The Student Room Group

How long is a medical degree valid for?

If I did a 6 year medical degree and then decided to do a job that's not being a doctor, but find that I don't like it, can I go back to being a doctor. Just in case, I want to plan ahead, though I doubt it will come to that.

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Original post by Year11guy
If I did a 6 year medical degree and then decided to do a job that's not being a doctor, but find that I don't like it, can I go back to being a doctor. Just in case, I want to plan ahead, though I doubt it will come to that.


You need to achieve full registration with the GMC within three years of getting your degree if I recall correctly.

You would also strongly advised to complete your FY1 year and gain full registration before leaving the training pathway.

That said, they're currently debating whether to bring the point of full registration forward to the end of medical school rather than FY1, so things might change over the next few years.

Can I ask why you think you might not want to practice after completing medical school?
Reply 2
Original post by Democracy
You need to achieve full registration with the GMC within three years of getting your degree if I recall correctly.

You would also strongly advised to complete your FY1 year and gain full registration before leaving the training pathway.

That said, they're currently debating whether to bring the point of full registration forward to the end of medical school rather than FY1, so things might change over the next few years.

Can I ask why you think you might not want to practice after completing medical school?


In case I choose a different career path and find medicine isn't for me, although I don't think that'll be the case. I was reading up that a medicine degree leads to other careers other than being a doctor, (though doctor would be the main reason people choose it). Also in the unlikely event I move away from science completely to finance. Yes, I know, I shouldn't go into medicine unless I'm 100% committed but still.
Please don't go to medical school unless, at that point, you intend to work as a doctor. This can mean many different things from GP and cardiac surgery to health policy and lab research but it really should be your main goal.

As well as it costing the tax payer a considerable sum (£250,000 is the figure that gets thrown about), there is a considerable commitment invested by university teachers, consultants, other healthcare professionals, and patients. This goes far beyond any other degree course - for much of the time your teaching is 1:1. Patients will tell you things they would not tell their closest friends and let you cause them substantial inconvenience, not to mention pain, etc. Everyone does this because they believe you need to learn - not to pass exams and join an investment bank but to be a doctor treating other patients.

It sounds as if you do intend to be a doctor but please keep all of this in mind when exploring what "else" you can do with the degree.
Original post by MonteCristo
Please don't go to medical school unless, at that point, you intend to work as a doctor. This can mean many different things from GP and cardiac surgery to health policy and lab research but it really should be your main goal.

As well as it costing the tax payer a considerable sum (£250,000 is the figure that gets thrown about), there is a considerable commitment invested by university teachers, consultants, other healthcare professionals, and patients. This goes far beyond any other degree course - for much of the time your teaching is 1:1. Patients will tell you things they would not tell their closest friends and let you cause them substantial inconvenience, not to mention pain, etc. Everyone does this because they believe you need to learn - not to pass exams and join an investment bank but to be a doctor treating other patients.

It sounds as if you do intend to be a doctor but please keep all of this in mind when exploring what "else" you can do with the degree.


Please let the OP do as he pleases, and have whatever goals he wishes, it his his decision. We live in the free world not communist china.
(edited 8 years ago)
The OP can do whatever he pleases and I'm sure he'll do the responsible thing and think carefully about his career decisions.

It doesn't sound as if it applies in the OPs case anyway but the small number of "collecting a prestigious degree then will join the finance sector" candidates should examine their consciences before telling interviewers (etc) that they want to practice as a doctor.
Original post by MonteCristo
The OP can do whatever he pleases and I'm sure he'll do the responsible thing and think carefully about his career decisions.

It doesn't sound as if it applies in the OPs case anyway but the small number of "collecting a prestigious degree then will join the finance sector" candidates should examine their consciences before telling interviewers (etc) that they want to practice as a doctor.


I did medicine and now work in the finance sector and I know several others who did the same and have no regrets. It's a fine career move.

Hate the game man not the players.
Reply 7
Original post by MonteCristo
The OP can do whatever he pleases and I'm sure he'll do the responsible thing and think carefully about his career decisions.

It doesn't sound as if it applies in the OPs case anyway but the small number of "collecting a prestigious degree then will join the finance sector" candidates should examine their consciences before telling interviewers (etc) that they want to practice as a doctor.


Original post by Doctor_Einstein
I did medicine and now work in the finance sector and I know several others who did the same and have no regrets. It's a fine career move.

Hate the game man not the players.


I'm going to be honest, I was initially thinking about going into investment banking after. It's just that medicine is the only degree I would enjoy that's also respected by employers. If there were any other degrees like medicine that taught human biology that weren't as long and involving patients, I'd do that. What made you move to finance? Is the pay better (I'm assuming it is, especially if it's investment banking). Did you find medicine wasn't enjoyable anymore?
I've no objection with people changing their mind once they are at medical school - it doesn't have to be a lifetime sentence for everyone that accepts a place. But I do think that there is something wrong about lying to get a place with the inevitable consequence of wasting everyone's time, harming patients, and depriving the world of another doctor. That being said, with a "hate the game not the players" attitude, it's quite likely that you're better suited to finance than medicine.

