He's dead, Jim.
Posted on 12/27/2014 11:25:55 AM PST by GrootheWanderer
“NDs aren’t into all the drugs like MDs are. Their focus is on healing rather than treating”
I can barely count the number of times western medicine and drugs have saved my life:
1. Appendectomy in 1986.
2. Heart attack with quick intervention and stenting.
3. Stenting multiple other times.
4. Repaired hiatal hernia and GERD that was giving me fits.
5. B12 injections that I would die without due to pernicious anemia.
6. Hypertension medication.
7. CPAP for obstructive sleep apnea.
8. Antibiotics for multiple occurrences of community acquired pneumonia.
9. Levothyroxine for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and subsequent hypothyroidism.
10. Cryoablation for atrial fibrillation that was destroying my life.
And don’t tell me if I had only exercised enough, eaten the right foods, didn’t smoke or didn’t drink, I’d be healthy as a horse right now. I did all of that; I just happened to inherit a whole fuch-pile of bad genes from both sides and been unlucky enough to be infected with Chronic Lyme disease.
He’s probably going to be practicing poor. Can’t take blood from a turnip.
UMKC Med School. Set up to educate docs for small towns.
Saw Doc Hollywood the other night fun movie
Agree with your post.
“natural” remedies have a very limited application, if any at all.
My advice to freepers: Inherit good genes, exercise, manage your weight, don’t smoke and drink plenty of good red wine, scotch, whatever. Stay away from fads unless you have a minor problem that’s easy to fix.
The military is an excellent path for anyone who wants to become an M.D. During my days as an Air Force ROTC instructor, one of my cadets qualified for the program; he was commissioned as a 2Lt, and his first duty assignment was attending med school.
As I recall, he owed the Air Force one year of service for every year of education and training he received, so his payback was about 10 years. But the service footed all costs for medical school and they paid him as they would any 2Lt on active duty. By the time he began internship and residency, he was a Captain, and he pinned on Major not long after he began practicing as an internal medicine specialist.
Obviously, his peers heading towards civilian practice were going to make much more money. But he completed med school, internship and residency without incurring any debt and actually entered practice with money in the bank. And with the bonuses paid for various specialties and flight pay (my former cadet became a flight surgeon) he was earning a very comfortable living. Last I heard, he planned to stay for 20 in the Air Force; he will easily make Colonel and will probably wind up as a medical group commander. When he retires, he will still have plenty of time to establish a civilian practice—assuming Obamacare doesn’t destroy that option.
There were many of our friends who where physicians who were serving to pay back their paid-for medical educations by honoring their commitments to the Air Force. Dentists too. Some went to civilian life after their commitments were over. Others stayed in because, contrary to many misconceptions, military hospitals are not bad places to work. They are good places to get experience, start your career and save some money. We enjoyed our time in the Air Force. In twenty years, at minimum you would make light colonel.
Retiring after 20 years, puts most doctors in their mid-40's, plenty of time to set up a civilian practice in a small town. If this kid is lucky, he could end up staying where his last assignment is if it's on a base near a small community. We know one doctor who stayed in Alamogordo to set up his practice after being stationed at Holloman AFB in New Mexico. He knew the area and scored some points for being stationed at the Air Base. He did very well.
Dang! 28 replies and nobody posted a picture of Granny (Irene Ryan)?
Check out becoming a DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) as they tend to focus on practices away from metro areas and some schools connect with rural communities to establish contracts for students. The contracts trade payment for school for the student/doctor coming to the community after becoming licensed. Of course, as others have noted, Obamacare is queering the whole deal right now so it’s hard to say how this will go in the future.
Prerequisites include a degree, a broad science background, and substantial experience in health-related work (2,000 hours as I recall).
Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Missouri, is the original source of Osteopathy. Nine of my family members are graduates.
We’ve often used D.O.s for our general practitioner. My GP in Tulsa didn’t deliver babies, but her aunt, in the same group, did. It worked out really well. Most doctors would have ordered a C-section when my 6th baby was a posterior breech presentation, but Dr. Carole said, “Oh, he’s not that big, you can handle it. Take deep breaths!”
It wasn’t the best half hour of my life, but the baby was fine and I was up in an hour, instead of three days.
You might find that Physicians Assistant qualifications or Licensed Vocational Nurse would take you just as far, in a low-end country.
My daughter is going to take a Certified Nursing Assistant (what we used to call Nurse’s Aide) when she turns 16, and I plan to take it as well, if possible. I found out recently, when my father was dying, how much need there is for honest, caring people with basic medical training.
I found a couple of places that offer both a rural family medicine residency and a regular family medicine residency and compared them. One thing I noticed is that, at least at those places,the rural residency seems to stress ob/gyn and urology more than the family medicine residency.
Julie Warner. 'Nuff said.
Yes nuff said
He's dead, Jim.
Many thanks to you and your wife for your service. Before my ROTC tour, I was an aircrew member of the 7th and 42nd Airborne Command and Control Squadrons at Keesler and Davis-Monthan. One of our ground intel specialists was a young senior airman; I encouraged him to go back to school and pursue his commission through ROTC. He graduated from Troy and wound up as a hospital administrator and enjoyed a very successful career.
To me, it’s a no-brainer; if you’re an aspiring medical professional and have any inclination towards the military, why not let the armed forces pay for your education and training. Young M.D.’s or D.O.’s going straight from residency to civilian practice not only have the cost of their education to worry about, there’s also the expense of establishing or buying into an existing practice. Plenty of banks are willing to underwrite that cost, but now you’ve got a big business loan to pay on top of your student loans—and with more physicians going to work for healthcare companies that run hospitals and related medical practices, they aren’t making as much money as they did in the past—so, they work more years to pay off those debts and stay in practice longer to build their nest egg.
I’m guessing your friend from Holloman went into civilian practice with no student debt, and in a much better position to buy his way into an existing practice or set up a new office. And, having a monthly pension check as a Lt Col or Col doesn’t hurt, since it will pay your mortgage and a few more bills in places like Alamogordo, NM.
To continue on to medical school, like the doctors, required more tuition than they could earn because their student loads were so demanding. So they surely had loans to continue. Having the military pay for their school was a big deal. And another big expense that civilian doctors have is malpractice insurance. Not so in the military. The military route is a very viable option for people with medical careers in mind.
And thanks for your military service too. Our country appreciates it.
Check this out:
http://www.sgu.edu/
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