Is MBBS best for you?: Choose your Career

Being a Doctor is an awesome profession, but it’s far from perfect.

 I’ll help you figure out if you’re one of those people. Focusing on reasons one should not go into medicine.

 Here are 4 signs that becoming a doctor isn’t for you. 

First:  Parental pressure.

If parental pressure is a significant factor in your motivation to go to medical school and become a doctor, do yourself a favor don’t do it. I’ve seen dozens of students enter medicine due to family pressures and it almost never ends up well for them. They usually either quit in the middle of medical school, or if they continue on for the profession and their life is heavy and readily apparent. Some have even told me that they wish they could quit, but they feel trapped because their family would disown them, or their significant student loans have them cornered. It’s a tough situation, no doubt about it. But if you continue down the demanding and arduous path of becoming a doctor because your family wants you to, it does not Endwell for you. 

Being honest sooner is almost always better than being honest later. The pain and hurt of quitting once you’re already a couple years into your training will almost certainly be worse than being up front and quitting sooner.

Number two: Hating people.

You know the type - the people that get easily frustrated by others’ seemingly endless stupidity or incompetence. If you’re not patient with people, then being a physician probably won’t make you happy. Some medical students joke that they’re pursuing pathology because they don’t like people, or even surgery so that they can put the patient under anesthesia so that they stop talking. But the reality is, every field in medicine requires good people skills and regular interaction with others.

 Sure, in pathology you’re not interacting with patients as much as a psychiatrist or primary care doctor would, but you still need to regularly coordinate with other health care providers to understand and analyze the specimens and provide tailored guidance to the healthcare team. Similarly, a lot of surgery involves face to face interaction and clinic time. Even as a surgeon, you’ll be spending about two days per week in clinic, not operating. And on surgery days, you’ll still be spending lot of time speaking with the patient and their family pre-op, with the healthcare team intra operatively, and with their family again post-op.

 Be warned, not all patients are kind or appreciative of your work. If this is a deal breaker for you, think longhand hard about your decision.

Number three: You’re Allergic to Hard Work.

Even if you’re incredibly intelligent and skated through high school or even collegewide great grades and minimal work, that will not sustain you. Trust me. I have a few friends who have brilliant minds, so getting into medical school was pretty easy for them. But the adjustment to the vast quantities of information you need to learn in medical school is a different animal entirely. I would argue that intelligence has less todo with being successful in medical school than you think. It’s more closely tied to work ethic. Medical school requires more memorization than critical thinking abilities, and that’s far less dependent on intelligence. And same with residency. The hours are long, and the amount of knowledge you need to acquire and hours of experience you need to put under your belt are nothing to scoff at. If your idea of hard work is a 9 to 5, five days per week, then medicine isn’t the right career path for you. 

Number four: Medicine Isn’t Your Main Focus.

If you’re like me and have a variety of professional interests and pursuits, then medicine will not be conducive to your long term vision. To be successful as a clinician, medicine has to be a central focus in your life. Sure, you can have side hustles and hobbies, I’m not arguing against that. But to make significant progress in other professional pursuits while pursuing medicine is neither feasible nor sustainable. Many medical schools do not allow their students to work on the side because of the intensity and rigor. Schools understand that medical school is expensive and you want to get a job to help pay the bills, but it’s much more likely to contribute to burnout and overall harm your medical school performance. In residency, your hours will be even more intense and your lifestyle even less conducive to pursuing side hustles. And depending on your specialty of choice, attending life won’t be a walk in the park either. Looking across all specialties, only 13% of physicians work fewer than 40 hours per week. Most of them work between 40 to 60 hours per week, and a quarter of them work between 60 and 80 hours per week. If you’re going into something surgical, expect your hours to be on the higher end of the spectrum. Now Before You Go, These four points aren’t meant to be hard rules, but if you do find yourself identifying with them, then I advise you seriously reconsider medicine as your career of choice. There are many other ways to make a comfortable and rewarding living with far less effort or sacrifice. Being a doctor is a special profession for a special breed of person. If after hearing these points you are stillest on becoming a physician, then more power to you.

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