Other options

Would you consider another option other than MD or DO? Podiatry or Opthamalogy

I think if I really really had to pick another option, I’d be a PA. I did look at podiatry, and it’s actually a lot cooler (and a lot more difficult) than I thought. But I don’t know… I think it might be frustrating to only know the body in depth from the toe to the ankle.
Maybe I just don’t know enough about podiatry, though. One thing I don’t get is why there’s a whole separate field… why isn’t podiatry just a medical specialty?
Not opthamology, though. Honestly, eyes just kind of skeeve me out. And yeah, I’m going to have to get over that. But still… not for a living. Not eyes all the time.

I think the only other thing I would consider doing is DVM
Animals are wonderful and are the best of friends.
If you had asked me when I was 9 years old, that is what I wanted to be.

Before my interview with Albany, I was interviewing for bioengineering positions at Texas Scottish Rite and Baylor Med. Both of those would have been fun - TSRH would have been really good, because I’d be working with kids again - but they’re not the thing I want to do.

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Would you consider another option other than MD or DO? Podiatry or Opthamalogy


The separate eye specialty is optometry - O.D.s can examine eyes, prescribe corrective lenses, and diagnose and manage many eye diseases. O.D.s go through separate, graduate-level schooling and have their own licensing exam, etc.
OPHthalmologists are specialty physicians, M.D.s or D.O.s, who are trained in all of the above and also trained to do surgery on the eye. Ophthalmologists do Lasik, cataract surgery, repair retinal detachments, etc. They do the same four years of med school as any other physician, do a transitional intern year where they’ll get more training in general medicine, then do their specialty training years in ophthalmology. It’s a very, very competitive specialty.
Podiatrists have separate schools but much of their training is very similar to M.D.s and D.O.s. After graduating with their DPM, they do an intern year of hospital wards in medicine and surgery - I worked with several DPMs during my intern year. Then during their remaining two or three years of residency, they work alongside attending DPMs learning surgery (did you know podiatrists can do below-the-knee amputations?) and office podiatry.
There’s lots of interesting stuff out there…
Mary

My original reason for going back to school was to become an optometrist; after a huge amount of research, though, I realized that the profession is in trouble. The mode of practice for most recent OD graduates is “Doc in a box”; simple refractions in commercial (Wal-Mart, Sears, Lenscrafters, etc) settings. I think I would be bored very quickly if my practice was limited to “Which is better, A or B?”. The profession is moving into a mode similar to pharmacy, where the doctor doesn’t own the practice, and works whatever hours are defined by the megacorp that does.
That said, if I can’t get in to medical school after two years of trying, I have decided I will pursue optometry; the healthcare specialist who changed my life most was an optometrist.
My $0.02 US.

Pharmacy. I actually started studying for the PCAT and was looking into going to pharmacy school. It’s a lot more chemistry-oriented than medicine, and I dare say would be more interesting (to me anyway. :-P) But I ended up choosing medicine instead because it’s a more flexible degree, and the MD is really what I need to do clinical research.

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Pharmacy. I actually started studying for the PCAT and was looking into going to pharmacy school. It’s a lot more chemistry-oriented than medicine, and I dare say would be more interesting (to me anyway. :-P) But I ended up choosing medicine instead because it’s a more flexible degree, and the MD is really what I need to do clinical research.


I have to admit that the PharmD/PhD was the only other serious career consideration I’ve ever had. Then I discovered the REAL pathology (beyond ME’s and clinical laboratories), and that changed everything.

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Would you consider another option other than MD or DO? Podiatry or Opthamalogy


I would do bodywork. I’m already about 2/3 done with massage therapy school, I love it, and I want to learn lots of complementary modalities such as shiatsu, trigger point, reiki, etc. If medical school is not in the cards for me, I have this other path that is very compelling.
But I regard medicine as the best way to learn the most science, acquire the deepest and broadest clinical perspective, and have the most flexible career possible.
Who knows which choices are right? Robert Frost said it best:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I was almost 2.5 years into my Ph.D. in Communication Disorders and Sciences (Speech-Language Pathology) and became so interested in a lot of other aspects of the human body specific to neurology that DIDN’T deal with speech, language, or hearing and through a series of precipitative events decided to leave the program and pursue medical school.
It’s been humbling to say the least to have to go back and finish my pre-reqs, but I don’t regret it in the least!

If there is sufficient interest, we will definitely consider including vendors to represent these groups at future conferences.

I mostly thought about variations of nursing. Three year sped-up combined nurse practitioner programs (as at Yale and UCSF and others) were one option, which I thought about a lot. My other idea was to get an RN and a PhD–to go care for people in the emergency dept two-three shifts a week and then do research and teach seminars the rest of the week.
And I thought a lot about getting a PhD in itself, but I wanted to be directly useful to people in a way that PhDs don’t get to be. Plus I couldn’t decide whether I wanted a PhD in medical sociology or in immunology, which suggests that I really wanted a little of both. So, MD it is.
joe

If I could not be an MD or a DO then I would become a ND. I am quite sure that I want to be a doctor. I actually struggled more with the idea of being an MD. So much stress and pressure. I really like the idea of healing - reiki, massage, herbalism and Ayruveda.

I’m not sure what else to do. I think I will just keep plugging until I get in somewhere.