Katherine Said:

Careers: Alternative to Medical Radiography?

We Answered:

Sonography, Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Therapy. All are 2 year programs. You should try the hospitals in your area to see if they have an Xray Program, some do.
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Lonnie Said:

what are jobs in the medical field that dont require me to deal with blood/ needles?

We Answered:

You can got involved with health administration, medical coding and billing.

Or, you can get into physical therapy or occupational therapy. (However, these programs require a masters- so this takes about 6 to 7 years to complete.)

Try checking out you local community's website and see what sort of medical/health programs they have there. They usually only take about 2-3 years and don't cost as much as a university.

Lillian Said:

I'm leaving Medicine, any ideas of an alternative career?!!?

We Answered:

Hi,
Gosh you are over many of the hurdles required to get into the field of medicine. Its tough to slog it through the rest of the program but I can tell you that almost all who finish up find the field of medicine fruitful and satisfying.

If residency programs are scaring you just finish up the MD or DO and then take some time off to rejuvenate and volunteer. There are many specialties where the demands on you are not as stressful as in other residency programs. Psych is an area where one does a 1 year of grunt general residency and then you start a 5 to 7 year of specialization process which is not as stressful and grinding as general medicine and surgery etc.

The residency programs of old were worse than those of today, but I can see how the ones of today are still grinding and draining. The many specializations in medicine allow one to choose a field that satisfies your needs and goals while leveraging your skill set (learned in med and those in your personality).

If it totally freaks you then you could go into administrative side of med or perhaps the research side.

Finally you could also consider alternative medicine as a career path given all the knowledge of the standard processes.

As mentioned by the respondent above teaching is also a great profession, again the choice is yours and should leverage your personality, work ethic, skill set and ingrained abilities.

Some one who communicates well and can compartmentalize things would make a great psychiatrist, whereas some one who is very good with children and genuinely cares for them and can handle the nuances of treating them would make a great pediatrician. One could also combine the two and become a child psychiatrist.

James Said:

Careers in Alternative Medicine?

We Answered:

First, "holistic medicine" is not a separate field as many people would have you believe. There are some that use the term to describe alternative medicine techniques, but the concept of "wholism" or that the patient is a boligical, psycholigical, sociological, and religious being in whom all needs need to be met in order to make the patient well is now a commonly accepted concept in most medical schools. The two conceptual models for health care provider which actually stress this most are osteopathic physicians, and nurse practitioners, who believe that wellness, nutrition, and physical conditioning, as well as the psychological aspects of health are as important as the treatment of illness. It is less common now for health care providers to be taught by a purely illness model as was common in western medicine in the past.

If you wish to strongly incorporate both western and eastern medicine concepts, as well as naturopathic and manipulative techniques into a practice, you should look into integrative or complementary medicine.

It is great to advise your patient on nutrition, and to know herbal, and natural treatments, as well as eastern and western techniques. But a patient with a severe infection rarely gets well with nutrition or naturopathic techniques, they are fine for mild conditions but do not have the potency needed for significant conditions. It is at those times when knowledge of medications becomes important.

In my practice, I incorporate physical medicine practitioners, such as chiropractors, physical therapist, and accupuncurist, and nutritionist, naturopaths, psychologists, and applicable spiritual advisors as needed for each patient. We have conferences and discuss how best to meet the needs of the patient from each aspect of the patient, and then consider how these will interact.

Remember it is very important for a western medicine provider to understand naturopathic and herbal, and even local folk remedies, as many of these can have significant interactions with pharmacueticals. Often patients and even many herbalist and some naturopaths work from the "if it is natural, it is safe" frame of mind.

Nobody can advise you on what your individual salary would be, as it will vary dependent on expenses, and type of patients seen. Additionally, many "holistic" medicine practitioners make most of their money by selling homeopathic remedies, most of which have no scientific basis or medicinal value from a herbal, nutritional or pharmacuetical basis. Some provider who have attended allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, and decide to provide alternative care, prescribe in office treatments which are not covered by insurance, are usually expensive, and have little health value, but they look impressive, or are suitably uncomfortable to make the patient feel they are getting some value. As this can be said to be placebo it is not necessarily improper, but is questionably ethical.

I fully endorse your desire to provide more than just medications, but make sure that the patients are getting your best effort and do not have their conditions prolonged or worsened by your efforts.

Incidentally, with the advent of primarily generic medications, I don't remember ever getting a bonus for prescribing a medication. The current regulations have stopped the old practice where pharmacy representatives gave physicians season tickets to NBA games, or took them on week long tours of Hawaii. Though on occasion they will provide dinner when a lecturer provides an educational offereing which describes the use of the medication they produce. However, where in the past it was common for the physicians to bring their spouses, the new regulations limit these dinners to health care personnel only.

Martha Said:

want 2 do something in the medical field that doesn't need 2 much school. Does a pharmacist do a lot of math?

We Answered:

Most Pharmacy colleges require you to graduate with a doctorate, that's 7 years. Most jobs in the medical field deal in math. Maybe you should rethink your field?

Pharm techs need math too.

Vincent Said:

Alternative careers in health field?

We Answered:

New Jobs openings
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Emma Said:

What are some careers in alternative medicine?

We Answered:

acupuncture is the best alternative therapy because it really works, the only other good therapy I can think of is th Alexander Technique and also physiotherapy