Career Field Research

Nikita Said

I have had a strong interest in pursuing a career within the medical field for a very long

time now, specifically a career in surgery. Luckily, a friend’s mother was able to connect us both

with Dr. Daniel Morrison who works at Mercy Hospital up in Springfield, Massachusetts.

We asked questions along the lines of:

“What was your journey? How did you get to where you are today?”

“Favorite/best parts about the job? What are the worst parts?”

“How is the work-life balance?”

“What made you want to pursue this career? When did you know you wanted to get into general

surgery”

I learned a ton of valuable information, some of it I had already known (from my own

research on the career field). To sum it up, Dr. Morrison spent many, many years in school

however it should be noted that he didn’t know he wanted to enter medicine up until his Junior

year of undergrad. He knew he wanted to work with people and help people but he says that

during a missionary trip to Africa is when he 100% knew he wanted to enter medicine. He says

it's his “calling”. He walked us through what typically happens during and after medical school.

Firstly you’ll do your pre-clinicals which is just training and lots of classroom time. Then, you’ll

enter rotations which are much more hands-on and where most medical students typically learn

what they do best along with finding what specialty they are more passionate about. After, you
then are sorted into a match program which will determine where you will be headed for your

residency program and what you will be doing your residency in. Fellowship is the next step

which would take a couple years and lead to a slightly less demanding job, however Dr.

Morrison opted out and chose to look for a job instead.

Dr. Morrison told us one story, which took place recently, that dives into one of his

favorite parts of his job, he loves fixing “broken” people. A woman who he had operated on was

unable to speak for a week or two due to a breathing tube and when her condition had improved

Dr. Morrison said he felt insanely happy being able to hear her voice for the first time since the

operation.

But what stuck out to me the most was how Dr. Morrison repeatedly mentioned his

frustrations on how he felt like the current system within the medical field made it difficult for

him to truly enjoy his job and give as much time and care into patients as he wanted to, he was

pretty much drowning in administration tasks. He also dives into the terrible work-life balance he

had to deal with. Back when he was in medical school/doing internships he was working insane

80+ hour weeks and even now he says it's almost always work, even when he’s home. Dr.

Morrison tells us he finds himself always working. It's a never ending cycle of double checking

over and over again. He emphasizes the importance of being very detail oriented and constantly

going over things since one little mistake can hurt a very real person.

To be completely honest, it made me think about pursuing a career within the medical

field in a different light. I knew vaguely about some of the issues within the field currently, but

hearing Dr. Morrison’s frustrations really brought it to light. I don’t think I’m going to change
my mind about my goals to pursue a career within this field, however I definitely will consider

those very real issues when it's my turn to enter medical school.

It was also very reassuring to know that being a biology major is not necessary

whatsoever to enter medical school. I’m planning on pursuing a Psychology BS major on a

pre-medical track and I had a few doubts on whether I would have an equal chance to get into

medical school as much as my biology major peers would. Dr. Morrison had even told us he

himself wasn’t a biology major, in fact he told us it's very important to be well rounded when

applying for medical school. None of my plans after high school will be changing, Dr.

Morrison’s interview was very eye-opening and I learned a lot about issues Doctors face in

modern day medicine and I only hope there will be something done or something I can do to

help push for that change in the field.