MD Quitting med school 1 month in

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consider that you might be burned out because the beginning is very intense.... maybe meditate on this decision a little longer?
 
Stick it out. First semester of medical school blows.

Immature classmates, the meaningless clubs to join, finding the bathrooms...

Everyone goes through it. It DOES get better.

I'm a fresh Attending out of Fellowship and it was well worth all the BS. Keep your head down, take it a day at a time and, most importantly, ignore what everyone is doing (using to study, joining clubs, etc).

Things will fall in place.


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Dr. Gamer said:
I know I sound very naive. But my reasons for becoming a doctor were for job security and job satisfaction.

I can help people in any career so that is not why I wanted to be a doctor.

I can achieve the same goals with less stress by becoming a nurse. I can work 4 days a week 40 hours and make 37k before taxes.

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I suggest that you bail now. While job security is a baseline reason for wanting to be a doctor, your rationales alone are terrible reasons to be a doctor.
 
Goro said:
I suggest that you bail now. While job security is a baseline reason for wanting to be a doctor, your rationales alone are terrible reasons to be a doctor.
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Have you had to help someone switch to a nursing program at your school?


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I would say stay if you're just going to go into another part of medicine.
But if you were going into a whole different field that you had more passion for then I might say leave now before the debt is increased.

One of my classmates came up to me this week and told me that medicine was always his back up plan and that he truly wants to be a musician (LOL). I told him to stick it out. He's come so far.
 
Med school is tough- particularly the initial adjustment for all the reasons others listed above. But here's some perspective:

I was a nurse (RN) who decided nursing was not the field for me after all and went to medical school, and I don't regret my decision at all- while I have the greatest respect for nurses and the nursing profession (I actually greatly enjoyed my time as a nurse!), ultimately, I preferred to serve my patients as a physician rather than as a nurse. When I was in nursing school, we had a former medical student who left of his own volition (good standing, etc) because going to medical school was his parents' dream, not his- and he had always wanted to be a nurse. Today, he's a very successful nurse with a great career.
I'm pointing this out for this reason: nursing and medicine are both honorable professions with their respective strengths and weaknesses- but they are quite different from each other. Depending on why you applied to medical school in the first place, you may not find that in nursing (much as I did not find what I was looking for until medical school). On the other hand, if you've always wanted to be a nurse, go for it- nurses who genuinely love what they do are some of the hardest-working, incredible people I've ever met. But you must not be running FROM medicine- you need to be running TO nursing.

Decisions made under duress (physical, mental, or emotional) are not usually the best decisions. I don't know what the right answer for you is. But I do know you might not be able to make the best decision for you right at this moment. Get an appointment ASAP at your school's counseling center and with your school's learning specialist. They will not make the decision for you, of course- but they can guide you in making the best, rational decision for you, both now and in the long-term.

If in the end, you decide to leave medical school, whether for nursing or any other profession- it's no different than the thousands of others the world over who change careers all the time. I love medicine, and it's the right career for ME, but I've been around enough to know it's not the pinnacle of academic/personal/whatever else achievement there is. Lots of good folks all over the place in many different professions making their corner of the universe a better place each and every day. Good luck!
 
Don't feel stupid, everyone makes mistakes. And don't feel like you stole someone's seat, if they wanted that seat then they should have worked harder and earned it.

When you say that "it only gets harder"...that's true in some sense. But at the same time, it also gets easier, because you figure out how things work and how to be efficient. And some classes are more interesting than others, so maybe the class you're in now just sucks.

That being said, if you would be happier as a nurse, then drop out and be a nurse. There's nothing wrong with deciding that medical school isn't for you.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
I just don't want the working hours that a physician has. I know nursing provides more job flexibility. Is that true, can you work 3-4 days a week and 12 hours those days?


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Don't make the mistake of thinking that nursing is an easy job. It's not. Burnout is very common among nurses.
 
gapyearguppy said:
One of my classmates came up to me this week and told me that medicine was always his back up plan and that he truly wants to be a musician (LOL). I told him to stick it out. He's come so far.
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Just want to point out that it's at least 1 order of magnitude easier to get into medical school than it is to succeed in any real capacity as a musician.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
I just don't want the working hours that a physician has. I know nursing provides more job flexibility. Is that true, can you work 3-4 days a week and 12 hours those days?


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You generally work 13 shifts a month- three per week for three weeks, and then four shifts for one of the weeks.
Shifts are about 12 hours.

However, you may be on one day, off one day, on two days, off one day- and if all of your shifts for one week are at the end, and then your shifts for the next week are st the beginning, you can easily end up with six shifts in a row. Yes, you'll have days off after that, but only a few, not like a week or anything..

Nursing is fraught with its own problems (if you're the least senior person on the floor, you may not often get your preferred shifts). Lateral violence (intraprofessionak bullying) is also a problem (it is in other professions too, but it's fairly common in nursing). I'm not disparaging the profession- there are many faults in medicine too. I'm just saying to make sure before you make the switch that you know what you're opting into. As another poster mentioned, burnout is not uncommon in nursing, either. You have to familiarize yourself with the pluses and minuses of each field.
 
