For many people, it’s a huge ambition for them to become a doctor. Whilst many people do this in order to help others, the money is also a clear point of interest for the majority of people.

However, there are also cons/disadvantages of being a doctor. Whilst we can’t discuss all of them in this post, we’ll talk about a few of them.

A lack of time

Unless you’re a GP, you’ll need to be used to having a lot less time on your hands. This starts at your very first day of university and will carry on until you leave the profession. The reason for this is that any excellent doctor is expected to invest a large amount of time into continuous learning. Some people feel that they are simply able to coast on by. However, this is a huge mistake. Due to the quick advances in medicine, it would be foolish not to keep up to date with these progressions. You will therefore have less time to spend with friends and family. Tied to this is the fact that oncall work is required.

Sadly, people don’t stop being sick at 5pm. If they are in hospital, they will require constant attention through the night. Therefore, you’ll be asked to do routine shift work which leads onto our next point…

 

Night shift

A major con for many doctors is the fact that they’ll need to do night shifts. As mentioned above, people don’t stop being sick when 5pm comes around. Night shift can be extremely taxing. This is mainly due to the fact that despite the number of people on the ward being the same, the number of doctors is reduced. Even if it is the case that it’s a quiet evening in terms of of the amount of patients needing care, the paper work can be a major con for doctors…

Is paperwork a con of being a doctor?

Whilst this con isn’t restricted to doctors, paper work really is a nightmare. It is often the case that doctors actually spend more time filling in paperwork than they do with the patients. The result of this is that the patients feel that they aren’t getting the proper treatment. In the case of the doctor, they feel that their time is constantly being consumed by the paperwork. Eventually they become so dillusioned that they begin to resent their job, which has such a negative impact on the patients.

Whilst this isn’t a comprehensive list, this is some of the cons associated with being a doctor and something you should think about in the future should you want to go down that route.