I really don't love med school, should I continue?

Question

I am going to an Ivy League med school. I'm doing really well (even though my school is pass/fail, I'm at the top of my class). It's just that I have no real interest in medical research (but I always have to pretend I do) and I hate saying that medicine is my passion & that I find it so rewarding & fascinating (as you always have to do in essays,etc) when it's not true.
I really love more artistic things like classical music and fine arts. It's just that I have always been afraid of not finding a job, (which would be hard in the art field) or winding up like my parents (with dead end jobs).

I also have a huge fear of "catching" AIDS, etc. and I know if sounds bad but when we have to do volunteer work in homeless shelters or drug clinics, I am going to be terrified to take blood,etc.
When I graduate, I could always work at a college of medicine, and not actually practice. Or something else that doesn't provoke my fear of blood/AIDS.
Should I continue or is my career doomed?

The main reason I love med school, besides the stability & respectability, is that I love to learn & would get very bored at say a desk job. I love the intellectual aspect (especially since it has always come easily for me), and I don't think I would find this in any other field (and I'm not interested in law).

Answer 1

I would say keep going, but explore all the areas you can go into. Maybe you'll find a specialty that really interests you. You can always pursue the more creative aspects of life in your free time or down town at work.

It's so hard to figure out what to do with your life. Don't make any rash decisions that you might regret, out of fear. Good luck!

Answer 2

I would add to the above comments something I have always been concerned about. Are you really doing any body any favors by becoming a doctor? What about the patients that you may be called upon to treat? If you don't like the practice of medicine, you will be a rotten doctor, only in it for the money, and will not be very good at it at all, even though you have the academic ability and interest. Real people really suffer and really need caring people to help them.

So I would say you should ditch this doctor thing and go for what you really believe in and would really prefer. Fear of poverty is no reason to enter the helping professions.

Answer 3

I'm not sure what you should do, but if you decide to continue with med school you will need to get counseling for your germophobia and prejudice against people who are underprivileged.

After med school you can always open a radiology practice in Beverly Hills. You'll only have to treat rich people, and thanks to your staff of technicians you won't even have to see any patients yourself, much less their blood.

I'm leaning toward saying that you should stay in med school, because you can always pursue the arts as a hobby on the side while working as a doctor. Or you could make some money in medicine then quit after a few years and change jobs.

Don't be afraid of not liking your job, most people don't. You just have to suck it up so you can make money. I bet there are lots of other people in med school who are faking their passion for medicine.

The worst case scenario would be if you quit med school then found out you hate your low-paying job in the arts.

Answer 4

I was looking for what you love in what you said.

You said you love learning, but that you don't like research. What learning most interests you in the medical field?

You don't have to go into practice. You could stay in academics. I am in the running for a job I am totally excited about - staff assistant to the director of clinical and surgical skills in a well known med school. I will be working with all the 3rd year students down there getting their clinical skills and doing their cadaver dissection. The residents come down and learn microsurgery in the microsurgery lab. Not enough for you, but I have been on the periphery of medicine my whole life and I am so fired up about the prospect of this job.

BTW AIDS is not that easy to catch. Stay away from the ER and open pools of blood, and crazy people waving things around.

Answer 5

I don't think you should become a doctor, it doesn't seem to mean a lot to you and why risk getting something like AIDS for a job you don't feel passionate about. Remember the expression "If you love what you're doing to get a paycheck, you never work a day in your life" Maybe you should finish med school and then move right away into trying to be a medical school professor, there would be a lot of $$$ and respect with that job or possibly go into medical forensics, there has to be away you can mix science with art, possibly study more chemistry and become a painting restorer. if I think of anything in the next couple days I will add it in.

Answer 6

Having worked as a nurse and loved it, I highly DO NOT recommend that anyone who does not have a passion for medicine gets into the field, no matter how far along their education. If you have a phobia about catching something, you will never be able to take care of patients who 'have' something effectively....(News flash: there are patients you will take care of and people in real life who 'have' something that have not been diagnosed or will not tell you about it.) For that matter, if you don't have a love for medicine you will not be able to take care of ANY patient effectively. Life is too short to do something you hate, stop now before you waste any more money and pursue your dreams.

Edit: One of my jobs for a time was drawing blood on HIV + patients, I took the proper precautions and did not catch it. These patients are people too and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Again, medicine is not the only place that you can catch a disease. You have more of a chance to get HIV from having unprotected sex than you do from drawing blood from someone who is infected.....

Answer 7

Well you on your just passed a importing part of med school. you know it sucks the life out of you and what real scum is.

Now about what or were to practice, think about the military especially if your go a surgical rout.

You can play hard ball big time have them send you to flight school and be a flight surgeon that is even more pay but just a few hundred per month but strapping a jet on your back and flying is priceless.

The other big time plus in the military most patience are young healthy and not full of AIDS, not ETOH or drugs ect and no GOMERS.

Any way best of luck and sleep well LOL

Answer 8

Continue what your doing until you find another path, maybe related to what your learning. Sometimes you can transfer your skills to a different career. Yes, i think you'd be disappointed in what you might earn in the other field. But dont plan on staying with this path. Maybe you can change your major to something similar but more interesting. There are so many different ways to go with it. Take what aspects you say you love and let those lead you to a differnet major. Take some music classes too as your electives.

Answer 9

How far along are you? Sometimes you get to the "point of no turning back", where it's easier to finish than to change gears again.

And do you owe any student loans? If you're going to be an artist, you'll have a harder time at first to pay off those loans.

You want the best deal? Forget both, settle down, get married, and have children. That's infinitely better and more enjoyable than medicine or art.

Answer 10

If you don't enjoy it you could always go back to school and get your PhD. With your interest I think you would probably like the humanities, but you probably know that already. For a job you could always teach at a college, and Professors at major universities make pretty good money too; not as much as a doctor though. Hope everything works out!