Troubles With Choices

[FemaleJD]

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Question for people in or looking to be in the medical field with family orientated mindsets:

I’m at the point in my education where I’m supposed to be choosing between medical, physician assistant, and nursing school but my big issue is: I’m stumped, especially since I’m beginning to enter the “weed-out” pre-medical sciences and I don’t want to unnecessarily waste time/resources/money.

I want to be professionally involved with reproductive medicine (specifically fertility) ASAP, but I’m also stuck at a point where I have a goal of starting a family within the next decade. This leads me to feeling as though medical school is the wrong choice for me since I already have a partner closing in on graduating from medical school and I couldn’t allow our family to become neglected due to two full-time parents who are both involved in a demanding field in both terms of education and career. I do believe 100% that want to be involved in the medical field, especially with fertility because that’s truly where my passions lie but I don’t want my career to intrude on my family goals; I have a lifetime to receive a doctorates within the medical field but even with advanced medicine, I have *about* until 35 to begin a family in a safe/healthy fashion (naturally, anyways).

If you’ve ever been in my situation: how have you dealt with the overwhelming nature of this? Especially as a woman who has certain expectations as far as family and career life goes. Would you have chosen a different career path in medicine (MD vs. PA, PA vs. DNP, RN vs. PA, ect...)? A different career path all together? Or is the career in medicine you’ve chosen come to suit your needs for not only yourself but also your family? Do any other premeds suffer from this dilemma?

(Apologies if this ends up in the wrong forum; first poster here)

 

[shaosoldier]

Sorry that no one has responded. Hopefully this helps somewhat, albeit my answer may be limited coming from my own perspective. From what I've seen pending on what exact specialty you want to go into, residencies may be accommodating. Specialties such as family medicine, PM&R, psychiatry are a few that come to mind when it comes to starting a family with ease. Other specialties such as general surgery, IM, Ob/GYN may not be as accommodating due to the aggressive work schedule. It has been done before though, 100%. Medical school is no walk in the park, as you know -- Pre-med is a filtering process for a reason. I know of one friend in my class of 250 that had a kid in medical school, she had to take a year off due to conflict with boards (We have 3 boards, the first two we take during medical school to proceed with the first being the hardest and most important)

Good insight, medical school including residency without undergrad is at a minimum 7 years.

Becoming a PA or NP is a lot more flexible compared to medical school. I don't know much about NPs (DNP can literally be done online, pointless) but PA school is only 2 years without residency. Obviously, you won't be an expert when it comes to your field of medicine but that may not be a bad thing either. There are opportunities working in fertility as a mid-level too.

Best of Luck. There are many specialties within medicine outside of being a physician, I encourage you to explore your options. Thats what undergrads all about. Even stuff outside of medicine too, don't forget that.

 

[907914]

Question for people in or looking to be in the medical field with family orientated mindsets:

I’m at the point in my education where I’m supposed to be choosing between medical, physician assistant, and nursing school but my big issue is: I’m stumped, especially since I’m beginning to enter the “weed-out” pre-medical sciences and I don’t want to unnecessarily waste time/resources/money.

I want to be professionally involved with reproductive medicine (specifically fertility) ASAP, but I’m also stuck at a point where I have a goal of starting a family within the next decade. This leads me to feeling as though medical school is the wrong choice for me since I already have a partner closing in on graduating from medical school and I couldn’t allow our family to become neglected due to two full-time parents who are both involved in a demanding field in both terms of education and career. I do believe 100% that want to be involved in the medical field, especially with fertility because that’s truly where my passions lie but I don’t want my career to intrude on my family goals; I have a lifetime to receive a doctorates within the medical field but even with advanced medicine, I have *about* until 35 to begin a family in a safe/healthy fashion (naturally, anyways).

If you’ve ever been in my situation: how have you dealt with the overwhelming nature of this? Especially as a woman who has certain expectations as far as family and career life goes. Would you have chosen a different career path in medicine (MD vs. PA, PA vs. DNP, RN vs. PA, ect...)? A different career path all together? Or is the career in medicine you’ve chosen come to suit your needs for not only yourself but also your family? Do any other premeds suffer from this dilemma?

(Apologies if this ends up in the wrong forum; first poster here)

So, this might not be an answer you want to hear but if you want the easiest path that leads you to near direct primary care of fertility related issues, midwives have basically the same authority as a non-surgical OB/GYN without the prescribing part.

Edit: At least in most of the western states, I don’t know about back east.

 

[Crayola227]

So, this might not be an answer you want to hear but if you want the easiest path that leads you to near direct primary care of fertility related issues, midwives have basically the same authority as a non-surgical OB/GYN without the prescribing part.

Edit: At least in most of the western states, I don’t know about back east.

doesn't make it a good idea