This NYT article regarding college students’ recruitment to Wall Street is compelling. The author highlights the financial incentives that direct students to financial careers – and away from graduate degrees like medicine.
An Excellent Question
I recently read a NYT piece called, “Why Would Anyone Choose to Become a Doctor?” by Dr. Danielle Ofri. It’s a sweet essay written by a physician who describes being perplexed by the large number of medical school applicants yearly, considering her profession’s numerous annoyances.
As the author considers alternatives to her career, however, she comes to the conclusion that her clinical encounters make it all worthwhile. The essay is a nice pick-me-up.
Family Practitioners’ Salaries
I recommend an article in the Business Section of the NYT called “< a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/business/29doctor.html?src=me&ref=homepage">Study Shows ‘Invisible’ Burden of Family Doctors.” The piece reports that less than ten percent of medical school graduates choose primary care specialties. Note too that, generally, the lesser the compensation, the less competitive the residency. The converse is true too.
Being a physician: A recession-proof job?
According to a recent study, despite the recession, physician salaries increased by 4.4% for specialists and 4% for primary care physicians in 2008. Sullivan, Cotter and Associates is a compensation and human resource management firm that utilized surveys of 257 health care organizations employing more than 41,000 physicians to publish their findings.
Nursing and other health care jobs (physician assistant, home health aide) are also being seen as good careers in this economy. Newsweek.com listed these in their recent photo montage called “Recession-proof jobs.”
Check me out at www.InsiderMedicalAdmissions.com .
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes.
