The Student Room Group

neurology

hey. i saw this television show once about neurologists - i think it was on channel 4 in the UK ?
but i just wanted to know a bit more about the job:
eg...
what does it involve - does it involve blood?
average annual salary
qualifications needed
would you recommend this job to people who get squeamish when they see blood?

thank you very ,much
Reply 1
Neurology is a medical speciality - so you need to qualify as a doctor first, then do specialist training.

Wikipedia on 'Neurology'
Student BMJ Article on a Career in Neurology


Standard entry route: good range of GCSEs --> AAB+ at A level (including Biology and Chemistry to maximise where you can apply to) --> 'MBBS' or equivalent after at least 5 years at medical school --> Foundation training (employed as a junior doctor) --> Specialist training (involving Neurology) --> Consultant Neurologist.

Salary estimations basically as per hospital doctors. At the moment:

NHS Website

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/details/Default.aspx?Id=553
Junior doctors
In the most junior post (foundation year 1) a doctor would earn a basic salary of £20,741. This would increase in the second year (foundation year 2) to £25,882. A doctor in specialist training could earn from £29,000 to £44,000.

In addition a doctor in training would be paid a banding supplement determined by:
* the amount of hours worked over forty hours a week
* the intensity of a doctors workload
* the amount of work carried out at unsocial times
Banding supplements pay 20% to 80% of the basic salary. The most common supplement paid is 50%. A typical doctor, five years after graduating from medical school, on a 50% banding supplement would be earning approximately £48,000.
...
Consultants
Basic salary for a full time consultant on the 2003 contract ranges from nearly £70,000 to around £94,000, dependant on the number of years worked as a consultant. Other elements of pay in addition to this basic salary, which a consultant may recieve, inlcude:

* Since 2004, local or national Clinical Excellence Awards (CEAs), the value of which ranges between around £2,800 to £33,000 for locally awarded CEAs and £33,000 to £72,000 for nationally awarded CEAs;
* Between 1% and 8% of basic salary to reward consultants for being available to work during call periods;
* A time limited recruitment and retention premia up to a value of 30%;
* Additional programmed activities, where agreed, worth 10% of salary, which includes locally awarded CEAs



As a specialty it might relatively rarely involve blood, but medical school/junior doctor-ness involves quite regularly taking blood from people for testing or seeing it in surgery/acute settings.

The Medicine/Veterinary/Dentistry subforum has some threads about whether being squeamish means you can't be a doctor.
Reply 2
:confused: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=391891

Mojo_Jojo

if you wanted to be a neurologist,
what courses will have to be taken.
i got told that you had to be a junior doctor which involved looking at surgery and stuff - is this true?
could i train alongside a gp and still be able to be a neurologist?
all this is confusing me as i have my heart set on being a neurologist owing to one saving my father's life and i would like to do the same to someone else, however, i tried googling and it wasnt very useful so i was hoping for some help please.

thank you.


Yeah, maybe the person who told you that gets kicks from wasting their time lying on internet message boards & making up fake entries of wikipedia/spoof journal pages in support. :rolleyes:

Or not.

I'm in Year 4 towards an MB BCh qualification - assuming you're referring to being a Neurologist in the UK (which would be the reasonable default on this website) I have a pretty good idea of the essential basic qualification and what being a medical student/junior doctor might entail.

You can choose to do some junior training in primary care (alongside a GP) but the aim is to gain experience in a variety of settings - so you'll most likely to spending some time in hospitals too before you begin to specialise in the area you want. http://www.mmc.nhs.uk/pages/foundation

I didn't say junior doctors have to look at surgery, but gave surgery as one example of an area where blood is involved.

me, in my original answer

As a specialty it might relatively rarely involve blood, but medical school/junior doctor-ness involves quite regularly taking blood from people for testing or seeing it in surgery/acute setting.


To make this clearer...

- Venepuncture or taking blood
Core clinical skill that must be learnt in every medical school I know of.
As a junior doctor you'll also spend quite a bit of time doing it - phlebotomist (the people who are specifically trained in it and it's their job) cover is far from perfect and when the nurses/phlebotomists can't get blood out and the patient needs tests done, it's the doctor the job gets passed to...
In primary care/GPs, blood tests are also often done to save trips to hospital - again it may be necessary, if you're on a home/nursing home visit or the nurse/HCA in the practise can't get it.

- Surgery
Inevitably involves some blood.
If you don't want to be a surgeon you could try and avoid it as much as possibly - but I'm not sure this could be completel.
As a medical student - you do surgical rotations. Not going into theatre would be noticed, some places might make it a requirement (although it isn't at mine) and your learning would probably be somewhat hampered.
As a junior doctor - you're unlikely to be performing surgery yourself or necessarily spending much time in there (to the disappointment of some!) but as I mentioned - foundation programmes are supposed to ensure a range of experience. I'm not sure whether avoiding a surgical specialty entirely is possible. & if you're on one - there's a chance you might be called in to assist.

- Acute setting
Bit of a catch all - but essentially... people bleed - this is a problem!
As a medical student you go through various rotations - as well as surgery and medicine I imagine A&E certainly has some blood involved.
Junior doctor - as i've mentioned, will partly depend on what you do. But even relatively innocuous things can involve blood - when your elderly patients fall out of bed / develop ulcers / pressure sores.



As I said - there have been threads in the medicine subforum about whether you can be squeamish and get through it. There are people who are who plan to try!

What have you been googling for? 'Neurologist training' fixed to UK pages gives the quite helpful:
http://www.londondeanery.ac.uk/careers/career-guide/neurology on the first page
Reply 3
Elles has, as ever, helpfully posted answers to your questions. But anyway, just to reiterate:

A neurologist is a type of a doctor. Just as a GP is one type or a heart surgeon is another.
If you want to become a neurologist, you will have to read medicine- which is a 5 year course. After the 5 years, you train as a junior doctor and then you choose your specialty- neurology being your interest.

As for blood, yes, you will see blood as a medical student and most certainly as a junior doctor. If you are concerned about this, check out the threads about being squeamish in the Medicine forum.
Reply 4
Hi

I've always wanted to be a Doctor and am familiar with the route I need to take in order to secure a place at Medical school. Recently, however, I've been more interested in the field of neuroscience. This is after carrying out work experience in a care home and seeing people suffering from Dementia as well as being in a GP practice. I also found out that my Grandma has Type 2 Neurofibromatosis - If you aren't familiar with it, Google it. It's fascinating, but has obviously difficult day-to-day implications - so I've abandoned the slightly naive 'I want to be a GP' approach for Neuroscience; the idea of being in an office environment all day is a little tedious.

I wanted to know a few things really:
- What's the difference between bring a Neurologist/Neuroscientist/Neurosurgeon and what do each of those professions do?
- I haven't done Psychology at GCSE and don't plan on doing it at AS or A-Level, will this hinder my chances?
- What would I need to do after my clinical training? Would I apply for a specialist course or something?
- I appreciate hospital work experience would be helpful, but is there anywhere in particular that is specialised in Neuro... that I could go to?
- Is there any difference in working hours for somebody in this profession in comparison with a GP or a Consultant in a different speciality?

Thanks in advance guys! Please quote me if you reply :smile: