need some advice...

[ucdgogie]

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hey there guys...
so i just came here for some advice. for the last couple years i have always been telling myself that i want to be a doctor. now that i have been accepted to MUA i have been having doubts on whether this is what i really want to do. have i just been doing this so i can make my parents happy? i have been looking at the work involved in becoming a doctor and it is something that scares me. im not sure if im cut out for all of it. im trying to figure this out now because i dont want to end up in the carib and then realize i cant do this and be in the hole 10grand for that semester. then at times i am thinking that i am just doubting myself because i dont want to deal with the hard work involved. anyway..in the last few days i have been trying to think of other careers i can see myself doing and its been hard to come up with stuff. any recommendations on other careers in the health industry that have a good salary that wont take as much time and dedication as medical school? these are just the things that have been going through my head and any advice is appreciated. o yea..in my undergrad years i didnt do so well (2.45 gpa and 22mcat). another reason i am scared of the workload in medical school and not doing well in it.
thanks again....

 

[oldpro]

Only you can answer this. Yo have to be able to bust your butt and study and do well

check out this blog: http://southerndoccarib.blogspot.com/

 

[RussianJoo]

if you don't think you can do it, then you probably can't. not everyone is cut out to be an md. it's very very hard work, but once you have gone through the hard schooling stuff it's very easy work. no other medical profession will pay anywhere close to what an md would get in that field.

 

[Top Gun]

if you don't think you can do it, then you probably can't. not everyone is cut out to be an md. it's very very hard work, but once you have gone through the hard schooling stuff it's very easy work. no other medical profession will pay anywhere close to what an md would get in that field.

I'm not sure what you mean by medicine being easy work once you have gone through the schooling. Granted, the science behind medicine is probably easy compared to that of an engineer, but medicine is not an easy career by any stretch of the imagination. The profession requires qualities such as the ability to work and think under pressure, to function in the face of long hours and sometimes even sleep deprivation, to make well-reasoned decisions, and also to interact with people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Remember, also, that medicine is a profession in which people's lives are at stake. There are some specialties in which some of these qualities may be less important, such as derm or ophtho, but medicine, for the most part, is not an easy job. And I'm glad it isn't. One of the things that makes medicine fun is the constant challenges.

 

[RussianJoo]

I'm not sure what you mean by medicine being easy work once you have gone through the schooling. Granted, the science behind medicine is probably easy compared to that of an engineer, but medicine is not an easy career by any stretch of the imagination. The profession requires qualities such as the ability to work and think under pressure, to function in the face of long hours and sometimes even sleep deprivation, to make well-reasoned decisions, and also to interact with people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Remember, also, that medicine is a profession in which people's lives are at stake. There are some specialties in which some of these qualities may be less important, such as derm or ophtho, but medicine, for the most part, is not an easy job. And I'm glad it isn't. One of the things that makes medicine fun is the constant challenges.

it all depends on what kind of specialty you go into.. sure you can work 24 hour days and be on call a couple of times a week and be stressed all the time and have to think under pressure or you can work 9 to 5 or even less and see patients at your leisure and not rush, or if you don't have enough time for them tell them to make another appointment.

also what i really meant is once you get through school and have learned the basic sciences clinical practice is much easier. You already have the knowledge, sure there's new stuff you have to keep learning and keep reading, but it gets easier and easier because you get used to it. it's really not that hard. And if you can't figure it out you call a consult, or call up your md friend or present it at an M&M and have the whole department discuss the case. Also you tend to see the same type of diseases and patients every time so it basically becomes the same routine for the most part. Even if you're in an inner city ER sure you might have a bigger chance of seeing something more exotic but for the most part 99% you'll see your everyday common stuff. Also in places where time counts like the ER they have protocols all made that say if a pt. comes in with these symptoms you do this first, then that, then the third, you fallow the guide lines on that piece of paper. And after doing them 10 times you don't need that piece of paper anymore, unless they change the guide lines like they do so often for CPR. So you may want to think that it's going to be all new and exciting but it's really not, you get into a rhythm of doing things and that's it, it becomes second nature no thinking involved.


Also as a resident they work you hard so i understand where you're coming from, but once you're an attending or in private practice you work a lot less hours unless you like working 80 hour weeks. Also this being all new and exciting you'd like to think that it will continue to stay new and exciting but it won't, that's just how it is. when i first became an emt 6 years ago and volunteered for my town EMS, for the first couple of months every call we got I would be the first one in the rig all ready to go, excited, adrenaline pumping through my blood vessels, but after a year or so it became the same old thing, there wasn't a single case where i had to think what to do. it became second nature and so will medicine.

 

[jackets5]

if you think you cant do it. you will not do it and be 10k or whatever in debt. your stats are really low. If you did work and didnt screw around in undergrad then you probally should not attempt it. We have a few people with sub 2.5 GPA and high teens on the MCAT who did not pass a single test first semester. If you went to undergrad and dicked around and really want to and think you can do med school then go for it. If you go into it with doubt your setting yourself up for failure.

 

[RussianJoo]

If you want more info about Carib Schools then you should check out www.valueMD.com if you haven't done so already. that site provides much more info about carib schools than this one does.

 

[Top Gun]

it all depends on what kind of specialty you go into.. sure you can work 24 hour days and be on call a couple of times a week and be stressed all the time and have to think under pressure or you can work 9 to 5 or even less and see patients at your leisure and not rush, or if you don't have enough time for them tell them to make another appointment.

also what i really meant is once you get through school and have learned the basic sciences clinical practice is much easier. You already have the knowledge, sure there's new stuff you have to keep learning and keep reading, but it gets easier and easier because you get used to it. it's really not that hard. And if you can't figure it out you call a consult, or call up your md friend or present it at an M&M and have the whole department discuss the case. Also you tend to see the same type of diseases and patients every time so it basically becomes the same routine for the most part. Even if you're in an inner city ER sure you might have a bigger chance of seeing something more exotic but for the most part 99% you'll see your everyday common stuff. Also in places where time counts like the ER they have protocols all made that say if a pt. comes in with these symptoms you do this first, then that, then the third, you fallow the guide lines on that piece of paper. And after doing them 10 times you don't need that piece of paper anymore, unless they change the guide lines like they do so often for CPR. So you may want to think that it's going to be all new and exciting but it's really not, you get into a rhythm of doing things and that's it, it becomes second nature no thinking involved.


Also as a resident they work you hard so i understand where you're coming from, but once you're an attending or in private practice you work a lot less hours unless you like working 80 hour weeks. Also this being all new and exciting you'd like to think that it will continue to stay new and exciting but it won't, that's just how it is. when i first became an emt 6 years ago and volunteered for my town EMS, for the first couple of months every call we got I would be the first one in the rig all ready to go, excited, adrenaline pumping through my blood vessels, but after a year or so it became the same old thing, there wasn't a single case where i had to think what to do. it became second nature and so will medicine.

I see what you mean. As you get more experience and skill, it does indeed become easier, though certainly not so simple that a trained monkey can do it. Sorry for the misinterpretation. It just sounded like you were saying that medicine is as easy as handing out burgers and fries at Wendy's, or something.

 

[AngryBaby]

I see what you mean. As you get more experience and skill, it does indeed become easier, though certainly not so simple that a trained monkey can do it. Sorry for the misinterpretation. It just sounded like you were saying that medicine is as easy as handing out burgers and fries at Wendy's, or something.

Well even that can't be all that easy considering how often they screw up your order. Must be some hidden difficulties we don't know about...