Career/life change

GwylimT

My son fairly recently completed medical school, he chose not to specialise as a GP as he was worried he would find it boring.

To gain a place he needed A grades in English, maths and triple science, he achieved an A* in all of his subjects. At A-level he studied the three sciences, further maths and English lit, he gained an A in each.

During his A-levels he volunteered at his local hospital where he would provide socialisation for lonely people on the ward, help serve meals etc. He also volunteered at a nursing home which specialised in dimentia and alzhiemers.

When he completed his A-levels he took a year out to work as a health care assistant and he continued volunteering in both his roles, although at slightly reduced hours.

He is very academic and studeous, but he found medical school extremely hard where written exams etc were concerned.

There were many times that he wished he had studied nursing instead (and occasionally feels this way), he works on average 65 hours a week while stil studying as a junior doctor.

missbiggles1

I agree with the others and have to add, I'm afraid, that funding is also going to be a problem as you will already have a degree.

If you want to look further, there are Access to Medicine courses available but those are also oversubscribed and you would have to fund it yourself.

http://www.medschools.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/MSC%20DSC%20Guidance%20on%20Access%20to%20medicine%20and%20dentistry%20courses.pdf

I'm all for being optimistic but I really don't think that it's going to be possible.

FBaby

I earn around 26k a year at the moment, but as I said in my OP I have major commitments which aremmy main priority

So would you be prepared to move anywhere you are offered a place if that even actually happened? Because if you don't have that flexibility, then you are writing yourself off before you even started.

Polarbeary

Why not try nursing, physio, speech therapy, occupational therapy, radiography or dietics if you wanted to work in healthcare? They are still very competitive and you would need to ensure you had the relevant qualifications and volunteer in hospitals but that might be another route?

lauren_hb

If you want to work in a job that involves helping and caring for people and it seems GP may be out of your reach how about training to become a nurse?
I do my nursing through The Open Universiry and there are many modules you can complete which would give you an insight into the subject and aew if its for you whilst also giving you something that looks good on your cv when applying for the course.
Also you could start as a support worker/nursing assistant which would be good for experience.

Johnnytwostep

I'm not usually negative, and I am honestly blunt I have been told.

So here goes, not a hope in the world of becoming a GP, or medical doctor of any kind. Give up that hope and focus on something more toward your academic level.

Tigsteroonie

So you want to keep your full time role (because it pays the mortgage and car), and have time to bring up your child, whilst studying on the side to become a GP?

Good luck :rotfl:

Outofoffice

[/QUOTE]

lauren_hb wrote: »

If you want to work in a job that involves helping and caring for people and it seems GP may be out of your reach how about training to become a nurse?
I do my nursing through The Open Universiry and there are many modules you can complete which would give you an insight into the subject and aew if its for you whilst also giving you something that looks good on your cv when applying for the course.
Also you could start as a support worker/nursing assistant which would be good for experience.

That is actually a great idea! I never even thought about other areas such as nursing. Thanks very much.

Outofoffice

Johnnytwostep wrote: »

I'm not usually negative, and I am honestly blunt I have been told.

So here goes, not a hope in the world of becoming a GP, or medical doctor of any kind. Give up that hope and focus on something more toward your academic level.

I appreciate your honesty. After reading some of the posts I can see that it would probably be beyond my reach but there are other medical jobs which are available and a lot more achievable.

Polarbeary

There are training programmes within the NHS. A friend of mine is a band 3 ophthalmic technician in an hospital eye clinic - she loves it! The only thing I would say is that the pay is not so great but you do get unsocial hours payments and there are part time options. Her workplace is doing a scheme for band 4 assistant practitioners and they sponsor you to do a foundation degree at the same time.