Icon: enlarge
Photo: Renea L. Thull / DigitalVision Vectors / Getty Images
Samira, 31 years old, asks: »I am a mother of two and have a PhD in biology. The job as a biologist is almost not possible part-time, but I'm looking for something that can be done well in 30 hours a week. I could also imagine studying again. I am toying with medicine, but six years of study and then a specialist? Difficult. What do you advise me? And no: a nurse is not an alternative for me. "
To person
Photo: Marianne Moosherr
Katrin Wilkens
, born in 1971, is a career advisor, journalist and author.
In her job profiling agency i.do she has been advising women after their baby break to find a suitable job since 2011.
She gained her experience in the book “Mother Creates.
It is not the child that is annoying, it is the job that is missing ”.
Dear Samira,
Biology and medicine are further apart than you might think.
Sure, as a human biologist you have a lot of overlap in training.
But the biggest difference to the medical profession is the (close) contact with people.
As a doctor, you also have to be able to get on well with people who have no insight into the disease, suffer from an incurable disease or just keep forgetting to take their tablets.
Think carefully about what you like about medicine: helping others?
As a biologist, you could also find a job with a health insurance company.
Do you prefer to be in contact with research?
Then think about whether the pharmaceutical industry, the congress system or the health department could not be a point of contact.
What if everything is nothing and you still dream of becoming a medical practitioner?
In general, it is a good idea to take a look at which courses of study may be new when you are reorienting - you can also simply enter areas of interest and be inspired in the university compass of the university rectors' conference.
In fact, I would not recommend you study medicine, but a new course: Physician Assistant.
Roughly speaking, this is a hybrid of a doctor and a nurse: a doctor's assistant.
The course is possible at various universities and takes three years (at the Carl Remigius School there are four) - and it can also be done part-time.
There are a few prerequisites for the Physician Assistance training: Depending on the university, you should have at least two years of professional experience; in the case of a dual course of study, you should have a contract with one of the university's partner companies.
After graduation, you have a wide range of options: You can work for health insurance companies, in large group practices, the emergency room or even in a small family doctor's practice, where you can relieve the doctor and take care of house calls.
They could also be used well in corona times: for vaccinating, educating and monitoring patients.
The course still costs money at the moment (around 30,000 euros), but you will have a lifelong employment guarantee afterwards, if this relieving doctor-relieving activity is in demand (currently and forecast).
You will not earn as much money later as a doctor, and you will not bear the main responsibility for it in medical cases of doubt.
There is the possibility to apply for parent-independent student loans, then the mountain of initial debts is reduced, and at lower interest rates than any loan from the bank could.
Compare the curricula and see which focus interests you most: In Berlin, for example, a lot of emphasis is placed on surgical competence.
When you have found a university for yourself, you can also ask the German Medical Association whether this university has enough reputation.
To check that you can really imagine the course and all the physical things that go with it, you might consider training to be a paramedic first.
It only takes two months.
After that, you could ride in the ambulance for a year to test how (and if) you can cope with seeing, smelling, and feeling illness, injury, and death.
Not much time is lost with this preliminary stage, but in some circumstances a lot of time is gained - if you should find that the desire to study medicine was simply too much Black Forest hospital romance.
It can get really exciting when you later combine your two courses: biology and the solid training to become a physician assistant.
During your studies, you should also be open to jobs that you may not even have considered at first: for example at the police (forensic evidence), MDK (medical service of the health insurance companies) or in a dialysis station.
The possibilities are so diverse that it is almost impossible not to find a job that will help you grow old - even part-time.
Icon: The mirror