Gurby said:
Just want to point out that it's at least 1 order of magnitude easier to get into medical school than it is to succeed in any real capacity as a musician.
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I would argue it's not 1 order of magnitude easier, but it's just that you control your destiny with admission to medical school. In the music industry, you can work 10x harder than a medical student and never get recognized or you can be the dad of a rich promoter and be guaranteed success.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
I understand that, but it has to be less pressure and stress than being a doctor right? You are not the one calling all the shots or continuously learning.



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Nursing is still hard work. It's just hard work or stress and pressures of a different kind.
it's not like..they're chillaxing while you're working. there's plenty of times they are working just as hard if not harder than I am.
It's a very different profession. But it is not less work. At least not hospital based nursing.

unless you decide to work at a small family medical practice with a nurse on the side.
or dare I say nursing home nurse. Maybe PM&R nursing.
 
Someone in my med school class dropped out after the 1st month and is now a nurse and is very happy.

Please just actually talk about this with people before making the decision. Maybe shadow a nurse too, see what their day-to-day tasks are, and if you'd be happy doing that for the rest of your life.
 
Please don't be a quitter!
Please!
You'll regret it every time a doctor treat you bad or like a stupid person in the future!
You'll regret it every time you work very hard and nobody even acknowledge you!
You'll regret it every time you work harder than others but paid less!



Stick to what you worked so hard to get!
 
Faefly said:
Please don't be a quitter!
Please!
You'll regret it every time a doctor treat you bad or like a stupid person in the future!
You'll regret it every time you work very hard and nobody even acknowledge you!
You'll regret it every time you work harder than others but paid less!



Stick to what you worked so hard to get!
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Do doctors get acknowledged when they work hard? They get paid more but have ages so much due to stress and residency. They get reprimanded and sued for every mistake.

Money honestly does not mean much as long as I can afford a room, food, clothes, and a video game every 3-4 months.

Time is much more valuable to me. I would happily trade salary for time as long as I have enough to live and stash some away to retire in 40 years.


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This is tough. Definitely think about it, and talk to an advisor. Honestly, if you had your same type of qualms and was asking me if you should do medicine, it would be an easy hell no. Medicine sucks, and you're right it does get worse. It also gets better in a lot of ways, and I hope after residency it continues to get better....but it's a long road and job security is not enough of a reason. Nurses also have job security and most make more than the median income.

Do realize that every job sucks.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
Do doctors get acknowledged when they work hard? They get paid more but have ages so much due to stress and residency. They get reprimanded and sued for every mistake.

Money honestly does not mean much as long as I can afford a room, food, clothes, and a video game every 3-4 months.

Time is much more valuable to me. I would happily trade salary for time as long as I have enough to live and stash some away to retire in 40 years.


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Just graduate school and go into fam med. You can work 40hrs a week and make ~200k compared to that measly 50k you were talking about as a nurse working equally as hard.

Part of being a mature adult is looking at the big picture. You are being extremely short sighted right now and I'm willing to guess if you choose the nursing route will be greatly disappointed with your decision down the road.
 
Quitting might end up being the right call but it's not a decision you should be in a rush about. Figure out if you're depressed, overwhelmed, homesick, etc., or if you really truly don't want this after all.

You're almost definitely not getting this semester's money back, so don't make a super rash decision you might come to regret.
 
I wish I could go back to my 20 year old self and tell them to become a nurse.

That 17k is going to be a bitter pill to swallow


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Dr. Gamer said:
I know I sound very naive. But my reasons for becoming a doctor were for job security and job satisfaction.

I can help people in any career so that is not why I wanted to be a doctor.

I can achieve the same goals with less stress by becoming a nurse. I can work 4 days a week 40 hours and make 37k before taxes.



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A lot of people who end up becoming nurses think that getting hours is a guarantee, but many new nurses are forced to work the worst shifts and aren't guaranteed to be full time.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
Do doctors get acknowledged when they work hard? They get paid more but have ages so much due to stress and residency. They get reprimanded and sued for every mistake.

Money honestly does not mean much as long as I can afford a room, food, clothes, and a video game every 3-4 months.

Time is much more valuable to me. I would happily trade salary for time as long as I have enough to live and stash some away to retire in 40 years.


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go into em and work like 6 shifts per month.

Do fm or psych for 20 hours per week. All of these you'll work less time and retire earlier if you want
 
Dr. Gamer said:
I know I sound very naive. But my reasons for becoming a doctor were for job security and job satisfaction.

I can help people in any career so that is not why I wanted to be a doctor.

I can achieve the same goals with less stress by becoming a nurse. I can work 4 days a week 40 hours and make 37k before taxes.



