Radiology for me?

[Zeloy]

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Right now I'm a sophomore in engineering. I've been thinking about whether I would really enjoy being an engineer and I'm considering applying to med school. I went into engineering since I thought it would be cool to be involved in making an actual product or improving existing ones. I'm just not sure if I would enjoy the whole business type atmosphere. You know, rushing to meet project deadlines, dealing with bosses you don't like, business politics and all those things that make for a high stress environment. Also, it seems to me that most engineers today just model equations on computers and tweek around variables. Plus, I'm not even that great at math!

Anyway, getting to the point, I was considering going to med school and becoming a radiologist. The reasons are that as a radiologist I would still be able to deal with new/cool technologies, help people, have regular hours, less politics and a less stressful environment? Is this true? How is the lifestyle for a radiologist? I know a lot of doctors have anything but a stress free lifestyle, and I certainly would not want to be that type of doctor. Maybe there are other types of doctors that have a less stressful lifestyle? I also know that applying to med-school and getting through it will probaly be really competitive and stressful. However, I feel I could handle getting through all of it , if I knew that at the end I would have a great career with a relaxed lifestyle. Anyway, if anyone actually bothers to read this whole post, any adivce would be appreciated. -Thanks

 

[Goober]

"I'm just not sure if I would enjoy the whole business type atmosphere. You know, rushing to meet project deadlines, dealing with bosses you don't like, business politics and all those things that make for a high stress environment."

Most people would consider medicine to be a rather high stress occupation. Although there are some specialties that are less stressful such as radiology, I thought that being a resident on an overnight shift at a level 1 trauma center where you are constantly are being bombarded from all sides pretty stressful. And yes there are plenty of politics in medicine and bosses that are difficult to deal with.

You really don't want to go through 4 years of med school, 5 years of residency, 1 year of fellowship, 150k in debt only to find out that it is not what you thought it was going to be.

 

[mellotron]

I was just about in your situation when I first thought about medicine - early in my engineering education. Medicine was just an idea, whereas, I enjoyed engineering - there was clearly multiple careers I could envision myself in. I went along with the engineering curriculum, squeezed in biologies here and there, but worked interships in industry (oil). Took the MCAT while on an internship, so I kind of lived a dual life for awhile.

Took a job in engineering upon graduation. Felt I had to exhaust this path first to be sure which was the right decision.

After 3 years of engineering, I found that I was fed up with just the things you mentioned. The reality is, engineering is nothing without a profit motive. Business is the reason for engineering to exist, and frankly business can be ugly.

My talents are in science and problem solving. In industry, those talents are employed to raise the bottom line, period. In medicine, the bottom line is helping others, period.

The motivation for my career change stems from the fact that though politics & beauracracy are found everywhere, these things are much more tolerable when they're encountered within the premise of helping others rather than increasing shareholder return.

Sorry so lengthy, but I assure you that's the short of it 🙂

 

[Goober]

Medicine is a business. That is one of the first lessons you will learn once you get out in practice. Ask any doc out in practice and they pretty much will tell you the same. I am saying you shouldn't do it? No, but realize that your view point is incredibly naive. I really wish I could say that when you are dealing with Insurance companies and Hospital administrators that the bottom line is patient well being. I have found that 99% of the time it is money.