Or is it to save the 100K by going to U of A over a DO school? Ya, its true you would have less loans BUT you're also sacrificing a year of being a physician which you would earn MORE than 100K.
That was the main reason I re-applied instead of taking my Ross acceptance in January. If I started at Ross in Jan. with their trimester thing I would have been able to make the match for 2012. So I pretty much gave up a year hoping to spend overall 90k in tuition vs the 140k they charge. Now I'll be paying closer to 200k if I get into Midwestern (43k a year now which I'm sure will go up).
And yeah in that year I could've made anywhere from 100-500k depending on what I do. Along the way I decided DO was better than Carib b/c I hate to say it but the economic climate is getting worse by the day for clinicians. While I think the amount of money you can earn as a doc is great...it really sucks when you compare it to what others make. PA's start at 90k a year...and you can do that in 5 or 6 years Post high school vs min of 11 for an MD or DO (and that's for family practice where you won't start at much more than the PA) and for a lot less hours worked. I really don't see the fairness in that.
And truth be told it's start to backlash b.c. a lot of people are now electing to not enter medicine b/c of it. I know quite a few myself that don't want to deal with the hours and how docs are treated by insurance companies, govt, and malpractice lawyers. They say why not go into pharmacy and get paid 60-70 an hour to count pills or be a nice and get 30-40 an hour or more plus shift differential and overtime.
People need to get real on their earnings potential.
I was on locumtenens the other day. The avg. locumtenens pay according to them for PEDS, FM and IM is 400-600/day for 8 hours. That's 50-75 an hour. Why in the world should docs be getting paid what a nurse pa or nurse practicioner can make and have to carry so much more liability. True other fields such as gas and ortho were getting paid 1000-1500/day...but in my mind that's not enough for what we have to give up to get there and how much a medical education costs.
FACT: A Medical education compared to another healthcare job (say nursing) costs $1,000,000. That's how much you're in the red in terms of oppurtunity cost by the time you're a doctor.
Here's my math:
Lets say person 1 gets their B.S.N
Person 2 likes wearing white coats (and even wears a stethoscope on first dates to see if he captured the other persons heart) and goes through 3 years of residency.
So by the time Person 2 is done Person 1 has worked for 7 years.
Lowball the figure and say person 1 made 60k a year as a nurse; that's 420k. Now say that person had the pre-med mentality and worked extra shifts to make it fair (since med school and residency take up more than 40 hours/week). Just one shift a week say 12 hours for 40/hour that pays 500 or so. Holiday pay and stuff too. So say person 1 made an extra 30k a year doing this (and you can make more than that once they start getting their overtime back). That's an extra 210k over seven years. That's also excluding benefits, 401k, roth, health insurance, and getting to raise a family (priceless).
Now person 2 went out of state or DO or Caribbean for med school and after all is said and done spent 200k between school, books, traveling, lab stuff. Etc.
So we're at 630k so far. Then factor in the 3 years of residency at avere of 45k..say 130k overall.
420+210+200-130 = 700k. Then factor in interest on student loans...the benefits...etc...and thats only for a three year residency. Now try that math for a five year one....
Kind of hard to recoup all that getting paid $60/visit right?
Oh and the time you lose from your life knowing that you made a mistake that could have killed someone or maybe did? It will most likely happen.
Even harder to swallow when you see lawyers coming out after 3 years and starting at 70-120k and by the time they would be done with residency they're making a lot more than that.
So why do we all do it? Do we think we'll look hot in scrubs and never succumb to latex allergies? Or do we get off on saying "scalpel?" and working 60-80 hours/week and missing out on so many other imporant things in our lives? Or maybe some people don't know what they're in for; or think medicine isn't like this? That you get to spend more than a few minutes with patients; insurance companies give you carte blanche, and that people think they should pay you more hourly than they pay their auto mechanic; or they're happy to give their hair stylist a tip yet hate paying you a copay, that patients don't judge you on how smart you are or how hard you work or how you stayed up for 3 days straight to get a good board score, but on the impression you give them (amongst other things and your reputation etc), or that you should be happy, smiling and compassionate about something stuck in their finger after you stayed up for 48 hours stooped over operating tables saving lives and later get a letter in the mail from an ambulance chaser attorney?
Yeah medicine can suck! I wonder why I enter it sometimes. It's not selfish to want to get back with interest for what you give. It is what makes people apply to med school. Charge 500k in tuition and pay 50k a year who will apply? Charge $1 for every prescription and what drug companies will hire chemists to create new molecules? Start paying less and less for surgery and what surgeons will innovate new techniques?
At the end of the day we all think it will change. We might feel it's going to get worse in our polls but in our hearts we have such a vested interest in the matter (like those of us currently holding onto back stocks we bought at $50 and now trade for $3) and have committed so much to this that we don't want to walk away from our investment. And we like helping people. We derive pleasure going home at night knowing we saved a life. We feel we can cure the worlds ill and stop death. Maybe we do it b/c we fear our own death and mortality. Who knows. But something drives each and every one of us to put the lives of others before our own happyness. Or maybe some of us just love the job. I know that every job I had I couldn't wait to go home. In college I wanted to sleep and the chairs in the library were so comfortable. Yet in the ICU I didn't want to leave or go home. I ran around with glee the first time I heard a wheeze through my stethoscope and eagerly ran to the doctor I was interning with to have him come listen so I could say "What was that? What's the underyling pathology!" Or the time a family member of mine called with a stomach pain and I told her to press on a certain point in her abdomen and then told her to go the hospital right away saying she likely had appedicitis (and was half correct and so excited that I was able to apply what I learned and be able to help another). It's being able to know what is going on when those important to you are sick; for some of us it's about being able to get rid of our neroticism and hypochondriasis and to know that every little itch or twitch of the head is not fatal. It's about not feeling powerless about one of the three most important aspects of our lives (health, wealth, and relationships) so that when something goes wrong with our health we don't feel claustrophobic about all the information and doctor speak. It's about the way patients say Doctor and look at you, how ten words you can say can mean more than a 1000 words spoken by another; how it has to be true b/c my doctor said it (well not always), and it's about being a confidante, a mentor and a role model for other people.
Really there is nothing quite like being a doctor.
