A medically trained doctor is a person who is responsible for the caring for, treating and diagnosing the well-being of patients. Working in medicine offers opportunities for an incredible range of challenging and rewarding career options. A life as a doctor might mean being based full-time in a hospital, working as a GP in a tight-knit community or even working to influence public health policy.
There are over 60 specialist fields in the NHS that a doctor can choose to specialise in, so there are many answers to what you could be doing once you become a doctor. Want to know more about the different medical specialties? This depends on your level of study upon entry to the course and whether you choose to spend an extra year intercalating completing an added one-year BSC degree.
The exact time frame to being a fully qualified and unsupervised doctor varies, as family-planning, career breaks and examination stumbling blocks can delay the process.
As a rough guidance, post-foundation programme, the GP training programme takes a minimum of three years, whilst other specialist training can take up to eight years. Completing a medical degree is the first step to a medical career and can take between four and six years, depending on whether a student enters their studies straight after A-Levels or as a graduate.
Intercalating, meaning taking a year out to earn an added degree, would equal taking a total of 6 years to finish med school. During the final year of their studies, students must also prepare to take the Situational Judgement Test SJT , which is required to apply for the Foundation Programme. At this stage, med school graduates complete a two- year training programme and develop their professional and clinical skills in a practical setting.
Graduates are now junior doctors, not yet qualified to practice unsupervised but taking on greater responsibility for patient care. After FT, med school graduates can begin to choose specialties and what comes next depends on their choice of specialty. Crucially, there are a few entry points for specialties and further opportunities to sub-specialise, but the following is a rough guide to what further training might look like.
This is uninterrupted training that commences straight after the foundation programme. Doctors begin their specialty training year one ST1 , and progress to ST2 and ST3 as long as all the requirements are passed. Programmes can last around 3 years for General Practice, and years for other specialties. This type of training is useful for those who decide on a specialty early on in their careers. This mode of training means a period of core training, followed by competitive entry to further specialty training.
The majority of hospital physician specialties are uncoupled. Uncoupled options include: emergency medicine and psychiatry. Forms of uncoupled training programmes are divided into two; core training and ACCS an alternative core training programme. A form of uncoupled training, where doctors complete a core training programme lasting years after their foundation years, before entering specialty training. At this time, doctors select an area of medicine in which they wish to specialise in.
Where doctors compete for appointments to higher speciality training posts according to their field of choice. Training lasts between years depending on speciality choice, and further advancement depends on successfully completing assessments. You can find out more about training pathways, medical specialties and foundation programmes on our sister site, The Medic Portal Professional!
Get the best prep at the best price. Plus a new range of exciting Medical experiences. Our courses are trusted by world-leading schools and thousands of aspiring medics every year. Learn from home and master Medicine admissions at your own pace. Start straight away. A doctor is legally allowed to practice medicine once they earn a medical license. You must graduate from an accredited medical school, complete an internship and pass the state licensure exam.
Each state has its own requirements for licensing, but they all require continuing education credits for renewal and extensive background checks. These are national certifications that show a doctor is specially trained in a particular kind of medicine.
These doctors become experts in their field by extensively training and passing a national exam. Related: Physician Cover Letter. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about becoming and working as a doctor:. Doctors are required to have more than medical knowledge to succeed in their field. Some additional skills include:. Medical training provides the technical knowledge to become a doctor, but the ability to deconstruct problems and implement that knowledge is a highly-tuned skill that comes with experience and working at it.
Considering the fact that medical issues aren't always instantly obvious, doctors have to employ the creative side of their brain in tandem with their learned knowledge to try to find answers.
Patient care depends on the decisions made by doctors, so it's important that an aspiring doctor becomes accustomed to taking responsibility and making impossible decisions. From determining a low-risk treatment plan to making life-or-death decisions on the spot, a doctor needs to remain calm, confident and professional under pressure.
