It’s been a minute since I last had time to blog. Since that time, I’ve completed three of the EMT skills day, including one day of NREMT Psychomotor Skills Testing, taken final exams & finished Unit 1, and started Unit 2 (today marks the start of week 3 of Unit 2). Things have picked up considerably and time is even less of a resource than it was in Unit 1. That said, I really wanted to share something that I want you to all think about, particularly if you are a non-traditional student with a spouse and/or children.
About a week ago, a headhunter reached out to me on LinkedIn and asked if I would be interested in applying to a Population Health Director role with United Health Group and an Academic Dean of Health Sciences role at a local, Phoenix, AZ-area community college. These roles pay $114K and over $130K respectively and the Dean’s role in particular, would suite me well because of m y academic background and the fact that I hold a doctorate. The role would also come with tenure so I would never have to worry about a job again. I could literally sit in the role until I retire or maybe seek to move up to something like President of one of the community colleges in the system or even a Provost within the system.
I have been praying about what course of action to take. On one hand, I fought so hard and for so long to get to medical school. Those of you who know me, know how long and how hard this fight was. It feels almost absurd to walk away. On the other hand, there is the reality that attending medical school as a non-traditional student, particularly when you are nearing 50 (I will be 50 in November) or have family, money issues hit differently than they do when you are in your 20s or 30s with no real financial responsibilities. One of the kids who I’ve gotten to know since being here sort of sums up the difference. He is 24 and lives at home with his parents. Though he is taking student loans, his parents are also paying for his car note (2021 Mercedes Benz SUV) and just dropped $2k on an Apple Macbook Pro four or five weeks ago. I don’t blame him, if I had those advantages, I won’t sit here and say that I wouldn’t take advantage of them. In truth, I don’t know how I would act if that advantage had ever been afforded to me. In my situation, however, Eboni is taking on 99% of the financial burden of me being in medical school. While she earns a comfortable six-figure salary, because of the increased cost of everything, me being in medical school is a financial burden. She’s never said anything to me about it and I still teach adjunct status with A.T. Still so that I can at least pay my truck note and take care of some small things around the house, but I see the lines of concern on her face each month when it’s time to pay rent, utilities, her car note, student loan, etc…
The other thing that I think about is that if I make the decision to stay in medical school, this means almost a decade of Eboni fronting the financial cost of this little adventure. I’ll be 56 when I finish residency so we’re looking at me being out of work for at least 6 ½ more years or so and that assumes that I am fortunate enough to secure a family or internal medicine residency right out of the gate. One of the other realities that does not get enough attention is that there is a fair amount of ageism in medical school admissions and residency selection. Now and again, you’ll see these stories in the media about an older residency applicant having to sue a residency program because of age discrimination. In any case, the other thing that is of concern for me is that these six, almost seven years, that I am not working is also time that I am missing out on saving for retirement. To be sure, once I am a physician, I’ll be able to make those years up financially and if I choose to continue my commitment with the VA, and work till I am in my mid-70s, I’ll have a decent retirement. That brings up a whole different question regarding how long I actually want to work but that is a subject for another day.
My point in mentioning all of this is that if you are planning on attending medical school as an older student with existing financial obligations, please carefully consider your financial plan. If you are married, consider what that will look like for you and your spouse, especially if you have young children and have to rely on one income. A few of us older students in my class do work on a part time or as-needed basis, but this little money that we bring in does not make up for the major loss of income that we incurred by starting medical school. I am fortunate that my wife is supportive of this but some of my classmates are facing issues and we are only 12 ½ weeks into a four year journey…
Something else that does not get enough attention is that when you come to medical school, no matter what age you are, you have to understand that for as much as medical school will give you, it cannot give you time. What I mean is that you are signing up to miss a lot of life events and you will have to be OK with that. You will have to be OK with family not understanding why you couldn’t be at your 96-year-old paternal grandmothers birthday party (And in this day and age of COVID, there is even less guarantee that I’ll be able to see her 97th birthday…). You’ll have to be OK with letting your spouse fly back home to tend to an ill uncle while you stay behind and study (Eboni’s uncle may be near death and once he is gone, she will not have many family ties to that side of the family. This has been so hard for her and I feel so bad that I haven’t been, can’t be there for her the way that a husband needs to be there for his wife…). You’ll have to be OK with missing out on fishing trips with your dad (Our last fishing trip together was my senior year of high school, in 1989). The list of the events, both happy and not so happy, that I have missed so far as lengthy and by the time I finish medical school, I feel like I will have missed enough events to fill a small book. Understand that once these events are gone, there is no going back to get them. You’ll have to be OK with that and you’ll have to be OK with family and friends who do not understand why you can’t be fully present.
I haven’t yet made a decision about what I am going to do (i.e., take one or both of these job interviews and possibly leave medical school). Right now, I am TIRED and there is so much on my plate with studying. Next week, I’ll need to transition to starting to prepare for the end of unit finals so to be honest, I don’t know when I will really have time to think about all of this. I think that I needed to vent this morning before class starts (15 minutes) and I wanted to let you, the reader think about these things before you hit that “submit” button on your applications. These are real-world issues that you have got to think about and plan for, hopefully BEFORE you start medical school.
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