Prescription for reality, please Doctor
With the recent announcement of the next round of doctor's strikes (the longest in NHS history), many colleagues of mine are either considering or are already planning to leave U.K, including leaving the medical field all together. With this in mind. Have you ever thought of a career change?
How about studying to become a doctor?
I wonder what that's like.
Death and dying, years of studying and exams, the cost, the stress, the late nights.
Unless you’re going through or have been through it, its difficult to comprehend what it actually means to go through medical school and come out the other side.
Which is exactly what I went through.
This might be useful for those considering it but for those that don’t even see it as a remote possibility, I know people that started medical school in their 30’s and 40’s, even after starting a family.
Regardless, it might not be the path for you.
Let's explore 7 drawbacks 👇🏼
#1: Time
If you’re in the UK, it will take 5-6 years for most people to finish a medical degree whilst your friends on other courses can be finished in half the time.
So this means that once they start their graduate schemes for example, they’ll have a head start on you financially whilst you’ll still be studying.
The financial implications don’t end there.
Because the course is longer, you’ll generally have bigger student loans to pay off.
Its also worth mentioning the travel to and from hospital placements, accommodation and living costs, as well as course materials.
It can also get quite expensive.
#2: Patience
If you’re not patient with people, then it might not be the best career option.
You’ll find yourself coordinating closely with fellow students, junior doctors, nurses, allied healthcare professionals and of course, patients.
So yes, there’s expectations of you to work well alongside loads of different people.
You have to be empathetic, professional and understanding.
#3: The wrong reasons
Simple one.
Don’t do it for the wrong reasons.
The example that springs to mind is getting pressured from your family or society.
Remember, it’s your life, its important that you don’t live it trying to please others.
#4: You don’t like hard work or pressure
It's competitive for a reason.
Besides the endless exams, once you come through on the other side the work load is another level.
You have to juggle a huge volume of tasks including seeing lots of patients because its always busy. You'll be requesting scans, chasing scans, doing procedures, chasing blood work, prescribing and documenting for dozens of patients at a time.
A large proportion of time spent is actually documenting in the notes, by hand, unless you’re working in a hospital that does computerised notes.
Even if that is the case, you’ll be wrestling against broken printers, bleeps and computers that genuinely run Windows-98 applications.
There are many frustrating inefficiencies.
#5: There’s going to be death.
I remember the first time I experienced this, I was with an elderly patient who was approaching the end of their life and then sadly passed away.
It can be emotionally draining to deal with, even if its anticipated.
Its something that you carry with you and you can’t just turn off when you go home.
#6: Location, location, location
If you don’t like moving around constantly or if you have a family, it might not be for you.
Chances are that you'll be studying away from home and placements may be in different hospitals in your region. For some this may mean travelling for hours just to get there.
On top of this, when you finish med school, the training years beyond this will have a similar pattern.
This trend generally persists throughout a career in medicine so its perhaps not ideal if you want to study, live and work in one city.
#7: Don’t do it for the money
This one goes without saying. Strikes are happening for a reason.
Considering the academic demands and length of time it takes to become a doctor, the requisites of training, the workload, the responsibility and the skills you have to develop, you could argue that there are much easier ways to get paid.
I haven’t even mentioned burnout and the drained physical and mental reserves from endless night shifts and 70 hour weeks.
Morale is at rock bottom.
79% of junior doctors who responded to a BMA survey “often think about leaving the NHS”.
Its worth me saying that people go into medicine to help people, care for patients and provide true value to society.
Still, more and more healthcare workers are swapping the profession for better paying jobs abroad or in different industries.
Working in Pret can offer you better financial benefits.
These points are not rules, but if a few of them resonate with you, then it may not be the career for you.
Having said that, I’d thought I’d end the article on the good things about studying medicine.
(Cue silence).
I'll speak about these in the video which will be released on Sunday. For access to video content, click here.
A quote from a great
Win the day,
Z
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