The Steps To Making Your Dream Of Becoming A Doctor Into A Reality

It’s hard to get into a medical school. There is a lot of competition to get into the best medical schools. And for good reason. Physicians graduating from good schools, get the best residency programs as well. They go on to be more skilled and higher paid than people that go to second or third-tier medical schools.

Tune Your Academic Pathway

Because competition is so tough, it helps to get started with your medical education as early as possible. But that doesn’t mean just taking A&P in high school. It’s important to tune your educational pathway as early as possible. The first goal is to get into a great pre-med school. A pre-med program puts you on the pathway to get into a good medical school. It’s the first step on your path to becoming a full-fledged licensed physician. 

Take Sciences To Heart

Regardless of where you’re at in your education at the moment, sciences are of the utmost importance for the medical profession. And it’s never too early to get started. Biology and chemistry are the most important for the medical industry, though others are also very helpful. 

Physics, psychology, botany, and sociology all contribute to the skill set that is required by doctors. That’s because the work of a physician is multi-dimensional and doesn’t stop with lab results. All of these sciences directly contribute to the quality of a physician’s ability. 

Prepare For The MCAT

The MCAT is the exam that is required to get into an American medical school. A high MCAT score opens up doors and opportunities not available to those who get average or mediocre results on the exam. A pre-med program is largely designed to improve the results on the MCAT exam. 

Pre-med is not a major in itself, that needs to be decided separately. Instead, pre-med is a program of courses required to get a good MCAT score and ensure that you have the prerequisite courses to get into medical school. Most people complete their pre-med program at the end of year 3 and then start to prepare heavily for the MCAT before starting their 4th year at university. This gives you enough time to get your results, retake if necessary, and start applying for medical school before university graduation.

Get Accepted Into A Medical School

After you get your MCAT results, it’s time to start applying for the medical school of your choice. As mentioned previously, competition is stiff for the elite schools(and tuition isn’t a paltry sum either). They require high MCAT scores and some letters of recommendation from industry professionals. You may also be asked to submit essays or even sit for additional entry exams to evaluate your abilities. 

Due to the stiff competition for these programs, it’s important that applicants don’t get their hearts set on any one particular school. Applicants need to apply at as many schools as possible so that they have choices come time to pack up and start intubating people. Apply at as many quality schools as possible. You may want to apply to all the major schools just to keep your options open. 

It’s important to be reasonable and remain flexible when choosing a school. Be honest with yourself. If your pre-requisite courses are lacking and your MCAT score isn’t great, you probably won’t get into your dream school. There are just too many perfect applicants. But that doesn’t mean that your dream can’t be realized. You may just need to readjust your sights and pick a school that is suited for your credentials. If you end up being a good doctor, it won’t matter where you studied. 

Sit For Medical Board Exams

After your complete your medical school program, you can sit for your AMA medical board exams. Board exams are standardized tests that examine your medical knowledge. These are very important exams and are administered quite strictly. They aren’t cheap either. 

Graduating from medical school isn’t enough. You must also pass your board exams before you can begin the next step in your medical education. Most schools will prepare you adequately for these exams and they shouldn’t be out of your ability range if you worked hard in school. They test several aspects of medical information and practice. These include technical aspects as well and patient interaction and HIPAA compliance aspects of the profession. 

After you successfully pass these exams, you can move on to your residency, or specialty school if that’s the path you choose. Sitting for and passing these exams is something that all students must do after completing the general practitioner education studied in the initial years of medical education.

Pursue A Specialty

At this point, many will choose to continue their education to obtain their medical specialty. Medical specialties include things like cardiology, oncology, endocrinology, or even surgery. Specialists gain skills that grant them mastery over certain aspects of medical practice. 

Those that don’t get a specialty, go on to be general practitioners, a family doctor that you visit for general problems. Specialists are the ones that get to do some serious medical sleuthing and they work with more serious cases. They also make significantly more money. Though they add at least another 3 years of study to your education most of the time. 

Start Your Residency At A Hospital

After you complete medical school(and perhaps specialty school) and pass your boards, you’re ready for your residency. Just completing medical school and passing the board exams is not enough for licensure. Residency is required and usually lasts 3 years. 

Residency is basically an internship for doctors. Residents usually work at major hospitals and must engage in various tasks related to their field of medicine under the supervision of a doctor. It’s basically on-the-job training for doctors. It takes the lessons learned over more than a decade of school and gives the resident an opportunity to put their skills into practice while under supervision. 

Apply For Your Unrestricted Medical License

Finally, after years of study and practical training as a resident in a busy hospital, it’s time to apply for your license. Licenses are usually granted on a state-by-state level. Just because you have a license in one state, doesn’t mean you are legally allowed to practice in another. 

Sometimes there are 30-day clauses that allow visiting physicians to practice for a limited time on their license from their home state. But it all varies by state and needs to be investigated before practicing. If you’re planning on practicing there frequently or for an extended time, you’ll need to get your license in multiple states to make sure you’re covered. Oh, and don’t forget your malpractice insurance!