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So im in 11th grade and thinking about college and what job im interested in. i would love to be a nurse but i personally think i could excel in med school and become a doctor or a nurse practitioner ( in a hospital). is this a realistic dream? like ive never heard of a frum woman doctor because the hours are nuts and the job is waay stressful. my parents think i COULD become a doctor, but they have the same concerns- like the hours.. no family life… and like which guy would want a doctor as a wife? do you know any frum woman doctors?
so am i being realistic or totally dreaming here? some help thanx 🙂
Are your parents willing to help pay for med school?. I think its about 11 years until you can begin earning money. Its lots of money to some doctors. Others suffer because of malpractice insurance.
Sure! Go for it! But you do need a VERY supportive husband.
My pediatrician is a very Frum woman, she has a large family of kids.
(In the pst 5 yrs that I’m there she gave birth to 2 children. )
It does involve crazy hrs for a mother, so you will need your hub’s help.
If you think you could do it then go for it. However, you really should speak to a lady doctor and hear what she has to say as far as the work, hours and how she managed to go through college and then medical school. You have to realize that its close to ten years of schooling and residency and all of that before you become a doctor. Think about it carefully and see if you could do it. You have to be focused and have “tunnel vision” for your dream. I wish you much hatzlacha.
way cool! like, i’ve never heard a doctor speak that way, so, y’know, it, like, may be a totally awesome experience! go for it, girl! break those barriers!
jk! i do actually know of some frum female doctors who do have families, but it’s a very long haul to get there, and you’re going to have to marry someone who will back you and pick up the slack at home when you’re not there. also, you should go into a field that has a minimum number of emergencies, and can have regular office hours. keep in mind, it will be YEARS until you get to that point, but if you REALLY want to do it (and make sure you REALLY want it), maybe you should ask daas torah what to do. hatzlacha!
Why does a 11th grader have to think about a career now? Think about where you want to go to seminary or college. Worry about career later. Most college students haven’t the foggiest what they are going to do after college. A lot start to figure it out during college. No 11th grader can even begin to understand what medical school & residency entails. BTW, you have to be a nurse before you can be a NP. PA’s can still get their degree in 4 years, some places.
Health, that is the worst advice ever.
OP, a few of my friends went to medical school and are in the process of becoming doctors. My cousin is finishing her residency now.
My suggestion: volunteer at a clinic or as an EMT on an ambulance to get some experience in the medical field. See if you really enjoy the work.
Also, does your school offer AP exams? Consider taking AP Bio and AP Chem if they do to help move you along in school.
Additionally, if you are truly serious about this, consider going to YU/Stern for undergrade and Einstein for Medical School. There are amazing scholarships for Stern graduates and Einstein (its almost full tuition).
Becoming a doctor takes a lot of hard work and dedication getting off the ground. Its serious work. Its also extremely rewarding.
Hatzlacha!
There are many, many frum woman doctors out there.
Like SJS said, prepare early, and decide if you think it is the right career for you, and then go full steam and give it nothing but your all.
(Not to hijack the thread, but) Being a doctor, especially an OBGYN for the frum community (as a distant relative of mine is), is an extremely rewarding career, and serves Klal Yisroel in a way that very few women are able to do.
Hatzlacha
Hatzlacha.
DELETED,You are not the only person in the Coffee Room who is entitled to express their opinion about a health or related issue.
I know a woman doctor but it could be the guy married her only because he is also a doctor. But if you plan on marrying a learning guy he might not want a girl that works crazy hours but then again it all depends on the guy.
I know a girl that wanted to be a lawyer but didn’t because she didn’t think a guy would want a lawyer as a wife so she went for accounting. She didn’t get married for a few years so she decided that’s it I’m goiing for law and later she found a shidduch so it all depends on hashgacha protis
I know several frum female phsyicians (try saying THAT three times fast), one is a pediatrician, two are OB-GYNs(in my opinion, only women should go into that field) and a couple are internists. No one says it will be easy, but if it is your dream, you should find out all you can, speak to some females doctors who can give you some idea of what to expect, and if you still want to do it, go for it. we need frum women in this profession.
AP exams are advanced placement tests. You take a higher level course in high school and take the AP exam instead of the Regents. You can often get college credit for them and they always look good on the application.
I think it’s great that you are thinking of working in the medical field. I’m in nursing school, and I aspire to be a nurse practioner or nurse midwife.
I did consider med school or pa school, but I decided that it is too much schooling. Plus there is a residency. And I like the patient centered approach of nursing.
A nurse practitioner is an advanced practice nurse – on the masters level. You have to go to nursing school for 2 years to get a bachelors and then go to graduate school for another 2 years to get a masters. The advantage is you can work while you are still in school and it takes far less time then it does to become a physician. In many states, nurse practitioners can work in private practice, and must be affiliated with a doctor.
Hatzlacha
Post deleted, except for this:
Stop protecting her!
We will continue to protect anyone here from personal, angry, hateful comments from other posters. You have been asked to refrain from this many times.
toomuch00- “yet its not as hard or crazy as being a doctor”
Sometimes it’s harder, sometimes it’s not. PA school is probably harder than Med school.
oh i just remembered my grandmother used to be a nurse and she says that it is a very hard demanding job that really cuts into the time that you have to spend with your husband and kids especially in the first years of marriage. i dont think she would recommend going into the medical field.
especially when you are interning and they make you work crazy shifts.
health, can you elaborate on a situation where PA school is harder, thanks.
toomuch, PA is great if med school is too overwhelming, explore both and go for what best suits you!
toomuch00- You’re speaking from what you heard -I’m speaking from
being a med prof. PA school is basically 4 years of med school jammed into 2.
