A career as a Doctor

Doctors are responsible for the diagnosis, care and treatment of illnesses, diseases, infections and well-being of people. They may work in a variety of settings such as in a hospital or as a family doctor (GP). Hospital doctors can go onto specialise in particular areas such as histocompatability, psychiatry and paediatrics, or surgery such as cardiothoracic or trauma and orthopaedics. There are opportunities in other areas such as public health, teaching and research.

A career as a Doctor

A career as a doctor is without doubt a hugely rewarding career not just for the money and status but also for the job itself. Within this profession you can make a real difference to hundreds of people’s lives. However, this profession comes at a cost and the cost is called commitment and hard work. Therefore don’t be fooled into thinking that a medical education and career is open to people from a certain background. If you are willing to put the work in the financial help is available and therefore it is possible to break into the profession

Training To Be A Doctor
Training to be a doctor is not just a financial and work commitment. It is also a time commitment. It can take a minimum of nine years to train as a general practitioner (GP) and 12 years before a doctor is suitably qualified to apply for a post as a hospital consultant.

Specialise As A Doctor
Within two or three years of graduating, a doctor must start to consider which branch of medicine they would like to specialise in. However, it is important not to become too locked in to a specialty too soon. Time spent outside the chosen specialty is good experience, although competition in some specialties is intense and it can be inadvisable to delay the final career choice for too long.

There are more than 60 specialties - each is unique but there are many characteristics which are common. You will need to work as a part of a multi-disciplinary team in virtually every specialty. Some require particular skills, such as an ability to make decisions in life-threatening situations or confidence with computers. Many require an interest in teaching or research and some require particular manual dexterity.

Medical specialties broadly fall into one of the following categories.

• anaesthetics
• general practice
• medicine
• obstetrics and gynaecology
• ophthalmology
• paediatrics
• pathology
• psychiatry
• radiology
• surgery (including dental surgery)

Medical Education

Dependant on which route or speciality you may wish to take a medical education comprises several related stages

The various stages are:

1. Undergraduate medical education - a period of study at medical school (attached to a university) with clinical placements in hospital and community settings
2. Foundation programme - a two-year period which all UK medical graduates must undertake before moving on to run-through education.
3. Run-through training - a period lasting for several years, which follows on from the foundation programme, when doctors train to specialise in either general practice or a specialty. The length of training will depend upon the career area/specialty in which the doctor wishes to work.

Doctors are also expected to keep abreast of advances in their specialty through ongoing continual medical education

For more information on a career as a doctor contact:
The British Medical Association
www.bma.org.uk

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