My Situation: Need Feedback, Suggestions, and Opinions

[thomascgty]

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Personal Info:

• The eldest son in the family
• 26 years old as of this posting

Education Info:

• Working towards my Bachelors of Science in Computer Information Systems
• Previously taken courses aimed at Bachelor's of Science in Electrical Engineering then switched to BSCIS
• Has GED (don't know if that matters)

Job and Career Info:

• Current job is as a customer service representative; yup, the type of work where we get yelled at and cursed by callers
• My career has been in the computer and technology field; at least that is where I consider my career is at

Background and History:
My family have had books on medicine; those thick big books-oldschool books. Back in my younger years, I used to scan and skim those books. I have an uncle who is a dermatologist and a cousin who is an physician; not sure about here exact title or in what field of medicine she is at.

I am interested in the human heart, muscles, and brain; how those function and work. I was thinking of getting into LVN/LPN first before Medicine. But LPN/LVN programs requires full-time study so chose to take the BSCIS. A mistake?

I hesitate to go into medicine even though I like go there; partly because of being an eldest son in the family. Any eldest son here in the family knows what I am talking about; the burden and responsibility to the family.

And the other parts are the lack of money to go into medicine, time (already 26 years old), and not that good at Physics, chemistry, biology, and [advanced-Calculus] Mathematics.

It even started to haunt me in my dream. There was this dream where I was talking with someone old. I told him that I want to go into the Medicine field. And he told me he wanted to go into the Medicine also back in his days. Weird huh? I guess that is irrelevant here.

Any suggestions, opinions, and feedback are welcome - both postive and negative.

 

[startoverat40]

almost nobody has the money to pay for med school, we all get loans.
time you have plenty of. I'm "already" 40.
if you're only 26, your parents can't be that old. by the time you finish you could support them even better.
if you're not good at science though, that might be a problem, cause chem/phys/bio are prereqs and also you need to know them pretty well to pass the MCAT. Calculus is not really required, but college level math like advanced algebra and pre-calc.

 

[theseeker4]

Personal Info:

• The eldest son in the family
• 26 years old as of this posting

Education Info:

• Working towards my Bachelors of Science in Computer Information Systems
• Previously taken courses aimed at Bachelor's of Science in Electrical Engineering then switched to BSCIS
• Has GED (don't know if that matters)

Job and Career Info:

• Current job is as a customer service representative; yup, the type of work where we get yelled at and cursed by callers
• My career has been in the computer and technology field; at least that is where I consider my career is at

Background and History:
My family have had books on medicine; those thick big books-oldschool books. Back in my younger years, I used to scan and skim those books. I have an uncle who is a dermatologist and a cousin who is an physician; not sure about here exact title or in what field of medicine she is at.

I am interested in the human heart, muscles, and brain; how those function and work. I was thinking of getting into LVN/LPN first before Medicine. But LPN/LVN programs requires full-time study so chose to take the BSCIS. A mistake?

I hesitate to go into medicine even though I like go there; partly because of being an eldest son in the family. Any eldest son here in the family knows what I am talking about; the burden and responsibility to the family.

And the other parts are the lack of money to go into medicine, time (already 26 years old), and not that good at Physics, chemistry, biology, and [advanced-Calculus] Mathematics.

It even started to haunt me in my dream. There was this dream where I was talking with someone old. I told him that I want to go into the Medicine field. And he told me he wanted to go into the Medicine also back in his days. Weird huh? I guess that is irrelevant here.

Any suggestions, opinions, and feedback are welcome - both postive and negative.

First, how many different doctors in what specialties have you talked with about your desires, and shadowed to find out what their day-to-day life is like? Second, how much volunteering/work in a setting that puts you in contact with patients have you had? Fascination with the human body is a good start, but you need to find out if you would even like to do what doctors do, and want to have patient contact as a major part of your job, before you spend any money to prepare for med school. Both of these activities are de facto requirements for admission, and won't cost you anything other than some time (6-8 hours or so on a few of your days off to shadow physicians, and ~4 hours a week volunteering in a hospital or some such).

Once you determine whether you do, in fact, want to be a doctor, specific plans for courses you should take, timing, grades, MCAT prep, etc. can be discussed. Just know you are nowhere near too old to become a doctor if it is what you really want. I am starting med school this Aug. and just turned 29, and I am by far nowhere near the oldest to start in this forum. Regarding supporting your family, unless you are currently the sole source of income for your parents and siblings (in which case they may not be able to afford you dropping to zero income for the next several years), you will be better able to provide for your family in the future by becoming a doctor than you would by doing nearly anything else.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

Okay, I'm the youngest daughter and I will be responsible for my parents, so... And I'm 35. I recommend shadowing some physicians, but I noticed you said something about not doing an LPN program because of time, those programs are typically ~9-12 months long, and for the amount of schooling yield decent salaries. If you're not willing to go to school FT how would you go to medical school? If your family is in the US and feels it is 100% your responsibility to provide for everyone else, time for them to wake up and realize they're going to have to chip in... But again, you have to be willing to go to school more than fulltime for 4yrs, and then get paid 40-50k/yr for however long your residency is

 

[thomascgty]

Thanks for the response.