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:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:🤣:laugh:

Oh, you sweet, sweet summer child. You have no freaking idea what you are talking about.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
But that "cushy" family medicine job is 7 grueling years away. The salary would be 110k after taxes and drop down to 60k with aggressive loan repayments. Start salary is 150k not 200k.
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Lol the only FM docs that make under 220 sacrificed salary for a top notch location. It is not difficult to break 250 in FM if you are somewhat flexible with area, and I'm not even talking the boonies I mean just not a major coastal city.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
But that "cushy" family medicine job is 7 grueling years away. The salary would be 110k after taxes and drop down to 60k with aggressive loan repayments. Start salary is 150k not 200k.

Sure after 10 years I would be making that full 110k but have sacrificed a decade of my life. A physician's job is obviously more demanding than a nurse's job and there is mid level encroachment to worry about as well.

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Seriously, kid. You have NO idea what you are talking.

There are nursing jobs that are not especially demanding. They don't pay squat. Most nursing jobs are way nastier and harder than anything you've had to do as a med student thus far. No, you don't need to know the ins and outs of the citric acid cycle to the same degree that a physician would do. But you do need to know myriad other things that you cannot presently imagine. Nursing is not just medicine-light. It is its own body of knowledge and it has a very different focus than medicine. Nurses and doctors work together, but they aren't just rungs on a hierarchical ladder.

Family medicine starting pay is well above your figures, depending on where you decide to practice.

There are only two really grueling years of medical school. Everything past the first couple is still hard work, but at least you have a basis to build upon, and you are actually doing the job which is way better than sitting in class.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
I understand that waiting would be ideal, but I know it is just going to get harder. We have anatomy coming up...if I quit now, I might be able to get my tuition back and pay off my apartment and food by working in retail while trying to get into a nursing school

I already have a BS so I could become a nurse in 1-2 years


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in the same 2 years, you could be on rotations.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
But you have to be working 60-80 hours a week to bill enough patients to get paid that much...


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I was working 60-80 hours a week as a nurse. At my first nursing job, about 12-20 hours a week of unpaid extra time was expected. It wasn't legal for them to demand that of us, but that doesn't mean that we didn't all have to do it if we wanted to keep our jobs. At my most recent nursing job, there were at least 8 hours per week of unpaid labor built into the job, or considerably more if you count administrative nonsense that you were expected to do on your own time.

You are working with bad information and making an emotional decision based upon actually coming up against adversity for maybe the first time. Don't do that.

Where are you in the world? Like, are you anywhere near the midwest? There is a conference happening in November that you should make an effort to come to, if you really want to know about the beauty and potential of a career in FM. I know a way that you could go for free... they'd even put you up in a hotel room.
 
Dr. Gamer said:
That is what I initially though a few days ago but then I realized that is 7 years away and part time fm jobs are not that easy to come by because of overhead. I would have to work full time for a few years to pay down those loans and then start saving 50 percent of my salary for retirement.

I guess one advantage is that I can retire in my 50s.


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Dude, don't forget you will get paid $50K as a resident too. Being in the middle of your class grades-wise is nothing to be ashamed of.
 
Promethean said:
I was working 60-80 hours a week as a nurse. At my first nursing job, about 12-20 hours a week of unpaid extra time was expected. It wasn't legal for them to demand that of us, but that doesn't mean that we didn't all have to do it if we wanted to keep our jobs. At my most recent nursing job, there were at least 8 hours per week of unpaid labor built into the job, or considerably more if you count administrative nonsense that you were expected to do on your own time.

You are working with bad information and making an emotional decision based upon actually coming up against adversity for maybe the first time. Don't do that.

Where are you in the world? Like, are you anywhere near the midwest? There is a conference happening in November that you should make an effort to come to, if you really want to know about the beauty and potential of a career in FM. I know a way that you could go for free... they'd even put you up in a hotel room.
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This is extremely atypical. This isn't the 1960s anymore where nurses are working till their feet are raw for pennies on the dollar. To be honest, you're an idiot for staying at that job. In the various places I've been in, it was very common to work 3-4 twelves a week for >60k a year + work PRN for overtime or if it's an outpatient gig then it's an easy 8/9 to 5. Don't get me wrong, plenty of nurses work hard and do a good job, but this constant nursing hyperbole about how they're the hardest workers on the planet needs to stop.
 
Promethean said:
I was working 60-80 hours a week as a nurse. At my first nursing job, about 12-20 hours a week of unpaid extra time was expected. It wasn't legal for them to demand that of us, but that doesn't mean that we didn't all have to do it if we wanted to keep our jobs. At my most recent nursing job, there were at least 8 hours per week of unpaid labor built into the job, or considerably more if you count administrative nonsense that you were expected to do on your own time.

You are working with bad information and making an emotional decision based upon actually coming up against adversity for maybe the first time. Don't do that.

Where are you in the world? Like, are you anywhere near the midwest? There is a conference happening in November that you should make an effort to come to, if you really want to know about the beauty and potential of a career in FM. I know a way that you could go for free... they'd even put you up in a hotel room.
Click to expand...

lol I am nowhere near the Midwest, but I am sure the recruiters are very convincing.

I am gonna go back to studying and try and stick this semester out. Everyone made very good points.


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