I recall when I was an undergraduate student thinking about applying to medical school, asking a medical student, “Is it worth it?,” referring to the long hours and personal sacrifice required to succeed.  It seems a little comical to me now, knowing that the medical student really would have had very little perspective with which to answer that question.  After all, she still had years of medical school, residency, and fellowship training ahead of her before she would even have her first job in her specialty, which turned out to be ear, nose and throat surgery.

Since then, though, I have heard that question many times, as have my physician colleagues.  One fellow radiologist said he answers that question with this reply:   “In order to become a physician, you have to be willing to give up a decade of your life at a time that is in the prime of your life, typically in your 20′s.”  This is a fairly accurate statement.

Although there have been limits on hours worked put into place, limiting resident and fellows’ hours to 80 hours/week, which definitely makes a difference, that does not take into consideration countless hours of time spent at home reading, preparing for conferences, lectures, rotations and exams.  These hours are tagged onto your daily work hours, and certainly can put severe limits on your social life, especially if you start a family during the course of your training.  Working in a male dominated specialty, I admit to some jealousy at my fellow residents’ having stay-at-home wives who took care of their children and homes, so that they had only to concern themselves with work.  They were all great dads, so were very involved with their kids during their time off.  No question, though, a doctor mom married to a husband who works full time has a lot of juggling to do, during training and afterwards.  And this must be done in such a way that is not perceived by male colleagues as having any effect on availability to work. Certainly now there are a lot of men with wives working full time who find themselves in similar circumstances.

So, back to the question, is the personal sacrifice worth the end result?  The question ties into other advise that I received and have since given, and that is, don’t choose medicine for the money.  If making a lot of money and living large is your goal, business is the way to go, or law, professional sports, or a very successful acting/singing career… Although medicine can provide a good living, too, reimbursements are going down year by year.  On the other hand, there will always be a demand for doctors.

Another factor that hugely contributes to the answer to this question for each individual is the job that you choose after training and your satisfaction with that. Regardless of how much you love your specialty, thinking about extrinsic factors when choosing a job can make all the difference in terms of your long term happiness. Factors to be sure to consider, in addition to monetary compensation, benefits and long term potential, are the people with whom you will be working and the patient population you will be serving.  Will you be able to bond with your patients in some way that will make you feel appreciated? Will you look forward to joining your staff and colleagues for work each day? If you are passionate about serving patients as a physician, and enjoy studying (definitely a nerd factor here), then it is indeed likely to be worth it, and (most of) the sacrifice and learning can be enjoyable in its own right.  Whatever job you choose, dedicating yourself to being the best that you can be in that career can be a very satisfying endeavor, and in medicine, it is both satisfying and a necessary coping mechanism. If you do choose to pursue a career in medicine, probably the best advice for success, especially during the years of training, is arrive early and stay late!