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Career Paper
Doctor Urrutia
Economics 1
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
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
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
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
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
requires both experience and money – setting up a private clinic requires significant
practitioners.
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
there is less stress involved as a family practitioner and you are able to get more of a
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
a career as a doctor.
Yeo 3
The pay you would get pales in comparison, though. Not to mention that it is
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
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
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
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
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,
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.