Offer of Medicine, thinking bout not taking it.

opinion guy wrote: »

Wilhelmet wrote: »

But the guy is entitled to his doubts is he not ? He entitled to ponder his decision before making it ? He's taking real stock of his fears, and giving genuine consideration to the commitment. Frankly I think he should be applauded. Instead he is being beaten up by those who seem outraged that he dare ponder things. Let me guess - you all didn't get in first time or via your preferred route???

Just because someone is gun-ho to do medicine does not mean they are any more likely to get through it that MLH1. In fact I think if MLH1 runs into problems along the way he will have at least had mature reflection done ahead of time and less likely to freak out. The gun-ho wannabe docs who haven't ever considered doing anything else are far more likely to freak out and crash out if you ask me

Oh come on, 'being beaten up'? Of course it's great for someone to be pondering whether it is the right thing to do or not.....of course it is. Everyone should do so, and all our responses in the world shouldn't have any bearing on their eventual decision. MLH1, if you're reading, apologies if anything above seemed in any way heavy-handed.

I guess I'm coming from the point of view that medicine is something that should probably be 'pondered' upon as such:

A - Before you actually apply.
B - If not then, then once you have your gamsat and before you get the actual offer.
C - Basically, you should probably know if you want to do it or not before it's 4 weeks until the course actually starts.

This isn't an IT course. (no disrespect to IT, of course) It's not something that someone does on a whim, is it? I mean, most of us are looking at 4 years of intense study (at least), and 100k in debt (again, at least).

Once again, apologies MLH1, I really don't mean this aimed at you. To be honest, I completely related to the fear you mentioned about 'people dying' and stuff. That's one that constantly sticks in my brain.....and I'm just hoping that it's a normal thing, and possibly a good sign. But yeah, it still freaks me out a bit. This is the first time I've applied to study medicine, and am absolutely delighted to be have gotten in...and at the age of 30, have had plenty of time to have "considered doing anything else". I'm not really interested in shooting back and forth opinion_guy.....but hope these points make sense.

Apologies MLH1 if anything seemed heavy.....really hope you make the right decision for you. That's all that matters in the end. Really, best of luck..

MLH1 wrote: »

Thanks for all the imput guys, but I dunno, lets be honest it was pretty easy to get into medicine in UL, considering at first round it 54*,from watching the front line a few months ago and seeing 30 year old docs, I'd be 35/6 at the same stage in a medical career, working 90 -100 hour weeks regularly, with the prospect of having to emigrate to america for the rest of their life in a year or two if they want to continue! I dont know, at that stage I like a regular 9-5 job, no worries about huge hours, making life and death decisions, no matter what anyone says its a huge decision to order the administration of any medication into another human being. I reapplied this year with a score of 55 never thinking I would get a place, and probably would be alot happier if I didnt, reapplied as a matter of form, I wont be depriving anyone a place because it will go to the second round. Even today at work I encountered a Consultant in a particular area unsure about a type of medication to give to a patient in an area fairly closely related to his field.

I think you're really letting this life/death/holy-sh1t-i-just-killed-somebody-by-accident hypothetical situation get to you too much.

Statistically speaking, doctors inadvertently kill people every day. The laws of probability and the complexity of human biology are the reason for this. Nothing is ever 100% safe (and not just in medicine, going out the door of your house you take risks).

The flipside of being able to save lives is that you run the risk of taking them.
In much the same way, the flipside of living a real life (as in not hiding in a bunker somehwere) is running the risk that you may die at any moment from any number of uncontrollable things.

I applied for undergraduate medicine ( and I'm not one of those psyho teenagers with med. already programmed into my head.... I think I rather be a nurse)

I think if you really want to be a doctor, you will take the place. I know you're uncertain but think of the pros and cons. If you are only interested in being a doctor go for it. If not, don't.

It sounds to me like you have already convinced yourself not to do it. ( sorry if I'm wrong)
I have no doubt that you would make a fantastic doctor though if thats what you want.

Also...in relation to what earlier posters said, what do you mean By having work experience? I did volunteering in the hospice for close on a year, and trailed around a few doctors in two hospitals.....Does that count as work experience?