Keep your eyes open during college, some students think they will love medicine, but when they begin to see what it really entails, they realize it’s not for them. Good luck on whatever you do in life! Also, if you do decide to go to med school or PA school find out what the prereqs are. Not every school has the same prereqs. If you are an “A” student you can pretty much get in anywhere, but why do more school than you have to? Start taking the prereqs already in your first year of college.
toomuch00, AP is an advance placement exam. If you don’t know what they are, chances are your school doesn’t offer them.
You can volunteer at many clinics without any problem (you may need working papers and/or parental consent). Call up your local ambulance and see if they take volunteers. You won’t be doing the “exciting” stuff like administering care – you will likely be doing errands and paperwork. But it is great resume building and good for seeing if the work is for you. You generally don’t need experience.
You can also look into taking first aid, CPR, and possibly EMT certification (you may need to be 18 for that, but I’m not sure).
From talking to a few PAs, it doesn’t sound worth it to me, but definitely do your own research. A PA is neither here nor there and many people don’t trust them as much.
Health,
I didn’t say doctors killed my grandmother. I said my grandmother contracted c. diff while in the hospital. I do not blame my grandmothers doctors for her death.
You however have been trying to twist my words from day one. Thank you to the mods for editing whatever drivel you were trying push through.
SJS- “I didn’t say doctors killed my grandmother. I said my grandmother contracted c. diff while in the hospital. I do not blame my grandmothers doctors for her death.
You however have been trying to twist my words from day one.”
This is your quote from the Homebirth Post:
“Health, there is a high corrolation between elderly in hospitals or long term care facilities developing increased colonization of c. diff, causing extreme diahrea and often death. But feel free to say I am blaming this on medical negligence.”
I didn’t twist your words, those are your words -“feel free to say I am blaming this on medical negligence”. If this was Sarcasm or you Really had a different reason why organisms colonize in medical facilities, you should have said so then. I’m Not a mind reader, if you say your reason is because of medical negligence, I’m going to believe you. At that time I posted that you had brought No proof to your accusations. If you want people to believe your story, you must bring proof. My point here is that one place you mention how bad hospitals are due to high colonizations of bacteria which can cause subsequent death (that part is true), but you laid this occurrence on medical negligence (which is only sometimes true). This is my interpretation of your comments. There is no twisting of your comments. But here you post how the OP should join the medical field and seem very positive about medical practice.
EDITED
pa is a very good job it takes minimal schooling and the opening salary is 90 grand. but its the same problem as a doctor, it has crazy hours and internship
Health, this is my last post on this issue.
I didn’t say medical negligence caused my grandmother’s death. I said that being in the hospital increases the risk of c. diff in many elderly patients, my grandmother included.
I did NOT blame medical negligence. My entire point in that thread was hospitals are not these clean, perfect places and home births have their own unique set of risks, as do hospitals.
Stop trying to twist my words.
Apologies to the OP.
health
again your baseless assumptions are wrong
it was not i who has been keeping a close watch on your posts in this thread.
had it been me i would have used harsher adjectives to describe your behavior.
the rest of the posts here will please concern themselves with the original posters question or related matters.
thank you
I’ve also heard of many female doctors. One of the hardest thing for doctors is having children and taking care of them during medical school and residency. If you can get tons of help, that would be useful. But once you are a doctor, depending on the type of doctor, you could probably get better hours and much better pay than nurses. I would definitely recommend you speak to other women who have become doctors or PA’s (and there are many), and get any helpful and practical hints of the actual logistics from them.
I do believe that if you really want to do something and it can be used in your serving Hashem, then you should go for it. Good luck!
I know what you are going through and I have been in the same place. The best person to speak to is someone who went through the same thing as you did. You are more than welcome to contact me and I can discuss it with you as I have with many others in the past. I think you can contact the moderators who can put you in touch with me. I don’t want to give out too much information but one thing to let you know it is a big issue when it comes to shidduchim. Take it from me!!
It’s a long road, so you have to really want it and you have to get on the road early on; the people who go to med school are not the people who change their major 5 times…
I know a few frum woman doctors and I wish there were more b/c it’s much more comfortable for woman to see a woman, and it’s helpful in general to have a frum doctor who is aware of potential halachik concerns. There are fields of medicine that are less demanding (hours-wise) than others, such as dermatology and radiology, so a lot of women flock to those fields.
As for shidduchim, can’t help you there; I am sure some guys would be uncomfortable with it, but do you want those guys anyway? I am in law school- another place where you don’t see too many frum girls- but I got married right after coming home from seminary, before I had even started college, so shidduchim were of no concern by the time law school became relevant. So maybe do it my way? 🙂
Also, google Jewish Alliance for Women in Science. It was started by a frum woman and is a great resource.
It can definitely be done. I have two friends–they are sisters actually–who are physicians. If your parents will pay for med school then you can avoid student loans, which can be large.
Also, if you’re looking into being a PA, check if each state hires them, if you’re ever thinking of leaving New York. I know Eretz Yisroel, there are no PA’s, but there are many American men and women doctors.
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