Why not be a doctor?

It is a perfectly reasonable question to ask. Obviously, since I am pursuing an advanced degree in the medical field (I get a masters over the course of the program in addition to earning the right to sit for the pathologists’ assistant certification exam) I am interested in the medical field and of reasonable intelligence.

And after I graduated with my degree in microbiology I did apply to medical school because, like most graduates who majored in the biological sciences, I had no idea what to do with my degree. My sister was in the middle of her residency at the time and I had worked for a doctor’s office for four years so I was familiar with the industry and thought I would be good at it. However, my GPA* is/was horrible and while they were willing enough to overlook it to interview me I wasn’t accepted. I was told if I could take some more science classes (especially graduate ones) and do well in them that I would be a very strong candidate. I didn’t though. I did retake the first semester of general chemistry, which I needed to do if I was going to do any sort of further education. But I didn’t take grad classes for it… which is telling, I think.

My entire adult working career has been in the medical field (four years in an allergists’ office, now three years in a pathologist practice) and I have seen both the patient care and diagnostic aspects of medicine. I know myself well enough to know I don’t want to deal with patients nor do I want to spend my days behind a desk or a microscope. I like being in a lab setting, I like the challenge of complex specimens, and I like that no one is lying to me about how compliant** they are with taking their medications.

The doctors I work with now rotate weeks on call so even if they started their day at 7 am, they still have to come in some nights at 9 or 10pm when the specimens arrive. And we thought after my sister finished her residency she would get more of her life back, have more freedom with her schedule, etc but that hasn’t happened. Granted, she picked a speciality (OB/GYN) that doesn’t follow a normal 8-5 schedule but you would still think that she would have more flexibility as a full physician.

So I applied to PA school for the first time at the end of 2009 and didn’t get in. They told me to take the GRE and do well (since I’d previously submitted my MCAT scores) and to take more science classes and do well. Summer of 2010 I took graduate level Biochem and made an A, that fall I took the GRE and did well (over 1400). I reapplied at the end of 2010 and here I am just a few months away from starting classes (and ridiculously excited, btw!).

I like and admire physicians. I can work well with them, but I don’t want to be one. I’m old enough now that I don’t want to invest 8+ years in additional training before I can start my career and I have children whose lives I’d actually like to be a part of over the next decade. I’ve been grossing long enough to know I really enjoy it, I like the hands on and immediate nature of the work, and as a PA I can earn an income that places me squarely in the upper-middle class range.

*Cumulatively anyway. I went to college initially while dealing (not very well) with clinical depression, so I didn’t attend classes and I flunked out. I went back four years later and did fairly well (3.3ish) taking predominantly senior level science classes. I have found that while higher learning institutions are willing to overlook the cumulative GPA based on the very abrupt improvement, it does mean that you have to be a fairly strong candidate in every other category.

**Not very. My favorite patients were the ones chain-smoking outside the asthma/allergists office who would then come in and complain that their Advair wasn’t helping.