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Can you do medicine as a postgraduate?

I've decided I want to be a psychologist or psychiatrist; I'm studying a psychology degree and won't finish it until I'm 23, I know to be a psychologist I would have to do further studying but for being a psychiatrist (I think) I would have to do a medicine degree first and then specialise as a psychiatrist?

As I've already chosen to do my undergraduate as Psychology, would it be worth it to consider trying to study medicine postgraduate to then get into psychiatry?

Any opinions would be appreciated :smile:
Original post by Siennaaa
I've decided I want to be a psychologist or psychiatrist; I'm studying a psychology degree and won't finish it until I'm 23, I know to be a psychologist I would have to do further studying but for being a psychiatrist (I think) I would have to do a medicine degree first and then specialise as a psychiatrist?

As I've already chosen to do my undergraduate as Psychology, would it be worth it to consider trying to study medicine postgraduate to then get into psychiatry?

Any opinions would be appreciated :smile:


Medicine isn't a postgraduate degree. However it does have graduate entry courses. See the wiki for details
Yes, you can. It is even more competitive than undergraduate-entry courses (though being a psychologist also has ridiculous numbers of applicants per place so I guess you're not afraid of competition anyway!) .
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Siennaaa
I've decided I want to be a psychologist or psychiatrist; I'm studying a psychology degree and won't finish it until I'm 23, I know to be a psychologist I would have to do further studying but for being a psychiatrist (I think) I would have to do a medicine degree first and then specialise as a psychiatrist?

As I've already chosen to do my undergraduate as Psychology, would it be worth it to consider trying to study medicine postgraduate to then get into psychiatry?

Any opinions would be appreciated :smile:


Yes, you can enter for graduate entry medicine courses which basically teach undergraduate medicine to those with a degree already. Bare in mind these courses are more competitive and at the present time you need to find about £3,465 off your own back.
Original post by Siennaaa
I've decided I want to be a psychologist or psychiatrist; I'm studying a psychology degree and won't finish it until I'm 23, I know to be a psychologist I would have to do further studying but for being a psychiatrist (I think) I would have to do a medicine degree first and then specialise as a psychiatrist?

As I've already chosen to do my undergraduate as Psychology, would it be worth it to consider trying to study medicine postgraduate to then get into psychiatry?

Any opinions would be appreciated :smile:


Hello!

As you rightly wrote, to become a psychologist, you need to study a Psychology degree, then do a further three years of study.

On the National Careers Service website, it says the following for Psychiatry:

"To become a psychiatrist you'll need to complete a 5-year degree course in medicine.

You'll then take on paid work placements to complete your psychiatrist training. There's a 2-year foundation programme of general training, followed by specialist training, lasting around 6 years."

All in all, that's around 11 years of training.

If you want to study Medicine after you've already completed an undergraduate degree, you have two options:

1. Apply for the more competitive Graduate Entry Medicine course. This is an accelerated Medicine course offered with limited places at select medical schools in the UK. If successful, you would receive some help towards funding your studies from Student Finance.
2. Apply for the normal 5/6 year Medicine course. This is less competitive, but means you would have to supply most of the funding, and you would be studying Medicine over a longer period of time.

If you're unsure about whether you actually want to continue on with psychology, perhaps that means that you really want to do psychiatry? Why don't you see if you can get some work experience over some of your uni holidays in both fields? It may be difficult to do this, but have a good trawl of the internet and the NHS websites to see if there are any volunteer opportunities in any roles.

That could then help you to decide which path you'd like to follow.

We hope the above helps,
The Medic Portal

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