<p>Hello Parents Cafe,</p>
<p>I’m currently a pre-med undergrad, staring ahead to the very very long road to an MD, maybe having doubts, and I would love some input.</p>
<p>So, calling all MDs, spouses of MDs, anyone else who feels like helping me out:</p>
<p>Are you happy with your profession? Are you happy that you went into medicine? Would you do it again? </p>
<p>Thanks,
Ren</p>
<p>I am not a MD professional, so I don’t have personal experience for your question, but I do know some people who are MD, and from my talk to them, they seem not happy.</p>
<p>One of my very closed friends is a dentist, though he makes good ( or OK, not bad, not that spectaculars either )money, but staying in his small clinic, seeing petients in and out everyday, not much different work-related social hour, can’t cancel the appointment on last minut really make him complains a lot…</p>
<p>Just trying to give you a different aspect of being a MD…</p>
<p>Sister is MD… she was only so-so happy (responsible job, paperwork, insurance hassles etc.) until she closed her practice, took big paycut and began working as a staff physician at Kaiser: regular hours, little paperwork. “I can really say I love my profession” she says. And now that she’s in her mid-40’s, her school loans are even paid off ;))</p>
<p>Thank you for the responses! Any other opinions very welcome.</p>
<p>If any women respond, how compatible are an MD and kids, marriage, etc?</p>
<p>Marriage is compatible, as long as it is not to another doctor, especially if you have kids, since call schedules are almost never compatible. Having kids and actually raising them (instead of delegating it to the nanny or your parents) is difficult, but not impossible. As much work as kids are, and add to your sleep deprivation, they will be a huge source of comfort, someone who always looks forward to you coming home, and provide you with so many joys. Women physicians are also great role models to their children, especially to their daughters. Time management is very important. By the way, I have two teenagers who really are the joy of my life. Kids put everything in perspective.</p>
<p>My H loved med school, loved his patients, loved the idea of medicine. He worked as an inner city doctor taking care of kids no one else did, and won some major accolades and awards. Universal respect for his commitment, his abilities, and his accomplishments. He did not love the hours, the stress, the paperwork, the threat of lawsuits, the contempt.</p>
<p>Next month he is starting full-time as a high school biology teacher, and he couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>This is just one person’s life; don’t take it as a warning, just as a particular story. Loads of people love everything about the medical world.</p>
<p>My H. loves the practice of medicine, but hates dealing with insurance companies, medicare and as garland said–the threat of malpractice. It also has taken much time away from family. He sometimes would be out of town for days at a convention and the kids didn’t even know he was gone as him not being home was normal. When our oldest son was about 3, someone asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up–his reply was “Not a doctor, I want to be a real daddy”. My H. has never forgotten that.</p>
<p>I appreciate the input!</p>
<p>zulu, thank you, your reply is encouraging. but where is one supposed to meet a non-doctor? from everything i’ve heard about med school and residency, one practically lives in the hospital!</p>
<p>garland, the contempt? </p>
<p>and just how common / how big of a nuisance <i>are</i> lawsuits?</p>
<p>mkm56 - oh no! :(</p>
<p>All your posts confirm my idea that medicine is the noblest calling. And the hardest.</p>
<p>Contempt–maybe not the right word, but doctor-bashing can get pretty rampant. (Not a major reason, maybe I shouldn’t have included it.)</p>
<p>Lawsuits–H never faced one, but many people he respected did. They often seemed motivated not by bad medicine but by bad outcomes, uncontrollable by human beings. Seeing what some people he knew went through was a constant stress.</p>
<p>mkm56- When my son was young, we would go have dinner with dad while he was still in residency. Sometimes we met at the hospital or at a fast food place. One of our friends had a 4 year old son and they also met up with their dad for dinner. A teacher ask the 4 year old what his father did when the child said he went and had dinner with his father at work; the 4 year old responded, “He works at Burger King!” As the family usually met the father at the Burger King across from the hospital, and mom would said we are going to see dad at work, the child just assumed that was where dad worked :-)</p>
<p>With my kids they were use to dad not joining us for family events or us going in two cars as dad was on call. I remember arriving at a family party and my daughter seeing her father there; she wanted to know why he was there. She figured he hadn’t come home so he wouldn’t be at the party. </p>
