med school..
You should have a high undergrad gpa first. Doesn't really matter what your major was, as long as you completed certain pre-med requirements (mainly biology and some chemistry and math). Many pre-meds are bio majors, some are psychology, but most are biology since the pre-med requirements are mainly bio.
Then you must get a decent score on your MCAT.
There are many Med schools, so depending on the caliber of school you want to go to, you must get grades and an MCAT to match.
The application process includes interviews. If schools like what they see on paper they will call you in for a face to face interview. During these interviews they will ask you things like "why do you want to go into medicine?" "Do you think health care is a privledge or a right?" They want to get a feel for the type of person you are, not if you are smart.
Once in Med school it is typically 4 years. You learn tons of things from books. Not much hands on at first. Most of your hands on things will come in a few select lab classes and through fellowships and internships. You will learn very high level stuff about the history of medicine, infectious diseases, all kinds of stuff.
Once you get out, you are technically a Dr. But you can't work yet. You are not certified, at least in the U.S. You can call yourself Dr. whomever.. but you first need to do your residency before you can practice.
A basic residency is 4 years. The first year you are an Intern, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th you are a Resident. As you progress you will get more and more less supervised duties, less class work, and less 24 on call time. To get into a residency you must submit your med school transcripts and do interviews. Residencies at good schools are selective, even more so then med school is. But its a chance to improve yourself. You could go to a not so great med school but still have a shot at doing your residency at a place like stanford.
Your residency is also specific to your interest. This is when you choose what type of medicine you wish to practice. You can choose from some areas now, but not the specialized ones. You can choose general, ob/gyn, pediatric, etc. Later on is when you can choose specialized ones like trauma, high risk pregnancy, ENT specialist, ect.
Once in you basically are working under the direction of a certified physician and 3rd and 4th year residents. This is wear you learn hands on medicine. You will learn how to diagnose, how to perform common procedures. You will rotate every 6-10 weeks to a new area and learn a different aspect of medicine. You will learn some basical outpatient surgeries, how to test for common things, how to do all kinds of fun stuff.
During this time you are still being evaluated by a panel of physicians. You are also required to study and pass tests. You have to pass tests to get licensed to do certain things, like write prescriptions. You can fail out of your residency and some people do quit, but I woud say it is rare.
After 4 years you become certified and can now do a few things. You can work for your own and start a private practice. This is hard just starting out. You can continue in the university system and work as an attending physician. You can join a medical group of HMO group and get patients funneled to you. This is usually the easiest route starting out, but doesn't pay as well as private practice.
OR if you want to specialize, you can do a fellowship and spend 2-4 MORE years as a student doctor and learn how to do things like specialized surgeries, or other very high level rare duties.
During your residency you get paid shit. 40K starting usually.. and it goes up, but not much. You will work at least 60 hours a week, but usually 80 or more. You will be on call every 3rd or 4th day.. as a 1st or 2nd year resident this means you stay AT the hospitol for 24 hours straight.. sometimes you get a break and can sleep, but if it is busy, you don't. You get 1 day off a week typically, and 2 weeks per year vacation. If you divide your pay by hours work its usually about 4-5 bucks for every hour of time you put in.
if all goes well by the time you are 30 you are done and you are making at least 200K a year.. sometimes much more.. sometimes a little less depending on where you live.
Brian
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