Why Medicine?

[HealthE]

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So, I have been on my postbacc journey for 9 months or so now. I have gotten a lot of shadowing and classes under my belt. I have met some great contacts and mentors. Some of the best people I have met in my life. Also, I have gotten to see the dark side or not as pleasant side of medicine. So, now I am getting to the point is the MD really worth all the sacrifice? Why not a PharmD or DDS? I think care more about work life balance than I thought I did when I started down this path.

Anyone else have similar thoughts at some point? I am wondering if there is something to this or if I should ignore my thoughts and keep going with the MD goal.

 

[Wanderlove]

If work and life balance is important to you, you could choose a specialty that allows for that. I think staying on the MD path is wise because it allows for you to have a lot of options. It might not be a bad idea to investigate pharmacy and dental careers if you need a comparison though. I'm sure everyone has had doubts at some point. The journey is long, stressful, and expensive. But it's really up to you if the sacrifices you'll be making to become a doctor are worth it. Consider if the rewards of working as a doctor will outweigh the negatives. You will need to be able to answer "why medicine" in your PS and in interviews, so it's something you need to think about carefully.

 

[Girly X]

PharmD=heavy emphasis on pharmacology, spend most of your day dispensing meds

DDS=spend most of your day working with teeth and gums

MD/DO, I believe is much more flexible, and (for me) will be more interesting to spend 30+ years doing.

 

[mulberry]

PharmD=heavy emphasis on pharmacology, spend most of your day dispensing meds

DDS=spend most of your day working with teeth and gums

MD/DO, I believe is much more flexible, and (for me) will be more interesting to spend 30+ years doing.

Gotta love the ignorance in people who know nothing about dentistry. Go tell a DMD/DDS that, see what their response will be.

 

[Girly X]

Gotta love the ignorance in people who know nothing about dentistry. Go tell a DMD/DDS that, see what their response will be.

I'll admit my ignorance on what a dentist would do for most of a typical day. Please educate. Wiki says teeth and gums. Am I missing something here?

 

[Patassa]

I'll admit my ignorance on what a dentist would do for most of a typical day. Please educate. Wiki says teeth and gums. Am I missing something here?

I'm with you, is he saying a dentist does not mainly deal with teeth and gums? I hate being ignorant, someone please enlighten me.

 

[Prettypuff1]

I'm very interested in working with people and after getting a shadowing experience with a physician I loved it. I like the medicine is the combination of science which I love and working with people. I have worked in research and find that it misses lacks the ability to impact the everyday person. I also want to see the science in action( I'm interested in pathology)

 

[dsoz]

So, I have been on my postbacc journey for 9 months or so now. I have gotten a lot of shadowing and classes under my belt. I have met some great contacts and mentors. Some of the best people I have met in my life. Also, I have gotten to see the dark side or not as pleasant side of medicine. So, now I am getting to the point is the MD really worth all the sacrifice? Why not a PharmD or DDS? I think care more about work life balance than I thought I did when I started down this path.

Anyone else have similar thoughts at some point? I am wondering if there is something to this or if I should ignore my thoughts and keep going with the MD goal.

There is a down side to EVERY job. You have seen the dark side of medicine. Have you seen the dark side of pharm? or of dentistry? Not that I know about those, but I am sure that there is a dark side.

Before switching to another field, research what you would get into. Both the good and the bad. Then compare it to medicine. I would bet that pre-clinical, pharm, DDS, and vet all have a similar rigorous program to medicine. For all of them, there is a lot of information to learn in a short amount of time.

Good luck with your decision. Make sure you are happy with what you end up doing.

dsoz

 

[NTF]

I think it's always a good idea to explore other options given the significant upfront investment and opportunity cost that medicine entails. I'd also suggest shadowing some NP's & PA's. They make a decent salary, have better control of their schedule than an MD/DO and do what they're trained for/make money faster. The mid-levels I know have a great lifestyle and dependable pay.

That being said there are many specialties that have very manageable lifestyles if lifestyle is your main fear. For instance my friend is an ER doc, works 10 shifts a month (3-2-3-2) and works mostly evening (3-11p) and overnight shifts (11p-7a or 7p-7a) so she can be with her kids most of the time. Many primary docs or predominately OP specialties have reasonable work weeks (40-50hrs/wk) with flexible schedules.

 

[jl lin]

Gotta love the ignorance in people who know nothing about dentistry. Go tell a DMD/DDS that, see what their response will be.

Yead DMD,etc, they make a killing. They are surgeons and do things like orthognathic surgery. Seriously these guys make top bank, but it's hard to get there, and they have to develop a great reputation as surgeons--especially since there is resistance from insurance companies to cover a fair part of what they do. I mean, at least in the pre-Obama days, you could appeal several times with the private insurer, and get them to eventually cover it.