hey there, i guess this a branch off from my last topic, but i think i may be having 2nd thoughts about being a pediatrician. i have talked to a few docs and pedi's and they gave me conflicting information. they talk about how they work all the time and stuff and that kinda worries me. i really want to be a doctor but i don't want it to consume my life. it seems thats what its gonna do to me. i want to have a family and be there for them (cuz my parents weren't for me) and i want to be able to spend time with them. is this true? will i not have a life if i become a doctor? thanks http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif god bless!
~meagen~

I'm sure during the training and other times there will be times when you will not be seen much at home. I've heard of DRs often after med school working in a hospital on 20+hr shifts. So who ever you would marry or just a boyfriend would have to understand that from the start. On what life would be like with you. Some DR marriages make it, some don't.

Have you thought about maybe becoming a paramedic to see if you and whoever could handle the stress and strain of medical life.

You could think about becoming an RN instead. They sure do not work such long hours, although they work shifts and you would get more time off too. You could then get to be a Nurse Practitioner and doing this would allow you to spend more time with your family when you have one.

Good luck

RedHead,
Your fears are perfectly normal for someone in your shoes. It can be scary to weigh the pros and cons of different career options. It's good that you're asking questions and taking many opinions into consideration.

Medicine is indeed time-consuming. If you want to become a pediatrician and not take any time off, you're looking at 4 years of college, 4 years of med school, and 3-4 of internship and residency. So if you're a "striaght arrow," you'll have your life back at about age 32. But many medical residents take time to go have children--they don't finish their residency as quickly, but they need a family.

There aren't really "part time" pediatricians. Pretty much any job in pediatrics requires an on-call schedule, rounds at the hospital, and so on.

Again, I endorse the nurse practitioner plan. I'm one year away from getting my onw NP licensure and it's perfect for me. I like the fact that I don't have to be on call and I didn't have to spend years living in the hospital.

Also, it depends on if you like inpatient or outpatient medicine. I don't especially like the hospital, so I'm happy as an NP. Pediatricians--like other doctors--have to devote the majority of their time in training to hospitalized patients. In pediatrics, this often means medically complex cases: kids with mental retardation/developmental disability in addition to another chronic illness. It's not my cup of tea, but many people love it.

Finally, there's the financial issue. And it's scary. Med school is $120-$150,000 just for tuition. By the time you're able to pay back loans, it will cost about double that amount. Unfortunately, pediatrics tends to be one of the lowest-paying specialties, so it's even harder to pay back the loans.

Best of luck and don't hesitate to ask if you have other questions.

Mats.

okay i have been thinking this through and i hjave thought about a new approach to this. i decided that in fact that despite my love for kids, i do not want to be a pediatrician, or a ything that deals with me not being able to spend quality time with my family. but however this oprtion did develop in my mind taht i really do like...i think i want to be a normal MD family practitioner, open up my own office in a rural area. not only that but i do not want to limit my care to those who donnot have insurance(my brother died because we did not have insurance and enough money to pay for his needs) so i really really don't want to make insurance a matter of how well my care is for a person. i also want to make house calls, for people who are to sick to drive to my office..of course it would be a patient that i have previously seen, no strangers, but ireally wanna be one of those good hearted doctors http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif in fact, patch items is one of my biggest inspirations for wanting to help people and make them feel better. if i could have your opinions on this i would greatly appreciate it! thanks alot!
god bless-
meagen

Hey, if you want to be a great doctor like this, then rather than conventional MD training, I would strongly suggest that you go to Bastyr and train as an ND instead.

It is just that to me, your philosophy of trying to help people and not caring whether they have insurance or not and doing home visits and trying to help people in the best way that you can really does not fit in with MD training at all. If you want to go with this philosophy, why not heal naturally too, with herbal remedies, homeopathy and acupuncture? It makes a lot more sense to me.

