I should also just clarify - dentistry was my second option because it has the surgical aspect, scope for specialisation and is intellectually challenging with content to learn, that I really like about med. Other than that, theres nothing that draws me to dentistry and I don't think I'd enjoy the
learning nearly as much as I would in med.
That is a pretty valid point. I have a really set idea of my life over the years (ideally kids before 30- I have 11 years
), and my partner being in defence, would make everything very tough to juggle. But I don't think impossible? And in my mind, this reason alone isn't enough to commit to a different career path. Especially one which doesn't intrigue you as much.
I think what would really help me is understanding what is expected of you as a doc. And something which I've not understood well is how "being on call" works. How serious is a situation before you might get called into the hosp? If you're not on call, could you be called in anyway? When you're on vacation or have a day off for your child's birthday, is there a chance that you could have to rush back to the hospital? And, does this change as you move up the ranks? I might be thinking too much into this but I believe it'll help me still.
Yeah so...
If your partner, in defence, was asked to go overseas (as is very often the case for people who work in defence), and you had a child, how would you manage this? How would you manage having to be at work at 7am for ward rounds and still be able to drop your child off at childcare which opens at 8am? How will you manage if you have to stay late because you're operating in theatre and your childcare has closed for the day?
If you are in a serious relationship, have you had serious discussions with your partner about how compatible your career pathways are? If you end up pursuing medicine, especially if it's in a surgical career pathway, your partner may very well have to work fewer hours (and/or change their career out of defence or even quit because goodness knows that not being able to be deployed would make one much less employable in defence).
It's not impossible, and lots of doctors make very heavy lifestyle concessions to make this work. However, if you're at a crossroads about whether to choose medicine or dentistry, and you have very significant priorities that lie outside of medicine, you need to have a very long hard think about where these priorities lie in relation to your career. If the answer is that your other priorities are more important, you probably have your decision made.
Re: What is expected of you on "on call":
This is largely dependent on where you are working (including what discipline you are working in). If you are on call, then this means that you are available for the hospital to call you in during the hours that you are on call. Depending on what discipline and what level of experience you have, this could mean things like you're on call to come in to the ED to review and admit patients, or on call to be able to operate in theatre, or on call even to be able to answer questions and direct management even if you are not technically on site.
On rare occasions, yes, even if you are not on call you could be called in anyway because people can still get sick all the time and things can happen.
Medicine, as a whole, is not a lifestyle career, although there are some pockets of it in places (largely in general practice and even there it can be long hours for minimal pay).
Edit to add:
Just to draw on my own personal experience here. As relatively junior doctors, me and my partner often struggle to find time to spend with each other. Given the way things are now we're looking at making more concessions to be able to do the things we would like (for example, my partner is going to be doing some part time work for a while). Just as a reiteration - medicine is generally not a lifestyle career.