Mental detachment and medicine?

[Gurame21]

Hello everyone,
I'm sure this question has been beaten to death but I'm starting to wonder if I should continue my path towards vet med or if I should start considering human medicine. First and foremost, I want to be a doctor chiefly because of my love for medicine and my fascination with homeostasis and the practice of returning the body back to homeostasis if it has been severely disrupted. My supporting reasons for pursuing medicine are the common ones; I am driven to directly help those in need. Now all things equal and for the sake of this question, I consider allopathic medicine and veterinary medicine to be the same in most regards other than the medium that they are practiced on, humans or animals. My interest in animals began as a young child. At first, I wanted to be a wildlife biologist of some sort. As I grew older, I became increasingly interested in the science of medicine. In my first year of college I figured my best bet would be to combine the two passions and pursue veterinary medicine. Now a junior, I am still excited for a future in medicine and have not been deterred by any of my undergrad pre-reqs (organic chemistry almost made me lose my sanity though XD).
So here's the issue. I love animals to the point that I'm worried I will not be able to emotionally detach myself enough ("enough" being the key word) from my work. In my shadowing/volunteering experience I have done well not letting things like economical euthanasia or suffering animals get to me to the point that I lose composure and competency. However, I'm not sure if I'll be able to maintain that mental defense up for an entire career. I'm worried that after 10-15 years of practicing, I'd become burnt out and emotionally drained, which would ultimately hinder my abilities as a vet.
Now when it comes to people, I am much more able to take step back and separate myself from the emotions. Don't get me wrong, I love people and can effectively communicate with them, I just feel like should something go wrong with a patient, I wouldn't let it get to me the way it would if something went wrong with an animal.
I don't want to give the impression that I'm some kind of heartless uncaring person, I just believe that a certain amount of mental detachment is needed in a job where you will witness suffering, sickness, and probably death on a regular basis. If you aren't able to leave your work at work, then you can become depressed and impaired as a doctor.
So my question is, do I have this backwards? Will the emotion I have towards animals actually PUSH my drive through the years to keep improving as a vet? Is it easier to learn to cope than I am thinking? Will my ability to take care of human patients with a, I'm not sure how to put this, positive indifference make me a crappy physician in a few years?
This is all kind of speculative as I'm approaching the point where I need to start getting ready for the big decision of vet medicine and human medicine.
Thanks everyone!

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[Gurame21]

In terms of the science behind them

 

[Gurame21]

All things equal, the big goal of both fields of medicine are to reestablish and maintain homeostasis in patients who have suffered some kind of injury or sickness. I'm speaking in a large generality here.

 

[LetItSnow]

All things equal, the big goal of both fields of medicine are to reestablish and maintain homeostasis in patients who have suffered some kind of injury or sickness. I'm speaking in a large generality here.

No, you're making more sense than I am. I dunno why, I just read that wrong. My bad/apologies.

As to your original question.... If you're on the fence about human med versus vet med, I'd go human med just because of the higher income. Money isn't everything, but you're going to make good money there and have a harder time making good money in vet med. So if you're wavering thinking you might be just as satisfied in either career - go where the money is.

I don't have any advice on the euth/compassion issue. My gut says that I think you're a better doctor if you have at least some compassion for your patients - but that doesn't mean it has to manifest as heartfelt emotion. I think if you've coped so far and have been around euthanasia, you're likely to continue coping.

 

[hai1983]

No, you're making more sense than I am. I dunno why, I just read that wrong. My bad/apologies.

As to your original question.... If you're on the fence about human med versus vet med, I'd go human med just because of the higher income. Money isn't everything, but you're going to make good money there and have a harder time making good money in vet med. So if you're wavering thinking you might be just as satisfied in either career - go where the money is.

I don't have any advice on the euth/compassion issue. My gut says that I think you're a better doctor if you have at least some compassion for your patients - but that doesn't mean it has to manifest as heartfelt emotion. I think if you've coped so far and have been around euthanasia, you're likely to continue coping.

I agree.

And off topic, your new avatar is really throwing me off. I keep thinking you're not you...

 

[EdinBelle]

This is really tough because it's really hard to foresee the future and how you will handle your career down the road. On the one hand, it's much easier to avoid seeing death in human medicine (granted that you dot have a severe passion for emergency medicine/surgery). On the other hand, many people feel that the kindest thing we could do to our pets is let them go peacefully, rather than allowing them deteriorate painfully.

Think about this. If your love for animals is the only thing pulling you towards vet med, there are ways to make an impact and keep your life full of animals while practicing human medicine. You can donate to the ASPCA, foster an adoptable pet, raise service dogs of any kind, or a wealth of other things! This is such a hard subject to give advice on. You need to look deep within yourself to find what would make you most happy and capitalize on that.

 

[Gurame21]

Thanks for the great advice guys. Luckily I still have a bit of time and for the most part both fields have similar pre-requisites for admission. Starting this upcoming term I'm really going to try getting my feet wet in both fields and do some hardcore soul searching.

 

[SnowyRox]

Get TONS of shadowing & volunteering experience in both fields. While human & veterinary medicine are based upon the same principles, the actual practice is very different. Human doctors almost always choose the best course of action regardless of cost whereas that is a rare luxury for a veterinarian. It's really really tough knowing that there's a better surgery with less pain & recovery time but being forced to do the worse surgery because the client can't (or worse, won't) pay for the better surgery.

And income is not something to be sneezed at.

4 of my best friends are in (or entering) medical school. I am insanely jealous of their income but I couldn't be happy in a human hospital. I avoid sick people at all costs and hospitals make me want to run as far and as fast as I can away from them. But I love the practice of medicine and I think that I will love being a veterinarian. I hope to specialize and avoid much of the unnecessary suffering & death, but who knows where life will lead me.

