After working through 4 years of a science degree and 3 years of her PhD, a friend of mine, PhDgirl has started medicine. In a country where undergraduate medicine is the norm, this is a questionable decision, but that’s another discussion. At any rate, she is halfway through her degree and trying to decide on a specialty.
She asked me what I thought would be best: radiology, general practice or anaesthetics. They seem like pretty different careers. One is about procedures and dark rooms, one is about brief bursts of adrenaline, and the final is about relationships with patients. (I accept these are massive generalizations, but you have to admit, these jobs are not similar). So, apparently, these are PhDgirl’s main options, because of her biological alarm clock.
Oh for goodness sake! Give me a break!
So I am going to let you all in on a little secret. Unless you choose pathology, you are committing to a job with a door that doesn’t lock. Patients are getting sick, having complications and being treated 24 hours. Of course you go home, but if you choose to stay, there will be work for you.
What this means is that everything is a compromise. If you have a partner, you have to balance work with their time and holidays. If you have a family, you have to balance work with them too. If you are building a house, or writing a blog, you have to balance that with work.
I struggle with compromise daily. It became a lot worse when I had kids, because now I have to balance three favourite people with my work, four if I count myself.
So my advice for PhDgirl was this:
There is no easy answer. There is no speciality that makes it simple. There is always compromise, and it can shatter you. And the next day you wake up and have choose your compromises all over again. But if you have to sacrifice one thing in your life for another, then make sure all the things you are balancing are really, really important to you. It makes it harder, but it is the only thing that makes it worthwhile.
I chose surgery because I love it. It is the thing that makes me in a good mood. I hope PhDgirl can find something she loves. And deal with the compromises later.
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My main reason for choosing general practice was because I wanted a family. It is far more conducive to part-time work than hospital medicine. I work 3 mornings a week and have no difficulties in swapping days should there be a clash with a school concert or dental appointment. Once my youngest child starts school next year I’ll be able to increase to half-time.
I would almost certainly enjoy my job more had I stayed in hospital medicine. But as you say, we have to make compromises and I’m happy with the decision I made.
@Rachel Murphy:
I feel foolish now. I never thought to diss the decisions made by others. I just meant to say that whether your job fits in with parenting shouldn’t be the first decision. Once you know what you would or wouldn’t enjoy, then you can consider whether you can tolerate that life.
I suppose the main reason I get frustrated with that sort of advice is it suggests that there is a job that makes it easy. Imagine a student who ends up in a second choice job because they were told that would make life easy, and then they find out the truth. That would be so disappointing.
Like you, we need to make these decisions with our eyes open and decrease the risk of disappointment later on.
I hope I didn’t sound critical – I certainly didn’t intend to! I think my point is, nothing is perfect and you can’t have it all. I chose a home life over my job. The downside I am doing a job that I don’t find particularly satisfying at the moment. The upside is I am sitting here at home playing on the internet and Twitter at 11 o’clock in the morning!
Once the children are all in school and I can devote more time to my work will I regret my career choice? I hope not.
@Rachel Murphy:
Your comment reminded me to clarify my issue – not with the choices people make, but with the advice people are given.
A couple more points to add:
General Practice is a very flexible career choice, but I suspect that is mainly because it has to be. It’s not really different to any other medical job – there is after hours work, patients want to see someone they trust when they are sick, there is lots of work to go around etc.
The main difference is that lots of people go into family practice, and heaps of them are women (and women are often the agitators for lifestyle changes). I’m sure those doing it for the first time had to deal with the sort of stuff I am going through with my surgeon supervisors. So I think most specialties can be made flexible, it just takes a couple of hundred people fighting to make it so. Once that has happened, it can be easier.
And my final point is: No trainees have a flexible lifestyle, no matter what the program. Registrars all have difficult lives. Once you finish, you get more control.
(I would love people to disagree with that last point and tell me it isn’t true….)
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I completely agree. And too many medical students seem to start resenting medicine for the strain it places on their personal life, completely forgetting that other “normal jobs” often also involve a lot of sacrifice for the first few years. My father is an engineer who works 7 days a week, and my mother is a teacher who often works late into the night and on weekends. At least with medicine if you decide to go part time, you can still support yourself.
i need information on the future of family medicine/general practice in resource poor countries. Just changed my mind about specializing in psychiatry because of the stigma attached to that specialty ( you are considered to be sick and regarded with caution,even among your fellow medical professionals you are an object of pity and a laughing stock – i did my 1 year National service in a Psychiatric hospital) I am contemplating a specialty in general practise
@Dr Ceejay Kayode: I am not an expert, but it seems that general or family practice is always going to be a stalwart of any healthcare system, in developing or developed countries. I suggest you get in contact with your local family medicine training body – they can probably give you lots of details.
But be wary about choosing a career based on what others may think of you. If you enjoy it, that is important. Whatever job you choose will be difficult and it will be much easier if you enjoy it. And once you are in the mental health sector, you won’t spend so much time with people who aren’t!