Embarking on a second career, particularly one as challenging as becoming a doctor, can be intimidating for many people. The good news is that many early careers provide solid footing for a career as a physician.
Take a look at the list below to see how these careers offer the necessary skills to help you succeed in medical school and become an adept and empath etic doctor.
1. Nurses: Nurses possess an excellent perspective on medicine based on their training and work, whether in hospitals or outpatient clinics or on mission trips. Not only have they learned many crucial clinical skills during their training, but they’ve also acquired the art of caring and compassion from watching their teachers.
They know how to coordinate with team members in a crisis situation while staying calm and effective, and they’ve honed their observational skills as they care for patients with both simple and complex diagnoses. Nurses are also well-versed in medications and other therapies.
[Learn how to apply to medical school with a nursing degree.]
2. Lawyers: Attorneys prepare and plan extensively for complex cases and before courtroom hearings, just as a surgeon does prior to difficult surgeries. Both legal and medical training require the ability to absorb challenging material over long periods of time, research cases in great detail and apply critical reasoning skills.
3. Engineers: These professionals are another group that can be drawn to medicine. They are grounded in team play and experienced in working with a group to find optimal solutions.
They understand the concept that multiple minds can problem solve more easily than one person working alone. Many engineers have at least some biomedical engineering training and typically love the flow of creation that comes from working in these labs.
[Be sure to highlight diversity when applying to medical school.]
4. Educators: Those who teach possess the ability to break down complex topics into smaller, teachable bites with great clarity. This skill is important whether one is talking to classmates, interprofessional colleagues or patients.
Educators closely observe the differences among their students, discerning which learn visually , which learn audibly and which prefer interactive learning versus passive learning. Educators are well-versed in the analysis, synthesis and application of information. This will serve them well during medical school and beyond.
5. Researchers: These individuals are often drawn to medicine in their quest to know the unknown. They aren’t satisfied with the fact that something happened; they seek to understand why and how it occurred.
People with backgrounds in research generally know how to look both up – and downstream from a particular finding for answers and understand what might be expected to occur in the future. Certainly they live through grueling years of repetitive work without giving up on their goal, and this experience is more than helpful during medical school.
Like some of the professionals described above, researchers are great observers of detail, looking not only for patterns but also for what lies outside the proverbial lines.
[Discover why nontraditional students can be attractive medical school applicants.]
6. Social workers: Like nurses, social workers are compassionate and caring. They possess great skill in understanding family dynamics and the way those dynamics affect a person’s illness, as well as how the illness can affect other family members. They are tactful and can negotiate challenging teams and sticky political matters in the medical arena.
Social workers fully appreciate social determinants and how they affect access to care, treatment options and overall outcomes.
7. Allied health care professionals: Many types of allied health care workers — including paramedics, physical therapists, occupational therapists and radiology technologists — routinely apply to medical school.
Generally, they already have solid experience working in hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient centers and other health care sites. Because they often work alongside physicians and nurses, they are familiar with those roles, though they themselves function very differently.
An EMT will likely feel quite at home in the emergency department, while an occupational therapist may be more comfortable in a rehabilitation unit. Nonetheless, they may discover a new passion as they move through medical school.
If you’re considering a second career as a physician, be sure to understand the decision-making process that goes into moving from an established career to completing a medical school application. The impact on one’s family, the cost, the long years of work and the prerequisites necessary to apply to medical school are all part of the mix. Discuss the idea with others and prepare extensively to know if you are ready to make the leap.
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7 Careers That Could Lead to Medical School originally appeared on usnews.com
