Medicine: Intellectually challenging?

[parto123]

Do you think medicine is more or less intellectually challenging and cerebral than other top professions such as banking and law? I am specifically referring to the practice of medicine and not the study of medicine in school.
Also, I would like to exclude entry level positions from this conversation because in banking and law you do mostly crap work in the early stages of your career.

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[armybound]

It requires probably about the same level of knowledge, but of a completely different type of material. Application of the knowledge is also different.

It's tough to say, the fields are so incredibly different.

 

[Oceaner]

hmm, between apples and oranges... I prefer oranges. APPLES CLEARLY SUCK (and so do the parents who make their kids consume them).😡

 

[BlackSails]

I think that law is alot more creative than medicine. In medicine, most of what you do is apply protocols and procedues invented by others, usually though trial and error. You fight bacteria and other mindless, yet difficult to eradicate diseases and conditions. In law your adversary is another human.

 

[Law2Doc]

Do you think medicine is more or less intellectually challenging and cerebral than other top professions such as banking and law? I am specifically referring to the practice of medicine and not the study of medicine in school.
Also, I would like to exclude entry level positions from this conversation because in banking and law you do mostly crap work in the early stages of your career.

From your posts you seem to be trying to justify medicine over totally unrelated professions. (FWIW banking is not actually a "profession" under many definitions). Focus on the job function in a vacuum. If you don't actually want to do the practice of medicine then don't pick medicine. If you have to compare it to other fields and justify it as better, more stimulating, etc you really should pick one of those other fields. Medicine is a very long, hard road unless you are focused on actually being a practicing clinician. If you are starting from the mindset of "tell me if it is more interesting" you are already indifferent and it is a bad choice for you. Asking if medicine is more intellectually challenging than law or business is sort of like asking people whether you should eat an orange or an apple. You need to have an opinion for yourself or it's the wrong choice.

 

[medguy83]

I'd probably go with theoretical physics or mathematics if you're looking for a profession that's full of intellectual challenges. For me, I'm just more interested with biological pathways/functions/disease than proving some theorem. Medicine/Law debate really doesn't have a clear victor. On the one hand I think it's more challenging to try to comprehend biochemical pathways, however, I also think there are many legal concepts that get equally convuluted. Personally, I'd be bored stiff with torts and legal processes. I'd much rather be a physician. Hey, to each his own. If you're already looking for other professions I'd say go with it. Better that than quit once you're already to in-debt to do anything else.

 

[Jingalicious]

Don't you think whether or not something is challenging depends on who you're talking to, since different people have different strengths? Besides, I think "challenge" here is more along the lines of "intellectually stimulating" and then that depends on whether or not you actually like what you do.

I'd say that for people who want to go into medicine (SDN. Btw, by asking on this board with this group of posters, don't you already know the answer you're going to get?), they'd probably tell you it's intellectually challenging because it's interesting -- and you can always find a deeper challenge in things if you look. I don't know about you, but I like to challenge myself more with things that I like. And depending on the specialty/area of medicine you choose, it can be really dynamic and force you to think in all different ways.

You might hear a different story from those who don't find it interesting (ie my parents, who are under the impression that doctors are nothing more than "highly trained monkeys").

 

[whoisthedrizzle]

Medicine is up there, but hardcore research science is tops when it comes to intellectually demanding and creative professions.

 

[parto123]

From your posts you seem to be trying to justify medicine over totally unrelated professions. (FWIW banking is not actually a "profession" under many definitions). Focus on the job function in a vacuum. If you don't actually want to do the practice of medicine then don't pick medicine. If you have to compare it to other fields and justify it as better, more stimulating, etc you really should pick one of those other fields. Medicine is a very long, hard road unless you are focused on actually being a practicing clinician. If you are starting from the mindset of "tell me if it is more interesting" you are already indifferent and it is a bad choice for you. Asking if medicine is more intellectually challenging than law or business is sort of like asking people whether you should eat an orange or an apple. You need to have an opinion for yourself or it's the wrong choice.

