When you leave school, you’ll have a chance to walk down two of the biggest and most popular career paths. These are law and medicine.
Say what you will about the rest of them, it’s clear that these are the careers that many people are eager to get into.
This is either due to the positive buzz around them or the high levels of pay attached.
But for medicine, there are big advantages and disadvantages to this career possibility. On this article, we’re going to look at whether it could be the right choice for you.
It’s A Long Road
Say what you will about doctors, but you know they were determined to get where they are. They’d have to be to face nearly twice as much time studying for their profession as people in other academic fields. It can take you up to six to eight years to become a fully qualified medical professional. Sure, in that time you will be working in hospitals and getting real experience. But at the same time, you won’t be in a level of power, and you’ll still be studying in school. You’ll have to work on assignments while treating your patients.
This long journey can make medicine one of the most stressful career choices by a long shot. It’s why a number of people choose one level below and instead become dentists or hygiene professionals. That said after you’ve completed all your training, and you’re a fully qualified doctor you’ll have a career that will keep you set for life.
The Pay Is Awful
Of course, before you get to that stage, you will need to deal with some incredibly shoddy, low levels of pay. You’re not going to be able to afford any of the luxuries you want in life that’s for sure. In fact, you’ll probably find yourself in huge levels of debt. That money is going to take a while to pay off as well. You’ll have to wait until your career reaches a certain point. Although, as we’ve already discussed the more years working, the higher your pay will rise.
When you’re coming to the end of your medical career, you might well be one of the highest paid professionals in the country. Not including insane levels of pay for careers such as professional sports of course.
You Choose Your Speciality
A lot of people dismiss medicine because they don’t like a certain aspect of it. For instance, not everyone has the fortitude to work on someone’s body and cut them open. But the great part of a medical career is that you don’t have to get involved in the parts you don’t like. You can easily pick and choose which parts suit you best and work towards a specialty.
If you’re particularly interested in examining skin, you might want to become a dermatologist. Or, if you want to work fighting cancer, you can work in radiology. It’s up to you and as you continue your path in medicine the right choice will become clearer. So don’t let medicine put you off because you hate blood.
Not all doctors have to deal with blood every working day. Although, if you’re incredibly squeamish, medicine might not be the best job for you. But you could always work behind the scenes, preparing the drugs and pharmaceuticals.
Helping People Every Day
We all like to think that our jobs and our career choice matters. We like to know that our work has an impact on someone, somewhere. But working in medicine is one of the only careers you can guarantee you’ll be helping people every day of your life. You’ll help cure diseases and treat patients to get them back on their feet.
At the end of the day you’ll have a great sense of purpose and feel like you’ve accomplished something wonderful.
Attachment
At the same time however, you will have to be careful how close you get to your patients. Patients want to feel a connection with doctors and nurses. But a close attachment can make it devastating when you lose a patient.
If you can’t handle this type of loss, again you might be better off working behind the scenes away from patients. But it still doesn’t mean a career in medicine isn’t the right choice for you.
Dangers
You do have to be aware that working in a hospital can be quite dangerous. At the most basic level, you’re more likely to get an illness or bug. Luckily, these days there are ways to reduce the risk of the spread of a virus. The QI Medical ET1000 is a new piece of equipment that will ensure pharmaceutical rooms are kept free and clean from bacteria. But even new tech like this can’t keep everyone safe all the time. Ultimately, it will be up to you to make sure you follow the right procedures to keep yourself healthy in the hospital.
Lawsuits
Then you need to think about the lawsuits. It’s not uncommon for doctors and nurses to be sued by patients. Particularly, if they think that the doctors in question has been responsible for their poor treatment. Or, if something has gone wrong during a surgical operation.
Hospitals and lawsuits seem to come hand in hand these days. But you have to remember that everyone uses the law as a weapon. It doesn’t matter what industry you work in. You’ll probably be sued at some point. It’s not just exclusive to the medical profession.
Conclusion
So is medicine the right career path for you? If you are willing to take the risks that come with this career choice, it could be. But you’re going to have to work hard for a long time before like you feel as though you’ve reached a level of success. At the same time though the benefits of this job will certainly make it all worth it. You will be helping people every day of your life and get a nice large salary to lessen the load.
