A medically trained Doctor is a person who is responsible for the caring for, treating and diagnosing the well-being of patients. In the UK, all Medical Doctors are required hold a valid license to practice and be registered with the GMC (General Medical Council).
Working in medicine offers opportunities for an incredible range of challenging and rewarding career options. A life as a Doctor might mean being based full-time in a hospital, working as a GP in a tight-knit community or even working to influence public health policy.
There are over 60 specialist fields in the NHS that a Doctor can choose to specialise in, so there are many answers to what you could be doing once you become a Doctor.
There are a variety of different types of Doctors and specialities:
Once you get into Medical School, you’ll study for between four and six years. After graduation, you then apply to foundation posts and complete the foundation programme, working under a mentor’s supervision. At this point, you’ll choose whether to become a medical Doctor, surgical trainee or train to be a GP.
The exact time frame to being a fully qualified and unsupervised Doctor varies, as family-planning, career breaks and examination stumbling blocks can delay the process. As a rough guidance, post-foundation programme, the GP training programme takes a minimum of three years, whilst other specialist training can take up to eight years.
The journey is outlined in this graphic:
Completing a medical degree is the first step to a medical career and can take between four and six years, depending on whether a student enters their studies straight after A-Levels or as a Graduate. Intercalating, meaning taking a year out to earn an added degree, would equal taking a total of six years to finish Med School. During the final year of studies, students must also prepare to take the Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which is required to apply for the Foundation Programme.
Curious what to expect from Medical School? Check out our guide to surviving your first year of Med School.
The next step is to complete a two-year training programme to develop professional and clinical skills in a practical setting. It’s at this step that graduates become Junior Doctors, not yet qualified to practice unsupervised but taking on greater responsibility for patient care.
After FT1-2, Junior Doctors begin to choose specialties. Crucially, there are a few entry points for specialties and further opportunities to sub-specialise, but the following is a rough guide to what further training might look like:
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