Paramedic or Doctor????

Question

I was thinking on my career and I don't know what I want to be. What would you be and why? Tell me the pros and cons.

Answer 1

If you have the academic ability go for medicine. Better pay and better status. A paramedic is a worthwhile occupation, but the pay is nowhere near as good. To be a doctor you'd have to spend 5 years at uni. You need to research how you couold become a paramedic. Good luck!

Answer 2

They can both be very fulfilling. I personally am in medical school, and I can't imagine doing anything else. If you're not 100% dedicated to medicine, however, its a very hard life. I would suggest adding one more profession to you list of possibilities: physician's assistant. They do a lot of the same things as doctors, but they don't have the responsibility of malpractice insurance, etc. Its less schooling, way less tuition, great pay, and PAs are and will continue to be in high demand for a long time.

Answer 3

u can always become a paramedic after being a doctor but not the other way around unless u wanna study again for the next several years.

Answer 4

I had the same choice to make, but it was between dental surgery and paramedicine!  I was accepted into both and here are the pros and cons I came up with (which are pretty much identical to medicine.)  As someone else mentioned, make sure you also research the wide spectrum of other jobs in the health care field, since you may find one that is a close match to your interests and hopes for what you want to achieve.  I personally chose dentistry, with the idea that I could always reapply to paramedicine at any time and I didn't want to have any regrets.

Paramedic:

Pros:

-2-year program

-Not responsible for running own practice, staff, overhead costs, malpractice, etc

-Job is varied and unpredictable, and you aren't in the same place all day

-Excitement of being "first on the scene"

-Decision making on the fly

-Work closely with the emergency services-ie, police, fire, other support services

Cons:

-Shift work, which could be irregular or overnight, not always compatible with family life

-Have to deal with a lot of non-emergency calls when you KNOW there are real emergencies out there to deal with given the massive strain on the health care system right now

-Very physically demanding-Many paramedics develop back problems at a fairly young age

-Being called to scenes where you do everything right and the patient still dies can be hard--And so can dealing with their family members who are often right there while you're working

-Dealing with people on-scene-You often take a lot of abuse from the people you're trying to treat or their friends and family on the scene

-Not everyone WANTS to be helped-and turning your back on someone who is in serious trouble but refuses treatment is not fun

-Messy, and in some places you have to clean your own ambulance after each call

Medicine:

Pros:

-Can run own office, manage staff, set own hours, etc

-More $ than paramedic

-More "prestigious" (Note--BAD reason to consider as important)

-You can follow your patients throughout their care instead of dropping them off at the hospital and leaving for the next call

-More decision making-eg, Examination, diagnosis, treatment plan carried out  by you

-Variety of specialties to choose from, many where you don't have to see as many stressful situations or dying patients

-More academic, research opportunities, etc

-More entry requirements, so you will have worked harder to be accepted

Cons:

-8+ years of university (4-year undergraduate degree, 4-year MD program, then residency)

-Extremely competitive for the entire duration

-EXPENSIVE tuition (although this isn't an issue if you're truly committed)

-You may have to put your life on hold in order to study to get the results you need, so you'll see a lot of your friends getting married and starting families while you're buried in school and debt

-Always on call

-Working 24 hour shifts during residency

-Family practice can equal a lot of seeing patients, ordering tests and then referring out, so the thrill of saving lives and making life or death decisions is often exaggerated

-If you're in the US, your healthcare system is c**p.  You will only be able to give the best treatment to the people who have enough money to pay for it.  I can't imagine how doctors must feel who have to work under these barriers!