What do you do if you drop out of training?

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lucidstrength

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What is there for an MD who does not complete internship and residency? What jobs have you heard of people getting with the medical education but not the license and training?

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I have known people to drop out of residency and work in small town ERs. To be able to do this, you have to have your general license which you can get after you take and pass step 3. They make pretty good money, but I think they're very limited in where they can work. Another option is to work in a "doc in a box" kind of place.

I wouldn't recommend any of this. If your thinking about dropping out, think long and hard before making that decision. You've come this far in your career, just grin, bear it and get through it....residency is only temporary!
If you hate what you do, then try looking into another residency field....I've seen that happen too!
 
An MD without a license has little more options than Joe Blow walking down the street to work in the medical field. IMHO, its not worth it to go to medical school if you have no plans to use your degree in a medical capacity.

You might consider a search in this forum; this question gets asked frequently and there are several relevant threads which you may find interesting.
 
Please do not take this as an invitation to start a flame war or any other sort of a personal insult...

But since reading your other post which allude to the fact you are recently accepted to med school, are looking for residency training that includes no weekends (since you have kids) and this thread looking into job options other than residency......I would recommend taking a COLD HARD look at all your options before starting school. Although you presumably have good family reasons, you seem very ambivalent about being a physician and may want to look into other career options before starting this long, hard, expensive path.
 
If you honestly are thinking that you won't want to finish a residency after you're done with med school, I would recommend considering some other career (maybe something like becoming a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner would be more suitable to your needs). It's just not worth it to go through all the hassle if you're not going to do a residency.
However, I can remember when I started med school I had "cold feet" for a while, and worried that it would be too overwhelming for me. Once I finally started classes, I was pleasantly surprised at how it was actually not as bad as I had imagined.
You may want to investigate if there are any student parents at your school that you can talk to and get some advice/support from. At my school, there's a club for the student parents to get together with each other (and, yes, a lot of my classmates, both male and female, do have kids!)
Good luck!
 
that's easy.
Consulting, MBA.... none of these require internship or residency training or even a license.
 
Consult for Hollywood shows
 
Consult for Hollywood shows

Fabulous suggestion. Those types of jobs are really plentiful. I'm sure they will welcome you with open arms and you'll be so glad you were trained (sort of) to be a physician, what with all the Hollywood parties and famous friends you'll have.

Seriously.
 
to each his or her own life...

there are lots of examples of people graduating from med school without post-grad training who have gone on to be successful in other fields. or even in medicine (administration, business, dare i say it-- law....).

guess whose credentials these are:

.....born in Chicago, Illinois, October 23, 1942. Educated at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, A.B. (summa cum laude) 1964 (Phi Beta Kappa). Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellow, 1964-65. Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University, England, 1965. Graduated Harvard Medical School, M.D. 1969; post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, La Jolla, California 1969-1970. Visiting Writer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988.

who is it??
 
to each his or her own life...

there are lots of examples of people graduating from med school without post-grad training who have gone on to be successful in other fields. or even in medicine (administration, business, dare i say it-- law....).

guess whose credentials these are:

.....born in Chicago, Illinois, October 23, 1942. Educated at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, A.B. (summa cum laude) 1964 (Phi Beta Kappa). Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellow, 1964-65. Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University, England, 1965. Graduated Harvard Medical School, M.D. 1969; post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, La Jolla, California 1969-1970. Visiting Writer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988.

who is it??
Yeah I guess if you don't want to be a doctor you can always just go create some shows like ER. Other possiblities on the list include Senator Majority Leader and Governor of Vermont.
 
Michael Crichton didn't 'just' do ER.

and yeah, you can practice and still go on to politics, but this isn't the point: for those who don't even do residency there are opportunities that don't completely put that MD education to waste.

i did mention consulting right?

over and out
 
I think the point is that none of those things are easy to come by. How many firms want to hire an unlicensed MD with no experience in business or medicine to consult?
 
I hope this doesn't open an entirely different can of worms, but seriously - the liklihood of becoming a consultant or being offered any type of well-paying (i.e. able to pay back the enormous debt you will owe) job out of medical school is slim to none - even if you graduate from HMS and have a tremendous resume.

If you seriously want weekends off and aren't sure if residency fits into your plans after medical school, don't go. Period. You will be wasting a ton of money (and government funding) for a piece of paper and the title M.D., not to mention taking a coveted educational space away from someone who may actually want to contribute to society in a clinical way (i.e. be a real doctor).
 
Was just in Hollywood being part of a medical reality show. Super fun. A viable job? OMG!! H**L no. Here's a conversation I had on the set with a this extremely good-looking guy who was also a very good actor to illustrate the life you would have if you tried to work in the industry (as a consultant or otherwise):

Actor - "So, do you think you'd rather do this than be a doctor? It's pretty fun, isn't it?"

Me - "Yep. Super fun."

Actor - "Then you'd do it?"

Me - "Dude. Here's what my life in residency offers me. I know where I'm going to be for the next 365 days, almost exactly. While a little boring, I also know exactly how much money I will be given every 2 weeks, without fail, for the same amount of time."

Actor - "Sooh. You got benefits?"

Me - "Yeah, and I won't be unemployed in 2 weeks, like you. I get things like "vacation" and "sick days" and cheap health care, eye care, dental care...even free food."

Actor - "Dude. What does it take to get into med school?"
 