I originally trained as an RN and then homeopathy and acupuncture and am now contemplating going to Bastry myself to get my ND. It was one of my practitioners that put this idea in my head, as he trained at Bastry himself and told me how great he thought their program was.

Anyway, ND's are trained fully in conventional medicine, but just get the extra training in naturopathy, homeopathy, herbal medicine and acupuncture. They are licenced in lots of States as primary care docs, but not all, so you could really make a difference in this way.

If you did not do this, then you could always train as an MD and then after this, go to Bastyr and get your ND too. If you did this, then a four year course would be cut significantly, as you could apply for advanced standing. MD's, DC's and DO's can apply for advanced standing status.

Anyway, good luck. I really admire your philosophy towards this, but from my standpoint, this does not seem to fit with being an MD at all. All the MD's I have ever seen have given me about 3 minutes of time and a prescription for meds that never seemed to work. It was going to see an ND that turned me around, when he gave me a full consultation of at least an hour and actually listened to everything I said. Wow.

Anyway, good luck.

I was thinking the same thing, from what you say, you really sound like you want to take the time to get to know your patients and work with them. There are many medical doctors out there, but there is a huge need for the naturopathic doctors, especially in rural areas! I live in a rural area and have to travel so far to a health and wellness center. Naturopathic doctors spend up to an hour and more with each new patient, really taking the time to go over the patients background and work with them in order to get to the root of the problem. They focus a lot on the patients diet and lifestyle, which is a big part of health, where mainstream doctors ignore these areas. For the growing need of Naturaopathic doctors, you may want to check into this. They work with all ages. Naturaopathic may be a more gratifying way to go, since you are worried about the dreary long hours of a medical doctor.

wow thanks! is there anywhere i can go to learn more about this profession?

Yes. Bastyr University in Seattle is one of the best for doing an ND and they run both 4 and 5 years courses. If you do the 5 year course, you can also combine your ND with an MS in acupuncture and oriental medicine. They have a great website for you to check out all the courses and you can also request a catalogue, either undergrad or postgrad.

As I trained in acupuncture and homeopathy, I was thinking of going there myself to finish the job properly so to speak and get my ND.

There is also the University of Bridgeport that runs 4 year ND courses and they also do acupuncture and chiropractic too and I think you can combine your ND with chiropractic over 5 to 5.5 years and acupuncture over 5 years too. I looked at the Bridgeport webpage and saw that one of the staff was an ND, DC and Lic Ac. Wow, what a great combination.

As I said before, ND's have the same training as MD's, however, they get that little bit extra with all the alternative techniques available. They are able to diagnose in the same way that MD's can, however, they are not able to treat with or prescribe conventional drugs, but they can treat using naturopathy, herbs, homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic. They are licenced to practice in most States as primary healthcare practitioners, however, not all.

If you don't like the idea of this, then your other possibility is to train as a Doctor of Osteopathy (DO) rather than an MD. They have exactly the same status as MD's and have exactly the same training, except with a little bit extra in osteopathic techniques. They can diagnose in the same way and can prescribe conventional meds, however, they also have that osteopathic alternative if they feel that it is appropriate for a particular patient.

From your philosphy, it just sounds as if you would do much better following an alternative pathway and would find it a lot more rewarding than the purely conventional. Alternative practitioners can give their patients more time too and can help them in alternative ways as well.

Your other option is also to go to conventional med school for 4 years and then go to somewhere like Bastyr or Bridgeport to get your ND after that. As you will already have qualified as an MD you could apply for advanced standing and get your course reduced in all the conventional med techniques and could maybe study the alternatives for a couple of years rather than 4.

However, if you are happy with the alternatives, then I would suggest that you go straight for the ND and bypass the MD altogether. The world needs more ND's rather than MD's and your whole philosphy seems to fit this a whole lot better.

Good luck

You don't need to work 24 hours a day if you are an MD. You do need to work up to 90 hours a week while you in residency training. Once you are done with your training everything depends on how much money you want to make. You can work in a VA clinic from 8am to 5pm without night calls or overtime for $120,000/year. If you a family practice doctor you may have to share call schedule with your colleagus unless you have a hospitalist to admit your patients.