 

[nyanko]

I agree.

And off topic, your new avatar is really throwing me off. I keep thinking you're not you...

yeah, he looks much cooler, doesn't he? 😎

 

[OH Bunny Girl]

Have you looked into specialty fields in either human or vet med where you wouldn't have to deal with those decisions daily? Like pathology or public health, etc.? Somewhere where your interests lie but where the emotional burnout might be less?

 

[sunshinevet]

I don't think the OP nessercerilly needs to immediately look into less patient care avenues - its not like he's saying "I can't cope with euthanasia" its more he's saying "I'm worried about burn out". And I think this is a smart thing to be worried about, and something we should all be worried about.

OP, the reality is that essentially every vet I know has experienced burnout at some point of their career, due to emotional factors, or being overworked, etc. There are lots of things that can contribute, and burn out is a multimodal disorder. Being aware of it is the first step to prevent it - being proactive to prevent it is the second (ie, making sure you don't work too many hours, picking a good job, debreifing after a particularly traumatic case, regualarly assessing your mental health, having a good support system, exercising etc.). Having these things in place can help reduce your chances of burn out, and more importantly, help you cope with it.

Most importantly, I don't think its possible to do our job without emotionally engaging on some level. 99.9% of vets will take their work home with them. Most of them will stay up at night thinking about a case occasionally. Its the nature of what we do. I don't nessercerrily think human medicine will be much different - euthanasia is not the only or most emotionally taxing thing about our profession. Just remember that there IS a level of emotional detachment you have to operate at - sure some cases will tug at your heartstrings more than others, but you can't let them all do that. This does not make you heartless, and it doesn't mean you don't care for the animals. But your job is essentially to facilitate the human animal bond - so OWNERS can love their pets. You however, don't need to love their pets.

I hope that makes sense? Lol.

 

[abbercadaver]

Thanks for the great advice guys. Luckily I still have a bit of time and for the most part both fields have similar pre-requisites for admission. Starting this upcoming term I'm really going to try getting my feet wet in both fields and do some hardcore soul searching.

You've been given great advice here, so I won't reiterate it. However I'd like to point out that you don't have too much time. Certainly you can get the hours needed to apply to either vet school or med school....but you'll have a tougher time getting enough experience for BOTH by June/October of 2013 (depends on whether you're doing Early Admission somewhere for med school...vet school's deadline is always October 1ish).

Just be aware of that and really use your time to your advantage. 🙂 Most vet schools require around 100 hours veterinary experience (minimum), but they look for more experience than that. Many of us applied with hundreds (thousands for some 😱), so just make sure you get enough exposure for you to know where you feel more comfortable, but be sure that you also have enough hours to apply at the end of the day. 😀

Good luck! Many of us have had the "Oh God....Med or Vet?!?" dilemma at some point.

 

[tigerkissedqt]

The question is whether you're willing to give up on vet med because there is a chance you might burn out. If you don't think it's worth risking it and you think you'll be equally happy with the other route, then by all means go that way. But if your passion really lies with animals then you shouldn't walk away from it on the off-chance you go through a rough patch- don't let fear hold you back! Acknowledging the possibility is already a good sign that you will be able to cope with it if the time comes. Good luck!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Have you looked into specialty fields in either human or vet med where you wouldn't have to deal with those decisions daily? Like pathology or public health, etc.? Somewhere where your interests lie but where the emotional burnout might be less?

I would recommend against anatomic pathology as a way to avoid emotional burnout. A large part of our job is necropsy.

So while, as a clinician, you may put down one animal a day (which even seems high) we necropsy up to four or five per day, most of which are companion animals or horses. Cutting apart people's beloved pets can definitely get to you eventually. I was on duty as the sole resident for ten straight days over Christmas last year, and by the end of it I was definitely emotional. I started wondering about every body in front of me, about how sad the owners were, about how much pain the animal had been in, thinking if it had been my dog, etc. And don't get me started on the neglect and abuse cases we do. There's a reason why they only schedule us for necropsy a week at a time and alternate with biopsy and other things 🙁 My folks ask me all the time how I handle it. I've gotten good at distancing myself emotionally from cases (for the most part) over the past 2 years.

Public health, radiology, therio, nutrition, etc might be better choices.

 

[lailanni]

I would recommend against anatomic pathology as a way to avoid emotional burnout. A large part of our job is necropsy.

So while, as a clinician, you may put down one animal a day (which even seems high) we necropsy up to four or five per day, most of which are companion animals or horses. Cutting apart people's beloved pets can definitely get to you eventually. I was on duty as the sole resident for ten straight days over Christmas last year, and by the end of it I was definitely emotional. I started wondering about every body in front of me, about how sad the owners were, about how much pain the animal had been in, thinking if it had been my dog, etc. And don't get me started on the neglect and abuse cases we do. There's a reason why they only schedule us for necropsy a week at a time and alternate with biopsy and other things 🙁 My folks ask me all the time how I handle it. I've gotten good at distancing myself emotionally from cases (for the most part) over the past 2 years.

Public health, radiology, therio, nutrition, etc might be better choices.

+1. Our 2 week pathology rotation was the most emotionally disturbing to me out of all rotations in 4th year. Cutting apart horses - taking off the head, opening the whole GI, etc etc was not something I ever wanted to see. Small animals weren't as hard for me, but the larger animals were. I'd literally be standing in a puddle of blood, trying to cut off a limb that weighed as much as I did. Physically and emotionally exhausting.