Haha I have been a doctor for 11 years and I am a specialist.

You young boy. I have been Dr for 22 years and Senior consultant. Be more humble.

hi all.. any doctors or people in healthcare here? seeking advice about working in healthcare / hospital setting. i am considering to switch careers and pursue studies in Allied Health.

what are ur thoughts or emotions that come to ur mind while working in healthcare facing people who have taken ill?

background:

so i was a sickly child until i turned 18 when i decided to stop falling sick. because of all this meds and doctor visits and my desire to not fall ill again, i try my best to dissociate myself with illness and being ill. i visited an icu not long ago and i felt really really depressed

but the motivation comes from wanting to be of some use to the society and to other people in my lifetime.

so i wonder whats the train of thought for people who have been in healthcare for long.

thank you~

I believe most of us here are doctors.
You might be better off asking in a thread of allied health professionals rather than in a doctor’s thread cos tbh a doctors job scope is v diff from say a PT or OT, in terms of hours, duties, responsibilities, expectations, etc.

But as a general response, I entered this profession likewise because at the core I wanted to help. N additionally I had the ability, so why not, because can’t lie , being a doctor comes with prestige ,and is well looked upon in society, is a stable career , etc. I would say it’s probably a combination of these two factors tbh for most ppl.
But what keeps us in it is probably a diff matter.
We have a specialised degree, not many ppl would employ a doctor to be a school teacher or baker etc. so just gotta continue on/ pay off our bond / make a living to the best of our abilities.

Speak to other ppl in allied health , go for job attachments, etc to see if it’s really what u want. Many ppl are inspired by their own sad stories in life but it’s a diff thing to have to do it every single day for the rest of ur life. Especially if as allied health ur not gonna get paid exceptionally welll or looked upon extremely highly (not saying it’s not respectable, just being realistic )

Hahah hopefully I would have retired before I hit 22 years of work lol enjoy!

If you read all the posts before this, you will notice a lot of jaded and overworked individuals.
Of course there is some sort of publishing bias here because those who truly enjoy their work prolly won’t be posting about it on a forum.
Healthcare (esp public healthcare) can be especially draining.
You will have good and appreciate patients, and you will have plain idiots who think you owe them the world when they are paying peanuts and you are earning peanuts.
And then of course you will have plain sociopaths who are just demanding, illogical and unreasonable. You might see decent patients all day and all you need is one sociopath to ruin your day.
At the end of the day this is a service industry. People expect to be served.
You do the work one patient at a time.

What do you mean you got depressed by going to the ICU?
Because you can’t deal with sickness or what?
Do make sure you work out all your inner fears, turmoil etc before you start work.
See a psychologist / counselor if you need to.
If you aren’t ready for the work you might crash and burn early.

What area of allied health are you studying?
Generally for physio OT you can move on to private sector where you can treat relatively well (physically and financially well off) patients.
Sportsmen, athletes, work injuries. Generally patients who are not “sick” like in the acute hospitals.

I also forgot to add.
You can also make a difference in many other jobs.
Not just healthcare.

Be an entrepreneur.
Do finance and banking, earn lots of money and use it to bless others.
Do a corporate job in an organization with good values, rise up the ranks and treat your colleagues right.
Many other avenues for you to make a difference without having to kill yourself in the process.
But if you have already started your course of study then it’s too late I guess for now.

Dont. Please just dont.

Remember this post of mine. If you did. I told you so.
Better to do something else and provide the resources and back support for healthcare as a volunteer and leave the actual work for the frontline suckers.

i'm an outsider -- not a doctor -- but just curious, why do doctors always marry other doctors? why are you guys generally so resistant to dating outside the medical field? i for one would love to date outside of my own field (industry is way too small, and if we have a bad break up, it makes for awkward encounters when we inevitably work on the same/opposite side). i've always thought of doctors being the ideal boyfriend/husband because it's as challenging/demanding as my own work (so there's the mutual understanding) without the above-mentioned potential awkwardness.

As a neutral online reader, I'll just like to point out that both of you sound like some JC students dreaming about going med school, but pretending otherwise online.