Getting into medicine as a career is a ride that’ll take everything out of you. Although this might seem like a tall order, what you get out of it is also very rewarding and fulfilling. Applying to a medical school, finding a good place to practice, and even getting into one is a long road ahead, and you have to prepare for it. Just like any other career, you’d have to look at resume examples and be good at building your repertoire. You’d have to learn skills that would better aim you to a prestigious medical school and learn the most from it. In order to fully visualize the long road ahead, let’s try to break down the steps for getting into medicine.
Furthermore, we will integrate the tips and tricks that you could keep in mind for an easier time getting into medicine. Pursuing a career in this field is very challenging yet very rewarding. Hard work, dedication, perseverance, and passion to helping another human being are all traits that you need to possess in order to excel. Becoming a physician, for example, has several steps that may look like a mountain.
Tips and Steps
- Build a strong foundation in the different fields of science. Medicine is a very science-based field, and incurring a strong, basic foundation on its subjects could make your life easier. Biology, chemistry, and physics are among the subjects that should be very well learned before even entering a medical school, as this would save you time to relearn and understand concepts that may come at a later stage. The scientific method is a simple principle, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll be easy. Mastering these things will help you develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving attributes, and other things that will help you succeed in the field.
- Expose yourself. Volunteering or even working in a healthcare setting is a step you could take without having your license. Exposing yourself to the field that you’d eventually be in is a desensitization process that will help you familiarize yourself and cope with the hectic setting of a hospital. Volunteering in a healthcare facility, for example, will offer invaluable experience and hands-on settings that will surely show you the realities of the field. With that, you could determine whether or not the career is right for you.
- Take extracurricular activities. Although they might seem overboard and even overwhelming for the majority of people, taking extracurricular activities will not only test your time management skills but a whole lot of other things. For one, you’d show just how committed you are to the field. Another would be it’ll build your leadership skills and your potential to be an active member of a medicinal field. You could do this in different ways: volunteering as what was previously discussed, joining research projects, participating in different research projects as a respondent, or even joining clubs that have the theme of medicine to them.
- Complete medical school and gain residency. There are different admission tests that would help you get into medical school. Pass that, and you’re off to the races. Medical schools are very competitive, so it’s important to do your best at everything. Grades, test scores, and even showing your passion are things that could contribute to success. Of course, residency is the next step. You’d take a specialized field in the career of medicine and train hands-on under the tutelage of a trained, licensed physician. During this period, you’d get valuable, specialized experience in the field, preparing you for the experience.
- Obtain a license. The last step into getting into the medical field would be obtaining a licensure. This lets you legally practice medicine in your field and have an actual salary that you could live off comfortably with.
