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by tpfour
1993 days ago
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Tangential: I've always had an interest for medicine. A decade or so into software dev and I'm not convinced I want to stay. I've heard a lot of doctors say they wouldn't do it all over again. I'm wondering if med school makes any sense. Maybe my idea of medicine is too influenced by Hollywood, but it does look very interesting. Would you study medicine again given the chance to start over? |
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Working conditions in medicine are universally poor, frankly. The flexibility during education and training is close to zero. You probably will need to move somewhere else as part of training or work. This can uproot your life and family depending on obligations. Some fields have very prolonged training periods and are very competitive (eg surgical subspecialties). There is a lot of bullshit in medicine, due to heirarchies in large institutions, rigid and nonsensical regulations, issues with billing etc... you have to have the personality to stomach this. Conversely, there is also the fact that when you are in the room with the patient and the door is closed, it is just you trying to help another person, despite everything. This is sacred, and can be intensely rewarding even in dire circumstances, an exercise in mutual gratitude you just won't find elsewhere.
The other thing I would say is that some fields in medicine are probably not something you should spend your whole life doing, at least not full time. It is just too emotionally exhausting, no matter what you do to deal with it. Not saying it is impossible to do it for 40 years, but it is a risk, you definitely sustain some kind of damage. I suspect this is responsible for 2/3rds of the seemingly outrageous negligence/misconduct cases you hear about.