I am thinking seriously of quitting medicine all together... most reasons already expressed here on the site.

Has anyone here done that? did you regret it? what did you do with your debt?

If I do this I expect I'll never be out of debt. current school debt is 206K and adding $20 interest a day.

I don't have anyone to support me financially, but I also don't have children to support at this point and expect I won't be able to afford to have them in the future.

this is the biggest downside I can see.

any comments?

What type of training program are you in? What's your PGY level? This additional information will help us give "better" advice...

I'm a intern and in psych. so far this year have done neuro, medicine, er, and one month psych. find that I don't like adult psych at all... only child/adolescent... but have to do 3 years adult to even get to the 2 years of fellowship.

Of all the rotations... actually liked er most... but no way I'm switching... most programs require repeating intern year.

find that I hate medicine more and more as I go... love of field evaporating by the day for reasons spoken of by Drhope in the "unhappyMD" threads...
And the general idiocy of residency that is passed off as "education." find myself more and more unwilling to put up with this system and it's unreasonable demands.

shortly, current job sucks. future job less appealing. pretty much the only thing keeping me here now is the debt hanging over my head, with no other way to earn that much $ ever.

if that gives enough back ground...

I have not done any psych since medical school, but it seems to me like hospital psychiatry (i.e., locked ward) is VERY different from real-world, 50-minute-session psychiatry. Could it be that "future job less appealing" might be colored by the type of psych rotation you did this year?

Also, it seems to me that psych could be one of the fields most insulated from the negative trends in American medicine. Surely some people are still willing to pay out-of-pocket for a psychiatrist they trust -- or is that field totally controlled by insurance companies as well? Maybe someone with more experience with psych could comment further on that.

I hope things get better for you!

With your debt I'd recommend at least finishing th year and then see how you feel. Intern year before January is the worst part of all of your training. After you get past that bump it will seem a little better. Maybeyou could do an away rotation somewhere next year that is more inspiring. I am in FP, for example, and always wanted to do the Nepal Leprosy Trust rotation just to get that inspiration and sense of mission back. Maybe you could find something equivalent in psych.

it's true... things are likely to get better after first year. and outpatient practice is nicer than inpatient.

but at this point I have just about no more patience for this wretched archaic "education" system... and I'm in for 4.5 more years of it if I stay.

and reading from others out there it sounds like quality of life remains pretty low even after finishing residency.

whereas I haven't heard from too many people that have quit... and the ramifications of that decision

Gwenovere-
I am an MS2 and a far away from being where you are at but I was also in the working world as an RN for 5 years before med school.

We owned a house prior to school and our mortgage was for just under 150,000 dollars and the monthly interest and principle was right around a $1000 dollars. I am sure your student loan interest rate is better but you are most definetly looking at a significant mortgage-like payment right off the bat, before you pay for anything else in your life.

What are your other qualifications?

I guess my feeling is, I would stick out intern year because I have a few friends who are 2nd year residents and they all say intern year is awful. Also, maybe you should look at other programs for a more supportive environment. I have had friends say that their program is very unsupportive and others say that can't believe how awesome their program is. And, the reality is unless you are a stock market whiz or have wealthy family or something, the best earning power you are probably going to have will be as a physician, and with the reality of the med school debt it nearly makes it a necessity. I can just see that debt being a monkey on your back for a very very long time.

I used to work with a plastic surgeon who said, "The beauty of getting a medical degree is that there is something for everyone in medicine, every personality type can find something that suits them".

Maybe you should consider some medicine specific career counseling?

Sorry that you are going through this, best of luck.
-Plum

when I was an intern many many yrs ago, one of us dropped out with the plan to do locum tenens positions while she sorted thru things. i don't know how things went for her, but it makes me think you wouldn't be the only one...

do you know what the basic requirements are for that? is it just a license and step 3? and how is one qualified for it? is there any oversite?
how 'bout just some ER shift work under supervision?

Oh Gwenovere - you sound miserable!

There IS an overwhelming, sometimes, feeling here that medicine is horrible etc. I think it comes off that way b/c this is a place to vent - something we can't do very often in our real lives (at the office? to our partners? friends? - who wants to hear it?).

I have lots of women doctor friends, many of them women, and they really love medicine. I love medicine - I just had to find a better balance between work and home.

What frightens me about your situation is the debt. I only had $90K and it felt overwhelming - I had locked in at 8.5% for 30 years (Ugh.) We managed to get rid of it when we sold our house in CA and got the he** out. But $200K? Wow. I think you have to develop a plan to deal with that before you quit b/c it could rule your life.

When I was a resident, after I got my license (step 3 and intern year were all that we needed - I believe) I worked at our residency's urgent care center, and made about $40 an hour. I was covered under our residency's malpractice insurance policy. I'm not sure whether you would be able to be hired by a freestanding facility or a hospital ER without residency training. Its almost impossible to get hospital priv's (for ER work), or malpractice, or get contracted with health insurers (so you can get paid if you worked for an urgent care etc) without board certification. I don't think I'm wrong. I don't think a licence alone buys you much, these days.

I guess the question you have to ask yourself is: do you hate medicine enough that you're willing to take on the debt burden without a good way to pay it off? Or...can you gut through 3-5 years of residency to have enough income to deal with the debt? If you put energy into seeking non-traditional jobs (pharm companies/medical editing whatever) while you're in residency, maybe you could come out with a better career lined up.

Can you take a year off to decompress? Can you finish this year and see if your hatred eases? (it really does get better - I swear! Intern year was the hardest of my life!)

((((hugs))))) and keep breathing (not that they give you time for even that!)