Medicine, Law and Helping People Forum

[azsuns86]

Maybe I've watched too many episodes of House over the years, however I miss helping people. I grew up in a very medical family so I know full well the reality behind the image, albeit ironically have absolutely no math/scientific talent. My grades were exceedingly high in everything written/historical/humanities, etc... and exceedingly low in anything math/science related.

I am almost at the end of my first year fortunately, however I feel very disconnected. If I were in medicine, I'd love to be an ER surgeon and love the fast paced nature of the hospital. I'm on a virtually full scholarship at a T25ish law school and would only have one more year left if I decided to pursue a more medically related field. I'm not sure what else I would go into however? I'm planning on working in legal aid over the summer, have published and am hoping I'll be able to specialize more in health law, perhaps even be a GC at a hospital. Maybe I should try and combine the JD with a MPH as I love writing. Overall, I feel I need to be advocating, to be helping (from a medical/health perspective.) I'd love to find a way to meld this more with law than how I'm feeling now in contracts and civ pro.

[monkey34]

does medical malpractice defense interest you? Some firms specialize in that... or you can look into becoming in house counsel for a hospital eventually

[Grad_Student]

does medical malpractice defense interest you? Some firms specialize in that... or you can look into becoming in house counsel for a hospital eventually

But in the end, it's basic torts law.

[macattaq]

Why not sign up for a range of courses for 2L year, and see what suits you? Alternatively, you could read law review articles about different areas of law and see if any resonate with you.

[vamedic03]

Maybe I've watched too many episodes of House over the years, however I miss helping people. I grew up in a very medical family so I know full well the reality behind the image, albeit ironically have absolutely no math/scientific talent. My grades were exceedingly high in everything written/historical/humanities, etc... and exceedingly low in anything math/science related.

I am almost at the end of my first year fortunately, however I feel very disconnected. If I were in medicine, I'd love to be an ER surgeon and love the fast paced nature of the hospital. I'm on a virtually full scholarship at a T25ish law school and would only have one more year left if I decided to pursue a more medically related field. I'm not sure what else I would go into however? I'm planning on working in legal aid over the summer, have published and am hoping I'll be able to specialize more in health law, perhaps even be a GC at a hospital. Maybe I should try and combine the JD with a MPH as I love writing. Overall, I feel I need to be advocating, to be helping (from a medical/health perspective.) I'd love to find a way to meld this more with law than how I'm feeling now in contracts and civ pro.

If you want to do something fast paced and help people - look at prosecution or public defender's offices.

[RP1983]

does medical malpractice defense interest you? Some firms specialize in that... or you can look into becoming in house counsel for a hospital eventually

Lol, this person says she feels disconnected and misses helping people and the medical background, and you suggest suing doctors and hospitals? Please tell me this is a joke.

[sanpiero]

does medical malpractice defense interest you? Some firms specialize in that... or you can look into becoming in house counsel for a hospital eventually

Lol, this person says she feels disconnected and misses helping people and the medical background, and you suggest suing doctors and hospitals? Please tell me this is a joke.

[romothesavior]

does medical malpractice defense interest you? Some firms specialize in that... or you can look into becoming in house counsel for a hospital eventually

Lol, this person says she feels disconnected and misses helping people and the medical background, and you suggest suing doctors and hospitals? Please tell me this is a joke.

RC Fail.

[gatorbait]

does medical malpractice defense interest you? Some firms specialize in that... or you can look into becoming in house counsel for a hospital eventually

Lol, this person says she feels disconnected and misses helping people and the medical background, and you suggest suing doctors and hospitals? Please tell me this is a joke.

RC Fail.

hahaha. this made my night.

[RP1983]

Ah medical malpractice DEFENSE.

Uber late night and tired + alcohol fail on my part.

[chunkybearcub137]

Ah medical malpractice DEFENSE.

Uber late night and tired + alcohol fail on my part.

noob

[belligerentfuture]

Well, having spent time in both med school and law school, I think your hopes that you will feel like you are 'connected' and 'helping people' in a medical profession is a bit naive. As an ER doc or whatever you are working 90 hours a week, and see all those people you want to 'help' right now simply as 'diseases' or 'injuries'. 10 minute interactions at 4am with the 'gallstone guy' or the 'heroin junkie kid' when you haven't slept more than 5 hours anytime in the past 10 years aren't too 'connected' lemme tell ya A recent study of med students and residents said that over 40% reported feeling 'dissociated' and 'dehumanized'--trust me, law school is a warm fuzzy experience in comparison.

As a G.C. for a hospital, you're going to be dealing with budget problems, disciplinary crap against various staff members, and med mal suits. None of this is advocating directly for patients, its being ensconced in the depressingly overworked 'practical' side of medicine, as above. Most JD/MPHs (and JD/MDs) I've seen did it to go into teaching health law, which is just teaching--if you want to teach law students thats fine but its a totally different thing. At best you might end up in regulatory work like the FDA or Health & Human Services Executive stuff, which once again, is very *abstract* advocacy, if any. Really its just more administrative stuff that just happens to be about health and biology.

However, something that would give you time to actually connect with someone on a personal level and provide seriously needed services related to health would be Mental Health Legal Services and most kinds of Disability Law. In general, public interest work where you are doing 'direct services' for low-income people like housing court, domestic violence services etc will give you way more interaction with the person and an understanding of their life situation, as well as a chance to positively impact their outcome. But, this kind of work doesn't make 'doctor salary' kind of money, so you have to be okay with helping people without the Beemer....