To the OP: why human biology if interested in investment banking? Medicine is longer, harder, and less transferable than most other degrees. If you have the grades for medicine, why not aim at law, PPE, or something similar at Oxford or Cambridge...? I would have thought they were less hassle, more relevant, and at least as prestigious...
Reply 9
Original post by MonteCristo
I've no objection with people changing their mind once they are at medical school - it doesn't have to be a lifetime sentence for everyone that accepts a place. But I do think that there is something wrong about lying to get a place with the inevitable consequence of wasting everyone's time, harming patients, and depriving the world of another doctor. That being said, with a "hate the game not the players" attitude, it's quite likely that you're better suited to finance than medicine.

To the OP: why human biology if interested in investment banking? Medicine is longer, harder, and less transferable than most other degrees. If you have the grades for medicine, why not aim at law, PPE, or something similar at Oxford or Cambridge...? I would have thought they were less hassle, more relevant, and at least as prestigious...


With investment banking, they accept a wide range of degrees so I thought instead of doing finance related degrees, I'd do medicine since I enjoy it. It's not that I don't want to be a doctor but an investment banker appeals to me more. However, I am good at biology and enjoy it. That said, could I become a doctor or at least train to be one at around age 40? After doing investment banking for about 20 years? I don't see myself working in banking forever.
Original post by Doctor_Einstein
I did medicine and now work in the finance sector and I know several others who did the same and have no regrets. It's a fine career move.

Hate the game man not the players.


Just out of interest, what is the process of going from medicine to banking? Like did you have to do any other courses/training? And also was your employer concerned that you chose not to do medicine after committing to it?
Reply 11
Original post by Doctor_Einstein
I did medicine and now work in the finance sector and I know several others who did the same and have no regrets. It's a fine career move.

Hate the game man not the players.


What made you move to finance? Is the pay better (I'm assuming it is, especially if it's investment banking). Did you find medicine wasn't enjoyable anymore?
Reply 12
Original post by Year11guy
It's just that medicine is the only degree I would enjoy that's also respected by employers. If there were any other degrees like medicine that taught human biology that weren't as long and involving patients, I'd do that.

...you mean like any number of these degrees (first uni that came up on Google)?

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/mds.aspx

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/les.aspx
Original post by Year11guy
What made you move to finance? Is the pay better (I'm assuming it is, especially if it's investment banking). Did you find medicine wasn't enjoyable anymore?


I moved because medicine is ****
Reply 14
Original post by Doctor_Einstein
I moved because medicine is ****


What part of finance do you work as? I want to be an investment banker. Was it hard to get into finance with a medical degree? Did you do anything at university which helped you get into finance?
Reply 15
Original post by Doctor_Einstein
I did medicine and now work in the finance sector and I know several others who did the same and have no regrets. It's a fine career move.

Hate the game man not the players.



Do you not have morals? Why does it take someone to force you to do right before you actually do so. In this case the government/voters are trying to help and you are being selfish by exploiting the system.

Original post by Doctor_Einstein
Please let the OP do as he pleases, and have whatever goals he wishes, it his his decision. We live in the free world not communist china.


The government enables the situation by providing loans/grants and helps 'guarantee' enough junior doctor roles by capping the number of medicine places, which means that it is not a free world due to government intervention. However, the government intervene for good reason, which one should respect rather than exploit.

MonteCristo rightfully raised the ethics of the situation including the negative consumption externalities beyond preventing someone else becoming a doctor.
This is beginng to sound like "which wardrobe is best if I decide to rebuild it and make a boat"

If you want to do some kind of finance as a job, study that.
If medecine, study that

Medicine is a vocational degree and apart from preventing good candidates from achieving places by you taking a place but not intending to practice, it is also a very expensive way to gain a degree, both for the state, and you
(edited 8 years ago)
Let's all hope that the op gets seen for what he/she is at the interview stage.
Reply 18
Original post by RVNmax
Do you not have morals? Why does it take someone to force you to do right before you actually do so. In this case the government/voters are trying to help and you are being selfish by exploiting the system.

Doctor_Einstein described it as a 'career move', not some kind of master plan they had when they went into Medicine. Why would you want to force anyone who found Medicine to be **** to stay in it? If anything that would just open the gates to let the government treat doctors even worse than they are doing now.

To be honest I don't think many people with no real desire to work as a doctor, who were also capable of actually jumping through the hoops to get on to a medical degree, would actively choose to go through 5-6 years of a medical degree, so I don't see the problem.
That said, there are so many catfish doctors on here I'd take everything which is said with a pinch of salt tbh.

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