Medicine is challenging, exciting and dynamic. Every year, there are new discoveries being made which make way for new developments of various new therapies and treatments. Clinicians can take advantage of new electronics, genetics, softwares which can enhance their potential in delivering treatments.
Therefore, as a career, medicine is exiciting and rewarding. The training itself required will take nearly a decade after high school and will be extremely rigorous and competitive at times.
So if you wish to pursue a career in a medical field, there is a pathway you will have to follow. Each speciality will have their own pathway published on their college website however I have summed the overall steps below.
High School or Other Degrees
In Australia there is an undergraduate pathway and postgraduate pathway into medicine. Often there are tests associated, such as the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) for undergraduate medicine or Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT) for post graduate medicine. There is also the Psychometric Test which is required at particular universities.
This is the stage at which the majority of people apply and it can be beneficial to have work experience/shadowing experience to talk about in the interview stage. If you need help with interviews, I offer 1-1 tutoring for interviews so please contact me.
Medical School - 4-6 years
4 years of medical school for post-graduate universities and 5-6 years for undergraduate universities. Complete various clinical rotations (surgery, general medicine, paeds, womens, psychiatry, emergency medicine, general practice, critical care) ~7 weeks each in length during the last 2 years of the degree.
Completing this stage, you are granted degree (MD,MBBS,MbChB etc)
Internship - 1 year
12 month internship working as a doctor in a hospital. Must include core rotations as following:
- 8 weeks - Emergency Medicine Care
- Providing assessment and management of patients with acute undifferentiated illnesses. It can be undertaken in some general practice settings that provide similar experiences.
- 10 weeks - Internal Medicine
- Caring for patients with broad range of medical conditions
- Discharge planning as some patients require long-term care/follow-up/ambulance care.
- 10 weeks - Surgery
- Looking after patients with broad range of acute and elective surgical conditions; including trauma, infection, shock and tumours.
- 19 weeks - Various Electives
- Areas such as anaesthesia, general practice, palliative med, psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine etc
When you finish your internship, you receive a general medical registration through the Medical Board of Australia.
Residency
Before enrolling into a speciality training program, you must complete a residency. This can be one or many years in duration. Many doctors also commence a research project or further training such as Diplomas or Honours/Masters Degrees to further increase their chances at getting into a specialist training program.
Note that this is different to North America, where a residency there is comparable to a registrar training program in Australia/New Zealand.
Registrarship/Training Programs
To gain formal enrolment into a training program of a certain length depending on speciality, also known as a 'vocational' training program, some colleges have pre-requisites in the form of cirriculum vitae and high quality referee letters of recommendation.
Often this can be broken down into 4 domains;
- Demonstrate sufficient clinical experience
- Academic excellence apart from medical degree, such as research projects and further degrees
- Pre-requisites such as entrance examinations and workshops
- Extra-cirricular activities outside of working life
Registrar training is a period of on the job training and assessments in order to qualify for fellowship to your chosen specialist college, which allows a doctor to practice independently.
Types of registrars include;
- Junior Reg - who are in their primary phase of training
- Senior Reg - Are on their advanced phase of training
- Fellows - successfully completed their training and are eligible for speciality fellowship but are not yet employed as specialists.
Fellowship - 1-2 years
Some colleges require a fellowship in a sub-speciality area or research; can be taken overseas.
Consultants
Specialists who have satisfied all the requirements and are awarded fellowship with the college. Can practice independently in their area of expertise and are eligible to practice privately as well. The main domains if you wish to learn more are General Practice, Physicians, Surgeons, and other specialities which include Anaesthesia, Dermatology, Emergency, Obs/Gynae, Opthalmology, Pathology, Psychiatry, Radiology - which all have their own respective colleges.
Although not required, there are further pathways one can choose for further education. These include:
- Higher research/education degrees such as a PhD.
- Academic position at universities
- Sub-Specialisation for e.g. Foot and Ankle surgery in orthopaedics
- Second speciality qualification for e.g. anaesthetics and emergency medicine
Hopefully you found this post helpful and good luck with your studies!
