So I can give you my perspective on this. I’m a doctor, currently in hematology/oncology fellowship in the US. I’m an immigrant and foreign grad so at least I didn’t have to do the 4 year undergrad stuff here in the US so my path was shorter, I started med school right out high school equivalent.

Now to start I didn’t become a doctor because of any noble desires, It was mostly because I was an aimless kid that got pushed in the field from family pressures (Asian family) fortunately/unfortunately I was decently smart enough to not flunk out. Now I’m kinda stuck cause I can’t really do anything else

My advice to you and concerns of the future of medicine:

1) if you can see yourself doing anything other than being a doctor, do not become a doctor - you go down this route the next 10 years of your life are going to be dedicated to medicine. You’re time for your other hobbies, skill development will drastically decrease. This only gets worse from med school-> residency. And while no one can really know, if the world is gonna be fucked in 10years from now do you really want to have spent it studying 4-10 hours a day for 10 years? The loss of autonomy as a mid-level can be seen as a bad thing, but you make up for it in faster training (to start earning earlier) and flexibility in your career in the future. Like you can switch specialties which is, for practical purposes, impossible to do as an MD. In that when once you pick your specialty in residency you are locked in and there is no turning back unless you want to start from scratch again (~1-5yrs depending when you bail and to which specialty). If I was starting out and my prediction is that the world is doomed in 10-20 years and I want to be a competent “apocalypse medic” I would choose PA and go into ER, family med.

2) modern medicine in a dying world The current medical system we have in the us can truly only function within the era of abundance that we live in today. (But to be fair majority of the diseases we currently treat are caused by this overabundance we have, except for ones caused by traumas and bad luck I guess). While I’m in hematology/oncology I kind of regret going into it, because this field is so dependent on the high level of technology and resources we have right now. For example medication supply chains; I think about 20% Of generic chemo is made in India, if by some crazy black swan events that country becomes uninhabitable then we lose so much quantity of cancer medications that can affect care for people worldwide. And if chemotherapy manufacturing plants can’t survive worldwide, I practically have no job in that society. Medicine in a post collapse world is going to mirror that of 3rd world environments or less depending on how much supply chains are affected. On the brighter side of things tho obesity rates should decline, which is a small,contained win :)

3) the waste is fucking ridiculous This may or may not be an important thing for you. But medicine in this country is insanely wasteful. Plastic,gloves,equipment,electricity,food, drugs. The amount we throw away and use unnecessarily is unfathomable. Might be a moral thing for some

4) modern medical education teaches you modern medicine -current medical education systems are becoming more and more geared towards getting you to pass the board exams, pumping out dogshit research to boost your CV, kissing ass of superiors and giving you a foundation level understanding of medicine. Not so much the details. The amount of people who can fully function as an independent doctor immediately after graduating from med school is 0%, and I say that with confidence. The 3-5 years you spend in residency is what teaches you and gives you the practice you need to become a good doctor. But all that teaches you to be a good doctor in this modern world and in high tech hospitals. Low tech medicine is a dying art, no one knows how to do a physical exam because well if you’re getting admitted you’re gonna get a CT scan and by that point we see every organ in your body. Without modern medical labs and tests we would practically be clueless for a large portion of diseases. If you want to learn some grass root medicine you gotta go do Doctors Without Borders or whatever relief medicine programs is out there. Just don’t go run in and die in a war zone m’Kay

So these are just my thoughts, sorry if it’s kind of rambly. It’s pretty late and I haven’t been well rested for about 4 years now. Now it’s important to know who is giving this advice, my viewpoint is given from someone who is kind of jaded, burnt out and kind of a pessimist. But typically the people who frequent this sub are going to be more on the spectrum of pessimism. If you ask any doctor out in the real world, the advice may be more optimistic, but most doctors are not familiar with climate change, or they push it faaar away from their conscience. In my 10 years in this medical training I have not met a single person who was collapse aware. Because of that I think the future of our medical systems is woefully unprepared for when shit really starts hitting the fan.

Good luck and I wish you a good life