<p>So to answer your question, my husband loved medicine at the begining, but hates the red tape, insurance, and malpractice threats. He would love to go teach at a medical school or hospital, but that may just be a dream. He would miss the daily interaction with his patients so I don’t see that happening.</p>
<p>Pokey, that story was great! It made my morning start with a good laugh. </p>
<p>I have two children that have said they would never go into anything related to medicine because of the negatives–red tape, insurance issues, malpractice worries (even if never sued, one is always concerned), gov’t involvement, and loss of family time. However, the youngest thinks he may go that way.</p>
<p>Managed care has really changed the medical field…for the worse. The beaurocracy, red tape, paperwork, requirements of seeing a stated number of patients per day, network issues, etcetcetc, has made life for medical personnel hell.</p>
<p>When I was growing up, all the rich kids had doctors for fathers. Now the rich kids have money managers for parents.</p>
<p>I worked in a hospital for years (in a professional capacity but, not a physician), and watched the slow and steady burnout of docs as a result of HMOs and managed care. Despite medicine being a noble calling, I probably wouldn’t encourage this route for my kids. Fortunately, they are blood and bodily fluids averse, so I don’t think it will be an issue.</p>
<p>Lots of considerations, thank you!</p>
<p>A bit of a discouraging trend in this thread: it seems like those “in the know” would not encourage their own children to pursue a career in medicine?</p>
<p>Kind of disheartening to read some of these. However, I have to say no one is writting about how they can barely make ends meet or face a lay off at 48 and your retirement plan disappeared last night.</p>
<p>It’s all relative, what might be some difficulties in one profession would be recieved as joyful to another. We all have problems with any profession. </p>
<p>I’ve encouraged my kids to head to medicine and vet sciences because warts and all, they still are careers that pay pretty well and will allow them to have a decent lifestyle. Compared to sweating out a client who wants insider information or a kick back or they will pull their portfoilio, government red tapes sounds pretty appealing after losing 50% of my income for having ethics. I would say it’s all relative, every profession has pressures. The question becomes what are you willing to put up with.</p>
<p>good point, they do say there’s no such thing as an unemployed physician…</p>
<p>About the unemployment issue - it is a competitive business, and “underemployment” causes doctors to leave their practices, move to a different state, etc. If you have a contract with a hospital - say you are a hospital based practice (anesthesiology, radiology, pathology, emergency medicine) - an administration, which is always trying to make a profit/break even has no problem voiding or not renewing contracts if they think they can get a better deal. With 90 days notice, not only you but your whole group could be out of a job. It’s not like getting a job is a matter of interview, they like you, and you start on Monday. Getting privileges at a hospital is a 6 to 9 month ordeal, and if you are foreign trained up to a year. When you have contract battles with the insurance company, the insurance company will pressure the hospital to make you accept their crappy payment, or they threaten the hospital’s contract. All the sudden the hospital is not so happy with your great services over the past 20 years, and think they can get a better deal with somebody else. “Donations” to the hospital are no more than the fancy “bribe”, or protection money the mob gets little businesses to fork out. In our wonderful state of Maryland, physician reimbursement is below the 25th percentile nationwide, but we are one of the most high cost of living areas in the country, and malpractice is outrageous, thanks to a state government controlled by trial lawyers.</p>
<p>Don’t have time to go into detail but to answer a previous question…I suspect the likelihood of meeting non-physician male partners decreases over time based on the enormous amounts of time you spend in clinic/on hospital rounds/on-call/reading, etc. Anecdotally, the women in my medical school class who I recall married early (i.e. before/during med school) often times married non-physicians. The women who married after med school tended to marry other physicians. I also worked with quite a few women physicians who were either divorced or had never married (not sure if they’re married now since I “retired” from practice after my third child was born).</p>
<p>As far as no one complaining about being underpaid; true, but my H is willing to make a third of what he made before in order to get his life back. Money doesn’t make up for everything else.</p>
<p>We wouldn’t have encouraged our kids to be doctors, but if we did it would’ve been a waste of time; both are clear that it’s about the last thing in the world they’d want to do.</p>
<p>Not all doctors are on call endlessly. I had a friend who became a pathologist who worked fairly regular hours and had a very interesting job.</p>