I think this thread is actually really important and it's great to see a (mostly) mature discussion on the subject. I love our class, half of whom are North Americans, but it's very interesting to see the split in perceptions about medicine. The vast majority of the NAs have lived, breathed and dreamed of medicine their entire lives. They won't even countenance doing something else by the time they end up in medical school. This is partly the product of even more whopper fees than we're subjected to and having to jump through many hoops (interviews, MCAT etc) to get there, but also many have been disappointed with failed applications at home and so their continued determination to find a way to do the course speaks to their certainty that this is what they want to do for the rest of their lives. They'll never admit otherwise anyway

At the opposite extreme are the Irish. Off the top of the head I can think of over a third of that cohort in our class - including myself - who admitted at one time or another to a serious period of doubt as to whether medicine was right for them. None of us are feckless idiots, we'd all done well on the GAMSAT and thought long and hard (daily! for months/years!) about committing to the course prior to starting, but when confronted with the reality of sheer - and seemingly insurmountable - at times body of work to be absorbed and all the emotional stuff that comes with watching hard decisions at play in the hospital, you do naturally have fleeting thoughts of 'would the 9-5 be so bad?'. People had those episodes at different stages throughout the year. Personally I never thought I was 'good' enough for medicine after being a bit of a messer in school and was v intimidated by all these bright, enthusiastic people who seemed utterly fearless for the first day or two. I ended up going home after the first anatomy lab - a sort of baptism by fire - and crying for about 3 hours because I was so overwhelmed. Not by the cadaver itself but more the responsibilties learning this stuff would eventually lead to. I'd obviously worried about being in charge during life or death situations before and it still sometimes keeps me awake at night. I had someone talk me through it and decided to give it a chance, and I never had a day that bad again. Having finished first year and passed all my exams I can honestly say that I'm delighted I stuck it out this far. As we moved from classmates to friends the support network between us grew greatly and now there's always someone to talk to if you're having a rough day. That helps immensely.

I couldn't agree more with line_of_fire; get some living done first if you crave it. Being a couple of years older graduating is much less important than feeling in the right headspace when you do finally start (unless possibly you want to be a surgeon, but even then I know of older students determined to challenge that ageism). Medicine is constantly evolving and the health service in which we're working will never be perfect. It won't be an easy ride but the majority would - if pushed - still choose to do it because usually your reasons for even considering it are sound and it's those guiding principles which will push you forward. It's a very broad church and even if the science-intensive first 2 years may not seem right for you, the clinical setting is an entirely different world. Or vice versa. For me the best thing about medicine at this early stage has been a) the patients - it's amazing getting that kind of access to someone's life and having the potential to help and b) never being bored. Ever. It's fascinating and such a privilege to have access to this level of knowledge about something so fundamental to our everyday lives. In the future yes, everyone will make mistakes (approx 20% of diagnoses are found wrong at autopsy) but we've already had it drilled into us that no man is an island and when in doubt, there should always, ALWAYS, be someone more experienced to ask, even if sometimes that is of the scary 'wake your consultant' variety. Patient care is everything. Also owning up and saying 'I don't know' instead of bluffing if you're not sure. It's hard going in as a graduate student where you may have been one of the better students in your class previously only to realise that here, you feel like the biggest idiot in the world. Get used to it, keep learning, keep trying. The fact you care about making mistakes is, as others have said, an excellent indication that you would make a good (and safe) doctor some day. But just because you would doesn't mean you should, and medicine is not the be all and end all.

My final thought on this whole thing is if you are starting, it's going to feel like its eaten your life for a while. Don't let medicine become your sole identity because while that can sometimes be a blessing, it also seems to lead to alienated 'is this it?' type negative thoughts. Keep up your outside interests and read books other than medical books in the bit of free time you have and don't forget your old friends. It's a balancing act but having other things in your brain will help preserve sanity during exam season and keep things in perspective if you have a bad day.

Best of luck to all of you in making these decisions; if you choose to give it a go, it's a fantastic course and time flies!

No prob guys, remember how I felt this time last year Lots of excitement but a fair bit of nerves too about the whole thing!