is being a doctor easier than being a student doctor?

Question

My cousin is in medical school right now. Sometimes she gets really fed up with studying (but she's still determant to be a doc) so I myself try to cheer her up by saying: eh youl'l graduate soon and get rid of all the studying. She says being a doc will probably be more difficult than being a student doc, is she right, I mean I know she'll have to work long hours, but there won't be studying for long hours....and all that boredom. ain't I right? if not then what else can I tell her to cheer her up when she's really frustrated (which doesn not happen all the time by the way, like only once a month or so :) )

please don't understand me, she loves being in medical school, but sometimes only sometimes she get a little frustrated.

Answer 1

I think it will get worse, before it gets better. There will be a time when she will be a young doctor and she will have very long shifts (12 hours), and over-night shifts, too. Then it will ease a bit and it will be up to her - it will depends on which career she is after. GPs have a relatively easy life, whereas hospital doctors can suffer hard before they reach the stage of being consultants.

So, I would say that it will not be automatically easier. Just different. And a lot of responsabilities, too.
I know, because my boss is a medic, during the day he is split between the clinic and the lab (we are his research group!) - he works in average 10-12 hours a day here and more from home. And once a week he is on call and has to stay the night at the hospital. Not so easy"

Answer 2

Think about it this way, the more experience she gets the easier things will come. Right now she has very little experience - if being an MD was easy then everyone would do it and they wouldn't get the big bucks.

It's like any new job, at first you don't know anything after awhile your the old know it all.

With any medical profession you have to constantly get continuing education, so she better like learning. My wife is in the medical field, constantly going to educational conferences, taking continuing ed classes... it's a requirement to get X number of continuing ed classes to maintain your license. If your in the medical field you do it for the love of medicine and helping people - not for the money, certainly not if you want to work 8-5.

Answer 3

Yes and no.

On the one hand, you're out there on your own, doing your doctor thing, without people breathing down your neck, telling you what to do, or why you're an idiot for trying to do what you were going to do, and all that. My, that's a whole lot easier!

On the other hand, when you're doing it for real, it IS for real; you have the lives of real human beings in your hands, and you'll have to confront people with the fact that they have a disease that is going to kill them, and they may have only a few months or years to live (Or worse yet, think of telling a mother that her baby's dead. Been there, done that, and you don't want to know the pain a decent doctor feels having to do it.) Moreover, if you've been a physician for any length of time, you'll have to realize that if you make a bad enough mistake--and I think almost all physicians can think of a few times they've done it--you can, and likely will, kill someone. Not easy! In that sense it's a lot easier being a student, because on the whole, someone is there to catch you before you screw up badly enough to kill.

Trust me, the studying never ends. There are more CLASSES of drugs for treating high blood pressure now than there were DRUGS (excluding diuretics) for it when I was a medical student. Since I finished residency, we've brought the understanding of porins, receptors, prostaglandins and leukotrienes, and whole boatloads of other things out of the laboratory and into mainstream medicine--and I have to know enough about that sort of thing to understand the drugs that are targeting these things. I have had to learn about enough quantum physics to understand how magnetic resonance imaging works, enough math to have a vague grasp of how the Tukey-Fisher fast factoring algorithm makes CT scanning possible (because that defines some of the limitations that CT scanning suffers) and.... OK, you get the point. I've been in practice for over a quarter of a century, and I'm still nose in the books--because I want to do the best I can for the people I provide medical care to...

But believe me, when you wake up in the morning and realize that because you put in all that work and study, and because you applied it successfully, someone is going to live to go home and hug their family again, it's worth it. Believe me, it's worth it.

Answer 4

Its not easy no. you have to pay for 4 years of college then 4 years of medical school. After that you have to do an internship and a residency (both of which you will get paid for) in which you'll be working 80+ hours a week. The median obstetrician salary in the US is about $248,000 keep in mind though you will also have extensive student loans to pay off as well as taxes and overhead charges. Wanting to be a doctor for the money alone will not be enough drive to get you through the schooling you have to want to be a doctor because its seriously interests you.

Answer 5

My bfs dad is a doctor(internal medicine) He works long hours sometimes more then 60? or so a week but he takes the next week off because he works a lot during his time on. Being a doctor is extremely rewarding and makes up for the long hours and tiredness though! Good luck to her.

Answer 6

Though i found both the stages tough but the fact is that i m missing my student life.........though we had to study alot but students do not bear any responsibility while doctors do, this is an advantage of being a student........while when you are a full doctor you are responsible for the life of patient , and that thing sometimes gets serious.....i m a new graduate and have not spent much time as a doctor, but i feel both the stages equaly fun and adorable !

tell her that enjoy this period, becuase once she is out of student life and out of medical school she would miss it a lot, believe me ! this is golden period ! All the best to her !

Answer 7

Being in medical school sucks. Residency is long hours but easier to deal with. Eventually the hours get better, things settle into a routine, and (most importantly) you have more control over your life.

Answer 8

Tell her that in the last years you feel a lot more useful, and think Oh, so this is why I had to learn anatomy, and pathology and all that stuff! Wow, now if I could remember it all...

Send her best wishes and tell her I am waiting to hear from her as a colleague...

Answer 9

I don't know if it's easier but I assume so.

You could remind her of all the money she's going to make.

Answer 10

Yeah I would imagine so.