Want to study medicine but not sure if it is for me...

Hi all,

I am 27 now and I am seriously considering a career switch to medicine but I am not sure if I am really suitable doing it.

I am really interested in studying medicine. I have been having some health issues (moderate sleep apnea) since I was young and it was never diagnosed until very recently.

I work in finance and my health has deteriorated quite a lot over the years because of this and also because of the long hours I worked opver the past years (80+ a week on average). I want to have a reset and hope that being a doctor I can know more about the illness to take care of myself and my family and also have a decent stable career.

There are a few things I am not too sure though. I have been doing some research on studying medicine but I also want to hear your experiences.

- I am not really afraid of blood but I still feel gross / uncomfortable looking at human organs in a dissection. I watched some Acland myself which I am ok, but when I am watching some live dissection section, it just feels worse and a bit nauseating to me. I am not sure if it will be worse in school when we are looking at bodies treated with formalin and I heard the smells is even worse. Or do most students feel uncomfortable in the beginning and get used to it over time? Have you seen students actually drop out of a program because they cannot stand it?

- Also, I have a bit of needle phobia or maybe jus low tolerance to pain. I am quite scared of the needles when I had vaccines / blood test. It is not like I will pass out but my pain tolerance is just very low. I had a minor laser surgery in a clinic a few years ago and I was feeling being whipped for 30 minutes despite the doctor injected 3 shots of local anesthesia to the area during surgery. I was told by him that most person would be ok with 1-2 shots and I just feel myself being too weak..

I know as a doctor, you are not really experiencing the pain yourself but I always feel a bit sorry if I see someone undergoing something painful. And I am not sure if I would ever need to do something such as lumbar puncture or anything that maybe painful during my training

- Last thing is about pursuing specialist training down the road after graduation. With these issues I have, I guess I am not suitable doing most specialties. I am not sure what I can / want to do down the road. But personally I believe I will be happy enough working as a GP and would be even better if I can specialize in something that is not surgical in nature (such as psychiatry or radiology I guess? I know they are very different though).

Would it be very unrealistic? I will try my best to overcome all these but I just want to know if I can still manage to become a doctor if I failed to overcome some of these issues...

I understand the post is a bit long and I am feeling a bit lost when I am writing it myself... But thanks a lot in advance!!

Reply 1

PAR2MED

I think your best option at this point is to try and get some experience working in healthcare, and to get a feel of what the job is like. That will perhaps help you decide if it's what you want to do, and whether the challenging aspects for you will be a deal breaker.
Ultimately as a junior, you'll be required to take blood, give injections, and work long hours. Apart from occupational health clearing, getting injections isn't a big part of the job! (unless you are clumsy :rofl:

)

I think once you have an idea of how much of an impact these areas have on you, you'll also have a better idea about specialities. Specialist training is obviously a long way away for you, so you'll have plenty of time to decide which one you want to do.

Reply 2

utilitymaker

Original post by kaion76

I want to have a reset and hope that being a doctor I can know more about the illness to take care of myself and my family and also have a decent stable career.

Is this the only reason why you want to do medicine? Learn more about the job.

I went to med school, hated it and left a few a months ago. While age is no barrier, it's a long and expensive slog for someone in your position. I checked your post history and apparently you're an international who has an econ degree?

Best case scenario, you get into graduate entry medicine (very competitive): 4 years (maybe 5) medical school with extortionate fees, 2 years of FY (low pay), 3 - 10 years of further study until you reach GP or consultant posts. As you are someone who works in finance, it's worth knowing that you may very well be taking a pay cut switching to medicine. I have lots of medic friends who wish they went into finance instead.

You should really think about if you want to do it. Read about the job, speak to doctors and try and get some work experience.

As a medic you have to do painful things to patients sometimes, you'll probably get used to it. I hated blood, guts and needles but that quickly faded, it's not so bad when you're fully kitted up with gloves, apron and mask.

As for full body anatomy dissections, they're very weird in the beginning - it's a dead body on a table lol (one girl in my year fainted), but you also get used to them. To protect modesty, you only expose the part of the body you are dissecting. The face is always covered.

Spoiler

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 3

Turning_A_Corner

I’d second everything said about work experience. Be careful also of the bracket trap. It’s interesting that you’re not considering retraining in SLT, OT or PT or nursing. Interesting that you went for a career where you’ll be aiming for the same income bracket that you’re currently in. Whilst there’s a certain sense in doing that, I do wonder if you’d be as motivated by any of those other careers, which have a much shorter training period and nowhere near as much blood and medical stabbery (nursing excepted) but also enable you to help people and earn more of a social reward than your current role.
There’s nothing wrong with being attracted to the stability and final salary of medicine. But when you bring up so many reasons not to do it and those as the main reasons that you are doing it, it makes me think that you would struggle to sustain your interest long enough for it to actually pay off. It sounds like you’re looking to make a sideways move within your current income bracket. Maybe a better thing would be a diagonal move within your current career column. Reduce your hours, find another related role in a social enterprise perhaps? Just alternatives to consider.