Where do people that study medicine end up working?

username1482019

my friend is at a top 10 uni studying medicine, he wants to be a surgeon. But where will he end up working? is there some sort of graduate schemes for people that have done medicine? does everyone have to work for the NHS before going private? do the NHS hold graduate schemes for those who want to be surgeons? how does it work? (just curious)

Reply 1

moonkatt

Original post by harry218

There's a table on this page that shows you basically how a doctor/surgeons career progresses.

http://bma.org.uk/developing-your-career/medical-student/entry-to-medical-school/quick-questions/thinking-about-being-a-doctor

Reply 2

Sinatrafan

All doctors will do 4-5 years at medical school and then spend 2 years working as a junior doctor after graduation. After that point they enter post graduate training in the specialty of their choosing which takes between 3 and 8 years depending on what specialty you choose. All undergraduate and post graduate training takes place in the NHS.

In terms of NHS/private practice, you need to be fully trained (i.e. a consultant) to practice privately so this is only an option once people are aged ~40+. Most doctors do a combination of NHS and private work, perhaps doing their private work on a Saturday or after 5pm in the week. The number of doctors who are exclusively private is very small.

No bad universities offer medicine as a course due to its expense and constant scrutiny by the General Medical Council but university ranking makes 0% difference in terms of your career options or route. It isn't like the private sector where your university matters more than your degree, in medicine they don't care where you studied as long as you have the basic medical qualification.