Healthcare Professions

[Guest Ty]

I'm currently a high school senior (gr. 12) and am interested in a career that's healthcare related. I'm thinking about medicine, dentistry, nursing, optometry, and physiotherapy. Money-wise, dentistry might be best if you consider the reduced training time compared to meds (no residency). But right now, and I guess it's still early, I don't know if I want to specialize in caring for teeth. Where can I find out some more pros/cons of each profession? Thanks for your help.

[Guest premed911]

well, right off the bat, its obvious that you are into the money aspect. However, unlike most people here, I'm not going to bash you or anything for that, as it is without doubt important.(I mean one day you will have to pay off all the debts).

 

I'll give you my personal run-down on 2 fields:

 

1) Medicine: Of the choices, you listed, medicine is still the best no matter how you look at it. Sure residencies are long, but the actual effect and impact you can have is certainly profound. In terms of money - you WILL recover a decent living from your studies. This is also one of the few profession that GUARANTEES you a job (although I have heard of pathologists being out of work...but that is nevertheless quite rare)

 

2) Dentistry: Work hours are great and if you were to look on a per hour basis, there is no doubt that you have the potential to make more than some medical doctors. However, unlike medicine, the startup cost for dentistry is HUGE. It will take you probably the same time as a decent medical residency program, to start making a comfortable living that you can truly enjoy. The main difference between DDS and MD is the respect factor, where MDs definitely are, in general, respected more. The other problem with dentistry is it is too focussed on the mouth and some people detest that.

 

Even though, the money issue is relevant when picking a profession, let me tell you that in order to survive about 30-40 yrs in a profession, you have to LOVE what you are doing. Money is good initially, but that is not a good enough motivation factor to go through the rigors of a health profession. My advice would be to narrow down certain professions that you like. Once you do this, then start looking at other aspects like money etc..Just remember there are many bitter MDs and DDSs, so money is certainly not everything

[Guest Ian Wong]

Hi there,

 

Maybe try visiting these two links, located elsewhere on this website:

 

premed101.com/career.html

pub44.ezboard.com/fpremed101frm0.showMessage?topicID=423.topic

 

Within here are some descriptions of these professions. I think three key questions to ask yourself are:

 

1) Do I find these fields interesting? If you don't know, then you probably haven't had enough exposure to each field to reach an informed decision. Try to find people in each field that you can follow around to see what they actually do each day.

 

2) How long do I want to train? With Nursing and Physio, you can be done after one university degree of 4 years. Optometry and Dentistry generally require you to have your first degree already, before training for an additional 4 years in professional school. Medicine will then require you to do a 2-6 year residency after your first two degrees. Each additional year you train is one less year you have to do other fun things, especially during your youth when you have more freedom to travel and explore.

 

3) What are my future goals? How much free time do I wish to have each day? How much do I value my own independance as far as setting up a practice and doing what I want? Where are there lots of jobs for each profession? What level of salary will I be satisfied with? What will be my working relationship with other health care professionals?

 

There are lots of questions, and not many easy answers. When you shadow some of the above professionals, why not ask them for their opinions on the above questions? Of course, you'll still have to ask yourself a lot of questions regarding your own personality, and outlook on your future career. The good thing is that you've still got plenty of time to think about what you'd like to study; take your time and don't rush your decisions.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest Ian Wong]

Hi there,

 

Maybe try visiting these two links, located elsewhere on this website:

 

premed101.com/career.html

pub44.ezboard.com/fpremed101frm0.showMessage?topicID=423.topic

 

Within here are some descriptions of these professions. I think three key questions to ask yourself are:

 

1) Do I find these fields interesting? If you don't know, then you probably haven't had enough exposure to each field to reach an informed decision. Try to find people in each field that you can follow around to see what they actually do each day.

 

2) How long do I want to train? With Nursing and Physio, you can be done after one university degree of 4 years. Optometry and Dentistry generally require you to have your first degree already, before training for an additional 4 years in professional school. Medicine will then require you to do a 2-6 year residency after your first two degrees. Each additional year you train is one less year you have to do other fun things, especially during your youth when you have more freedom to travel and explore.

 

3) What are my future goals? How much free time do I wish to have each day? How much do I value my own independance as far as setting up a practice and doing what I want? Where are there lots of jobs for each profession? What level of salary will I be satisfied with? What will be my working relationship with other health care professionals?

 

There are lots of questions, and not many easy answers. When you shadow some of the above professionals, why not ask them for their opinions on the above questions? Of course, you'll still have to ask yourself a lot of questions regarding your own personality, and outlook on your future career. The good thing is that you've still got plenty of time to think about what you'd like to study; take your time and don't rush your decisions.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3