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Is Medicine For Me?

my chemistry teacher was nothing but suportive. To think how much I hated her at GCSE, too.

Well, I guess at GCSE I was a completely different student. Argumentative stoner skaterboy, hah.

Reply 41

graemematt

12

Renal

Medicine can't exist without science but you can practice medicine without being too involved in the science of it. If I had told you that at an open day would you carry it as gospel?

Yes! Tis a very valid point.

Reply 42

wrennatsworthy

Personally, I still have no idea if medicine is for me!

I don't think I'm actually going to know until I've been out on the wards in my clinical years. The first 3 years for me are mainly science-based with little clinical experience, which does have its advantages in that I will get a BA at the end, even if I don't do clinicals.

My advice is get some work experience: write letters to a couple of local hospitals (the office that dealt with F1 placements also dealt with work experience in my area). As you haven't picked your A levels yet, you've got plenty of time, pick some that leave your options open and see how it goes. I definitely kept changing my mind over the last couple of years!

Reply 43

jjkkll

ThePenguinMafia

Now try finding another university that does that : p

UCL
Imperial
St Georges

The three above offer compulsory Intercalated courses which include a BSc in anything of your choice

Kings
Baarts
Manchester

The above three offer optional Intercalated BSc's

Reply 44

AEH

8

To jjkkll: You're almost there with your spelling of Barts, although if you're really going for it you need at least four As. For example:

Baaaarts!

Or, for the more experience student:

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarts!

But you're doing well for a prefresher and practice makes perfect.

Reply 45

Renal

17

AEH

Or, for the more experience student:

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarts!

And for Baldrick... :colone:

Reply 46

AEH

8

Baldrick's could not be expressed with mere words on a screen. It would take something else entirely.

Reply 47

Saffie

11

AEH

but at least you don't often have to knowingly and willingly screw someone over for a greater benefit to someone else.

Surely you're doing that all the time. As a junior doctor, you only have a limited amount of time and a million things to do in that time, so you're going to end up having to sacrifice time you should give to one patient, for the treatment of another. Or beds, or cubicles, or even drugs when you're more qualified.

Infact you have to make loads of sarcrifices yourself in terms of time, money, energy just to run around a hospital all day and study for non-stop exams!

The thing is that I don't think you do make that great a difference to the world by doing medicine. If any of us decide not to bother with medicine, there's more than enough people willing to take our places at uni and our jobs! And they might even do a better job than us at the end of the day.

At the mo, you're looking at this fact as a good thing- you can do less damage!- but you can't have it both ways. To actually make a difference, you might be better off being a social worker, or an MP or even a writer :dontknow:

So you can just accept you're probably not going to change the world as a medic/surgeon, and do it anyway. It will be rewarding of course. (But then aren't most things)

I don't know if medicine's for you (or even for me). The best way to find out is work experience, as everyone's already said! Not just in medicine, but in the other things you're interested in too. :smile:

Reply 48

AEH

8

I agree with you there Saffie, you're not going to change the world as a doctor. The more good you to try do, the more bad you risk doing, what with the road to hell being paved with good intentions and all that. And the professions you mentioned all have that element to them. But I disagree with you in attitude in terms of your personal work. Yes, other people could fill our places if we were gone. But its not about other people, its about you. The thing is, by doing your job well you can actually make a positive difference to your patients that someone else may not have made and you can still work with at least good intentions. So you yourself can say you did something worthwhile and get some satisfaction from that, which is worth something.

Reply 49

Saffie

11

AEH

I agree with you there Saffie, you're not going to change the world as a doctor. The more good you to try do, the more bad you risk doing, what with the road to hell being paved with good intentions and all that. And the professions you mentioned all have that element to them. But I disagree with you in attitude in terms of your personal work. Yes, other people could fill our places if we were gone. But its not about other people, its about you. The thing is, by doing your job well you can actually make a positive difference to your patients that someone else may not have made and you can still work with at least good intentions. So you yourself can say you did something worthwhile and get some satisfaction from that, which is worth something.

Well yes, with one patient I might have a better rapport than another doctor. But whats to say person X who's also going for my job won't do a better job?

Also, we don't have much time to really build relationships with patients so our personal qualities won't make much difference (as long as you meet a basic standard of polite, friendly, understanding).

Reply 50

jjkkll

AEH

To jjkkll: You're almost there with your spelling of Barts, although if you're really going for it you need at least four As. For example:

Baaaarts!

Or, for the more experience student:

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarts!

But you're doing well for a prefresher and practice makes perfect.

lol

thanks ill give it a go

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarts!

hows that prof.?

Reply 51

juicyfruit

16

I think the fact that you are having to ask is Medicine right for you, it clearly isn't.
You've got to be really, really sure that it's what you want to do, you've got to be passionate about every aspect of it, but from what you've said, it doesn't seem like you are.

Reply 52

Sprout_hair

1

Well im thinking Medicine is very heavily Science related so if you dont really enjoy it enough then id question it.
Ive been on a Medicourse and a Premed course..
I think they were good because it did change my perspective about Medicine and made it seem more realistic..
Luckily, im not put off yet!
But you can always do a degree that you are really interested in then go into it via postgraduate?

Reply 53

nexttime

22

juicyfruit

I think the fact that you are having to ask is Medicine right for you, it clearly isn't.
You've got to be really, really sure that it's what you want to do, you've got to be passionate about every aspect of it, but from what you've said, it doesn't seem like you are.

of course. the rest of us just spontaneously know we want to do medicine and never have to actually decide.

Reply 54

juicyfruit

16

nexttime

of course. the rest of us just spontaneously know we want to do medicine and never have to actually decide.

Decide what?

Reply 55

nexttime

22

juicyfruit

Decide what?

to apply for a medical course, to make our A level choices, to enter into the medical prefession.

Reply 56

billet-doux

14

juicyfruit

I think the fact that you are having to ask is Medicine right for you, it clearly isn't.
You've got to be really, really sure that it's what you want to do, you've got to be passionate about every aspect of it, but from what you've said, it doesn't seem like you are.

Your statement isn't correct. Just because people may occassionally have doubts, doesn't mean that Medicine isn't for them. Many medical students habitually question whether Medicine is the correct career for them, it's natural. Having doubts could even work in your favour as you can research about other careers, and if you decide that those aren't for you, you'll become even more certain that Medicine is the right choice.

Reply 57

Saffie

11

juicyfruit

I think the fact that you are having to ask is Medicine right for you, it clearly isn't.
You've got to be really, really sure that it's what you want to do, you've got to be passionate about every aspect of it, but from what you've said, it doesn't seem like you are.

If you don't question it, you're stupidly naive.

Plenty of people do it without liking let alone being passionate about every aspect of it.

Reply 58

juicyfruit

16

piece_by_piece

Your statement isn't correct. Just because people may occassionally have doubts, doesn't mean that Medicine isn't for them. Many medical students habitually question whether Medicine is the correct career for them, it's natural. Having doubts could even work in your favour as you can research about other careers, and if you decide that those aren't for you, you'll become even more certain that Medicine is the right choice.

Yes I agree with you there but what I'm saying is that so many people go into the Medical fields because they harbour a belief that they want to be a Medical Professional, when it's really the idea of actually being a Doctor that they like the idea of, which is the position I think the OP is in right now.

Reply 59

Duran Duran

ThePenguinMafia

Now try finding another university that does that : p

You can basically get ANY natural science subject, even a degree in theoretical physics, after the first 3 years of your medicine course at Cambridge.

Is Medicine For Me?

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