I agree with all the above (based on what I've seen with my mates who are doctors). Med school was something I considered at 29, and got accepted into (for the accelerated course)....but I changed tact and went for nursing on the basis that I was a single parent, and my then 3yr old would be starting school within 2yrs. The studying wasn't the issue: the moving around would have been. If it had been guaranteed that I could have completed ALL my rotations for foundation and core training etc within a small radius of location, then yes I would have done it. The only way I would consider going into medicine now (at 40) would be:
- if I won a huge amount on the lottery.
- if I could conjure up a live in nanny, cleaner and chef to run my house/look after my kids.
- if I could guarantee that my rotations would be within a 30-50miles radius (so that I could drive home and not live away from my kids).
My friend (who I mentioned earlier): her children were mid teens. Her husband stepped up to looking after the family/running the household to enable her to complete her training, and she lived away from the family home (rather than the family being moved). If you can have a guaranteed set up like that, then go for it.
Another friend did a biomedical sciences degree, then went straight into med school in her early 20's. She had a baby mid way through (and her ex left her). She was lucky that her parents could step in and help. But I remember when she was an F1/F2/SHO etc scrambling for childcare when her arranged childcare had fallen through. She couldn't just not show up to work. I remember once she was due to come onto nights, and her ex didn't show up to look after their little boy (who also had quite complex SEN). I was due to finish my shift at 8pm and so told her to bring him in, and we'd swap over looking after her son. She still got a rollocking for being late, and was threatened with being reported for it!! It's definitely not a family-friendly job. She was going to go for GP training but had to delay it whilst getting firm and water-tight childcare in place.
As a nurse, I did shifts....but when I split with ex, I was able to negotiate working full time hours around my DD's wraparound care hours (this is very rare on a busy and acute ward). Luckily I've worked at the same Trust for over 20yrs (either part time during studies or full time), and many of the staff have known me since I was a teen (and know that in the past, I would work any shift patten). My Matron (we've been friends/colleagues since 1998!) knows that once my children are older, I will go back to working shifts full time. But it's rare for that sort of thing to happen in a ward based setting, and I'm very very lucky.
If you've never worked in healthcare, I would also recommend looking at starting as an HCA (22/23yrs ago, as a 1st yr undergrad, I worked part time as a domestic, an HCA and in the labs to get an idea of how things were!). It is the best way to have a really good look into how a ward works, and whether healthcare is something you'd really want to get into. I have a guy on my ward who is doing exactly that - he was thinking of med school but is gaining experience on the wards to see if it's really the direction he wants to go in. The MDT on my ward is happy to explain their roles and show people what they do. And we all love teaching (and recruiting new people!!).
Other things you could look into?
-Biomedical Sciences (you learn a lot of very similar stuff to what is covered in Med School, but work in the labs). I did this and then retrained as I wanted more patient contact.
-Nursing: you train and then could work in wards, ITU, GP surgeries, in the community, nursing homes, theatres, endoscopy, clinics, become a specialist nurse etc. You can work your way up to a Nurse Practitioner role or work your way up through management.
-Physio: again, you could work the ward (resp, orth, paeds, neuro etc), clinics, in the community etc
-Occupational therapy: ditto
-Speech and Language therapy
-Radiographer, sonographer etc.
There are so many different roles that work together to look after a patient. We all depend on each other and work with each other. :D Have a nosey and see what's there :D
Feel free to PM me if you want x