Disinterested in Medicine?!

Why did you pick it others? Prestige? Respect? Were parents an influence, are you from a medical background? It obviously wasn't for money, because if you want money you wouldn't pick Medicine.

I understand what you mean, fed up or disinterested in the academics of the course, do u think ull enjoy it more when u reach the more clinical stages


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I'm a second year medical student, and was wondering if there's anyone else out there who shares some of my feelings towards medicine just now, or if there's anyone who can add a bit of advice or a thought that might improve my outlook. Hopefully this thread can be a point of friendly discussion. Anyway, here's the point:

I'm finding that medicine (without wanting to say it isn't for me just yet) is becoming something that I can't think positively about. The material isn't as interesting to me as I expected, I find that it's mundane and repetitive, and that the medical establishment, from student through to top academic, is an arrogant one.

I was as certain as possible that before I started medicine that it was perfect for me, and by getting here I have literally set out on fulfilling my dreams, so I am horribly surprised and deeply upset to find myself struggling to gain any happiness from the course, or the thought of my career to come.

Of course, many doctors and older students would be the first to tell me that I needn't worry about being put to sleep by lectures on peptic ulcers and that clinical experience at uni and ultimately the job satisfaction makes it all worth it. The problem is the later of those aspects is no longer selling the career to me. I'm becoming increasingly conscious that being a doctor is so commonly seen through rose-tinted glasses.

No doubting that it's a greatly rewarding, enviable job, but I feel that it just won't be ( and already isn't) all that it's hyped up to be, or it's more the case that there are so many other careers that for different reasons offer the same satisfaction. I just feel surrounded by peers who are so much more enthusiastic than me, but in a sort of twisted way, I feel like they're blinded by a false idea of medicine leading them into a perfect life. The fault probably lies with myself, personally being unable to find any academic satisfaction in the subject.

Ultimately, for myself, all that truly matters to me in a career is that I love what I do, and that I look forward to working. I can categorically say that status and wealth/comfortable living is not what I'm after. My aims in life are to contribute greatly into something I love, and I just don't see that happening by treating patients for 30 years then shortly after, kicking the bucket.
The biggest give away that I'm not sure about medicine is that I'm constantly, truly, jealous of friends studying subjects like marine biology, philosophy, economics, theoretical physics, i.e any discipline that they must honestly love purely for the content.

So that's about it . Reiterating, please comment if you feel similar sentiments towards medicine, or if you don't and want to tell my where I'm wrong! Of course, everyone has their different reasons for being in this career path. In the nicest possible way, please don't have a go at me if you aren't actively studying medicine/are a doctor ( in other words if you're an overly keen applicant ! ) .

Cheers guys

You've spoke my mind.

If i'm being brutally honest, medicine is dragging for me. I've yet to hit a single subject i feel genuinely interested about and i'm currently just doodling my way through medical school without any particular drive, passion or sustained effort. It isn't really challenging as such, as you say it's mundane, and doesn't particularly make you think as per say physics or maths i'd imagine would. On the otherhand, i'm willing to hash it out and see what clinicals is like before deciding anything further. I can it changing as such.

I think a lot of this stems from never being 100% set on medicine to begin with, i've always seen myself as a doctor and thus never considered anything else. But come sixth form i really took an interest in physics/maths and since then i've always had doubts.

I genuinely do doubt my ability as a doctor because i am so laissez-faire currently. I have no drive.

I guess i'll just have to see how things continue to pan out.

Not a medic, but I studied Vet Med and from 3rd year onwards I felt like I'd made a mistake. I'm now 3.5 years qualified and if I could have my time back I would chose something else. Unlike you I am still interested in medical science and am now trying to get into a more research-based job, which would be a lot easier had I studied one of the life sciences.

With regards to arrogance within the profession, I feel similarly about my profession. However, the only way this can be changed is for more people like yourself who are aware of the problem to remain within the profession. People without this arrogance undoubtedly give better service to their patients and this is an area you may get a lot of satisfaction from. I don't consider myself the greatest clinician, but a lot of clients ask for an appointment with me and thank me for treating them in a non-patronising way, which in itself backs up my claim about the arrogance.

I'm getting a bit off topic, but my advice would be to have a long think about this and and what your alternative plan would be if you were to drop out. Speak to some of the uni staff. Ultimately it will be hard to drop off the course you worked hard to gain entry to, but if you're SURE it's not for you, there is no point in spending the next 3 years of your life just I say you completed the course. Good luck


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I think you might have hit the nail on the head when you said you've always seen yourself as a dr and never considered anything else. I'd definitely agree. It's good to hear that I'm not alone anyway, not that I suspected I was. Of course I want to categorise myself seperately from the people who drop out early on the basis that I do want to get the degree for sure, I just feel like I'd be selling my soul if I kept at it any longer than that. But yeah, clinicals could, and hopefully will, change my mind. I'd really love to love medicine just now!

1. Don't be focused on becoming a doctor - there are so many things you can do with a medical degree! Just a few examples:
-phd after preclinicals and going into research (clinical or laboratory) or teaching
-forensic medicine
-(medical) law
-politics
-also practicing medicine can be very different from the stereotyped picture - think about volunteering, army doctor, etc, etc..

I think this is very important and good advice. But you need to still be motivated to do well in the course.

One regret of mine in sticking at finishing the degree is that I was content to just scrape through the exams. If you want a good shot at getting funding for PhD you have to have been getting pretty good exam results. (You also need to be passionate about the subject your PhD is based around)



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I had quite poor outlook of medicine when I applied since expected silly long working hours (100+ a week), lots and lots of old terminal patients with no hope of improving their lives, tons of exams, no social life, being in debt from lots of years of study, paying to sit exams after graduating and paying for GMC and Royal College registration and generally being poor for many years after graduating. I hated scientific methodology in A level too. But I still chose to do it XD

As for clinical years, I really found third year a drag. I'm partially convinced that it was because we weren't integrated into wards very well. In some rotations we'd only be on a ward for a day or two before moving on. It means that the staff don't get used to having the same students regularly and over time become accustomed to ignoring the students that do come on because they are never 'part of the team', just faceless entities that sweep onto the ward, hang around for a few hours and bugger off. I found clinical medicine to be even more mundane than the pre-clinical years. I don't really enjoy sticking needles in people (something so many of my year group were thrilled to partake in) or many other of the practical tasks. I expected clinical training to be so much better and I'm hoping that my 4th and 5th years will change my mind and re-kindle some of that pre-medical school gumption.

This is exactly how I feel on the wards - 3rd year has been very disorganised on the starting module so far. We weren't given any firms so there's no-one to report to in the morning. The patients have all been seen 100 times by other students, and rarely have conditions relevant to the ones I've supposed to have been learning about (endo, renal, neuro, infectious diseases).

Started out spending my copious spare time in the library reading but to be honest I'm struggling to find the motivation to even do that now. Hoping that things are going to pick up in the next module starting next week (cardiology, resp & acute) when we'll be attached to firms and wards. But I've been 'hoping that things are going to pick up...' for what seems like ages!

In retrospect, it's not all bad. Once every couple of weeks or so I'll get a tricky question right, or ask a good question to a patient, or suggest a difficult diagnosis that turns out to be right. But the rest of the time it just feels like I'm wasting everybody's time, including my own.

Again, the thing that I've enjoyed the most by far was intercalating. Kind of set my sights on a half-research, half-hospital career... met a few people in medical job shares and that sort of thing which might be an idea. My med school grades are picking up every year but I'll never be at the top of the class so I'm hoping a good intercalated mark will see me into a post-grad degree =\