I am a radiation oncologist in India and while Radiation oncology is the field to be in the US it is still a less recognized field in India. However I am extremely satisfied with my career till date as it fulfills my desire to work with patients of a dreaded disease (i.e. cancer) using the most modern and non invasive of technologies - i.e. radiation therapy. The trust and faith that a cancer patient places on his/her oncologist is not something you can get in any other discipline. Also as a radiation oncologist you have to keep in touch with almost all medical fields as patients suffering from cancers of any organ system may be referred to you. As such I would recommend that a person thinking about coming to this field should have open mind and willingness to learn. He/ She should have some basic knowledge about physics and should have a good imagination. Unlike the popular perception radiation oncology is one of the safest professions in the world and while it may not be paying as well as other disciplines it is a field where there is scope for innovation and new thinking. I certainly would like to take this as a career if given a choice again. The cons as far as India is concerned is the lack of good job opportunities - however the senario is fast changing now. Another important disadvantage is that as oncologists you have to accept a high degree of failures and should not get discouraged by that.
In order to become a physician, one must go through medical school and residency. Medical school requires a tremendous amount of commitment and a willingness to sacrifice one's personal life for the possibility of attaining a certain type of life after an average eight years of training and 200,000 dollars of debt. Physicians are increasingly constrained by the strictures of managed health care, and are compromised in their ability to provide therapy for the patients on the basis of what is medically neccessary. Instead, they are required to pick from among the cheapest therapies available that have been selected by an HMO for the express purpose of limiting costs.
In addition to the problems of working within managed care, physicians must alter the way they practice medicine in order not to be sued by unscrupoulous injury and malpractice attorneys, often running many uneccessary tests in order to insulate themselves from accusations that they didn't do enough to help a patient and are therefore at fault for negative outcomes.
Though a great deal of personal satisfaction can be found in helping others, the realities of today's physician preclude this from being an attractive career option.
Hi, I'm a physiatrist or rehabilitation physician. I love this field and would recommend it to people who want to help the disabled and be team leaders in multidisciplinary healthcare settings. My advice is to do well in your basic science classes in college so that you can be a strong medical school candidate. When you get to medical school, concentrate on your neurology and orthopedics because you'll need them a lot when you get to residency. When you finish you'll have a job that pays well and is less stressful than most other branches of medicine. One draw back is that people never know exactly what you do when you tell them you're a physiatrist. Also it's annoying when people ask you if you're a physical therapist which we are not. We are the doctors who prescribe therapy so that the therapists can work with the patients.
I would recommend this career, conditionally. Be able to answer these questions: do you like helping people? do you like math/science? are you comfortable memorizing a large volume of information? I would still choose medicine if I had to pick again, but I would prepare/research the field more beforehand. The pros are the unique and wonderful opportunities one is exposed to, as well as the satisfaction of knowing that one is able to make a huge impact on another human being's life. The cons are the extra years of education and long hours. People might not realize that most physicians are pretty happy at what they do, despite the occasional grumblings.
As a doctor you will see things you never thought even possible, you'll meet all kinds of people and even be looked up upon by many. It's very fulfilling and lets you help people who are in need. Among the negative aspects of studying to be a doctor in medicine is the length of your education. It will take you a long time to graduate and get a specialty but in my opinion it is worth it.
I am an emergency Medicine Physician and I love my job. People come in to the ER looking for help and my job is to find a way to provide it - and I get paid to do this! There are plenty of ways to make money, and most of them pay of a lot more quickly than going into medicine, but nothing could be more personally rewarding.
The word "salary" comes from salarium, or "salt money" and was used in ancient Rome to describe the wages paid to Roman legionnaires who were compensated in salt.
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