How to Choose a Medical Career

Video Transcript

"Hello. My name is Dr. David Cathcart and I am from Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, Missouri. This is a, this is not an easy answer or an easy question to tackle because it really depends on where you are in life. In my case, I was 23 years old before I even thought about going to medical school. That's a little late for most people. You pretty much need to make that decision a little earlier on. It's just by the time you get done with all the schooling, which is, you know, four years of college, four years of medical school, and for most medical careers, you're looking at an additional four years. So, you know, a good 12 years from the point that you decide to enter in this area. It's a, you know, it's a long time. You can even choose a field where you only have to go to school for as little as nine months for some of the technical degrees, for example, being a surgical technologist. I'm sorry, a surgical tech or a surgical assistant. If you chose the clerical side, the medical records side, you could do an associate degree for, again, as little as nine months or no more than two years and become certified in various areas that would be not the patient care side of things, but in dealing with some of the technical aspects of providing medical care. If you're interested in the management side, then you're looking at at least four years of college and two years for a master's degree if not more. So, you know, there are so many things that a person can choose with respect to a career in medicine, that in companies, the sky, you know, the sky's the limit. Thanks for taking this time to explore medical careers with me. Again, I'm Dr. David Cathcart with Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, Missouri."