“I don’t understand why you would want to waste your 20s”, “Medicine isn’t what it used to be, don’t go into it”. These were the types of comments I would hear as a pre-med student all of which I learned to quickly ignore. I would even get comments from physicians telling me not to be a doctor because “the system is changing for the worse”. In this post I wanted to break down some of these comments and talk about why if you want to be a physician you should 100% still go for it. Of course this journey is going to be hard, it is going to require sacrifice, but if it is truly what you want, then don’t listen to other people’s comments, because in reality these aren’t even comments, they are just excuses others are trying to project onto you.
WASTING YOUR 20s?
So this whole notion of how you are going to be wasting your 20s while in medical school and during your residency is complete nonsense. If wasting means I won’t be able to go out and drink every weekend for the next decade, I think I can pass. In reality the only thing that is being wasted there is your liver. Contrary to popular belief, I have found that there is a lot more downtime than I anticipated. A career in healthcare is more than feasible and I’m here to point out a few reasons why.
Additionally, not everyone in med school is even in their 20s. There’s actually a 41 year old student in my class who is just now starting this journey as a second career. I don’t know about you, but I find this extremely inspiring and shows the true passion that people going into this field have for it. While I am only an MSI and second and third year are supposedly more time-intensive, I have found by staying up to date on the content, reviewing each day, and studying hard before exams, that there is a sufficient amount of down time on the weekends when you don’t have an exam coming up of course.
It’s all about productivity. A transition I made that has given me a lot more free time is going to bed a little earlier and waking up early. By going to bed at 11 and waking up at 6, I get a full 7 hours of sleep and have found that I am more focused studying in the morning than I would have been staying up late to review. I’ll usually alternate my morning time between working out or getting 2 hours of studying done before class. This extra time really does add up and is a strategy I wish I used more as an undergrad! I go to the gym more now then I did in college, I play pickup basketball at least twice a week, and have time to work on my business. There’s even time to go out with friends and I have plenty of classmates who have been hitting bars an impressive number of times. I’ve personally been doing a little less of that since graduating college, but my point is, there truly is a ton of free time if you stay organized and don’t leave things until last minute. So please don’t be afraid of applying to medical school or being a pre-med student just because you’re afraid of “wasting” your 20s.
A Career in Healthcare Isn’t What it Used to Be?
Also this phrase of being a physician is not what it “used to be” has been getting thrown around and I’d like to to dissect exactly what that means. This is a comment that pre-med friends of mine said physicians told them and I too have heard it on occasion. While I can’t tell you exactly what is going on in the minds of the people making these statement, from my perspective, it likely has something to do with the fact that the healthcare landscape is changing from what it was like 20 years ago when almost all physicians were their own bosses.
Healthcare is moving towards a system in which most private practices are being bought out by health systems or hospitals. Thus, physicians are now employees of the health system which from the physician’s point of view most certainly has both its advantages and disadvantageous.
However, it nonetheless is very different and one thing that most people do not like is change.
The good news for those of us just starting our journeys in healthcare, is that this is the landscape that most of you are going to be trained in anyway. You will be used to all the Electronic Health Record requirements, and even trained in using them while meeting with patients. I just recently had my first experience taking a history from a patient and I can tell you that I personally disliked the feeling of taking notes during our encounter. However, my goal is to spend the next four years navigating this obstacle so that it takes little away from the patient-physician relationship. This is the type of training that future healthcare professionals will have and hopefully we can continue to better improve our skills as clinicians, so that no patient ever feels they are just a checklist of symptoms being placed into an EHR.
In regards to the loss of autonomy many physicians are experiencing as they become salaried employees, it is important to note that this is not the case for all physicians. Specialties such as dermatology, orthopedics, plastics (yes these are all extremely competitve) still operate mainly as private practices and it is a lot easier to maintain autonomy. Therefore, this is just one more factor to consider when deciding on a specialty.
Also, I do not necessarily think that working as a salaried employee is necessarily a bad deal as you will have a more structured schedule and don’t have to pay for the crazy high costs of malpractice insurance! I have spoken to ER physicians who thoroughly enjoy the fact that once they finish their shift, they know they do not have to go back in until the next one.
Ultimately, whichever path you chose, to work for a hospital, in academia, or private practice, as long as you are well informed on how the system works and know your own preferences, there is no reason for it to stop you from going into medicine.
But it’s Just Too Hard!
The last excuse that I hear a lot is that being pre-med is just too hard or getting into medical school is going to be impossible so I’m just not going to do it. Well, I am hear to tell you that if you really want it, if this is your dream and your passion, then you can get into medical school and you can become a doctor. I understand that there are certain requirements you need to get through, you have to take all your prerequisites, you have to take the MCAT and have a decent GPA, but there are many different paths to becoming a physician. You can go to an MD school, a DO school, and there are even lot of schools overseas that will allow you to get a residency back in the states.
Also, just because the school has an average MCAT score and GPA doesn’t mean you can’t get in if you are below it! I think a lot of people forget what the definition of an average is. Just in case you missed that day of algebra I, it means that applicants will get in with higher scores, but that also they will get in with lower ones! If you are passionate about becoming a physician than be confident in yourself because you might not be the smartest person in the class, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work the hardest. Working hard is the independent variable here. You can control it, so why not take advantage.
My Final Thoughts on Having A Career in Healthcare
Ultimately, the decision to pursue a career in healthcare as either a physician a nurse a PA or any other type of provider is a personal one and there are a lot of different factors that go into it. However, if you have the passion for practicing medicine then there’s really nothing that should be holding you back. I won’t lie, I thought long and hard about making the decision to be pre-med and apply to medical school and there are a number of measures I took to make sure of my decision. I did extensive shadowing, did my homework on what it was going to take to get through pre-med, and also did a lot of self-reflection, taking the time to understand my own personality traits and whether this field is something that is right for me. With every day that goes by I can more confidently say that there is no other field that excites me more than going into a career in healthcare and being a physician, as there is so much you can do in this field.
First and foremost, you really are making a difference in others lives, and I know that may be a cliche reason but it’s the truth. There are few other areas of work where you may be with people on their worst days and what you do will leave a lasting impression on them for the rest of their lives. Hopefully, even on those worst of days you can do something as a provider that can change an outcome or at the very least lift the spirits of another person. This type of potential for impact coupled with all the other exciting parts of working in healthcare truly puts me in awe of this industry. I could not be more excited about getting into this field and if this is how you feel then you should 100% put everything you have into getting through pre-med or pre-pa or pre-dent or whatever it is so that you can get into that graduate school and you can achieve your dream.
Adam Nessim
Founder of All Things Healthcare
MD Candidate at Albert Einstein College of Medicine