Hey everyone,

I have lately been thinking about a career in medicine even though i am a first year PhD student. How many of you have done your PhD and then gone into medicine? I have kind of got my heart set on it and have done all the resaerch about the finances/places to live etc. The thing is I feel like I would be letting down the people who are funding my studies and my supervisor if I persue this. Has anyone else found it this difficult to choose a career?

I know my parents will disown me if I do choose medicine but I really really want to go for it as I dont thing im cut out to be a researcher

Thanks in advance,

Bex (Formally Kami22 but the forum lost my login details :S)

you should put this into Venting and Counseling, else your rather serious post would be missed in the chit-chat.

As for medicine, do you mean you want to move into medicine as a medical doctor? That too is a big leap. And not any easy one. It is 5 years... and a few more.

A PhD isn't easy. It can be difficult to the point that the only thing that keeps in the programme is your desire to do research. Not the sense of responsibility to the people you fund you, or your supervisor who you will grow to hate. You must want to be there.

(Please note: I had a difficult PhD, so my opinions are negatively biased. Some people do have good PhDs... I just never seen any.)

I guess you have to make a few firm decisions.
1 - do I want to do research? Why?
2 - do I want become a medical doctor? Why?

Not easy questions. You have to decide, what do I want to do? If that doesn't work, try what you don't want to do. If you could do any job what do you not want to do.

1. agree with perneseblue, maybe one of the moderatores can move your post to the venting and counselling section.

2. You have done some sort of university education to do your PhD, in what field? Have you studied medicine??

If not: I am not sure where you are from, but here it would be impossible without starting your university education again and study medicine from the scratch to become a med.Dr.....this means you should be quite sure if you want to go through the whole university education again!

But if you are sure what you want to do (and this difficult decision will stay yours), I think you should do it, because you should choose a carrere you like! You should not think about what others will think of you.
If you want to start over in medicine talk to your PhD advisor if and which experiments you should finish....so you do not let him down completely and give him some time to find replacement for you!

@ perneseblue: I had a nice PhD!!! only the people from the other working group were

Thanks for the advice

I would finish my PhD first I think because then I can go into medicine at the graduate level. But also so I can clarify if research is the thing for me

In addition to this I wouldnt want to shoot myself in the foot as I am doing an amazing PhD with lovely people (and Ive heard they are very rare!)

any more opinions will be greatly appreciated

p.s. If the moderators could move this I would be grateful