Should I stay or should I go?? Advice Needed

[throwaway8985834821]

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Longtime SDN lurker looking for some advice as to if I should continue with medical school or not. Current M1 at a southeastern DO school. My first semester of medical school went fine (not great-but passed everything) but my second semester of medical school turned into a disaster. I was going to fail both anatomy and physiology, and I barely passed OMM. I decided it was in my best interest to take an LOA and get my crap together because I was super burnt out and really feeling the effects of COVID and online med school.

I've been using my LOA to recharge, do a little medically related volunteering and work part time. I've also been trying to do some soul-searching and get myself recommitted to medicine. However now I am feeling pretty unsure about returning. I really strongly considered the NP route or genetic counselling before medical school and ultimately decided on med school because I thought I would be able to do those things as a physician and I wasn't sure I would be satisfied educationally or professionally in those two other roles. I'm just not sure if med school+ residency is worth it now. If I went the DO route I would specialize in fam med or psych and I am just looking for like a 9-5 outpatient clinic gig. I have no interest in research or bureaucratic activities and I think I would be satisfied just seeing routine patients.

Genetic Counselling interests me because I am extremely passionate about genetics and I love helping people talk through their issues. A lot of why I went into healthcare is because I find it fulfilling to develop relationships with patients and counsel them. I'm beginning to wonder if my decision to pursue medicine instead of GC was financially motivated. I didn't find medical school fulfilling (I think thats par for the course for M1) and I felt for the majority of the time I chose wrong.

I just don't know if I am getting cold feet, or letting a bad COVID semester alter my decision or if I am actually changing my mind.

TIA

 

[djiboutiman]

I just finished M1 so I am by no means an expert. But, I think you should go for genetic counseling. It seems like your passion lies there and you don’t need to be a physician to create relationships with and help patients. A quick google search shows that job outlook is good and salary is decent. If you leave now you won’t have accumulated too much debt or invested too much time.

I think it’s perfectly natural to have doubts about continuing down the physician route. M1 is the most boring year for sure, but I don’t think it gets any easier. If you’re not passionate about medicine I think residency will be a major bummer. Also you haven’t even brought up the other downsides of a career as a physician, like mid-level takeover, slashed reimbursements, etc.

I also have my doubts at times about continuing, but there are a couple fields of medicine that I can see myself loving and being passionate about that I think will make everything worth it In the end. If there isn’t anything about medicine that gets you excited then you don’t have to stay.

I wish you the best of luck in whatever you choose and I hope you keep this thread updated with what you decide to do!

 

[Goro]

Longtime SDN lurker looking for some advice as to if I should continue with medical school or not. Current M1 at a southeastern DO school. My first semester of medical school went fine (not great-but passed everything) but my second semester of medical school turned into a disaster. I was going to fail both anatomy and physiology, and I barely passed OMM. I decided it was in my best interest to take an LOA and get my crap together because I was super burnt out and really feeling the effects of COVID and online med school.

I've been using my LOA to recharge, do a little medically related volunteering and work part time. I've also been trying to do some soul-searching and get myself recommitted to medicine. However now I am feeling pretty unsure about returning. I really strongly considered the NP route or genetic counselling before medical school and ultimately decided on med school because I thought I would be able to do those things as a physician and I wasn't sure I would be satisfied educationally or professionally in those two other roles. I'm just not sure if med school+ residency is worth it now. If I went the DO route I would specialize in fam med or psych and I am just looking for like a 9-5 outpatient clinic gig. I have no interest in research or bureaucratic activities and I think I would be satisfied just seeing routine patients.

Genetic Counselling interests me because I am extremely passionate about genetics and I love helping people talk through their issues. A lot of why I went into healthcare is because I find it fulfilling to develop relationships with patients and counsel them. I'm beginning to wonder if my decision to pursue medicine instead of GC was financially motivated. I didn't find medical school fulfilling (I think thats par for the course for M1) and I felt for the majority of the time I chose wrong.

I just don't know if I am getting cold feet, or letting a bad COVID semester alter my decision or if I am actually changing my mind.

TIA

What does your heart tell you?????

 

[Whysoez]

Longtime SDN lurker looking for some advice as to if I should continue with medical school or not. Current M1 at a southeastern DO school. My first semester of medical school went fine (not great-but passed everything) but my second semester of medical school turned into a disaster. I was going to fail both anatomy and physiology, and I barely passed OMM. I decided it was in my best interest to take an LOA and get my crap together because I was super burnt out and really feeling the effects of COVID and online med school.

I've been using my LOA to recharge, do a little medically related volunteering and work part time. I've also been trying to do some soul-searching and get myself recommitted to medicine. However now I am feeling pretty unsure about returning. I really strongly considered the NP route or genetic counselling before medical school and ultimately decided on med school because I thought I would be able to do those things as a physician and I wasn't sure I would be satisfied educationally or professionally in those two other roles. I'm just not sure if med school+ residency is worth it now. If I went the DO route I would specialize in fam med or psych and I am just looking for like a 9-5 outpatient clinic gig. I have no interest in research or bureaucratic activities and I think I would be satisfied just seeing routine patients.