I am more interested in the brain and behavior. That path might be psychiatry; not sure though. Where does psychiatry falls into? It can't be the same branch as psychology although both have similarities.

 

[thomascgty]

Okay, I'm the youngest daughter and I will be responsible for my parents, so... And I'm 35. I recommend shadowing some physicians, but I noticed you said something about not doing an LPN program because of time, those programs are typically ~9-12 months long, and for the amount of schooling yield decent salaries. If you're not willing to go to school FT how would you go to medical school? If your family is in the US and feels it is 100% your responsibility to provide for everyone else, time for them to wake up and realize they're going to have to chip in... But again, you have to be willing to go to school more than fulltime for 4yrs, and then get paid 40-50k/yr for however long your residency is

I remember reading somewhere there an education to be an advanced psychiatric nurse. I do enjoy observing people and coming up with explanations, conclusions, opinions as they do what they do.

I am all for earning within that 40k-50k per year. Heck, better than nothing or my current salary. That salary range is a good start anyways.

 

[thomascgty]

almost nobody has the money to pay for med school, we all get loans.
time you have plenty of. I'm "already" 40.
if you're only 26, your parents can't be that old. by the time you finish you could support them even better.
if you're not good at science though, that might be a problem, cause chem/phys/bio are prereqs and also you need to know them pretty well to pass the MCAT. Calculus is not really required, but college level math like advanced algebra and pre-calc.

Not sure if I am not good at science or my studies were affected by the stress I am receiving at work. During those times my employer were giving me too much stress. I learned and understand the topics in those courses during the time I was not working and just reading mathematics and science books. But after getting a full time job and starting to go to school; I had a hard time.

Sorry, forgot that the one I took was microbiology not biology. It was fun learning about microorganism under the microscope.

 

[startoverat40]

first things first. shadow some doctors and volunteer at the hospital ER. see first hand if you like medicine.
read the thread "was it worth it" and other forums, and see if you're willing to put up with all the pain points.
if the answer is still yes, then start taking prereq courses etc.

if the answer is no, then keep moving ahead with your CIS career. or you can look into bio/medical informatics.

 

[darmalee]

Thanks for the response.

I am more interested in the brain and behavior. That path might be psychiatry; not sure though. Where does psychiatry falls into? It can't be the same branch as psychology although both have similarities.

Psychology is the non-MD version that cannot prescribe medication. There may be more subtle differences but I believe that is the main difference.

 

[thomascgty]

first things first. shadow some doctors and volunteer at the hospital ER. see first hand if you like medicine.
read the thread "was it worth it" and other forums, and see if you're willing to put up with all the pain points.
if the answer is still yes, then start taking prereq courses etc.

if the answer is no, then keep moving ahead with your CIS career. or you can look into bio/medical informatics.

Do hospitals allow non-medical and non-healthcare volunteers at the hospital ER or in any of their departments? Would like to do it if I could and if they allow it.
I did volunteer and had experience with taking care of elderly at a certain senior homes. I am like an all around person during that time-from kitchen, dining, to watching over them. Kind of like an assistant of the CNA. But hospitals, never had one. I liked it but had to stop because of the stress of my full-time work and evening classes.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

Do hospitals allow non-medical and non-healthcare volunteers at the hospital ER or in any of their departments? Would like to do it if I could and if they allow it.
I did volunteer and had experience with taking care of elderly at a certain senior homes. I am like an all around person during that time-from kitchen, dining, to watching over them. Kind of like an assistant of the CNA. But hospitals, never had one. I liked it but had to stop because of the stress of my full-time work and evening classes.

As an ER volunteer, your job will mostly be cleaning rooms between patients, restocking the blanket warmer, running errands and making coffee. Obviously no healthcare experience is necessary for that. I'm volunteering in the ER once a week, and opportunities to do anything remotely clinical rarely come up. There's too many liability issues for the nurses to let someone untrained like me do much with patients.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

I agree with the volunteer description of an ED volunteer. Wasn't my cup of tea, but it is helpful. Most hospitals will train you adequately, so no experience is necessary, but I think you need to shadow some physicians first and see if it is worthwhile to pursue volunteering. Best of luck to you!