medical schooling

Okay, i get asked so many times that I guess its time I explained some things...

To study medicine, you have to go through a pre-med course. This can be any 4-year college course you may want. I have classmates who are licensed Medical Technologists, two Registered Nurses, one licensed Chemist, several Public Health graduates, one Food Technologist, one MBB graduate, and sandamakmak na Biology grads. Biology seems to be the popular pre-med course, but had i known what Med was really like, I'd have chosen Nursing or MedTech or even Physical Therapy as a pre-med course.

While still in college, you could already take the NMAT. Your score there determines your chances of getting into your medical school of choice. you could take the NMAT any number of times you want so you can get a more competitive score. PGH takes no less than a 90percentile score. some schools take anything above 60.

And then you go into medical school. They also call this medicine proper. It takes 4 years. This is not Residency where you specialize in a Department. It's just medschool. Parang college lang ang set-up. We don't have a PE subject or English subject, though. We have Anatomy, Physiology, Neuroanatomy, Psych, Biochem, Ortho, Pedia, Medicine, Pharmacology, etc... etc...

The first three years of medical school is spent in the school. Simpleng student ka lang na pumapasok sa class, may exams, may teachers, may library, may lunch time, may uwian. Parang nagcollege ka nga lang ulit. But then you eventually reach fourth year and then you become Interns or Clerks. Fully hospital-based na kayo by this time and you become the fleas in the hospital, aka utusan ng mga Residents. (The Residents are those taking "specializations". Like sa Gray's Anatomy, Surgical Residents sila... ganon.)

When you're an Intern/Clerk, wala nang classroom sessions. (Pero may exams pa rin, oral at written.) 365 days ang duty namin. from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009 ang Internship namin. Walang sembreak yan at walang Christmas break. And well, we didn't get a summer break nung summer either...

We have rotations in the different Departments ng hospital. Sa aming hospital, we go through Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery/Orthopedics, and OB-Gyne for our majors na ward and OPD and then minors namin ang Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, EENT and Community. Ako, i've already finished one month in Surgery Ward, one and a month months in OB-Gyne Ward, and two weeks in Ortho. Tapos ko na rin ang three months ko sa OPD through the 4 major departments. Ngayon, sa ER ako, Medicine and Pedia, and then NICU for 2 weeks. After that is one month each at the Medicine and Pediatrics Wards. Sa January 1, we start with ENT, Psych, Anesthesia, and then Community rotation na kami until Graduation. Ayon. We take a Comprehensive Exam by February, which we have to pass before we can graduate.

After graduation, we go into Post-Graduate Internship. Dito, di na kami estudyante na may grades and all sa isang school. We apply at a hospital and then magpapa-alila kami doon ng walang bayad. Walang sweldo. Hindi pa rin ito specialization. This is just the interim (one year) before we can take the Board Exam. Requirement ito before you can take the Board. And then if you finish your PGI (kung saan ako ay nag-apply sa DOH Integration Program na sana matanggap ako) ay kukuha na kami ng Board Exam.

And then if you pass the Boards, you can now enter into a Residency Training Program which is what they call 'specialization' and this is entirely up to you. Di na to requirement. If you don't want further training you can already practice Medicine as a General Practitioner.

But if you want to, you can train as a Resident in a hospital in the Departments of Pedia, Internal Med, Surgery, Psych, OB-Gyne, or Family Med. Dito, may sweldo ka na. Ang hospital ang magse-sweldo sa yo. Depende kung ano department mo sa haba ng training. Surgery takes 5 more years, IM is 3 years i think, Pedia is 4, OB is 4 din. And then kung mejo masipag ka talaga, pwede ka pa magsub-specialize. Take Internal Medicine for example. You can specialize in Cardio, Pulmo, Neuro, Endoc, or sa kung saang parte ng katawan ang type mo. Meron din yang mga exams syempre, at specialty boards. At syempre, added years of study yon. Haha. If you want, you can go forever just studying medicine. :)

Sa ngayon, i'm just an Intern. Next year PGI. And then the Boards. Beyond that, I can't see yet. Hehe...