Genetic Counselling interests me because I am extremely passionate about genetics and I love helping people talk through their issues. A lot of why I went into healthcare is because I find it fulfilling to develop relationships with patients and counsel them. I'm beginning to wonder if my decision to pursue medicine instead of GC was financially motivated. I didn't find medical school fulfilling (I think thats par for the course for M1) and I felt for the majority of the time I chose wrong.

I just don't know if I am getting cold feet, or letting a bad COVID semester alter my decision or if I am actually changing my mind.

TIA

Have you tried to re-evaluate your methods of studying to see why you were failing? If not, I would start with that. You would be amazed at how changing one's approach towards the material to a more efficient way can positively increase performance. I got a feeling that your fear of failure is steering you away from medical school, not because you genuinely do not want to continue down the path.

 

[El-Rami]

It wouldn't hurt to get your health checked by a physician. Get a second opinion if you need to. Some things attributed to "burn out" could actually be non-mental health related medical conditions like sleep apnea, which can potentially explain your grades slipping.

If your passion is genetic counseling and not medicine, go for it. However, there are a lot of other health-related careers than just genetic counseling. Anesthesiologist assistants earn a similar income to primary care physicians, and gas is a good lifestyle career. It wouldn't take much more training than you currently have (about 30 months) and you likely have all of the pre-requisites already for applying, and it has a pretty good ROI. It has a great job market, although there is limitation to certain parts of the country (about 18 states as I recall).

My point I am trying to make here is that there are other ways to make good money in healthcare than being a physician while having a good lifestyle. You can still help people and fulfill that drive that led you towards a career in medicine to begin with.

 

[Osminog]

Genetic Counselling interests me because I am extremely passionate about genetics and I love helping people talk through their issues. A lot of why I went into healthcare is because I find it fulfilling to develop relationships with patients and counsel them. I'm beginning to wonder if my decision to pursue medicine instead of GC was financially motivated. I didn't find medical school fulfilling (I think thats par for the course for M1) and I felt for the majority of the time I chose wrong.

Shadow a couple of genetic counselors to see if it would be a good fit. If you love what you experience while shadowing, then it’s probably time to switch career paths.

If you end up deciding to stick with med school, there’s a medical field called medical genetics that might line up with your interest in learning about genetics and advising patients on genetics-related health matters. But it’s a lot of training, and it wouldn’t be worthwhile if you’d be just as happy as a generic counselor. (See: What it’s like to specialize in medical genetics: Shadowing Dr. Abbott)

 

[FistLength]

Longtime SDN lurker looking for some advice as to if I should continue with medical school or not. Current M1 at a southeastern DO school. My first semester of medical school went fine (not great-but passed everything) but my second semester of medical school turned into a disaster. I was going to fail both anatomy and physiology, and I barely passed OMM. I decided it was in my best interest to take an LOA and get my crap together because I was super burnt out and really feeling the effects of COVID and online med school.

I've been using my LOA to recharge, do a little medically related volunteering and work part time. I've also been trying to do some soul-searching and get myself recommitted to medicine. However now I am feeling pretty unsure about returning. I really strongly considered the NP route or genetic counselling before medical school and ultimately decided on med school because I thought I would be able to do those things as a physician and I wasn't sure I would be satisfied educationally or professionally in those two other roles. I'm just not sure if med school+ residency is worth it now. If I went the DO route I would specialize in fam med or psych and I am just looking for like a 9-5 outpatient clinic gig. I have no interest in research or bureaucratic activities and I think I would be satisfied just seeing routine patients.

Genetic Counselling interests me because I am extremely passionate about genetics and I love helping people talk through their issues. A lot of why I went into healthcare is because I find it fulfilling to develop relationships with patients and counsel them. I'm beginning to wonder if my decision to pursue medicine instead of GC was financially motivated. I didn't find medical school fulfilling (I think thats par for the course for M1) and I felt for the majority of the time I chose wrong.

I just don't know if I am getting cold feet, or letting a bad COVID semester alter my decision or if I am actually changing my mind.

TIA

Burned out is an interesting phrase.

It's over used - unless you had a lot...a lot of other things going on other than studies, it probably was not burn out. It might be lack of conditioning to study. Which is why I think you can do it. Med school isn't hard in the intellectual sense, it's hard in the "can you finish the marathon" sense. Keep conditioning your study habits, cut out distractions like youtube/social media, etc, and (barring mental health/family catastrophe etc.) you can do it.

Genetic counselling is cool - we use them often, and they seem to spend tons of time with patients.

 

[ebfw15]

@throwaway8985834821 I just wanted to pop in here to say that I'm a genetic counselor who would be happy to speak with you more about the field if you are ever interested! I hope you are able to get some clarity with what I'm sure must be a very difficult decision. Best of luck!