Can I work while in medical school?

As a rule, no. Medical school is a full-time job in and of itself. Even at my school where the curriculum is set up to be a *little* more student friendly, being a student is essentially an all-day job. That said, I do have some classmates who are doing things on the side. I myself am still an adjunct faculty at a school in Arizona.

If you have a master’s degree, it may be possible for you to teach an online class or two. When I started teaching online in 2009-’10, we were responsible for building our own classes, writing our own syllabi, finding our own teaching materials, etc. Essentially, we were building curriculum and teaching, and classes were a lot more labor intensive. Over the last ten years however, there has been a shift to standardization and what I find now is that schools that have a heavy online presence have departments that build the classes, write the syllabi, design the assignments and grading rubrics, etc. These days, I don’t teach as much as watch over the classes unless a student needs something and of course, assign grades at the end. My responsibilities generally include responding to student emails within 24 hours, grading assignments within 48 hours of the due date (sometimes, 72 hours), and interacting with students in the discussion boards (and few students ever interact back). Quizzes grade themselves and many classes no longer have exams. The most labor-intensive work that I have now is grading papers and these usually are no longer than three to four pages in length. I spend a bit of time teaching APA but other than that, teaching online is low stress and doesn’t take any time from my studies.

I have other friends who were nurses, firefighters, PA’s, paramedics, and consultants in their pre-medical school lives and some of them work. My buddy who is a firefighter-paramedic works one or two shifts per month, on weekends and I have another friend at USC SoM who does research consulting for $150/hr. Another friend of mine was a DNP before medical school and she does PRN shifts at urgent cares in and around San Francisco a few times each month. My point is that if you have the right skill set and education, its possible to make a little money while you are in medical school.

Working while you are in medical school is NOT optimal but I get it. Many of us have reasons why we have to continue working. For some, the loans are not enough, particularly if they have family and for others, they are not able to get loans for various reasons. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to work, just make sure that you choose something that is low stress and doesn’t keep you from your studies (or sleep). Best of luck to you.