To think I could study medicine aged 48?

[Nooname01]

Just that really.

I've long wanted to be a doctor but thought I couldn't for various reasons.

I am academic enough (v high achiever, 1st class degree in a different discipline) and we could afford it financially.

Dc would be 16, 14, 12 and 8.

Would I just be too old on graduating though?

Thanks everyone for your thoughts...

Yes it is a huge thing to consider. I'm only 40 now so 8 years off.

Any advice on volunteer/non-skilled roles which would be good for experience?

From your personal perspective I get what you're saying, with more of a wanting to enjoy the journey of training and not being a qualified specialist at the end of it the sole goal. And we do need more doctors, including those with more "life experience".

But from the NHS's perspective that would be a bit different as it costs them a lot of time and money to train you - my sister went to medical school at 18 and had a year or two "out" of the training treadmill when she spent a year working abroad and then another year locuming due to fitting in with her now-husband's training scheme as well. But otherwise she's followed a pretty standard route and having just hit 30 she's qualifying as a GP this summer. The NHS can expect to get maybe 30 years more work from her as a qualified GP. If you qualified at say 58, how much could you "pay back" into the system as a qualified doctor?

It's the same sort of argument as when the profession raises the issue of young qualified doctors emigrating to go and live in Aus or NZ - the NHS spent good money on them and they took up a training place that could have gone to someone else; then they've buggered off and the system is one more trained doctor down.

It costs at least £200k to put you throught Med school. Realistically you are looking to qualify 55 years plus. Are your family going to be happy to follow you around the uk firstly for med school then for the foundation years; core training and specialist training? As someone stated you do not get a choice where you end up. In terms of getting into medical school you need to prepare for gamsat. Your children will also need your support. I think some things we want are not possible. I would love to be a vet- I know I couldn't cope with upheaval, lack of money again and moving around for various placements.
Let's be realistic you will be poor value to the nhs as will likely work for 15 yrs. please be realistic about what people are telling you. Graduate medicine was worst thing I've done

I think you'd be mad. My dad was a consultant and recently retired, absolutely knackered from the stress, at 58. He's 61 now and he seems 10 years younger now he's not working.

Med school isn't the same as going back to university to study, say, English or History or Biology. There are LONG hours, you'd have little/no free time for at least the next five years and I don't think you'd be around much for your children, especially your youngest.

It's admirable that you want to go back to school but by the time you're qualified as a GP or consultant you'd be at retirement age, and very few places will take on a 55-57 year old consultant when they can be someone in their mid twenties. Are you really aware of how tough med school is, both intellectually, emotionally and physically? It's a big undertaking at 18, let alone at 48!

It's all very well saying go for it, but has anyone with direct knowledge of medical training said it's feasible? You need to find out a lot more if you don't even know about when you get paid. Check out the MRCP too.

You would be very, very unlikely to gain entry to medical school. It costs a huge amount to train a doctor, and it wouldn't be viable to train you, only for you to retire a few years later.

If you are truly interested then I would apply asap, but you need to accept that you are already very unlikely to get a place.

While I'm very admiring of the 'live is for living' way of going about things, I do think it is questionable to consider taking advantage of hugely expensive training when you aren't, realistically, going to be able to pay any of that back into the system as a qualified doctor.

I'd be looking for careers in a similar field that won't take as many years to qualify for.

If you really want to do it why not sooner than 8 years?

I'm 42, with 2 son's under 10, and have spent the last year studying hard for postgraduate exams. It was tough but possible. I know that's not the same as 4 or 5 years but it's possible.

At 40, with your qualifications and experience, you'd stand a reasonable chance especially at some of the med schools that look favorably on older applicants like Newcastle. At 48 I think you'd really really struggle to even get in, never mind the rest.

I think you need to decide really, is this something that's important enough to you to make the sacrifices needed to do it now. If not then I'd look at other professions allied to medicine and consider one of those instead.

