Ultimately I find that there is something about the therapeutic relationship, noting that this relationship often takes place in the face of things like reproduction, birth, sickness, decline, death, psychological distress, psychosis etc... I find it quite special to be privy to such significant aspects of the human experience (on a regular basis no less!).
Add to this:
- Good money
- A fascinating (,expanding) body of knowledge which is integral to practice
- Opportunities in research and teaching
- Being part of an intelligent and politically significant/relevant community
- Interesting problem solving
- Moral dilemmas (sometimes big ones)
I'm sure that I could be happy in something like academia, clinical/neuro- psychology, social work, NGO work, teaching, etc., but none of these options are quite as appealing as medicine (broadly considered). Medicine has continued to grow on me, especially through the increased clinical exposure I have had over the last year.
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On what medicine involves, I don't know if I can come up with an adequate cover-all summary. Note thate different medical careers can be very different.
Compare, for example:
- GP
- Pathology
- Surgery (and then, say, general surgery vs. super-specialised orthopaedics)
- O&G (obstetrics vs. fertility medicine)
- Internal medicine
- Psychiatry
- Radiology
- Opthalmology, Dermatology, etc... etc...
Each of these areas can have a vastly different case load and work environment, not to mention differences in working hours and remuneration. Then you have private vs. public vs. academic practice, and so forth.
