Medicine
What to expect
Do you pale at the sight of blood? Mind being around people who are sick and injured? We ask you these questions because too many people choose medicine without realising that they are also choosing to be doctors (almost all medicine graduates go on to work as doctors).
Many seem to choose medicine because it has a high entry score and so do they. If you’re thinking about medicine, the first piece of advice is: get a realistic idea about the working lives of doctors. It’s not always an adrenalin-fuelled life-saving exercise in the emergency room as some TV series would have you believe.
Many GPs are battling away in the suburbs like any other small business person in a competitive industry. If you want to be a medical specialist, the financial rewards are greater, but you have to study for years, often until well into your 30s. However, if you are still keen, know that many others find medicine a rewarding career and have flourished thanks to its unique challenges.
Getting a degree in medicine
Visit the University Ratings section for medicine course ratings.
Courses and specialisations
For a professional career in medicine you need to do a bachelor degree in medicine and surgery, otherwise known as an MBBS. Note that there are degrees in medical science that are widely available but only the MBBS will allow you to qualify as a doctor.
The MBBS will involve plenty of core (in other words, compulsory) material, and will run over about 6 years, with later years involving more practical work in hospitals. However, some of the new courses are focused on rural or community-based practice.
Some medicine courses accept school leavers, and others only accept graduates; the latter are increasing in number. It is up to you to decide whether you want to spend some years in a general degree before launching headlong into the challenge of medicine. Doing another degree may broaden your outlook and give you a chance to make a mature decision about getting into a tough field, but on the other hand, it may take you even longer if you do end up becoming a doctor.
While in the past years, medical graduates have been generally cold about their experience (and still report fairly low levels of satisfaction with the teaching quality), the overall satisfaction rating of graduates increased to average.
An important piece of advice: find out what medicine courses are like and see if there are differences between them that will be more important to you. For example, some courses claim to emphasise problem-based learning more than others, which can suit some students better, while others prefer to learn theoretically.
Where to study
Over 15 universities around the country offer medicine degrees. They are available in metropolitan and regional areas, and at private and public universities.
Getting in
As you will know by now, it is very tough to get into this field. Entry to most undergraduate courses requires you to get a very high entry score, and to complete the UMAT (Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test). Many also require an interview.
Entry requirements for graduate-entry courses are broader and include performance on GAMSAT, a special test, an interview and the results of the undergraduate degree.
Careers for medicine degree graduates
If you have a general idea of what being a doctor is about, and you like the look of it, you should also consider the range of different career paths available within the broad field of medicine.
It is probably safe to say that most medicine graduates make use of their degree one way or another during their career — after all, why else would you go through so many years of study?
While some go into medical research, many choose the hands-on challenges of clinical practice, working in hospitals (public and private), in their own private practice, often with partners, or in other health organisations.
While we’re all familiar with general practice, you can also train to specialise in fields such as:
- Anaesthesia
- Cardiology
- Emergency medicine
- Neurology
- Obstetrics and gynaecology
- Opthamology
- Palliative care
- Psychiatry
- Surgery.
The national Course Experience Questionnaire survey indicates that medical graduates give their overall experience average ratings, but are even less impressed with the standards of teaching they encounter. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the new graduate courses are educationally more successful. Although medical graduates have very high starting salaries and virtually no unemployment, this is not the life for everyone. Interns work such long hours that their $55,362 can average out to a meagre sum per hour. Having studied for six years or so they are also older than other graduates and have been surviving on student money for a longer period of time.
The excellent employment rate among graduates indicates that we are far from producing an oversupply of doctors. Indeed, the growing trend in health education — particularly in medicine — towards rurally-focused programs reflects a chronic undersupply of doctors in these areas. Shortages are not confined to rural areas either, with new medical places being created at many metropolitan medical schools too.
For more information
To find out more about training as a medical practitioner, check out the Australian Medical Council website.
If you are interested in medicine, you should also consider other health-related courses. Look into dentistry, nursing, veterinary science, and perhaps psychology. You may also like to consider the rapidly increasing number of courses in ‘alternative’ approaches to medicine including Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, or naturopathy. Consult the profile of the health services and support field of study for more information about related options.
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