Afraid I chose the wrong path: wanting upstream impact more than traditional clinical
I entered medical school because I believed medicine was the most impactful career and would allow me to build a meaningful legacy.
I chose medicine over other fields like engineering or cybersecurity because I thought helping people medically was the highest form of impact.
During medical school, though, I started feeling dissatisfied — not because I dislike science or patients, but because I often felt we intervene too late. Sometimes it feels like medicine deals with the downstream consequences of societal problems: poor education, poor health literacy, unhealthy environments, poverty, loneliness, preventable disease, etc.
One experience that affected me deeply was meeting a teacher who works with “undisciplined” high school students. Despite being insulted and sometimes even physically harmed by students, she continues helping them graduate because she knows failing school may permanently affect their lives. She teaches them practical life skills like budgeting, interviewing, anger management, and résumé writing. Watching that made me wonder whether upstream interventions like education and community systems might create more meaningful long-term impact than clinical medicine alone.
I became interested in preventive medicine/public health, but from what I observed, many careers there seem heavily tied to policy, infectious disease, pharmaceuticals, or politics — which did not fully align with what I imagined.
At this point, I’m considering geriatrics and pair it with project management skills And find my way through networking To manage any Upstream issues. Since geriatrics is a social and psychological and quality of life specialty.
But I worry that this is just idealism/daydreaming and that I may regret moving away from traditional clinical identity after dedicating so many years to medicine.
Has anyone here felt similarly?
Did you find a specialty or career path that Truly felt Like like it has a Wider, direct and indirect and sustainable impact “Legacy”.