Stuck between chasing MD or CAA..

[Dreytonk]

I’m currently 24 and I’m not that far in my undergraduate courses. By the time I finish and would apply to Anesthesiologist Assistant or MD programs, I would be 28.

With that being said, I come from a completely different background than medicine, but have always held a high interest in it. Within the past year, I’ve started to really focus on my diet, mental health, reading a lot of books, and overall have become more and more drawn to the idea of medicine as a whole.

One of my career goals would be to write books, teach, give speeches, and help others in ways beyond medicine. When I graduated high school, it was with a 2.4 GPA. I had no direction in life, an overall lack of purpose, and dealt with depression for years. I was so depressed at one point, I couldn’t get myself to go to work and ended up selling my car to live off the money from it. I was in a very serious low, but have been able to come out of it after a change in diet, mindset, and with a growing knowledge that I would compliment to my extensive reading on topics related to psychology and neurology. This is another reason I’ve contemplated med school, as the topic of neurology is extremely interesting to me, but more in the sense of how the brain works and not necessarily working with stroke patients (not to sound rude).

I want a career and life of purpose in medicine, but I’m unsure of which route to take. As a CAA, I would be able to do all the things I aspire to do, but this would come at the cost of (I’m assuming) respect, as I would be more respected as not only a physician but an author. On the other hand, I don’t want to become a doctor for the wrong reasons.

At the end of the day, I want to help people get through things in their life. I want to study the physiology of the human body. I want to research the effects of diet in the microbiome. I want to become an author and give motivation to those in similar situations to when I was 18. I want to give speeches to those who could use an uplifting voice from someone who’s done great things in their life. I want to do all these things, but I’m unsure which approach would help me more.

I’m also interested in having a family, marrying my long-time girlfriend, keeping up with my physical health, investing in real estate, and the like. My biggest concern is the lifestyle of an MD, combined with the ~ 7 extra years of commitment, may not be the best path. I think I would be a great doctor and I will always have a love for helping those in need, but I don’t want to go to med school (if I can) for the wrong reason.

Sorry for the rant.

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[CheeseIsLife]

the topic of neurology is extremely interesting to me, but more in the sense of how the brain works and not necessarily working with stroke patients (not to sound rude)

I hope I'm not misinterpreting what you're saying, but it sounds like you're not in love with the idea of working with patients. If you wanna take classes and study neuroscience, then get involved with neuroscience research as an undergrad and get the experience to determine if you'd like to get a PhD in it. It also sounds like you like the idea of medicine because of the prestige it brings, which in my opinion is not a great reason for going through the trouble of medical school. I'm not sure where your motivation for being an anesthesiology assistant comes from.... I mean, it's a great program for getting involved in clinical work, working with patients alongside doctors in a cool setting, and it doesn't require as big an investment of time in terms of preparing an application. But it doesn't relate in any other way to all the other things you mentioned.

Your OP listed your deep interest in several different things, none of which strictly relate to each other. Getting into medical school is the most challenging of all of these, and will require 4+ years of hard effort on your part. It will require 100% of your focus. What you should do is try to find an opportunity to shadow some doctors, then do some kind of clinical volunteering. This gets you exposure to medicine to see if it's something you're really interested in, and if you end up applying it will go on your application.

 

[Goro]

I’m currently 24 and I’m not that far in my undergraduate courses. By the time I finish and would apply to Anesthesiologist Assistant or MD programs, I would be 28.

With that being said, I come from a completely different background than medicine, but have always held a high interest in it. Within the past year, I’ve started to really focus on my diet, mental health, reading a lot of books, and overall have become more and more drawn to the idea of medicine as a whole.

One of my career goals would be to write books, teach, give speeches, and help others in ways beyond medicine. When I graduated high school, it was with a 2.4 GPA. I had no direction in life, an overall lack of purpose, and dealt with depression for years. I was so depressed at one point, I couldn’t get myself to go to work and ended up selling my car to live off the money from it. I was in a very serious low, but have been able to come out of it after a change in diet, mindset, and with a growing knowledge that I would compliment to my extensive reading on topics related to psychology and neurology. This is another reason I’ve contemplated med school, as the topic of neurology is extremely interesting to me, but more in the sense of how the brain works and not necessarily working with stroke patients (not to sound rude).

