Medical Field?

[Madaglan]

Hello, I was hoping to seek advice from persons in the medical field, or from those persons who have a good working knowledge of it.

I’m presently working in the financial industry, and have been for several years now. I went to school for liberal arts degrees, but there are few jobs in the areas I studied. I’ve long thought of going on for a PhD and teaching at the college level, but every turn in this direction I come across books, articles or graduate students that inform me of how extremely difficult it is to obtain tenure.

Job security is important to me, to provide for a family, but also is the sense that I am in the right job field, pursuing my vocation. In the financial industry, I feel like a black sheep. My skills are not being utilized, I am not advancing, and I sense from my colleagues and clients that they wonder why I am there. I have no passion for sales, which have become of paramount importance in my position. I often find that I am more invested, emotionally, in my customer and colleagues’ health than in sales achievements.

For the past several months, one of my best friends, who recently graduated from medical school, has been trying to coax me into the medical field. I tell him that I have no previous background in biology or medicine, and that I had not considered it. However, in the past several weeks, I have given additional thought to the matter, and wonder if there is a place for me. I do well with emergency situations in remaining calm and rational, and in the past have done well with first aid training. I’ve been to the hospital several times as a patient, and every time I’ve been fascinated by the procedures performed on me and my roommates, and enjoy conversing with the nurses, both male and female. I sense that my personality is better suited to
the medical field, but do not know if this is where God wants me to be. It would be a 180 degree change from everything Ive pursued so far.

In addition to insight, could persons please answer the following two questions:

1. For someone with no medical background, a male in his 30s (me), not married but dating a woman with children, what would be the most economically viable direction in medicine to take? Nursing?
2. Do certain medical conditions bar individuals from the medical field?

Thanks!

 

[PaulfromIowa]

You seem to be thinking of different career paths. An academic career as a PhD is one thing, being a practitioner as a nurse or physician is quite different. It is entirely possible to apply to medical school at your age. You would need certain premed classes. There are also BSN and MSN programs for those with little science background as well as physician assistant, PA, programs. Find a good vocational counselor at a University to talk to.

“Do certain medical conditions bar individuals from the medical field?” Yes. You need good health to study and practice medicine.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

There are all sort of paths in the healthcare field including administration, finance, marketing, strategic planning, ethics, technology, health information systems… any interst you have can be applied to healthcare.

 

[angelic06]

You seem to be thinking of different career paths. An academic career as a PhD is one thing, being a practitioner as a nurse or physician is quite different. It is entirely possible to apply to medical school at your age. You would need certain premed classes. There are also BSN and MSN programs for those with little science background as well as physician assistant, PA, programs. Find a good vocational counselor at a University to talk to.

“Do certain medical conditions bar individuals from the medical field?” Yes. You need good health to study and practice medicine.

Speaking as someone who is 30 years old, in relatively good health, with correctable vision, I am working on premedical courses through a combination of online and in-house courses and plan on applying to MD school this year. To the OP: as mentioned above, you may also wish to consider physician assisting. PAs diagnose and prescribe treatment, like an MD; their program of study is slightly shorter (about 2-2.5 years year round-fall, spring, summer) on top of a minimum of three years undergraduate study (programs differ slightly in their prereqs), but you must also have significant healthcare experience before applying to many, if not most, programs. Many PAs and PA students were EMTs or nurses before coming to PA school.

 

[Madaglan]

You seem to be thinking of different career paths. An academic career as a PhD is one thing, being a practitioner as a nurse or physician is quite different. It is entirely possible to apply to medical school at your age. You would need certain premed classes. There are also BSN and MSN programs for those with little science background as well as physician assistant, PA, programs. Find a good vocational counselor at a University to talk to.

“Do certain medical conditions bar individuals from the medical field?” Yes. You need good health to study and practice medicine.

Thank you for your advice, and for letting me know that I’m not too old to begin. I have ordered a book on careers in the medical field, and hopefully will have a better view of the careers that would best fit me.

 

[Madaglan]

Speaking as someone who is 30 years old, in relatively good health, with correctable vision, I am working on premedical courses through a combination of online and in-house courses and plan on applying to MD school this year. To the OP: as mentioned above, you may also wish to consider physician assisting. PAs diagnose and prescribe treatment, like an MD; their program of study is slightly shorter (about 2-2.5 years year round-fall, spring, summer) on top of a minimum of three years undergraduate study (programs differ slightly in their prereqs), but you must also have significant healthcare experience before applying to many, if not most, programs. Many PAs and PA students were EMTs or nurses before coming to PA school.

My best friend, who recently became a PA, did not have any previous healthcare experience, but he did have an undergraduate degree in Biology, and early on loaded up on classes which he thought would transition well into the healthcare field. He’s doing well now. I likely will not pursue a PA program (I remember his intense sufferings in the program), but will keep your advice in mind as I move forward in studying my options. Thank you for the information.

 

[EIF5A]

It seems you have a desire to help people directly. I’m not sure what type of PhD program in medicine/biology you were considering, but even with research with translational potential (e.g., between basic bench science and actual real-life clinical application), there’s not much sense that one has contributed to the well-being of another person.

Not trying to deter you if you are really interested and God is leading you that way, but a MD, nursing, physician’s assistant, EMT, etc program may be more suited to your interests.

(I do biological research at a university next to a hospital, and I wonder at times why I even bother doing it if I can’t directly contribute to helping people that are suffering.)

If you have any questions about PhD program in biology, feel free to PM me.

 

[Cloisters]

start with an emt position, work up to paramedic, then take a physician’s assistant path.

or, even faster, would be to take the cna at a comm college. then you could go to lpn, then rn.

dont have to get an md. plenty of other stuff to do.

blessings,
cloisters

 

[yarn1965]

I’ll second the CNA route. If you decide that you like patient care, you can work your way through to a Registered Nurse degree. Some employers may even pay for the training.

 

[Musicmedic]

I’m a medic and love every second of it. Working 10 days a month ain’t so bad either! There are a few people at the place I work at that have both medic and rn and work with both licenses.

 

[angelic06]

I’m a medic and love every second of it. Working 10 days a month ain’t so bad either! There are a few people at the place I work at that have both medic and rn and work with both licenses.

Musicmedic,

Are you a dual trained RN/EMT-P? Flight nurse-paramedic? I am just curious…

Also, as for your handle (“Musicmedic”), when I was a freshman over a decade ago, I auditioned for the music major at Baylor University on the saxophone…and yes, I was premed. I was not entirely focused, so it has taken me over a decade to work on prerequisites for medical school. On the music side, my interests were not in the saxophone, the instrument I played for seven years before college. I ended up with a BA in psychology from a public university granted in 2009. If I knew it was going to take me seven years (I graduated from high school in 2002) to get my undergraduate degree and even more to work on medical school prerequisites, I would have started my music studies afresh and studied organ or double bass performance. Even now, I am looking to pick the organ or double bass or the cello.

Anyways, to the OP: I am sorry for the slight detour into music.

 

[Musicmedic]

I’m working towards flight medic. Taking some classes for it, while getting the experience too. Those that are dual medic/rn, work prn at the hospitals with the rn and full time as a medic.

Music always has a way of sticking around! The only time I play nowadays is playing taps at public safety events that request it or funerals.