<p>What are the advantages and disadvantages of being in primary pediatric care ? I really do not know whether I want to become a doctor or lawyer.I know that they are distinct careers, but in reality I have a passion for law and medicine. I am so confused right now,please help.</p>
<p>Would you be content at age 25 (at least) making 40 grand per year and working an 80 hour work week? Would you like doing that for 3 years at least, up to 7+? Then consider the toll it takes on having a family. Then remember the rediculous malpractice insurance rates, and the fact that you are usually not reimbursed as much as you should be for procedures. Basically in law you are going to work as much as you want to get yourself established. If you want to be the best you will work long hours, but it will bring you tons of money with little else to worry about other than taxes.
If you like medicine and law, become a lawyer who deals with medical issues, and better yet protect the doctors. Don’t be the trial lawyer who tries to milk every penny out of doctors and malpractice insurance comapnies.
If you would be content to deal with all the stupid things doctors need to deal with, and you think you could imagine yourself pretty much still being schooled at age 28, by all means do medicine. If you want to be working and making money by then, do law.</p>
<p>BND, I think you’re being optimistic about medicine. And I’m not being sarcastic.</p>
<p>At age 25, you’re paying $40,000 a year. $40,000 a year for an 80 hour workweek runs from ages 26-29/33, if you attended med school straight, which many people can’t do because they have to boost their applications, so they’re even older.</p>
<p>Then don’t forget the fact that many patients pay you nothing. Then don’t forget that compensation is dropping rapidly. Then don’t forget that HMOs are increasingly dictate the manner in which you practice. Then don’t forget that the highest-paid doctors out there (say, neurosurgeons and cardiologists) make (in NPV terms) half as much as those in the financial sector NOW, and the gap will probably widen over the next several years.</p>
<p>For some of us - and yes, that’s inclusive - that’s worthwhile, because we believe that’s where we’re called. For others, it’s not.</p>
<p>So the question I must ask…In the end, will it all be worth it?
I mean the decreasing compensation, increasing malpractice insurance, etc. etc. I recall reading an article about surgeons fleeing Pennsylvania due to rising malpractice insurance costs, and increasing number of ‘frivolous’ law-suits. Should health care really have to be this way? Can’t lawyers, the gov’t, and patients realise that all doctors are human? Can’t they understand what all they must go through to reach where they are? Can’t they comprehend that all these law suits are only further complicating health care rather than helping improve it? </p>
<p>Being one of the most powerful countries on earth, the US, I feel, should not have to deal with such issues…What is the future of health care in the US? I know this downward trend can’t go on much longer…</p>
<p>bdm, yea I tried to make it optimistic ish, to make it seem kinda doable. As we both probably know we can go deeper into the bad, but I chose not to and I’m assuming you will probably do the same. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is this, medicine today is a calling. Its a field that you decide is something you are willing to dedicate/ give away your life to. Its something that deep inside you know that it’s the right fit and its what you truely and wholeheartedly want to do. Any hesitation at all should make anyone rethink the career. </p>
<p>For anyone who is familiar with residency, they know most began last week. At the hospital I volunteer at you would not believe how quickly the new residents turned from happy and excited about medicine into walking zombies, angry at all forms of life. They went from caring to just doing the motions and putting on a good act for the patients while standing at the nurses stations moping around and complaining about everything. Medicine is a career that guts you nowadays, if can handle that fact then so be it, if you can’t then don’t do it.</p>
<p>focus on ****ing making into med school before cementing urself into one set field. cause then u’re being narrow minded. you haven’t fully exeprienced all the aspects of medicine even minutely. if ur confused about law and med, take a few internships and volunteer to narrow ur list down. but don’t look to far ahead when making this kinda decision. trust me, from what i hear, the painful residency period is all worth it in the end if you love ur job.</p>