Md/mph?

[Novamuse]

Hi,

I am currently an undergrad with a Bio major at a medium-small university. I really want to get into health administration and have been reading recently about the MD/MPH dual degree programs at several of the universities that I'm considering for grad school.

My question is.. well, I have never really wanted to become a patient-care doctor. But looking at hospital admins at the hospitals in my area, most to all of them have an MD. Also, I hope to work for government health someday (CDC, NIH, etc) and lots of them have MD/MPH too. It just seems like a lot of work to go through all of med school to get the MD to be qualified for these jobs when I am really more interested in the administrative work.

What are the differences between what kind of jobs a MD/MPH versus just an MPH can hold? And salary differences?
Thanks in advance!

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[espre]

Hi,

I am currently an undergrad with a Bio major at a medium-small university. I really want to get into health administration and have been reading recently about the MD/MPH dual degree programs at several of the universities that I'm considering for grad school.

My question is.. well, I have never really wanted to become a patient-care doctor. But looking at hospital admins at the hospitals in my area, most to all of them have an MD. Also, I hope to work for government health someday (CDC, NIH, etc) and lots of them have MD/MPH too. It just seems like a lot of work to go through all of med school to get the MD to be qualified for these jobs when I am really more interested in the administrative work.

What are the differences between what kind of jobs a MD/MPH versus just an MPH can hold? And salary differences?
Thanks in advance!

As a physician with quite a few years of experience in intensive care medicine, I truly feel that if one is not interested in patients, then one shouldn't go to medical school. Medical training is extremely arduous and very expensive, and you will need to do a residency of at least 3 years following school in order to be taken seriously as a physician. I suspect that most MD's in administration have had a clinical career as well. You will be working 80-100 hours per week during your residency, and the clinical years in med school are just about as hard. The work is completely patient focused, and is highly stressful. You will stay up all night a couple of times a week, for several years. Salary during residency is much lower than in other jobs that require much less training.

I love medicine completely, but the training was 11 years (4 of med school, 3 of residency, 4 of fellowship), and my specialty will always require long hours. I'm pursuing an MPH this coming year because I want to start working at a population level. I feel that the best hospital administrators are driven by a commitment to patient well-being, and should have the goal of achieving the best quality clinical outcomes. Simply being interested in finance and management is not enough.

What attracts you to hospital/health care administration?

 

[Novamuse]

Thank you for your response!

In regards to what attracted me to health administration, I just feel that I could be more helpful in healthcare in the larger, more integrative scale than helping people individually like doctors do. I recently changed my mind from a research career to administration. It's not that I'm not interested in science and medicine, I just believe that it's important to have people in careers like research and administration where they can work and build teams to keep more people from becoming ill, rather than just treating each person after they are already ill.

So.. I am much more interested in the medical aspect of administration than business/finance. Just not completely sure which direction to go to get on this career track... I want to make sure that I am on the right track to being well-qualified for the types of positions that I mentioned above.

 

[Novamuse]

Anyone else? =S

Please-- undergrad here, desperately seeking advice!