I want a career and life of purpose in medicine, but I’m unsure of which route to take. As a CAA, I would be able to do all the things I aspire to do, but this would come at the cost of (I’m assuming) respect, as I would be more respected as not only a physician but an author. On the other hand, I don’t want to become a doctor for the wrong reasons.

At the end of the day, I want to help people get through things in their life. I want to study the physiology of the human body. I want to research the effects of diet in the microbiome. I want to become an author and give motivation to those in similar situations to when I was 18. I want to give speeches to those who could use an uplifting voice from someone who’s done great things in their life. I want to do all these things, but I’m unsure which approach would help me more.

I’m also interested in having a family, marrying my long-time girlfriend, keeping up with my physical health, investing in real estate, and the like. My biggest concern is the lifestyle of an MD, combined with the ~ 7 extra years of commitment, may not be the best path. I think I would be a great doctor and I will always have a love for helping those in need, but I don’t want to go to med school (if I can) for the wrong reason.

Sorry for the rant.

CAA all the way

 

[gyngyn]

CAA

 

[Dreytonk]

I hope I'm not misinterpreting what you're saying, but it sounds like you're not in love with the idea of working with patients. If you wanna take classes and study neuroscience, then get involved with neuroscience research as an undergrad and get the experience to determine if you'd like to get a PhD in it. It also sounds like you like the idea of medicine because of the prestige it brings, which in my opinion is not a great reason for going through the trouble of medical school. I'm not sure where your motivation for being an anesthesiology assistant comes from.... I mean, it's a great program for getting involved in clinical work, working with patients alongside doctors in a cool setting, and it doesn't require as big an investment of time in terms of preparing an application. But it doesn't relate in any other way to all the other things you mentioned.

Your OP listed your deep interest in several different things, none of which strictly relate to each other. Getting into medical school is the most challenging of all of these, and will require 4+ years of hard effort on your part. It will require 100% of your focus. What you should do is try to find an opportunity to shadow some doctors, then do some kind of clinical volunteering. This gets you exposure to medicine to see if it's something you're really interested in, and if you end up applying it will go on your application.

The idea of med school is particularly interesting because of my changing mind as well. There’s a lot of interests I could see myself pursuing: anesthesiology, neurology, surgery, internal medicine, emergency medicine, ophthalmology, etc. I sincerely appreciate your insight and giving it in a respectful manner as well! I’m in the process of becoming a surgical technician, so all the training and the OR environment is very enticing, so that’s why I mentioned CAA as well. It seems to offer a friendlier lifestyle, which is really important to me. I may go that route and end up getting a second master’s or PhD in another field that pertains to my writings, though. I’m unsure. I have a few years to decide, but I like having a specific end goal.

 

[Dreytonk]

CAA all the way

Thank you for the input, Goro. I was scared to post a question like this, as I thought it would lead to a lot of attacking. I should've mentioned in my post that I’m currently on track to become a surgical technician and the OR encironment and my training has been awesome so far, but I didn’t want to continue rambling. I think I’ll end up going the CAA route and getting a second master’s or PhD in something else of interest that pertains to what I plan to write about.

 

[Dreytonk]

CAA

Thanks for the insight. I know you have to have an extreme determination to become a doctor and I didn’t want to pursue it for the wrong reasons. CAA is extremely interesting to me, though.

 

[getdown]

Do the CAA. And I'm an anesthesiologist. Just be aware you're only able to practice in a few states for now.

 

[Dreytonk]

Do the CAA. And I'm an anesthesiologist. Just be aware you're only able to practice in a few states for now.

Thanks for the reply. Have you worked alongside CAA’s? Any opinions on them? And I’m very familiar with the CAA pros and cons, but I’m from the south and would like to live here for good, I believe. I think it’ll continue expanding anyways. Let’s hope! Thank you again for your reply.