Is being a doctor worth the constant hassle?

Do you think people would do it if it weren't? It's going to be a highly stressful career demanding a lot of hard work (physically and emotionally), but it's clearly also--for most people--very rewarding. It's going to be particularly hard work just after medical school but the further on in your career you get, the more flexibility you will have. It will also depend on the specialty you follow. In some you may well achieve a normal 9-5 or close to it.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by MJK91

Do you think people would do it if it weren't? It's going to be a highly stressful career demanding a lot of hard work (physically and emotionally), but it's clearly also--for most people--very rewarding. It's going to be particularly hard work just after medical school but the further on in your career you get, the more flexibility you will have. It will also depend on the specialty you follow. In some you may well achieve a normal 9-5 or close to it.

Thanks 😊 medicine has always been the dream for me but I wouldn't want to give up being a mother someday...

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Reply 3

Sarky

Errr you don't need to give up on being a mother. Is it difficult? Hell yes. But you don't give up all if your free time. Only you can decide if the balance is right for you.

Reply 4

Democracy

20

HouseOfRichman

Thanks 😊 medicine has always been the dream for me but I wouldn't want to give up being a mother someday...

You can still have a family and be a doctor. It really depends on where you want to draw the line - you could pick a more family friendly specialty, do less than full time training, take time out etc.

Medicine is certainly more of a way of life than "just a job", however, that doesn't mean you have to live like a nun...

Reply 5

GANFYD

I have been a doctor for 24 years and am a Mum to 3 children (17, 15 & 12). I love my children more than my life, but also enjoy my job and find it fulfilling and rewarding. I am a GP at present, working 3 days a week, but have friends with children in just about every Specialty. I'm not sure any of us work 9-5, but Medicine teaches you to multi-task and parenting just polishes this skill. I have spent many years tired, and at times feeling pulled in 2 directions, but I have a good support system (not family, Medicine often means you move away from them) and although I am in the lucky situation of not having to work (hubbie is also a doctor), I do it because I enjoy it. Anything worth the effort in life is hard work, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it! Good luck!

Reply 6

nexttime

22

The uncertainty of where your next job is going to be is more of a barrier than the actual hours tbh. Whilst training anyway.

Reply 7

Brachioradialis

Original post by nexttime

The uncertainty of where your next job is going to be is more of a barrier than the actual hours tbh. Whilst training anyway.

Easy, just come first in your class, nail every examination with top grades on first attempt in further training, and pick the most uncompetitive specialty. What could possibly go wrong...

Nightmares of working in High Wickham.... eeeesh.

Reply 8

OP

Thanks for all the ideas... I carelessly read a blog about why not to be a doctor and I'm now paranoid I will spend my life as a tired, friendless, and broke doctor 😂

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Reply 9

DorianGrayism

19

Original post by HouseOfRichman

Thanks for all the ideas... I carelessly read a blog about why not to be a doctor and I'm now paranoid I will spend my life as a tired, friendless, and broke doctor 😂

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Which blog?

Reply 10

Le Nombre

16

Plenty of doctors have kids. NHS Trusts are generally pretty good employers, looking at it from the outside excessively so, and generally have good policies in place on part time working, maternity etc.

Reply 11

OP

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/abinazir/2005/05/23/why-you-should-not-go-to-medical-school-a-gleefully-biased-rant/

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Reply 12

ForestCat

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/abinazir/2005/05/23/why-you-should-not-go-to-medical-school-a-gleefully-biased-rant/

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Original post by HouseOfRichman

A quick glance of that post shows me a) its American but b) its not far off the truth. Medicine isn't all butterflies and roses. Its hard. And you're likely to be screwed over by the government several times during your career. But there will be so many moments that make up for it and make you glad you stick with it.

Reply 13

ryanb97

15

Original post by nexttime

The uncertainty of where your next job is going to be is more of a barrier than the actual hours tbh. Whilst training anyway.

What do you mean by this ?
Surely there is a bit of competition in parts of the country but it can't be super competitive can it?

Reply 14

nexttime

22

Original post by ryanb97

What do you mean by this ?
Surely there is a bit of competition in parts of the country but it can't be super competitive can it?

I mean physically where. Some training jobs have you move hospital every 6 months (within a deanery, but deaneries can be large). If you're going for a competitive speciality you might have to move the entire length of the country multiple times, or take up a PhD which requires more moving and slashes your income for 3 years. Not very conducive with wanting to build a family.

You only get a job where you can be relatively certain you're staying in one place once you're a consultant.

Reply 15

Asklepios

19

Original post by nexttime

I mean physically where. Some training jobs have you move hospital every 6 months (within a deanery, but deaneries can be large). If you're going for a competitive speciality you might have to move the entire length of the country multiple times, or take up a PhD which requires more moving and slashes your income for 3 years. Not very conducive with wanting to build a family.

You only get a job where you can be relatively certain you're staying in one place once you're a consultant.

Yep, both my parents are doctors and there was a time when one had a job in South Wales and the other in Aberdeen...

Reply 16

Brachioradialis

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/04/04/piecework

Christ, Atul Gawande really has a way with words to show you how not easy it is being a 'highly paid' doctor in the USA.

Reply 17

Ronove

Original post by MJK91

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/04/04/piecework

Christ, Atul Gawande really has a way with words to show you how not easy it is being a 'highly paid' doctor in the USA.

In the mid-eighties, doctors who spent an hour making a complex and lifesaving diagnosis were paid forty dollars; for spending an hour doing a colonoscopy and excising a polyp, they received more than six hundred dollars.

Starting to understand where a certain recent poster may have got their bizarre ideas about the value of a GP's work from: an arbitrarily-decided monetary value put on their time.

Reply 18

username1236842

8

I think it's important not to get too focussed on the disadvantages of junior doctor life as for most of your working life you will be a GP or a consultant.
I'm now 50 have spent over 20 years as a GP and have 15 or so years of work as a GP ahead of me. I do 5 sessions of GP work a week plus 1 session a week as a speciality doc in dermatology at the local DGH so plenty of time for family and social life.
The government is constantly changing what it wants you to do, although the patients and their ailments change less. Other jobs like teaching or working in business are constantly changing too though, at least my job is fairly secure.
It gets less stressful as you get more experienced and better at it (and more tolerant of the fact that you aren't omniscient and will sometimes get it wrong, and that you can't make some people happy no matter what you do)

Reply 19

OP