Yeo 1

Yeo Kim Hwang

Doctor Urrutia

Economics 1

Sep 18, 2019

Career Advice on Medicine and Nursing

Dear Vernon,

I heard that you wanted to follow in my choice of career path because you are

“just as smart as I am”. Well, I hope you’re making a smart choice about this. The

career that I am looking at requires a huge amount of investment – monetarily,

physically, psychologically and generally in all aspects of your life. This career is

something you would generally want to stick with for the rest of your life once you

commit to it.

I have decided to take on medicine for my future career path. Yes, I want to

be a doctor, a clinician. The educational requirements for this job is tough, because it

requires a load of paper certifications. Medicine requires a post-graduate degree and

a houseman-ship before one can practise as a doctor. That adds up to around 9

years typically in the states. For myself, I am planning to get a Bioengineering B.S.

degree after community college, take the MCAT and then hopefully transfer to an

established medical school. The keyword here is “hopefully” because you never

know what life would throw at you to sway you off this path. I had already been

swayed twice so far, but right now I am back on track. Finishing the medical school

isn’t enough. I would still have to complete another year of houseman-ship, and it’s

getting harder to get sponsorships from hospitals to do that.

 Yeo 2

Because there are many different specializations for doctors and their pay ranges

widely, I will focus on Family Practitioners, which is one of the most common

specialities in medicine and is also something that I am considering at this point

where I do not have a broad enough idea of the other specialties. However, Family

Practitioners also earn less on the scale of salaries among doctors. Moreover, there

is also a significant difference between private practitioners and practitioners who

are employees of another institution. However, opening up a private practice

requires both experience and money – setting up a private clinic requires significant

resources. So in this letter, when I refer to doctors, I am referring to employed family

practitioners.

The average starting pay for a doctor in California is $165,845 a year.

According to Chron, this is the average salary for practitioners who are just starting

out and only have 1-2 years of experience. On average, family and general

practitioners earn $190,000 a year. So as a family practitioner, your salary

progression isn’t nearly as high as specialists are. However, from my understanding

there is less stress involved as a family practitioner and you are able to get more of a

work-life balance than in other specializations.

If you’re considering an alternate specialization that would require less

investment in your education, – I wouldn’t say you can skip college education

altogether – you can consider nursing. You can become the nurse with just an

associate degree if you pass the required examinations such as NCLEX. This takes

considerably shorter time and educational requirements compared to embarking on

a career as a doctor.
 Yeo 3

The pay you would get pales in comparison, though. Not to mention that it is

getting harder to get employment at a hospital as a nurse without a bachelor’s

degree at this time. For an experienced nurse like my mom, she says she earned

$40 each hour excluding bonuses. Annual salary would vary widely with hours

worked, overtime pay and overnight pay though. The range is $91.1-157k per year.

New nurses can expect to earn a base salary of $25.20 per hour.

The starting pay difference is pretty large, with a doctor’s pay almost double of

that of a nurse. However, at the higher end of a nurse’s salary is comparable to that

of a family practitioner. But one must not neglect the fact that most nurses would not

be able to progress to that level in their career. Number of positions available for

senior nurses are small. Over a lifetime, the pay differences between the two careers

can accumulate to become a large sum.

Other than pay, we can examine the differences in terms of lifestyle and job

requirements between the two careers. Nurses in general have a rather flexible and

predictable schedule. Doctors on the other hand are known to work long hours – up

to 80 hours in a week and beyond, especially for new doctors. Moreover, doctors

may have to answer to emergencies and rush to the hospital or clinic at odd hours.

While both jobs require huge commitment and are also challenging, it is apparent

that doctors have to be much more committed to their work – sometimes even to the

extent of being religiously attached to their jobs. The work ethics required of doctors

are especially demanding, although it is required in both professions. Doctors

justifiably earn more with their higher workload and investment in their education. In

addition, doctors are also at risk of lawsuits which doctors defend themselves with

mandatory, hefty insurance packages.

 Yeo 4

Nurses generally are able to start work at a younger age due to the long

education that doctors have to go through before starting work. However, over the

life time of a career nurses would also have to go through continued education in

order to stand out for promotion. So taking into consideration of the lifetime of career

for both doctors and nurses, nurses may be able to work marginally more. However,

looking at the analysis in the salary of the two careers above, we know that doctors

earn a lot more over the lifetime of their career. In general, despite the much higher

costs associated with medical schools (ranging from $30,000 - $60,000), the lifetime

monetary benefits are definitely worth pursuing.

So cousin, if you’re smart as I believe you are, I believe that becoming a

doctor may be a great decision you make in your life. However, I have a few pieces

of advice for you. Firstly, keep to your medical pursuit. Dropping your education

halfway is a huge sunk cost that is irrecoverable. Also, work super hard and focus

because each additional year of medical school adds to costs and also the

opportunity cost of not working for salary. Secondly, beware of interest rates.

Student debt is the number one problem for doctors, and the median student loan

debt is $190,000 - $210,000. So know what you are getting into before you actually

decide to do this. All in all, I would say that if you are committed to the medical

career, are as smart as you say you are, and are financially able to support this

dream then yes, go for it. You will have a bright career ahead.
 Yeo 5

Sources

Nykiel, Teddy, et al. “Average Medical School Debt in the Class of 2018.” NerdWallet, 25 Apr.

2019, https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/average-medical-school-debt/.

Santiago, Andrea Clement. “The Most Common Physician Specialties.” Verywell Health,

Verywell Health, 10 May 2019, https://www.verywellhealth.com/types-of-doctors-1736311.

Severson, Dana. “The Rate of Salary Increase for a Physician.” Chron.com, 9 Nov. 2016,

https://work.chron.com/rate-salary-increase-physician-27112.html.