Unfortunately, only 12 states and 4 provinces allow the practice of naturopathic medicine: Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Manitoba, Montana, New Hampshire, Ontario, Oregon, Saskatchewan, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. http://www.cnme.us/faqs.htm
I am not sore how much Naturopathic medicine practitioners make. Some sites report they only make $30,000 to $40,000 per year. I expected it to be more than that. http://www.webcoin.net/html/nmp.html

Hey, go for the ND training as this seems to fit with your philosophy and becoming a doctor is not all about making money.

Also, you should consider training as a DO possibly. This is training as a Doctor of Osteopathy. Exactly the same training as an MD and you can give drugs and prescribe too, but you get the natural Osteopathic bit and if you wish to go down the ND route at a later stage, then you can get advanced standing for your other training and can get your course reduced by half, form 4 to 2 years. You could do this, however, if you really want to practice naturopathic medicine, go for it and it sounds like you do.

Good luck

I am not in the medical field - just have major health issues and now legal ones caused by doctors who went in it for the money. These guys only worked no more than 4 days/week and even some of those were half days. I hate reading about how much a dr. makes. I am now joining the side of keep the malpractice laws such as they are and let those jerks be sued for top money. My life has been totally ruined by a group of merry malpractice and milk the insurance company thieves. I have a heart attack and ended up with 5 catherizations - 4 completely unnecessary because these morons refused to look into a pulmonary problem that I had in the past but sat without symptoms for many years until my MI. I changed drs once but remained in the same circle. I deliberately found new ones this time who did not know each other. I know have more serious damage than if they would have treated me 10 months ago.

So when I read all this trash about how much you can make and how little you have to work to do it, you had better start thinking that medicine is about helping making people well and keeping them that way. These doctors made over $50,000 from my insurance company in a year. I lost my job, my disability because they can not substantiate their diagnosis with tests, my life's savings, and am about to be evicted as a result. I have lost lung function which will never return and have permanent damage to my groin from all those unnecessary caths they did so close together. I can not play with my grandchildren because I can't breath. In other words - I lost my life. And you morons talk about going into a profession and how much you will make. It should be how much a person will loose if you are not dedicated and meticulous and caring and compassionate. You people should be banned from this profession.

Right, I'm sure it's all the fault of the doctors and has nothing to do with hospital policy. It doesn't exactly make it easier for doctors when they're expected to publish a lot, bring in grant money, and start clinical trials at the expense of time with their patients. God knows I'm not trying to provide excuses for incompetent doctors, but the demands placed upon doctors at prestigious hospitals severely tax their ability to provide first-rate care for their patients.

On an unrelated note, I wonder whether the quality of doctors coming out of medical schools would be improved if they abandoned the MCAT and judged applicants solely on grades, references, and interview.

On yet another unrelated note, I *fully* support laws that cap malpractice suits. Have you seen some of the atrocious suits people have filed? I refer primarily, but not exclusively, to the "wrongful birth" cases profiled on 60 Minutes not too long ago.

Right, I'm sure it's all the fault of the doctors and has nothing to do with hospital policy. It doesn't exactly make it easier for doctors when they're expected to publish a lot, bring in grant money, and start clinical trials at the expense of time with their patients. God knows I'm not trying to provide excuses for incompetent doctors, but the demands placed upon doctors at prestigious hospitals severely tax their ability to provide first-rate care for their patients.

On an unrelated note, I wonder whether the quality of doctors coming out of medical schools would be improved if they abandoned the MCAT and judged applicants solely on grades, references, and interview.

On yet another unrelated note, I *fully* support laws that cap malpractice suits. Have you seen some of the atrocious suits people have filed? I refer primarily, but not exclusively, to the "wrongful birth" cases profiled on 60 Minutes not too long ago.