Sorry but I have to agree that you're probably a bit too old for this. I'm in my final year of GP training aged 30 - been training since I was 18. (That's with two mat leaves and an intercalated degree thrown in). Once I finish the NHS will hopefully get the next thirty years of GP out of it, if not longer. Taking the financial investment in you aside, you could be sent anywhere within the deanery you are allocated to start foundation training on an on-call rota sometimes involving up to 12 days in a row / runs of nights and weekends, and then have to move around hospital again every 6 months until you are finished depending on your speciality. I have just found out I am nearby for my final year, but I could easily have been placed up to 2 hours away from my two children without any say in the matter and just expected to get on with it. Difficult to manage a commute like that when you are also putting in a lot of extra unpaid hours. There's a lot of personal sacrifice involved which I think I would personally find difficult at your stage, sorry.

This is all really helpful thanks

There is major competition for every medical school place. I'm afraid the reality is that if you are competing against people who will be in the profession for 40 years, it is those people who will be offered the places every time.

Also, if a large element of your motivation is that you will enjoy the training, I'm afraid that may not impress medical schools - yes, they want people who will be positive about it, but they mostly want people whose principal motivation is to become doctors.

I think even if she applied now, OP would be pushing it. If she got a place, it wouldn't be until at least September 2016, which puts her at 41/42 depending on her birthday. That's really late for a lifelong career like medicine. The training is constant - like teapot said, upto 12 days in a row of nights/weekends, and for placement you can end up anywhere.

Have you considered the extreme impact this would have on your children and relationship, OP? Would you be happy to move to the other end of the country for placement and not seeing them for weeks/months on end due to your hours and school? Because if you live in say, Kent and get a placement in Manchester, that's where you'd have to go. You don't get to pick.

OP my OH is just coming to the end of his first foundation year as a junior doctor. Having watched him through five years of medical school and now his first year working I'd say please think very carefully before deciding to do it. The hours (even from first year medical school) are long and hard and trust me, it won't be much fun for your DC and DH at all. You also have to think about the possibility of being forced to move potentially anywhere in the UK every few years from applying to foundation deaneries, to specialist posts and then consultancy. Could you do this easily with DC and possibly a mortgage etc to consider? It is of course a highly rewarding job both in terms of job satisfaction and financial gain (eventually) but definitely not a path to be taken lightly, whether you are 18 or 48. Good luck in whatever you do choose to do though OP, I'm sure others have done it at and around your age before!

Since I graduated 11 years ago I have had to move house 6 times, 2 of those moves being over 100 miles and 2 being over 80 miles from where I was previously, in order to work. I have been given notice of where my next job will be 6 weeks before starting it, and had to organise a house move in that 6 weeks to be able to get to work. I work on average 48 hour weeks but that is an average over 6 weeks so some weeks I have a lot of days off, others I may work 8 13 hour shifts in 11 days (some day shifts and some night shifts). I have spent a lot of money and time on passing postgraduate exams that I have to pass in order to be allowed to continue to work. On night shifts I am generally awake and working (doing dexterous tasks and making difficult decisions) all night.
I'm in my 30s and I am finding night shifts a bit tougher than I did in my 20s. I'm certainly finding the amount of disruption the job causes my life harder now I'm older and want to settle down

I absolutely love my job and I can't imagine doing anything else. However there is no way, at my age, I would want to start all this again. Being a junior doctor is physically and mentally exhausting and pretty incompatible with family life.

I'm sorry, but I think 48 is too old.

I used to work in medical schools (and met various graduate entrants of the mature variety, although they were very few and far between) and I know I wouldn't have the stamina at 34, let alone 48. It's astonishingly hard work; physically, mentally and academically. And then you graduate and enter the foundation years and it's even more intense. Not to mention, as many people have said, you'll be too old to reach consultant level.

I find medicine fascinating (which is why I ended up in a career vaguely allied to it) and often wish is pursued a proper career in biomedical sciences, so I understand how you feel. Have you considered retraining in a different profession, like radiology?

It's pretty shit being a junior doctor. You will suddenly miss a lot of your children's lives, which will probably be a bit of a shock. Although if the money isn't a problem & you aren't actually interested in making consultant, you could do your training part time...

Why can't you apply now instead of 8 years time? I would look at graduate courses. My DH did a graduate medicine course (he was 26 when he started), there were a couple of people who were around the 40 mark on his course.