At some point, every doctor becomes the first person called when it comes to emergencies. Patients and colleagues depend on doctors for instructions, answers and reassurance. Additionally, more experienced doctors are typically paired with new doctors and medical students, so demonstrating leadership will be crucial. Effective communication is a crucial part of an initial diagnosis. A doctor needs to ask the right questions, analyze patients' answers and clearly communicate to the patient what they think is going on with them and instruct them on actions to take or avoid during their recovery.
The hours a doctor works depends largely on their specialty, where they work, level of seniority and other factors. A general practitioner working in a private practice may work predictable to hour weeks, while a surgical resident in a hospital might work 24 or even 36 hours in a row, making for a hour or so work week.
The GP will generally work the standard hours of their office generally or similar while the surgical resident can work overnight and through the next day, if needed. Also to be taken into consideration is the doctor's specialized area of practice. Hospital doctors are generally more overworked than doctors working in a clinic or private practice.
While primary care doctors know a lot about the human body, for conditions and diseases directly related to glands and hormones they will typically send a patient to an endocrinologist. Family Practitioner A family practitioner specializes in caring for the entire family. Patients can be children, adults, and the elderly, and are treated for a wide array of medical issues. Forensic Pathologist A forensic pathologist investigates the cause of sudden and unexpected deaths, and is able to determine how a person died by performing an autopsy and studying tissue and laboratory results.
These doctors are often called upon to provide evidence in court regarding the cause and time of such deaths. Gastroenterologist A gastroenterologist has specific training in diagnosing and treating conditions and diseases of the gastrointestinal GI tract. This may include diseases and disorders that affect the the biliary system liver, pancreas, gallbladder, and bile ducts , as well as the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine colon.
Gynecologist A gynecologist specializes in women's reproductive systems. Gynecologists are also sometimes certified as obstetricians, and will monitor the health of the mother and the fetus during a pregnancy. Hospitalist A hospitalist is a physician whose focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Their duties include patient care, teaching, research, and leadership related to hospital medicine. Immunologist An immunologist specializes in managing problems related to the immune system, such as allergies and autoimmune diseases.
A smaller number of immunologists are strictly researchers seeking to better understand how the immune system works and to help develop better ways of diagnosing and providing treatment for many immunological conditions.
Internist An internist is a 'doctor of internal medicine' who can diagnose, treat, and practice compassionate care for adults across the spectrum, from health to complex illness. They are not to be mistaken with "interns," who are doctors in their first year of residency training.
Naturopathic Physician A naturopathic physician blends modern scientific medical practice and knowledge with natural and traditional forms of medical treatment. The goal is to treat the underlying causes of disease while stimulating the body's own healing abilities.
Neurologist A neurologist specializes in treating diseases that affect the human nervous system. It is a very prestigious and difficult medical specialty due to the complexity of the nervous system, which consists of the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. Neurosurgeon A neurosurgeon specializes in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system.
This includes congenital anomalies, trauma, tumours, vascular disorders, infections of the brain or spine, stroke, or degenerative diseases of the spine. Occupational Physician Occupational medicine is focused on keeping individuals well at work, both mentally and physically.
As workplaces become more complex, occupational physicians play an important role in advising people on how their work can affect their health. Oncologist An oncologist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The three primary types of oncologists are: medical oncologists that specialize in the administration of drugs to kill cancer cells; surgical oncologists that perform surgical procedures to identify and remove cancerous tumors; and radiation oncologists that treat cancer with radiation therapy.
Ophthalmologist An ophthalmologist is a specialist that deals specifically with the structure, function, diseases, and treatment of the eye.
Due to the complexities and the importance of the eye as a special sense that provides vision, the discipline of ophthalmology is dedicated solely to this organ. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon An oral and maxillofacial surgeon treats dental and medical problems involving the oral cavity and the maxillofacial area.
The maxillofacial area includes the bones of the forehead, face, cheekbones and the soft tissues. The Army. Jaguar Land Rover. BAE Systems. Essential advice Green careers: find a graduate job that helps the environment.
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