I hope this doesn't open an entirely different can of worms, but seriously - the liklihood of becoming a consultant or being offered any type of well-paying (i.e. able to pay back the enormous debt you will owe) job out of medical school is slim to none - even if you graduate from HMS and have a tremendous resume.

If you seriously want weekends off and aren't sure if residency fits into your plans after medical school, don't go. Period. You will be wasting a ton of money (and government funding) for a piece of paper and the title M.D., not to mention taking a coveted educational space away from someone who may actually want to contribute to society in a clinical way (i.e. be a real doctor).

That's not actually true. There are a couple of people every year in my med school class of 86 that decide to do healthcare consulting type jobs. You can make low six figures from that. I don't think they're that hard to get (it's a different skillset from clinical medicine though, so you would have to make some adjustments to your self-presentation).

But, yeah, I agree with your second paragraph: don't do an M.D. if you're not prepared for the sacrifices and committment required.
 
That's not actually true. There are a couple of people every year in my med school class of 86 that decide to do healthcare consulting type jobs. You can make low six figures from that. I don't think they're that hard to get (it's a different skillset from clinical medicine though, so you would have to make some adjustments to your self-presentation).

But, yeah, I agree with your second paragraph: don't do an M.D. if you're not prepared for the sacrifices and committment required.

For like which companies?
 
For like which companies?

Bain. Boston Consulting. McKinsey. and their ilk. Also sometimes a couple go work with a start-up (like medical devices, robotic surgery, etc.). I'm not saying go to med school if you want to do this. I'm saying if you're smart and motivated (which you presumably are if you made it through med school), you do have options available. It's business-- so it's a very different mindset from medicine, but people do make the transition.
 
I'm not even in med school but I do work for the Federal Government and I can tell you while all the docs in the Federal Government I work with completed residencies have or are still practicing I know many people on Capitol Hill working as staffers who earned an MD or MD/PhD who never did clinical work. They work as health analysts. I'm not sure that's helpful for you.

There are some that earn a JD and work at the Patent Office, etc.
 
health analysts makin a phat 35k for a Senator with no chance in heck to move up unless he becomes Prez..no thanks!

Even at The Company med analysts have to be BC'd with several years of exp and pubs...

With MD/JD go into med mal or patent, but do it private prac, never for the govt! Who wants to make GS-14/15 bank at the top of their game? (read: just under 100k). No thanks!

I'm not even in med school but I do work for the Federal Government and I can tell you while all the docs in the Federal Government I work with completed residencies have or are still practicing I know many people on Capitol Hill working as staffers who earned an MD or MD/PhD who never did clinical work. They work as health analysts. I'm not sure that's helpful for you.

There are some that earn a JD and work at the Patent Office, etc.
 
Why even go to medical school if BEFORE you start you are thinking of NOT even practicing because you cannot work weekends due to having a family? the cost is just too large to justify this venture (of course unless you are independantly wealthy and have $$$$ droping out of every pocket) *only* to get the MD.
 
What is there for an MD who does not complete internship and residency? What jobs have you heard of people getting with the medical education but not the license and training?

A local bar-tender told me he got his MD a few years ago but chose not to practice. He said he was not the only one from his class that did this. Apparently the guy that owns the nightclub also has an MD without a license. Bottom line is: the jobs you can get with an MD and no license/residency would probably be the same jobs you could get right now without a medical education, so why waste your time and money?
 
A local bar-tender told me he got his MD a few years ago but chose not to practice. He said he was not the only one from his class that did this. Apparently the guy that owns the nightclub also has an MD without a license. Bottom line is: the jobs you can get with an MD and no license/residency would probably be the same jobs you could get right now without a medical education, so why waste your time and money?

No not really.
 
there is a huge world open, but it's not as "safe" as the residency track, where you're guaranteed a 6 figure salary in today's environ.

A local bar-tender told me he got his MD a few years ago but chose not to practice. He said he was not the only one from his class that did this. Apparently the guy that owns the nightclub also has an MD without a license. Bottom line is: the jobs you can get with an MD and no license/residency would probably be the same jobs you could get right now without a medical education, so why waste your time and money?
 
first thing you would have to do is get out of your student loans, which is near impossible.

$150,000 borrowed today will accrue enough interest to be a $450,000 payout on a 30-year repayment schedule.

There is NO WAY you afford to pay that off AND ever own a home on anything less than a gross income of 120K+.

One idea is to simply skip the country. Go to Dubai, Singapore, Central America. Vanish.

Another idea would be to change your identity. Much harder post 9-11, but still can be done and in some cases legally.

____________
Seriously, you cannot borrow $$$ and not fully think through the consequences. My rough guide is this:
If you borrow....
<$25,000 for undergrad+med school then you can drop out with pretty much no consequence and get any job you want
25-50,000 will need a plan and possibly a parental loan
50-100,000 you will need a near six figure fall back option, consulting, finance etc. or can match into a primary care field
100-150,000 you will need to match into a subspec field that pays..Ophtho, Surgery, Gyn
150-200,000 you will need to match into a top tier subspec field: Rads, Rad Onc, Plastics or Ortho
200-250,000 you have the option of either Spinal Ortho or Neursurgery, flip a coin
250-300,000 you will work 24-7 on call Neurosurgery
>300,000 in principal debt you are @#%$, walk out of residency and put a bullet in your head, game over.
 
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