To all my friends who are considered doing premeds: Is it worthwhile to become a doctor? (Part 2: Law of diminishing marginal utility)
Recap:
In part 1 of my blog, I discussed the opportunity costs of working hard in college and applying to medical school and the cases if you fail to be admitted to a single medical school. Since you are reading this part right now, you might just come across from part 1. You come back and say: "Hey, Emily! I still did not discourage to become a doctor." In this part, I am going to talk about the utility of being a doctor.
Of course, you are thinking about the fantastic life and the money that you are about to make after you successfully obtained an M.D. degree: as you gained more experience, you are more likely to receive higher wages and pay off those debts from the medical school. Meanwhile, you earn more respect from your patients and their family members. You know how rewarding that is when you save a patient's life and positively influence the whole family. However, have you thought about how being in this occupation may affect your marriage and family?
How does the law of diminishing marginal utility apply in this occupation?
According to the official website of St. George's University, being a doctor also means that "I never really know when I'm going to be finished working for the day." This means besides the huge job satisfaction, job security, and a good salary, you don't have much time left for your family members, your children, and your spouse. At the beginning of the year, I read a peer-review journal article, "Divorce Among Physicians and Medical Trainees," written by Dr. Joshua A. Daily on the Journal of the American College of Cardiology about the research on divorce among physicians.
If we look at this research study in an economic lense, there is the law of diminishing marginal utility applies here. According to Dr. Daily, as he wrote in his journal article, in his 12-year of marriage, he spent more time with his family as he became more successful in the later stage of his marriage. However, he still divorced in the end. I think the reason for this would be what he experienced later on in his marriage or his life is the result of the total utility that he gained after those years that he spent more time in his career and not accompanying his family members during this 12-year marriage. All his efforts that he spent in his career made him successful, and in return, he got more time to spend with his family as an attending doctor, in contrast to when he was in his residency when there was more busy work.
The microeconomic concepts tell us that the utility gained through marrying his wife decreases with each year of his marriage, as a result of the busy schedule from his occupation. So when Dr. Daily was in his first year of marriage, he might have 100 utils (units of satisfaction) from his marriage/life. In the second year of the marriage, it might be worth 80 utils. And as he got busier and busier since he had more responsibility in his occupation as being an attending, during the 11th year of the marriage, it only might be worth 1 util. While his total utility increased with each year that he was married, the marginal utility decreases with each year. When the marginal utility of his marriage became a negative number, it is not surprising to see that shocking divorce that his wife filed.
Conclusion:
After looking at Dr. Daily's story, would you still think about becoming a doctor? Being a doctor is rewarding, but you may need to reconsider this choice: is it really worthwhile to spend that much effort, time, happiness, and maybe health to reach this goal?
Sources:
https://www.sgu.edu/blog/medical/is-being-a-doctor-worth-it/
http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/73/4/521?_ga=2.116396481.615659075.1552509736-967860422.1552509736
Image:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2013/09/130916121853_1_540x360.jpg
In part 1 of my blog, I discussed the opportunity costs of working hard in college and applying to medical school and the cases if you fail to be admitted to a single medical school. Since you are reading this part right now, you might just come across from part 1. You come back and say: "Hey, Emily! I still did not discourage to become a doctor." In this part, I am going to talk about the utility of being a doctor.
Of course, you are thinking about the fantastic life and the money that you are about to make after you successfully obtained an M.D. degree: as you gained more experience, you are more likely to receive higher wages and pay off those debts from the medical school. Meanwhile, you earn more respect from your patients and their family members. You know how rewarding that is when you save a patient's life and positively influence the whole family. However, have you thought about how being in this occupation may affect your marriage and family?
How does the law of diminishing marginal utility apply in this occupation?
According to the official website of St. George's University, being a doctor also means that "I never really know when I'm going to be finished working for the day." This means besides the huge job satisfaction, job security, and a good salary, you don't have much time left for your family members, your children, and your spouse. At the beginning of the year, I read a peer-review journal article, "Divorce Among Physicians and Medical Trainees," written by Dr. Joshua A. Daily on the Journal of the American College of Cardiology about the research on divorce among physicians.
If we look at this research study in an economic lense, there is the law of diminishing marginal utility applies here. According to Dr. Daily, as he wrote in his journal article, in his 12-year of marriage, he spent more time with his family as he became more successful in the later stage of his marriage. However, he still divorced in the end. I think the reason for this would be what he experienced later on in his marriage or his life is the result of the total utility that he gained after those years that he spent more time in his career and not accompanying his family members during this 12-year marriage. All his efforts that he spent in his career made him successful, and in return, he got more time to spend with his family as an attending doctor, in contrast to when he was in his residency when there was more busy work.
The microeconomic concepts tell us that the utility gained through marrying his wife decreases with each year of his marriage, as a result of the busy schedule from his occupation. So when Dr. Daily was in his first year of marriage, he might have 100 utils (units of satisfaction) from his marriage/life. In the second year of the marriage, it might be worth 80 utils. And as he got busier and busier since he had more responsibility in his occupation as being an attending, during the 11th year of the marriage, it only might be worth 1 util. While his total utility increased with each year that he was married, the marginal utility decreases with each year. When the marginal utility of his marriage became a negative number, it is not surprising to see that shocking divorce that his wife filed.
Conclusion:
After looking at Dr. Daily's story, would you still think about becoming a doctor? Being a doctor is rewarding, but you may need to reconsider this choice: is it really worthwhile to spend that much effort, time, happiness, and maybe health to reach this goal?
Sources:
https://www.sgu.edu/blog/medical/is-being-a-doctor-worth-it/
http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/73/4/521?_ga=2.116396481.615659075.1552509736-967860422.1552509736
Image:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2013/09/130916121853_1_540x360.jpg
That's super interesting thanks for sharing! I think it is definitely worth while to think about what we are missing while we are working and to consider this heavily when we choose our careers. We need doctors, but maybe we should all consider our opportunity costs a little bit more!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post and I liked the new perspective this post brought to whether or not becoming a doctor is worth it. However, if you really wanted to pursue the medical field and it is your passion, I don't think the future (or your future marriage) should be the main factor in whether or not you should become a doctor. Although becoming a doctor requires time commitment and there are lots of things to consider, avoiding this path is like settling for something safer, and you wouldn't be taking on the risk of pursuing your passion. Perhaps this is a wiser choice for some, but I think I would regret my choice if I had not followed what I originally wanted to do. And sometimes, doing what you want to do requires sacrifices that you will not want to make, such as spending 11 years in training as a medical doctor.
ReplyDeletehttp://doctorly.org/cost-vs-reward-of-becoming-a-physician/