Do you ever wish you had become a doctor?

[fallout]

I have never seen paramedicine as a "stepping stone" to medical school, if you will. I ended up in the profession, by accident in a way and realized that I enjoy emergency prehospital medicine, but that I also find some aspects of medicine as a whole fascinating.

During my paramedic clinicals, I have had the opportunity to observe several surgeries and spend time observing cath lab procedures, as well as spend time in Cardiac ICU's. I found that experience to be what truly piqued my interest. Paramedicine is interesting, but other forms of medicine are more interesting, at least to me.

I have written a plan that has the potential to end up in medical school in addition to leaving me a way to go to other professions in medicine, if I so choose. I realized that I needed to shift my end career goal when I had a school preceptor get angry at me for viewing x-rays and lab values in an attempt to form a better diagnosis of the patient's condition. I was told it is "too complicated" for paramedicine.

Anyway, I see it something I have to take a day at a time.

[Redcell19512]

So you would go for 6 years.. not 8 ?..

R/r 911

Isn't it more like 12? I thought is was 4 years pre med, 4 years med, then 3 or 4 years as a resident in your specialty.

[Eydawn]

I am a very hands-on kind of person. I prefer to be the one providing patient care, interacting with my patients. I don't know how many of you have been in the ED as a patient in recent memory, but think about if you even saw a doctor at all. If you did, it was probably for less than 5 minutes. Who did you see the most? Who provided the majority of your care? In my case, the nurse and the tech.

I took a lot of things into consideration when I decided not to go through medical school. The cost of medical school was a very large factor for me. My family doesn't make very much money at all- they run a small business.

The length of medical school also is somewhat prohibitive for me- not in terms of calendrical years, but in terms of how much time I'd have to spend stuck in the world of academia. I have discovered here in undergrad that there are a lot of things in academia that I respect, and there are many that I loathe. The culture of the university world really isn't for me. I detest having to play the game and having to prioritize some inane memorization over the emotional and physical well being of those around me- I've never been really good at saying no, I can't listen to why you're hurting right now because I have a cell bio test in the morning. That kind of prioritization is not very conducive to the GPA that most medical schools desire.

The fact that doctors (especially ED docs) don't get to spend nearly as much time with the actual patient is another big kicker for me. I'm a people person. I think that a lot more can be accomplished with medical interventions if you can establish a positive relationship with the patient. And from my observation and experience, medicine is much more than the phsyical interventions that you perform. Ergo, doc saddled with paperwork and minimal patient contact just didn't appeal to me.

Then there's the fact that I eventually want to have a family. I don't want to be the always absent mother because I had to take 7 extra shifts in the hospital because my colleague is under review, etc. all that BS that happens. I feel as though nursing will allow me some more flexibility because all of that responsibility will not fall squarely on my shoulders.

I decided to get my bachelor's in biology before I did anything else because frankly, my physical body is something I struggle with every day and I know one day I will no longer be able to work in the prehospital environment. That may extend to the hospital environment, depending on where the dice fall. So having a bachelor's degree in biology will allow me to seek out positions in scientific companies, or a teaching certificate so that I may become a middle or high school science teacher.

Now I plan to get on the waiting list for nursing, and go through paramedic school while I'm on that list. Have no fear- I am not the sort to turn away from nursing school because I am enjoying EMS too much. Being an RN is my goal, and I can't wait to attain it. I've got to do something while I'm on the waiting list- and it might as well be a medic's cert and working as a basic. The more patients I see, the better medical practitioner I will become.

Stay safe out there

Wendy

CO EMT-B

MI EMT-B

(P.S. if you really really want to become a doctor, then you will find a way to do it. Saying that because you became a paramedic you killed your chances of being a doc sounds kind of strange to me. Maybe your life experiences and interests changed what you THOUGHT you wanted to be; they didn't PREVENT you from going to medical school, however. You are the deciding factor in that one.)

PPS- I think I'm going to get eaten alive for that last one, but we'll see. If I'm wrong, tell me why I am.

[Dustdevil]

PPS- I think I'm going to get eaten alive for that last one, but we'll see. If I'm wrong, tell me why I am.

