Life as a doctor after A levels and uni

[Robb]

I am extremely keen on studying medicine, it is my dream as well as many of you on here.

The thing is doesn't the time period in which you must study medicine bother you? After A levels it is either a 5 or 6 year course which means you will be 24 years old (if you didn't take a gap year) and then i have heard it is another 4 years before you become a fully fledged GP. My uncle who is a GP told me he spent 9 years in total studying to become a GP and he did the graduate entry course meaning his total studies = 12 years!

My point is that I'll be close to 30 years old by the time i start proper work - you have one life and spending 10 years nearly studying to have a dream job, you won't be able to live a normal life whilst you study. And so all this time you will be thinking about other things like starting a family etc.

I know i am thinking WAAAAAAYYY ahead, but its true, i just don't want to miss out on things and waste time - we all have one life and only one chance to make it worth while.

[Zedd]

Infact to my understanding becoming a doctor will mean a career full of training, assessments and study. I wouldn't stress too much about it as it is just part of the job however if it is something you are opposed to then maybe it's not right for you?

[rat-a-tattat]

wel ya, you'll alwayd be learning with medicine. thats the key thing to remember. n family wise, my cousin is 30-waeva, n he's a happily married father of 4. n he's still studying ot be a neurosurgeon, but the point is he's happy. he says its tough, but thats wat comes with such a career path.. constant learnin, long hours. but at the end of a day, if its wat you really want and it really is your dream job, it should all be worth it in the end.

[Robb]

Originally Posted by rat-a-tattat

wel ya, you'll alwayd be learning with medicine. thats the key thing to remember. n family wise, my cousin is 30-waeva, n he's a happily married father of 4. n he's still studying ot be a neurosurgeon, but the point is he's happy. he says its tough, but thats wat comes with such a career path.. constant learnin, long hours. but at the end of a day, if its wat you really want and it really is your dream job, it should all be worth it in the end.

Yeah, makes sense. I am only 16 at the moment so even uni is a while away yet, but i was just worried about not having enough time to do other things like meet people and have a family life etc, lol worrying too much.

But hey i love sciences and hopefully will do medicine one day. thanks for your reassurance.

[rat-a-tattat]

you'll meet people at uni..n if they are medics, you'l be with them for 5 or 6 years..if anythin, you should be worried about gettintired of those people.lol.

you gonna be a doc you'l meet people everyday, you'll have loadsa opportunities to form friendships., obviously with patients it may be short term but relationships bit its all worth it.

[Robb]

Yeah. makes more sense now,

I suppose I'm worrying about unnecesary things at the moment. Ineed to make sure becoming a doctor is for me first...

thanks.

[Doc Skin]

During my first degree I travelled loads, met some amazing friends and my husband

I am not worried about fitting stuff in while studying medicine, after the degree a lot will be on the job training, with some independent study on top coming up to exams. As long as you can manage your time effectively there will be plenty of time for social/family life

[BeanOfJelly]

At first I thought of the long study time as being a negative. Then I realised I pretty much like being a student, and would frankly be happier as a student for as long as possible before having an every-day's the same job. People say your uni years are the best of your life, so what's wrong with letting them drag on a bit(preferably for evers and evers)?

[Granny Midges]

Hear hear !! I'd love to be the perpetual student....

[Mistymaple]

Some wise guy once said "If you do a job you love, you'll never have to work a single day." Or words to that effect...

Also, the way I look at it is that if on average we're living to 80 or whatever, spending 12 years of your life training to be a doctor doesn't seem so bad. After 30 you'll still have many years to do it before retiring!