Maybe you’re from one of those families where everyone seems to have gone into medicine in some way or another. Perhaps your parents keep dropping not so subtle hints about how doctors and lawyers will always have a place in the world. Or maybe you just always found Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs to be entertaining and thought that would be a super cool career. Regardless of the impetus that put the idea into your head, choosing a career is important and life changing. I’m sure you’ve heard dozens of stories about medicine from friends, relatives, books, movies, and public media that prompted your thoughts, but here are my two cents, along with a few other cents from others that I’ve picked up along the way. There are good and bad things about choosing medicine as a career, just like anything. Don’t let one side blind you to the other. My advice – do your research and go into it with eyes wide open.
Let’s start with the bad stuff. Now, keep in mind that this all depends on what you decide to do specialty-wise. I’ll stick mostly with surgery, because frankly, that’s what I know. But I will say that almost regardless of the specialty you choose, medicine takes a lot of discipline, time, and stress. You don’t get to have an “off” day where nothing goes right, because that’s someone’s health, life, or loved one you’ve hurt by not doing your best. This is not just an office job where you can have a video playing in the background and edit some emails or phone in some meetings with half your brain on something else. While you might not need to remember every scrap in information they teach you in medical school (I sure don’t), there’s a reason we study so hard and long; people are looking for you to have answers, and it’s not (I really should say…almost never) OK to tell them “I don’t know”.
Medical school is not for sissies. Sure, there are those people that seem to just instinctively “get things” and can memorize the Krebs cycle without having to tear all their hair out (not me), but the majority work hard and study hard to get through. The old idiom of “drinking through a fire hose” is a very apt way to describe all the information thrown at you. And it will only get harder as we continue to learn more and more about the human body. Also, you’re not going to like every class. But you still have to learn it (yes, even the pathology stuff). I should say that studying was not my strong suit coming in to medical school; I didn’t truly learn how to study until I got there, and boy was it a steep learning curve.
There are two very distinct parts to medical school (unless you were finishing during COVID time and all of your clinical electives suddenly became virtual…so glad that wasn’t me). The first 2 years are the traditional “book learning”. That being said, every medical school will incorporate a lot of practical classes as well so you can learn the rudimentary parts of taking a patient history and performing a physical exam, or talking to a patient (yes, sometimes harder than it seems). The latter two years are typically clinical – you rotate through various specialties, shadowing active doctors and working with actual patients so you can clinically apply the theory you previously learned, and so you can figure what specialty you want to practice one day. Some of you will find that the first 2 years are the most challenging, and others will find the latter two to be more difficult. It doesn’t mean you won’t succeed.
Lastly, this stuff isn’t cheap. Almost any school you go to will probably be a pretty penny. If you are like me, you rely on all those handy school loans that you forget you have to pay back until judgment day comes. But most of us will accumulate some amount of debt along the way.
After medical school you will go through residency. I’ll discuss in a different blog posts about how to choose this and perhaps more importantly, how to survive this. But suffice it to say, many people will say that residency is harder than medical school. The hours are grueling (even if there is an 80 hour work week limit now), the work is stressful, and you WILL work hard. Some specialties, and some residencies will be harder than others. Some will be very competitive, others will be supportive. Regardless, be prepared to work hard and learn a lot. This is a whole different fire hose than medical school, and sometimes it felt even harder to manage. But once you get through this, you will get to the “real world” of practice. I’ll have another complete blog post about this, but while you’re no longer drinking from the proverbial fire hose, working in medicine remains very stressful and time consuming. You think you learned everything in residency? Think again. You will forget things, you will need to do your own primary research, and there will always seem to be something new out there that you haven’t seen or managed before. I produced more new grey hairs in the last 1.5 years than I did the last 10 before that (and I really started growing them about the 2nd year of my residency). I don’t know anyone in my practice that doesn’t have grey hair, and we’re a fairly young group.
Have I scared you off yet? I hope not, because there are some very great things about medicine too, or so many of us wouldn’t choose it as a career. Helping people can be very fulfilling and satisfying way to live your life. I’m very much an introvert, but making connections with my patients and their families is one of the most rewarding parts of my job. And while it’s not going to make you the beau coup bucks that the wall street tycoon or silicon valley entrepreneur (a successful one anyway) would, yes, the paycheck will net you enough for a comfortable living (especially if you can figure a way around those school loans).
Also, your parents were right – there is always a need for doctors. Some specialties more than others, but the demand is always high, and we are always shorthanded. There is a reason you learn to work long hours; some of us routinely have to juggle patient responsibilities with life and sleep. And often one of these gets short changed here and there (and it usually isn’t work). But rest assured, there are very few instances where you will be out of a job as a doctor. Because where there are humans, there will be illness.
There are a number of good books out there (some of which I read, when I was making the decision to go to medical school) that you may find helpful in making your own decision. I’ve listed some of them below. They are by no means the only ones. And nowadays, I’m sure there are a number of podcasts, YouTube videos, and other social media accounts (not unlike this blog) that will also offer some wisdom to you as well. I encourage you to seek them out, but read everything with a grain of salt. We all come with our own prejudices and biases. You should make your decision for you alone.
I hope this article was a little helpful, or at last an easy read for some of you wondering if medical school is right for you. My advice – do your research and do some deep thinking before you take the plunge. It’s not a quick turnaround, nor is it easy. I had some mentors that swore this is the best job on the planet. And while I can’t say that I agree with that, I won’t be trading in my scalpel any time soon.