You're not wrong at all. In fact, the rest of your post said in much better detail exactly what I meant. Everything you said was spot-on. EMS kept me out of med-school by killing my motivation and my ability to devote full-time to pre-med. Indeed, had I been absolutely determined to make it, I would have. EMS just offered an convenient excuse to fail. It does that for a lot of people. For others, it simply covers for the fact that they couldn't have made it even if they had tried.

[Ridryder 911]

Isn't it more like 12? I thought is was 4 years pre med, 4 years med, then 3 or 4 years as a resident in your specialty.

Not all schools/universities require a baccalaureate degree, rather a high enough MCAT and prerequisites. I have several physician friends that never had a B.S. degree, that entered with their A.S. degree in EMS. Even then medical school is only 4 yrs. post B.S. One is awarded the Doctorate in Medicine. To practice is all dependent upon the specialty one chooses.

One chooses the specialty after they have became M.D or D.O. the time for specialty is all dependent upon the residency program.

[JPINFV]

^

To add on to that there are also BS/MD combined programs that students can apply for coming out of H.S.

[Dustdevil]

^

To add on to that there are also BS/MD combined programs that students can apply for coming out of H.S.

As well as MD/PhD combined programmes for students coming out of pre-med.

[ERDoc]

Just so everyone is clear on what they have given up or can look forward to, depending on where you are at. The traditional path to become a doctor starts with 4 years undergrad to get a bachelors, 4 years of med school and then residency and possibly fellowship. Every medical school in the US requires a bachelors in anything. I beleive this is a requirement set by the LCME (Liason Committee on Medical Education) who also says that you need a year of general chem, a year of bio, a year of physics and a year of organic chem. These are the minimums. So schools have additional requirements such as a year of calculus, but those are the minimums. MCAT scores are important, but guarantee nothing. I've known people with unbieveable MCATs who could not get in, and knew people with not so hot MCATs that got several acceptances. There are a number of medical schools that offer early acceptance, how they do it varies. Wisconsin has a program where they offer admissions to medical school to HS seniors. They HS students are guarenteed admission to medical school, but they have to get their bachelors, maintain a 3.0 GPA and participate in additional seminars. Stony Brook University has a program where they offer early accpeptance to Stony Brook University undergrads in the sophomore year. They have to maintain a certain GPA, get their bachelors and attend additonal seminars. These early acceptances can be yanked if the student doesn't get their bachelors in a certain amount of time or their grades drop. Medical school is composed of 2 years of basic sciences (classroom) and then 2 years of clincals. People who are MD/PhDs attend the 2 basic science years and then take a break to work on the PhD. This PhD work, depending on how lucky or unlucky you are can take anywhere from 2 to 7+ years. Once they have completed their PhD, they finish their last two years of medical school and get their MD. After medical school it's on to residency. Residency can last anywhere from 3 years (EM, Family Med, Internal Med) to 7+ (Neurosurg) depending on what your specialty is and if you stop to work on some research. If you want to do a fellowship it adds more time on from 1-5+ years.

So, short story long, there is no set number of years, but at minimum you are looking at 11 years before you can call yourself an attending.

[sdiener]

My Dad's a doc .... 60 hours a week, and he is 50 years old. He has made the same salary for probably 10 years. But medicare is collapsing, reimbursements suck, and yes its a minimum of 12 years to practice any kind of medicine. Did I mention that his Alma Matter, GW SOM, had 13,000 applicants for 150 spots.

I wanted to go to medical school, so I got the Bachelors - with an extremely high gpa, I had the extracurriculars, and I would like to think I could have gotten in. But becoming a paramedic definately opened my eyes a little bit, and where else would I get to work truly independantly. However you cut it, paramedics are making their own patient care decisions. Those assessment skills we develop in the field are the same ones MDs and RNs learn in their classes. We intubate, do central lines (EJs), can give antibiotics (in wilderness ems), suture (on oil rigs). I see every paramedic as an MD... we just don't get paid as much.

So maybe in the end I will end up a doc, but until I decide if I REALLY want to go, NREMT-P is as cool as MD. We even get more letters after our name!

[scratrat]

No.. Know why?

As a medic, I get to leave the stinky, piss covered, jerk off drunks at the ED after spending 15 minutes tops, with them. I don't have to deal with them for 8 hours until they're discharged. Nope.