[Maritime Q-Scout]

First off: You're never too old to follow your dreams. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be a doctor at 36.

Me personally, putting aside the fact that I only comprehend modern medicine by believing it's magic, I'd ask if being a doctor is something you truly want to do.

There's long hours, like foolishly long hours. You're on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sure you're not technically "on call" the whole time but it's not really a profession that you leave at the door.

Sure the pay is good. But it'd be stressful, fast paced, and emotional.

If you want to work in the medical field, have you thought about nurse? The pay is very attractive, lots of opportunity for overtime (I like in Sydney, NS where there's a handful of nurses that make more than the senior administrators of the hospital), it's a shorter education path, guaranteed employment (no seriously, I can't speak for Alberta, but the two closest universities to me, Cape Breton University, and St. FX both have 100% placement rates for their nursing programs), and there's no technical 'on call'.

Looking at a very specific example. When my son was born we went to the hospital at 11:45pm. There were the nurses scheduled in the maternity ward who were awesome. At about 2:00am the OGBYN was called. Our baby doc (who was also beyond amazing though the entire pregnancy) worked that day with her regular appointments, went to the hospital in a snowstorm, and was there with us and in the OR when my wife had to have a c-section because the little fella got stuck behind her hip bone.

Did the doctor then go home to bed? Well she had appointments that day, not to mention the family, spouse and kids at home.

At 7:00am what happened to the nurse that was with us all night? She tagged out and another came in. The nurse that was with us that night (again who was amazing) went home to bed, the nurse that came in for the day shift (who was also fantastic) had a full night sleep.

The day-day-night-night, 4 on 4 off model is great. There are positions that are M-F 9-5. Also great. Doctors don't have that.

I tell this story not to discourage you from becoming a doctor. We need them... DESPERATELY.

But, to give context that it isn't all Scrubs and ER. I'd rather play a doctor on TV than be one in real life.

That said, I'd chat with a few doctors around, try and get a sense of what they hate about the job as well as like.

I'd give this same talk to someone who's 18 as someone who's 36.

If you want to become a doctor, go for it. Honourable profession, a job we need, and one that I couldn't go no matter how hard I tried.

I fully support your decision. Age isn't a factor, just make sure that you're aware of the drawbacks.