5 signs you should NOT become a DOCTOR

bit of a different video for me today normally i'm talking about why you should become a doctor and why medicine is so great but we like to keep it here real here on this channel and today i'm going to be talking about five reasons you should absolutely not apply to medical school so here we go let's just dive straight into it [Music] if you're new to my channel then hi i'm sarah i'm a junior doctor in the uk and i make videos about my life as a doctor and what i get up to in my free time i'm putting together a series about how to get into medical school and all of the best tips and i will be linking that down below this video is part of that playlist so check out the other videos if you want to have some ideas about getting into medical school and becoming a doctor but this video is all about why not to become a doctor and reasons that you should not apply to medical school so number one straight off the bat is something that i get asked about so much i get so many questions from you guys about this in the comments and in emails and in the dms i've even had people's parents messaging me about this the first point is your parents want you to become a doctor but you don't want to this is an absolute no-no if your parents are really keen for you to become a doctor then i'm sorry but you should only apply if you want to at the end of the day this is your life and you can't live it trying to please someone else and trying to live through someone else's enjoyment you actually have to live the life that you are going through your parents don't your parents may not be proud of you or may not be happy with the choices you're making but at the end of the day if you're applying to medical school you're an adult you should be doing the things that you want to do and not just doing things because your parents dictate it now i know that's really hard to hear and i get so many questions about this because lots of people say you know my parents are funding my medical school and they say that the only thing they will fund is for me to go to medical school rather than any other course well i'm sorry but still that is not a reason to apply to it if you can't put your heart and soul into wanting to become a doctor then it's just not right for you it's a really intense course you are being trained to care for people and to look after people and to look after their well-being and their lives and if you're not 100 in into that then it's going to reflect in your patient care and result in bad outcomes for patients which is just an absolute no-no so i'm sorry to tell you this but if your parents want you to do medicine and you don't want to do it just don't do it go find something else that will make you happy and eventually your parents will see that you're happy and will be proud of you for so many other reasons the second red flag about why not to apply to medical school is if you just don't like people if you're not really a people kind of person now i'm not saying that you can't be a good doctor and be an introvert i know loads of great doctors who are introverts and that prefer time alone and prefer to work on their own rather than in a team but having said that when you are a doctor and when you're a medical student you're going to be having to do a lot of stuff in a team and the whole way that a clinic or a hospital works is working in a collaborative approach and you are going to be face to face with lots of people day to day so if that's not really the thing for you then maybe medicine is not the right career choice for you having said that there are a few career choices within medicine that actually aren't patient focused so for example pathologists histopathologists don't really see a lot of patients they are often dealing with tissue specimens and doing research another option could be going into academia through medicine there are lots of options if you really don't like people but you do want to do medicine i'm not saying this is an absolute no-no but in general most people that i know who are doctors are people who like people the third reason that you should not apply to medical school is if you want your own private yacht of course i'm joking like i want my own private yacht but i still am a doctor but what i'm getting at here is that medicine isn't gonna suddenly make you a millionaire medicine is a reasonably well paid job if you look at the national average of jobs in the uk and how they pay then medicine does pay above the national average but for but considering how many years of training you have to do and the hours you have to work the pay really isn't that great and you know there are other ways of making money when you're a doctor you can go into private work eventually especially if you're a consultant and there are other ways of branching out and making extra money but having said that medicine isn't as high paying as certain other careers that require a high level of training so if making loads and loads of money and becoming a millionaire is something you want to do then maybe medicine isn't for you the fourth point i would say is if you are completely unprepared to move house and move locations then potentially medicine isn't for you now the reason that i say that and i don't want to try and put loads of people off applying to medical school but medicine in general means that you have to travel about a fair bit when you're at medical school you have to do placements in different hospitals and to actually fulfill the gmc requirements you do have to do placements at different hospitals and if you're not living in a city like london then you may have to travel to other cities and other towns and that can take its toll uh it's tiring you may have a long commute or you may even have to move house and relocate completely medicine can require a lot of moving and shifting and working in various different places across the uk but so if you're completely unprepared to do that and you want to stay exactly where you are you don't want a long commute and you want to just live in that one location then maybe medicine isn't for you what i would say is that medicine opens up so many opportunities and if you are someone that likes to either move around or travel then there are so many opportunities to work abroad and work in various different locations even across the uk and i think it's fantastic for that so i would encourage you if this is something that really puts you off then i would encourage you to have a little bit of an open mind about it because i thought i was someone that didn't want to move around and actually i haven't found it too bad and my final reason that medical school might not be for you is if you're not into it for the long haul and you can't see yourself doing this in many years to come medicine is a long long road medical school is typically four to six years and then you have your foundation training and then you have your specialty training and it is just a long long long long slog of many years before you get to being a consultant and that's fine you know it's not just about the end goal and becoming a consultant it's about enjoying the actual job itself and doing what you're doing day to day having said that if medicine is just something that has crossed your mind in the last couple of days and then you're gonna apply for medical school might not be the best idea you will want to get work experience to check that it is the right career for you and to check that your personality is suitable for it and that you feel that you would be comfortable in that role it's the kind of thing i've noticed that people get really passionate about applying to medical school and get a bit obsessive about it and i think the reason for that is it's so competitive and you have to know that you are a right fit for medicine and medicine is the right fit for you now if you want to know a little bit more about this then i've actually done a personal statement video where i do a bit more of a deep dive into writing your personal statement and how to work out whether medicine is the right fit for you and whether you're the right fit for medicine and there's some questions you can ask yourself and i've got a free downloadable pdf that you can use to look through as a prompt so if you want to get your hands on that i have put the link in the description box below it will sign you up to my weekly newsletter as well but otherwise i hope you found this video enjoyable are there any other things that you think are completely incompatible with being a doctor or a medical student let me know down in the comments below and we can end up having a chat about it down there i hope you guys enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up if you have and subscribe if you'd like to see more videos like this take care guys bye [Music]

Channel: Sarah Nicholls

Views: 15,968

Rating: 4.911469 out of 5

Keywords: pre-med, premed, med student, medical school, should i go to medical school, should i go into medicine, should i apply to medical school, pros and cons of being a doctor, parents want me to become a doctor, my parents want me to be a doctor but i don't, should i become a doctor, should i become a doctor or not, life of a doctor, med school tips, med school life, premed journey, premed study tips, sarah nicholls, dr sarah nicholls, doctor vlog, uk junior doctor vlog

Id: OMucpHZbY7E

Length: 8min 46sec (526 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2021