Medical Careers: Everything you need to know
What training do you need to become a medical doctor? What specialisms can you take? What can you earn as a family physician, or as a consultant specialist? We will focus on answering these questions and more, whilst getting key insights from those with diverse career paths in the medical profession.
Introduction
Medical training is lengthy but offers those with a keen interest, a fulfilling career dedicated to the health of others. Central determinants of success include a care of duty to individuals in need, and the ability to assimilate and apply knowledge under pressure. This all needs to be undertaken whilst keeping abreast of key advances and changing guidelines. At the end of your medical degree, you need to dedicate yourself to a field. Examples include a family physician, or specialities like paediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, academic medicine or respiratory medicine, to name a few.
In the following articles, we take a look at the key stages of medical training, including salaries and first-hand accounts of what to expect in Europe and the US.
Medical careers: Key stages of training as a medical doctor
In our first article, we reflect on training requirements to become a medical doctor and the career trajectories available, including general practice and consultant specialisms. Taking Europe and the US as an example, we explore education, salaries and motivations for choosing from one of the consultant specialities available.
Medical careers: Interview with Dr. Jonathan Fuld on specialising as a consultant in respiratory medicine
With a multitude of options available to trained doctors, over a hundred — counting all of the subspecialties available, choosing one that’s right for you may be a difficult task. We spoke to Dr. Jonathan Fuld, who has a successful career path as a consultant physician in acute and respiratory medicine, about what to expect.
Medical Careers: Specialising as a family physician
In this article, we focus on the experiences of those who work in the field of general practice as family doctors. This role is a medical front-line for individuals seeking treatment, where the family doctor is often the first port of call. General practitioners, (GPs in the UK), spend a large amount of time in short individual consultations with patients. The role has inherent variety, and they are responsible for diagnosing and prescribing treatments for diverse illnesses that patients may present with. We take a deeper look into what’s involved and ask those working in the role about their experiences.
Interview: Medicine and Outreach
We interviewed Dr. Shabina Asad Qayyum, a General Practitioner based in Peterborough, England. In addition to being a GP, she also has a specialist interest in ear, nose and throat conditions, as well as reproductive medicine. Beyond her work as a doctor, she also hosts a popular weekly radio programme and writes health columns for the Asian World newspaper.
Summary
Medical careers can offer a varied, fulfilling and lucrative career path to those who are scientifically minded. It’s important to note that competition for entry to graduate medical degrees is fierce and training times can be very long, with unsociable hours. A care of duty to others comes as a prerequisite, as well as an ability to assimilate and apply knowledge under pressure. There are diverse career paths on offer to those graduating in medicine, with over 100 medical subspecialties. Even when you specialise, you should be aware that there are diverse roles available within specialities to match your interests.