Medicine vs an easy life?

[taylorb5]

Hello all,
Have just graduated with a first class hons in Biology (thank god!) and had always planned to study medicine. But now....financial woes have become apparent so I had to rethink my plans and have accepted a PhD studentship in spinal cord injuries (its 4 years and they pay me a decent wage). This is great and all, it's exciting and interesting, and the money is well needed, BUT I can't seem to stop thinking about med school. I'll be 29 when I finish PhD, and I know I could still go and do my GEP then. I just feel a bit....I dunno! Can someone please tell me I am doing the right thing?

[soup]

to be honest I would try and get into medicine if i were you

[ClapMaster]

medicine isnt the be all and end all, do wat u want and think if u want to do alot more studying and stress, depends wat can u do when uve got ur PhD

[House Jr.]

lol imo you'll get a pretty biased answer here XD
i think you should just consider the pros and cons of medicine vs an "easy" life. medicine to some is really interesting and the work itself is its own reward, so money does not really matter for those people. on the other hand, others do not mind if their job isnt what they were hoping for. personally, i'd go for medicine (BIAS!) because if you truly find it interesting then whe nyou graduate you will want to go into work and since a career is usually with you for life, you shoul choose one which you will be happy with.

[Banana1987]

lol imo you'll get a pretty biased answer here XD
i think you should just consider the pros and cons of medicine vs an "easy" life. medicine to some is really interesting and the work itself is its own reward, so money does not really matter for those people. on the other hand, others do not mind if their job isnt what they were hoping for. personally, i'd go for medicine (BIAS!) because if you truly find it interesting then whe nyou graduate you will want to go into work and since a career is usually with you for life, you shoul choose one which you will be happy with.

nicely put House Jr.

Taylorb5 I completely understand where you're coming from.
If you keep thinking about medicine I reckon you should go for it!! I know you can always do it after your PhD but that is a big weight to place on your shoulders and you don't know what situation you will be 4 years down the line- you may have financial commitments etc etc and doing another degree then might not be practical (I know lots of people do it but people's circumstances are different).

The worst thing would be for you to end up regret not doing Medicine.

I understand your financial worries and that your PhD will pay and doing Med may mean another 4/5 years of debt and so you're tempted by the pay BUT there are always round that. Say if you did a 5 year course, you have long summers for first 3 years so could maybe earn some cash then...
That's just an idea but in your mind you need to decide whether you ultimately want to study Medicine regardless of money worries etc. If you do then I would crack on with that and not do the PhD... that's just what I would do, but hope this long winded post helps!

[ClapMaster]

u nvr know where you'd get more money from, (if thats ur main attraction to medicine) because u could end up with a very good and fulfilling job/life and when it comes down to it would u prefer to be a GP or surgeon or whatever or use ur PhD and be summat like a teacher or researcher etc, u gotta see what the end point of each choice is, and u nvr know maybe u find out something amazing with ur PhD (Noble prize lol)

[markyc]

Good luck with the PHD, end of the day you have to go for what your passionate about and if medicine is what you want then settling for the PHD will always be in the back of your mind. Hope it all works out for you......

[ryxin]

Yes I agree with you all guys.. Good luck to you..
Wish you luck on that degree..Go for the goal!! ^_^

[edinburghmedic]

Difficult one. And it's a decision you have to make by yourself. If you have specific questions, there are lots of people including me who will be more than happy to answer them. I don't know your circumstances fully and your aspirations in life etc, and even if I did it probably wouldn't be appropriate to advise on the correct choice because you (and only you) will have the best idea of what you should do.

A forum poster said 'The worst thing would be for you to end up regret not doing Medicine.' - but also be critical and consider the reverse - the worst thing could be ending up going through medicine and then deciding it is not for you. Yes you would still gain a lot from having done the course/some of the course, but it's something you have to commit to just like when people practice medicine.

All the best.

[phantom]

No good deed goes unpunished.
(A.K.A. The good Physician will always be stepped over by everyone else.)


I entered physician training for several reasons. The intricacies of internal medicine interested me. Because I like to know things, to see patients come in with their complex problems and watch their story play themselves out and come to a conclusion that is satisfying. Because I respected the Physicians I studied under. But it has become increasingly obvious that all is not 'even' in the real world.

As I embark on my specialist training, I start to wonder whether or not I have made the right decision.

It is no secret that Physicians will ultimately earn much less than the Surgeon or the Radiologist. And definitely much less than the Anaesthetist. A trade-off for the lack of procedural income? Or more a culmination of goodwill being taken for granted? How often have Physicians been passed over (or not give the same work incentives) at each round of enterprise bargaining? Even the medicare benefits schedule are a starkly obvious sign that society values my clinical acumen much less than other specialties.

What does the government (and medicare) value more? The follow-up Physician consultation of a patient with multiple medical problems, or an Anaesthetist giving sedation for a CT scan? It seems the latter... And the private insurance rebates show a more of a discrepancy. See ten medical patients in one afternoon, or perform one epidural? Or maybe look after a handful of patients in private hospitals? Have you tried finding a private hospital bed for a medical patient? There's no chance of it - because there's no money in it. Hospitals make more money from an operation, and so they're more likely to have a bed afterwards. Better off filling a bed with a prime-paying Orthopaedic patient than someone with pneumonia.

Whilst many of us will vouch that life isn't all about money, it's hard to think that a full-time-Physician will earn less than a part-time-Radiologist. And the Radiologist will get to see their family more often, take holidays more often, have more time for the other things in life. I ask myself (at the risk of sounding somewhat obnoxious) if there really are that many 'pluses' of Physicianship compared to other specialties.

Is it really a 9-to-5 job? Are there public hospital positions available? Is it really less stressful? Is there more respect for a Physician?

The answers seem to be obvious, but are coloured by our own ideas of what makes us tick, restrained by our moral sensibilities.

Which leads me to consider my future role in the public or private sector.

I don't intend to see any private inpatients. It's financially not viable. Why go around seeing patients in hospital beds in *their* rooms, when they can easily come to *my* rooms? I would rather spend time with my children and my family than keep my phone on all night. I would rather hold onto my own dignity than become a post-surgical lacky for the higher-paid surgeons. I firmly believe the newer generation of Physicians will also have the same ideals. If this is anything to go by, there will be an even bigger gap in the medical care of private inpatients.

I intend to stay in Physicianship because that's what I love. But if asked to evangelise the benefits of Physicianship over every other specialty, my conscience will prevent me from lying. Don't do Physician Training.