Hello SDN. This is my first post.
So here's my situation:
I'm currently a high school junior at a competitive private school. I was a B student during my freshman and first-half of sophomore years; now I'm an A student. Any past feelings of apathy or lethargy are gone.
I now put all my energy into pursing a career path which will yield a large amount of wealth, status, and fulfillment. In other words, if I won the mega-millions lottery tomorrow or ten years from now, I would still pursue a profession because I'd feel as though I didn't earn the right to all that money.
Let's cut to my concerns for medicine (in order from most concerning to least):
#1) The future of medicine as it pertains to the rise of government subsidized health-care
- I've listened to hospital administrators and physicians through my school's entrepreneurship club, and they all agree that Obamacare has had a detrimental effect on the field as a whole.
- Physicians also state that medicine isn't what it used to be with the increasing regulations, lack of independence, decreasing salaries, etc (you probably know more about this than I do).
- Ideally, I would've wanted to bust my tail to get into a good med school, bust my tail to get into a good specialist residency and eventually start my own practice after gaining enough experience.
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems as though the reimbursements for specialists is decreasing as we try to fulfill the demand for primary care physicians.
- This in turn is discouraging to a person who wanted to combine his great business mind with the fulfillment of medicine.
#2) The degradation of medicine as a profession in general
- This short video best summarizes my feelings:
- So in short, (please don't take this as an insult) it seems as though more and more "average intelligence" people are being accepted to medical schools.
- Like Huckabee said, if the brightest people know they can make a lot more money nowadays than the average physician (taking into account debt, malpractice, etc) by going into finance, they'll just do that.
- Those empty spots are then filled by "average" people who in the end become pawns to the system.
- Practicing medicine is an extremely noble profession, but if I know that people are going to try to take advantage of my compassion, I'd be smart enough to be that "business guy" instead.
- I apologize if I sound paranoid or something to that extent.
#3) Decrease in salaries
- I'm assuming this mostly applies to specialties, but I could be wrong.
- This really pertains to the aforementioned concerns
- Let's be honest, if you're a PCP who is being compensated not all that much more than a CNP (again taking into consideration the debt, increased stress, etc), would you honestly still become a doctor if you had half a brain? Probably not. And if you said yes, I think you're a great person for being so selfless but the majority of human beings don't think like that and those people usually are taken advantage of by others.
When it comes to me:
- Yes I would enter medicine for the money; again money without fulfillment is meaningless to me.
- I'm fairly well rounded when it comes to my school curriculum; I don't find one subject to be particularly challenging or less interesting.
- I think I'm a very malleable person; meaning I know I could succeed in law or business school as an alternative if I put my mind to it.
- I don't believe the arbitrary "do what makes you happy" saying. I will be happy doing something where I make good money while still living a life of significance.
- I'm more of an introvert, however I'm competent when it comes to communicating with people, public speaking, etc.
The money aspect:
At this point (if you've made it this far, thank you) you're probably thinking this kid is arrogant and wants to go into medicine for the wrong reasons. That could be true, maybe not. I've been seriously considering medicine in addition to law and business in the back of my head for years now. I've had exposure to all (hospital volunteering, mock trial, family business, CNP mother, etc). I hope to shadow a physician in the near future.
I'm going to give you my perspective on being a physician in my ideal world:
Accepted to med school: four years of busting my tail to get into a good residency
During or after med school (may not be compatible with future plans): Take advantage of the programs offered by the armed forces where you serve as a medical officer for two years give or take; in turn they pay for a good chunk of your debt.
Residency (presumably a selective specialty): Bust my tail for 3+ years on minimum wage pay to gain experience; drive a beat up prius; live in the projects aka misery etc.
Fast forward to ideal end point: I am now 35 years old with my own interventional radiology clinic in a rural/suburb like state. I'm making 300k plus though still working like a dog.
I've decided to remain celibate and abstain from a relationship for the sake of putting all my energy into my career (At the very least I wouldn't have a family for sure). As the old saying goes, "if you want to be a working parent, pursue X. If you want to be a doctor, be a doctor." <--- (we can elaborate on this some other time)
You could call me a workaholic to say the least. I'm living in either a small house or a nicer apartment despite me now being an established physician. There is one (or a few) thing however which keeps me ticking other than my toxic ambition: My brand new (circle one) Porsche 911/Lamborghini Huracan/Ferrari Italia/AMG S63 sitting in the garage (on a lease of course).
The only time I really have to enjoy my money is on the drive to and from the clinic since I'm pretty much working seven days a week.
Other than the cars and associated maintenance costs, I'd be a pretty frugal guy.
So there it is a nutshell. Judge me all you want; I don't judge your hobbies.
So congrats on getting this far! I really do appreciate it.
Here a few closing questions:
1) So what do you do to alleviate the burn out, stress, etc of practicing medicine?
2) I have a friend who's father is an anesthesiologist; these were his very words, "he gets paid a load of money but he literally has no time to enjoy it...don't be an anesthesiologist". After visiting his mansion of a house and seeing the poor guy on his cell phone the entire time talking about his work, I legitimately felt bad for him. I also just found out that the anesthesiologist himself had to go into surgery recently, though for what reason I do not know.
Is this the lifestyle to be expected? At age 60 to be in poor health with literally no time to get your thoughts together? (not that I mind it of course as long as I'm in good shape - aka hitting the gym as much as possible and hormone replacement therapy
)
3) If you could do it all over, would you do it again?
I probably left out a lot of essential info in this post, but then again it's long enough so I'll stop now.
Thank you for me taking up 10 minutes of your precious time.
Kind Regards