I know my question doesnt have a right or wrong answer, i just wanted to hear peoples thoughts. One thing that surprises me is how many of the premed posters here are certain that medicine is for them. Id always assumed most people were unsure until they actually experience the practice of their respective field.

 

[2008applicant]

i work in a lab with a lot of MDs and they all agree that compared to research, being a doctor is a pretty boring and routine job. there is almost no intellectual stimulation although you do get to interact with people but that can get annoying in the long run. so compared to the other "science" professions (like engineering, duno about banking/law), medicine is not intellectually challenging.

 

[Law2Doc]

I know my question doesnt have a right or wrong answer, i just wanted to hear peoples thoughts. One thing that surprises me is how many of the premed posters here are certain that medicine is for them. Id always assumed most people were unsure until they actually experience the practice of their respective field.

The reason med schools mandate clinical experience (shadowing, volunteering, health related jobs) is so folks can get some exposure to the field and decide if it is something they might like. While you won't really "know" until you are actually in it, you can learn a lot about it from that avenue (a lot more than you can from asking people if it is "more intellectually stimulating" than other things). Because medicine is a field that requires 4 years of expensive education, plus a minimum of 3 years of residency before you reach private practice, you have to decide ahead of your journey if this field is for you. If you decide at that juncture (or even in residency) that it's not for you, you are basically trapped- you will have six digit loans and no ability to pay it off particularly rapidly. So no, if you are "unsure" of whether you want to be a physician until you "actually experience the practice" then you are pretty screwed. The same can't be said of other fields, where the schooling is shorter and the salaries are better earlier, making it possible to get out of debt and change streams still at a relatively young age if you chose badly. So only pick medicine if you are fairly sure it is for you.

 

[Zippership]

Do you think medicine is more or less intellectually challenging and cerebral than other top professions such as banking and law? I am specifically referring to the practice of medicine and not the study of medicine in school.
Also, I would like to exclude entry level positions from this conversation because in banking and law you do mostly crap work in the early stages of your career.

Doesn't this all really depend on what field of medicine you go into? Some types of doctoring are undoubtedly much more intellectually stimulating than others. Also, I think if you decide to go into academic medicine or use your medical degree in other related ways (research, policy work, public health, medical journalism, consulting), the work can be very interesting and require enormous creativity. Medicine is an incredibly diverse profession so it's hard to generalize about it as a whole as more or less intellectually enriching. I can't speak for law or banking since I have no experience with them, but certainly medicine can be very intellectually challenging.

 

[Law2Doc]

I can't speak for law or banking since I have no experience with them, but certainly medicine can be very intellectually challenging.

Landscaping can be intellectually stimulating and challenging for some. It's not a useful question because the answer tells you more about the answerer than it does about medicine.

 

[KifsterDDS]

I guess it depends on what you mean by "challenging". If you define "challenging" as meaning that each and every patient you encounter will present with a problem where you have to think deeply in order to treat it, then no, I'd say that medicine isn't challenging--at least, not in that way. Every profession--even car racing, I'd imagine--has such a thing as routine and even monotony. Of course, you certainly will encounter patients who do have challenging problems that require a lot of logical thought on your part. This is certainly the case for me as a dentist, although admittedly, the diversity of pathologies that physicians deal with is greater than ours, and therein lies the bulk of the added challenge of being a physician as opposed to any other type of health care provider. That and the fact that you often deal with diseases that are life-threatening.

What makes being a doctor (physician, dentist, podiatrist, optometrist, and so on) a challenging career, truly, is the fact that every patient you treat deserves the same level of thoroughness and diligence on your part. Why? Well, they're putting their health in your hands, for one. Also, because where health care is concerned, the devil is often in the details. Every patient you see may turn out to be that one patient whose problem seems like a no-brainer but may have some small, obscure, but immensely significant positive finding in their health history that you might miss.

As a doctor, you have to do everything for everybody from A to Z. There is no profession that requires the same level of diligence and thoroughness. That's why being a doctor is so challenging.