Why do doctors tell premeds to try a different career then the MD route?

Question

Most physicians I speak with tell me to do something different then trying to get into med school. Why is that? I am not alone on this one, many students I speak with have told me they have had similar conversations with other MD's. Many of them say nursing or P.A. would be better career choice. I know medical school is very hard to get into and expensive once you get there. I understand that it is a demanding job but besides being demanding and going to school for many years (making many personal sacrifices) what else might be the reason. If that is what someone wants to do why tell them to do something else? Are they trying to save the aspiring dr's from the job? Or is it for some other reason that is just not being brought up. Do most MD's dislike the path they have picked and wish they had done something different? I know not everyone will have the same opinion and can't speak for every MD out there I just wanted to know other peoples thoughts and experiences about the career.

Answer 1

Let me make an educated guess. I am no doctor but I did work briefly in emergency medicine.

Number 1: By the time you finish medical school, you are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. I mean HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS!!! It takes many many years to pay those debts off; in fact many doctors do not pay them off as much as 10 years after they begin practice--private or public.

Number 2: The ordeals you have to go through both physically (stints in the ER 72 hours or more straight and awake) and emotionally (losing a patient, having to tell families) are generally too stressful for the average person. What you think  and what is reality are two very very different things.

Number 3: All doctors now have to have medical malpractice insurance way above the million dollar mark--this is incredibly expensive and while there is now usually arbitration, doctors must charge patients and insurances huge amounts just to cover their own malpractice insurances.

Number 4: More and more insurance carriers are NOT covering many procedures and tests and many doctors feel that they cannot be thorough enough to keep or make their patients healthy because of cuts in insurance coverage.

I am sure there are many other reasons doctors dissuade young people from going into medicine but I am not familiar with them.

(FYI, there was a glut of attorneys in the last few decades, so many that lots of them had to take jobs they were overqualified for--such as paralegal, etc., this could be another reason for doctors. Not sure though.)

Answer 2

Medicine is a changing field.  The demands placed on physicians are ever increasing while the reimbursements from insurance and medicare are decreasing.  I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the US, everyone wants medical care, and they want it perfect, cheap (or free), and as soon as possible.

Often it seems like patients want you to perform miracles and then thank them for allowing you to take care of them.

Imagine a job where you are more closely monitored than ever, not allowed to make any mistakes, criticized at every turn, forced to work long hours and to come in whenever you are needed, but still paid less and less each year no matter how hard you are working or how long you have been doing it.

Now imagine that that same job not 5 decades ago was one of prestige and luxury.  (It still is, but not nearly to that degree.)  You may get different answers from younger doctors than from their elders.

If you can put up with this situation for the sake of helping people, or getting to meet new people constantly, or solving complicated problems in a complicated field, or being able to do things that not 5% of the population could ever do, then this may be a career for you.