]

Hi, everyone!

I'm new here (well actually I've been lurking for quite some time, but for all intents and purposes I'm new ), and I'm in the fledgling stages of the intense soul-searching process that has unexpectedly accompanied my first few weeks as an "official" premed.

In light of that, I'm hoping you all could offer some insights about medicine/life/work/etc. I know it's a widely discussed and debated topic, but it seems that the conversation always disintegrates into arguments or emotionalism or other unproductive things so that answers are often vague and unhelpful. So here are my questions:

Is the inevitable outcome of pursuing a career in medicine misery? Is it too idealistic to believe that medicine, despite all of its many, many faults, is still a profession that is deeply rooted in service and marked by the ability to impact people's lives in significant ways?

I know that's probably really cheesy and possibly naive, and if it is, I want to know (don't hold back). I ask because it seems like most people make medicine out to be a tragic, masochistic profession where even physicians with the most selfless motives end up hating themselves, their patients, and their lives (maybe I'm being a bit dramatic?). I don't wear rose-colored glasses (though it may sound like it) - I've grown up in a medical family and have seen firsthand the perils of medicine in a very real and very painful way.

Along the same lines - Is it possible, in the hostile climate of the 21st century, for a person to love/enjoy/find satisfaction in/be at peace with being in medicine? And if yes, what does it take?

(Feel free to tear me and my expectations/naivety to pieces - In the words of Patrick Henry, "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.")

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[AMEHigh]

No, going in to medicine doesn't mean you're doomed to misery for the rest of your life.

 

[ebasappa]

The way I look at it, is yes, there will be ups and downs (with a lot of downs). Most importantly however, ask yourself this: can you see yourself doing anything else? We all know that we are going to have bad days and grueling tests to get past, but I feel as if underneath all of that lies your true passion to serve patients. We are trying to become doctors, people who sacrifice a lot to better the health of our human population (as cliche as that sounds). I like to think of it hollistically, instead of sucking on a personal level. This is also why we do ECs, shadow, etc.: to figure out if this is truly what we want to be doing for the next 40years of our life. Hopefully you can confirm this through time and activities, just because you are not a doctor does not make you a bad person, people contribute to our human populations by engineering, being nurses, police officers, etc.

 

[Holmwood]

Doctors aren't martyrs.

I'm sure it'll be tough, but you'll be able to get through it. Remember that you're not going to have to go through this alone.

Along the same lines - Is it possible, in the hostile climate of the 21st century, for a person to love/enjoy/find satisfaction in/be at peace with being in medicine? And if yes, what does it take?

The profession comes with alot of financial/legal bull****.
There will be times where you have to ration medications and decide who gets to be saved and who gets to receive "pallitative care".
There will be times where hospital administrators will try to push you to indirectly harm a patient for financial profit.
There will be times where you are forced out of your practice because budget cuts to health care make it impossible for you to continue giving quality care.
etc etc.

The question isn't whether or not you will be miserable in the profession. That's largely up to chance.

The question you should be asking yourself is if you were in a miserable situation, do you have what it takes to take charge of the situation and change it for the better?
This can be assessed by your previous experiences working past adversity. It is an important question to answer, and is perhaps why "describe a problem you encountered in your life and how you fixed it" is a popular prompt for secondary applications.

 

[Goro]

My clinical colleagues are quite happy in what they do.

Hi, everyone!

I'm new here (well actually I've been lurking for quite some time, but for all intents and purposes I'm new ), and I'm in the fledgling stages of the intense soul-searching process that has unexpectedly accompanied my first few weeks as an "official" premed.

In light of that, I'm hoping you all could offer some insights about medicine/life/work/etc. I know it's a widely discussed and debated topic, but it seems that the conversation always disintegrates into arguments or emotionalism or other unproductive things so that answers are often vague and unhelpful. So here are my questions:

Is the inevitable outcome of pursuing a career in medicine misery? Is it too idealistic to believe that medicine, despite all of its many, many faults, is still a profession that is deeply rooted in service and marked by the ability to impact people's lives in significant ways?

I know that's probably really cheesy and possibly naive, and if it is, I want to know (don't hold back). I ask because it seems like most people make medicine out to be a tragic, masochistic profession where even physicians with the most selfless motives end up hating themselves, their patients, and their lives (maybe I'm being a bit dramatic?). I don't wear rose-colored glasses (though it may sound like it) - I've grown up in a medical family and have seen firsthand the perils of medicine in a very real and very painful way.

Along the same lines - Is it possible, in the hostile climate of the 21st century, for a person to love/enjoy/find satisfaction in/be at peace with being in medicine? And if yes, what does it take?

(Feel free to tear me and my expectations/naivety to pieces - In the words of Patrick Henry, "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.")

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Lifestyle, satisfaction, burnout etc seem to be specialty-dependent in a lot of cases. But regardless, make sure you're first willing to make the sacrifices to get into med school. A lot of college underclassmen swear it's for them without taking the actual commitment into account.

 

[Aerus]

In my experience of shadowing and working with doctors, the ones who complain the most about misery either went into medicine for the wrong reasons or chose the wrong specialty or didn't have a great enough realistic perspective of medicine.

I've met very happy doctors who love their job (and seem a bit too optimistic about their job than some of the descriptions you might hear on SDN), so it goes both ways as well! Some doctors are "doomed" to be forever happy with their job.

 

[kthxbai]

The question isn't whether or not you will be miserable in the profession. That's largely up to chance.

NO. It isn't. Your life is what you make of it.

 

[Ismet]

The profession comes with alot of financial/legal bull****.
There will be times where you have to ration medications and decide who gets to be saved and who gets to receive "pallitative care".
There will be times where hospital administrators will try to push you to indirectly harm a patient for financial profit.
There will be times where you are forced out of your practice because budget cuts to health care make it impossible for you to continue giving quality care.
etc etc.

The question isn't whether or not you will be miserable in the profession. That's largely up to chance.

There is so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin. Where you you get your ideas about medicine?

 

[studentp0x]

OP depending on your perspective you can be miserable doing anything in life.

 

[Holmwood]

There is so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin. Where you you get your ideas about medicine?

Virtual mentor from AMA. Probably the worst scenarios I could think of that relates to their ethics cases, and definitely not the norm.

 

[InTempore]

So wait, you guys mean to tell me that there is no pact of woe that must be signed in one's tears before being initiated into the cult of medicine? Marvelous news!

Haha but seriously, I really appreciate everyone's responses. I recently began to realize that, for whatever reason, I've always operated from a very fatalistic ethos, and I'm trying to reevaluate life (and my long-held goal of pursuing medicine) in the context of the idea that we might be shaped but do not have to be defined by our circumstances and that life is largely what we make of it (why this is just now occurring to me, I don't know...humbling though).
So from your responses, am I correct to say that the difficulties/adversities/injustices/general craziness of medicine can, in fact, be borne with grace (even if imperfectly and with many, many struggles and failures along the way)? And - honest question, don't mean to sound creepy - is it arrogant and idealistic to believe that I am capable of that? (that might be outside the scope of these forums...getting into existential crisis territory now haha)

I definitely will be doing lots of shadowing and volunteering in the next couple of years, and I know that that will provide some of the answers about medicine and myself that can't be found on SDN but I am still grateful for all of the advice you guys can supply thanks again, everyone

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Virtual mentor from AMA. Probably the worst scenarios I could think of that relates to their ethics cases, and definitely not the norm.

Yeah, those scenarios are a bit too dystopian to be the norm. Although, it is appropriate to point out potential drawbacks of the field.