|
|
| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Health Care |
Can someone tell me what Medical School (ie getting medicine degree) is like? |
Can someone tell me what Medical School (ie getting medicine degree) is like? The second answer has it down very well, what hasn't been said is that the medical field is not the place to go if you are wanting to earn a million dollars a year, you need a degree in business or something else. My son has gone to school for 15 years beyond high school, and is now a board certified Child Neurologist specializing in seizure disorders and Nero-physiology. He is a Asst. Professor over child neurology. He is studying for the second board. Once you are boarded that is not the end of it as a person has to recertify every so many years. What I am trying to tell you is once you are there, you really are not at all as being a doctor is like being a student forever. Be absolutely sure that you want to be a student until you retire. You may not have to go to work until 8-8:30 in the morning, but it may be 8-8:30 in the evening that you get to go home and get used to the idea that you are going to have to pull call forever. The bottom line is resign yourself to the idea that you will earn a fair living and will work some very long weeks and that your real riches are going to be the wellness of you patients and not in the bank, but when you get to go to sleep you will sleep well with the thoughts that you have done some thing for mankind. Good luck and God bless Source(s): Medical field X25+ years First off, it is pretty different then your undergraduate career. In med school they want you to succeed and they will go through quite a bit to make sure you do. It is not easy and most people describe it as drinking from a fire hydrant. The information you get in a short time is very intense and don't expect a let down for 9 months. You have classes from 8-5 including labs and really only a short break for lunch. Afterwards you spend a lot of time studying. The people, however, are great. The students are select students, so they want to succeed and are willing to help others succeed as well. For the most part, all universities have an open door policy for professors. This is nice, especially when you have a specific question you need answered. You really could spend a whole book writing about life in medical school. I hope this helps. If you want a factual overview, go the the Association of American Medical Colleges web site (http://www.aamc.org/) and they have answers to just about every potential medical student's questions. If you want subjective input, every medical student's experience is unique. But here's a very brief idea of what life will be like: The first week of school you will probably think it's no worse than most of your undergrad classes. Then you'll take your first exam and probably flunk it. That's when you panic because you studied hard like you are accustomed to doing. Hopefully, some nice person (like me!) will clue you in that the textbooks are what the instructors lecture from, but the test questions are modeled in the style of QBank questions and Board Review Series questions. In other words, you may have memorized every muscle in the arm, but the test question was: A 28 year old male receives a laceration in the left axilla and is unable to raise his arm and has lost sensation to the 3rd, 4th and 5th digits. What is the nerve root innervating the affected muscle? In other words, you were instructed on the tip of the ice berg, but they expect you to research the remainder. That's when you begin to understand that didactic instruction is usually about 6 hours a day and studying time is usually 6 to 8 hours a day. But don't panic. You'll get used to that and it actually becomes addicting-to the point that many schools advocate you close the books over the weekend to relieve stress. Before you know it, two years have passed and you begin the third year doing clinical rotations. Instead of reporting to classrooms and labs, you are assigned to a hospital (or clinc or doctor's office--there is a lot of variation) where you will meet licensed health care providers proving patient care. You may attend mornings rounds to see all of the patients on the service and then your training physicians will give you assignments--usually to research the conditions manifested by the patients. You will spend a lot of time in libraries and assemble daily to interact with your training physician. Some rotations only last 4 weeks, most are six weeks and a couple (Surgery and Internal Medicine) are 12 weeks in length. After rotating for 2 years, all of the training physician reports on you will be reviewed by your school. If you have performed well and have demonstrated the comportment of a physician, you will be awarded your MD degree. Toward the end of the second two years you will have identified a specilaty that interest you. You will begin contacting the residency programs that you would like to attend and hopefully, you will get an interview. If they like you and you like them, you each identify the interest for the Match program. If all works out well, you will get one of the top 3 choices you made. If not, you have to apply to any residency program through the Scramble--which is like the Match, but now any school will do. That's a brief overview--but the AAMC will give you the cold, hard facts. 35 years in health care Med school is very hard. It is not only hard but it is hard to get into one too. If you are interested in med school, please visit http://www.pre-med.info |
| Tags |
| Other - Careers & Employment Technology Marketing & Sales Law & Legal Health Care Government & Non-Profit Food Service Financial Services Administrative and Office Support |
Finance Categories--Copyright/IP Policy--Contact Webmaster |