Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
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Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
Discuss training, careers, and education
Hello there I'm in year 3 of 4 years of the graduate entry medical course, in my late 20s. I previously worked in a professional job, so I'd be able to find work outside medicine if I left. I entered
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Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 4/10/2012 6:26 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1
First: 4/10/2012 Last: 4/10/2012 |
Hello there I'm in year 3 of 4 years of the graduate entry medical course, in my late 20s. I previously worked in a professional job, so I'd be able to find work outside medicine if I left. I entered Medicine knowing I wanted to work either as a GP or in psychiatry, and that my temperament wasn't really cut out for hospital work - F1/F2 was something really to survive to reach a job I wanted. I still think I'd love to do GP etc, but I'm having serious doubts about even being able to manage a few years of work in a ward environment. I find it aggressive, stressful and very demanding. I've had a particularly difficult placement this past eight weeks, filled with arrests/crash calls/deaths etc. As an example, in the hospital today I was sent to run and to fetch emergency units of blood for very unwell patient - I was rushing thru the hospital, no idea where to get it etc - I managed to get it in the end but as I've quite an anxious personality I then spent the rest of the afternoon terrified I'd picked up bags of the wrong type (I hadn't, but I couldn't overcome the worry). I feel anxious and unhappy much of the time and physically sick when dealing with deaths on the ward. All my friends keep saying 'you can't give up now', but the thought of this for two more years, plus F1/F2 then possibly CT1/2 fills me with dread. Does anyone else have any advice? Does it get any easier? I'd really appreciate any advice from anyone else here. Thanks x |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 4/10/2012 7:01 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1345
First: 25/1/2009 Last: 16/5/2013 |
Edgey... It will get easier. A some stage you will find the speciality that just "clicks" with you. I was ready to leave my degree course after a dreadful medical and surgical placement where I saw patients treated as disease and juniors humiliated on ward rounds I stumbled into paediatrics and after that I found my calling. We all have bad days with deaths, and concerns over if we did the wrong thing. You need to find someone you can debrief with after a day like that. It doesn't matter if that's a fellow student, partner of member of the clinical team. Once you find that person then you have someone to share those concerns with. Keep us informed and hang in there |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 4/10/2012 10:12 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2
First: 4/10/2012 Last: 4/10/2012 |
In Response to Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls: I am now retired after some 35 years in medicine. I too wanted to be a GP and hated the idea of hospital work and then, when it came to it, hated actually having to do it even more...until a set of circumstances found me doing anaesthetics (which I must admit was a much simpler and less technology ridden specialty in my day - all squeezing bags and no monitoring equipment other than our own senses) I enjoyed that job and did it for almost 2 years because I found that it gave me the chance to examine so many patients who were 'normal' apart from the pathology for which they were requring surgery. In this way I came to appreciate the wide variation within the 'normal' . I finally went into general practice - which I enjoyed immensely, even though there were both highs and lows and some very scary and some very emotional moments. I had cosidered 'packing it all in' as a student and again during my basic comulsory hospital jobs but I am jolly glad that I didn't! Stick with it Edgy.... medicine is a worthwhile and fulfilling profession and I'm sure you'll find some part of it that you enjoy. |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 5/10/2012 6:09 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2
First: 5/10/2012 Last: 9/11/2012 |
Have some counselling session with your hospital student counsellor or Consultant Psychiatrist, which should help you unwind and destress yourself and relax. As years go by, you will see your call, a speciality of your liking or GP, it itself is a speciality. Then stick to it. Do not consider leaving the medical profession. |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 5/10/2012 8:47 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1345
First: 25/1/2009 Last: 16/5/2013 |
The other piece of advice I can offer here is... "Sometimes what you get out of a job is that you don't want to do that speciality. And while you're there what you can put in are small changes to make it more bearable for the next group. |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 5/10/2012 8:47 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1258
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 18/5/2013 |
Please don't assume being a psychiatrist or GP is "less stressful" than working in a hospital setting because it's not (psychiatrists don't get to retire at 55 for nothing). The best defense against stress in medicine is knowledge and training - so study as much as you you can and get enough work experience as you can (as a student I used to volunteer to do evenings and weekends on wards or in A&E as a student just to get the experience at a time when nothing much was expected of me). If you know what you are doing and try your best to do it then there is nothing to be stressed about even though at times patients will still die - but better that it is inspite of what you do rather than because of what you do. |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 5/10/2012 10:27 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2034
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 17/5/2013 |
edgy, All good advice above, especially to talk to someone who is neutral to your department. I would add to kahanma's list your clinical tutor, who has your welfare and guidance as one of their duties. I notice that your example was one of not knowing what to do - you could not find the blood bank. I have to say that having a blank where you want a diagnosis, or finding that all the treatment you can give is not making them better, is far from unknown to doctors at any stage of their careers. But it happens less and less as you gain experience. I'll bet you know very well now where the blood bank is, and won't have that problem again! You might even know to ask, when you move to another hospital, although modern 'orientation' for new trainees should include that, when it includes so much dross. But your training should give you a structure to deal with those what-to-do situations, mental lists of differential diagnoses to look for, a treatment plan that will escalate through the various possibilities. It should also give you confidence to admit that you don't know, and to seek advice from seniors or colleagues. I'm gratified that wychdoctor found anaesthesia so soothing, even if we lost him to general practice. I would say that anaesthesia trainees are better supported in their work than in any other specialty (I shall get flamed for saying that!) and that despite the reputation for being 95% boredom and 5% blind panic, anaesthesia might suit you. We have had FY1/2s on attcahments in our Department; perhaps you can ask for that, as despite wychdoctor, you don't want to get onto a three year programme to find then that you don't like it. John |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 5/10/2012 12:51 PM BST
on bmj.com
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*Moderator*
Posts: 681
First: 17/11/2008 Last: 16/5/2013 |
Medicine is a broad church- you will find something that suits you. What you are doing now has limited appeal for many people. The stress is often due to bad systems and not the job itself. There are crises in medicine but some specialities have few of them and you can learn how to deal with them. I dont think you should give up now. If you want to come and do a week's work experience at the BMJ we would be happy to talk to you about it. |
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Re: Not cut out for Medicine? Advice pls
posted at 5/10/2012 2:18 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 164
First: 31/5/2012 Last: 8/10/2012 |
As an example, in the hospital today I was sent to run and to fetch emergency units of blood for very unwell patient - I was rushing thru the hospital, no idea where to get it etc - I managed to get it in the end but as I've quite an anxious personality I then spent the rest of the afternoon terrified I'd picked up bags of the wrong type (I hadn't, but I couldn't overcome the worry). I feel anxious and unhappy much of the time and physically sick when dealing with deaths on the ward. All my friends keep saying 'you can't give up now', but the thought of this for two more years, plus F1/F2 then possibly CT1/2 fills me with dread. Does anyone else have any advice? Does it get any easier? I'd really appreciate any advice from anyone else here. Thanks x Posted by edgey[/QUOTE] If all which you described is true and genuine and written by you as a doctor, no doubt you need psychological help and consideration of other employment, not medicine |
