Becoming a Doctor Education and Training

From 3arf

Becoming a doctor is not a small decision. The path to becoming a physician is long and winding road. The road is fraught with adventure, frustration, success, fascination, tedium, worry, thrill, panic, and joy - and that's just in the first week!

As a recent medical school graduate, I can speak first hand to the process of becoming a doctor. My training and education was an experience that I'll never forget. It took me on an emotional journey with soaring highs and nauseating lows. Although it was the hardest thing I've ever even considered doing, it was also the most rewarding. Looking back now, I can say with absolute certainty that I would do it all over again.

There are lots of places you can go to get specific information on course work and exams you must take. I'll mention a few of these things, although the focus of this piece is on the process and personal preparation required to successfully navigate medical school. In addition, some of the tips I'll give are a bit "non-standard". For example, you do NOT have to be a biology major in college to excel as a doctor. Note also that I am an American and have been educated in the America system. Some of the specifics may or may not apply to aspiring doctors in other countries.

The journey to a career as a doctor begins early. Not "just-learning-to-walk" early, but soon thereafter. The very first step you must take is to learn to study. This doesn't mean that you have to study 23.5 hours per day, 364 days a week (take New Years off, will ya?). Rather you must learn to study efficiently and to enjoy the process of learning. Being a doctor isn't just a job, it's a lifestyle. And it's a lifestyle that embraces knowledge and learning.

As you progress toward becoming a doctor, it is going to become rather obvious that you are going to need a solid foundation in science. While this is most certainly true, it is important not to forget other academic subjects. I have found the most interesting and dynamic doctors to be those that have a very broad base of education and experience. Be it math, music, history, writing, a foreign language, and/or sports, there is much to be gained by being a well rounded doctor.

You should start planning your journey in high school, although if decide to become a doctor later in life, don't panic, you can still make it. I didn't decide to be a doctor until I was 24 and had my Bachelor's Degree in English completed. Of course, that did make my journey a little more perilous and extended.

You should go through high school learning to be a good student and aiming to get yourself in to a good four year college or university. You can spend your first two years at a community college, but you should be aware that many medical schools will not accept science courses from junior colleges, so be very careful if you go this route. Otherwise, high school is a time to hone your studying skills and to develop other interests that will serve to make you an interesting person and doctor later in life. Don't worry about loading up on lots of science in high school. Although you should take some science classes, and you should enjoy them, you are going to get plenty more later. Don't burn yourself out.

When you get to college, pick a major that interests you. You do NOT have to be a biology or chemistry major to be a doctor. My degree is in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I had Medical School classmates who were Engineers, History majors, musicians and any number of other things besides biologists. Of course, if you like biology, then by all means, do that!

Your first year in college you should go to your university bookstore and buy a copy of the MSAR Book. It is the Medical School Admissions Requirements Book and it's the bible of medical school admissions knowledge. Buy it. Read it. Love it. It will be your best friend and guide through the application process. The book has a breakdown of each medical school in America and the very specific details of what each school requires for admission. It's more detailed than anything your college adviser will tell you. In fact, virtually all the information you adviser may give you came from the copy they secretly hide under their desk. With a copy of this book, just about anyone can be a pre-med adviser.

As a general rule, you are going to have to take at least a basic set of "pre-med" science classes in order to apply to medical school. These include a year of general chemistry, a year of general biology, a year of physics, and a year of organic chemistry. Most medical schools have a math and english requirement as well. Some schools will require a few other science course such as biochemistry, molecular biology, psychology and the like. The MSAR book will guide you in making sure you are taking the right classes.

As you approach the application process for medical school, you will have to take the MCAT. This is a standardized exam along the lines of the SAT, although it focuses on the pre-med sciences and some reading and verbal comprehension skills. It is a very hard exam that rates you in comparison to other medical school applicants.

Once you get "lucky" enough to get in to medical school, you are just starting to have academic fun. Medical school itself is one of the most intense and rigorous education programs in existence.

In your first two years of medical school, you will be immersed in the basic medical sciences. You will take courses in anatomy, histology, embryology, pathology, physiology, pharmacology, neuroscience, nutrition, ethics and much more. You will spend hours and days in a library, working all the time toward your next exam, which never feels that far away.

At the end of the first two years, you take the first of the medical licensing exams. The first exam is known, appropriately, as the United States Medical Licensing Exam, Step One. It is by far the hardest and most intense exam you will ever take in your lifetime.

After passing Step One, you will be let loose in a hospital to complete the 3rd and 4th year of Medical School. In this time you are used as a low end and totally clueless assistant to the only slightly more experienced resident doctors in the hospital. Medical students all work in similar departments during these years, as there are no "majors" in medical school.

Near the end of Medical School, you take the second of the licensing exams, USMLE Step Two. It's not quite as hard as Step One, at least according to the opinion of most students to take it.

Of course, graduating from Medical School is not the end of your journey to become a trained physician. You have to move on to residency training. It is in this phase that you become whatever specific type of doctor you wish to become, be it a surgeon, pediatrician, or family doctor. The ins and outs of this training are quite detailed and could easily take several thousand more words to describe - but I'll spare you the reading for now.

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