Following on from sally post - eg of being a junior doctor & the incompatibility with family life - my DC break up for summer holidays 28th July. DH starts new job 5th Aug (always 1st weds in Aug). We don't know what rota he will be working, although we do at least know where, so the only summer holiday we can have is before then... You might miss being able to have summer holidays with your kids?

Have you considered midwifery? Mature applicants are welcomed, you may not need to wait another 8 years for it to fit with your personal life and it is an intellectually interesting and challenging career. The hours and choice of workplace are also more flexible from the point of graduation.

With four dc you would be starting with some advantages, too.

I work in a hospital and see many rotations of doctors ranging from the juniors in their first foundation years to Consultant level.

The junior doctors (mid 20's) quite openly admit that although they love their profession they are drained at times due to how physically and mentally exhausting it all is. They travel all over the country to obtain their training objectives - is this something you could realistically do?

Even the Registrars have such gruelling work patterns that one of the female Registrars says she regularly goes 3-4 days without seeing her children (who are 9 and 12). Is that something you would be willing to do?

Medicine is not just a 4-5 year course followed by a lovely hospital job, it is continual years and years and years of hard, hard work which requires someone to make an awful lot of sacrifices.

I think you should try and speak to some medical trainees or junior doctors about the harsh reality of their life and see if it's really something you can see yourself doing. It's a hard enough journey for someone to commence on straight out of college with no commitments, let alone starting that journey at the age of 48 when you have children to take into consideration.

Chasing a dream is commendable but only if it's a realistic one.

I'd discount the "how much value are you to the NHS" arguement. Younger doctors retire/ change jobs/ leave on maternity and don't go back for years/ move to part time, all the time.

This is YOUR life. Follow your dreams, if you are prepared for all that that entails.

I've thought about it. I'm nearly 39, work as a midwife but would love to be a Dr. Dd is 14yo and honestly I couldn't do it until after she'd finished school. I've seen how hard the med students and junior Dr's work. It's mainly the lack of control over placements which puts me off. Don't think you can request your local hospital because you can't. Could be sent anywhere in the deanery. Which near me means distances of 80 miles for a placement of a few months.

Even when Dd has left school I don't think I'll do it. If I knew I could stay in same hospital I would. Dh wouldn't move.

There's no bloody way I would ever consider embarking on this journey in my 40s. I qualified as a consultant in my early 30s and I was very glad not to be a trainee anymore being shunted from one end of the country to another, short notice for all my rotations, on calls, crap pay, many many unpaid hours etc etc. I'm much happier now that I have some control over my life. I just wouldn't have gone through that if I had kids.

I tried to get into graduate entry medicine in my 30s, did well in the GAMSAT, had interviews but ultimately wasn't offered a place two years running. The competition is fierce!
By all means try to get a place but don't count on getting on to the course.

I think "follow your dreams" is only realistic to a certain extent. At 48, it's highly unlikely OP will even be accepted onto any of these courses, let alone manage the gruelling schedule of training as a junior doctor. It's not the same as "my dream is to study history" or "my dream is to travel to Nepal".

Med school is a dream that will involve sacrifices from OP's husband and children as well as herself. That's a big thing to impose on a partner and small children. And yes, those children will be pre-teens/teens but they still need their mum. And they won't get her for at least 5 years if she goes down this route.

As a GP and mum of 4 I'd avoid against it.
Don't underestimate the time and emotional commitment to the job.... there is a reason doctors often get divorced and im sure all my years of junior doctor hours had an impact on my children. As a student you are expected to work long hours often staying in hospital accommodation distant from your home. As a junior you could turn up on a wednesday morning in the first week of august and be told you are on long nights for the next week....annual leave is taken when you can not when you want. Rota planners will not care if you have children or where you live . My longest commute was 2 hours each way when I returned to work with a 3 month old.....and I could only take 4 months off for maternity leave as that fitted in with the rota.
The money is good compared to lots of jobs BUT 10% plus of pre tax income goes on legal protection/insurance so bare that in mind when looking at figures.

Why do you want to be a doctor? There are similar jobs with less crappiness attached to them.