ODP - Bad degree?

Hi, I’m considering doing a BSc in Operating Department Practice (ODP) instead of Biomed, with the aim of applying for Graduate Entry Medicine afterwards.

I’m leaning towards ODP mainly because of the better job prospects after the degree, I’d be able to work as a Band 5 in the NHS, which would help massively with funding grad med and gaining experience. It seems more practical than Biomed in that sense.

But I’m wondering:
- Has anyone successfully gone from ODP to Graduate Medicine?
- Do med schools scrutinise vocational degrees like ODP compared to something more academic like Biomed?
- Will this choice limit my options?

Any insight or experience would really help. Thanks.

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Hi, I've moved your thread to the healthcare forum :smile:

If your aim is to become an operating department practitioner then it's a good degree. If you have no intention of pursuing the healthcare profession associated with it there's little point in doing it. This is true of all allied healthcare professions degrees - they are not designed as stepping stones for medicine, they are designed to prepare students to work in that specific healthcare profession.

If your goal is medicine you should just aim to apply directly following your school studies, taking a gap year(s) as necessary to meet the requirements. Graduate entry medicine is for those already on another degree, or who already graduated from a degree, and decide to pursue medicine. It's not designed for school leavers who already know they want to pursue medicine.

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Hi, I've merged your duplicated threads. Please don't repost threads on the same topic, thank you :smile:

Reply 3

cluelessbee

Original post

by artful_lounger

Hi, I've moved your thread to the healthcare forum :smile:

If your aim is to become an operating department practitioner then it's a good degree. If you have no intention of pursuing the healthcare profession associated with it there's little point in doing it. This is true of all allied healthcare professions degrees - they are not designed as stepping stones for medicine, they are designed to prepare students to work in that specific healthcare profession.
If your goal is medicine you should just aim to apply directly following your school studies, taking a gap year(s) as necessary to meet the requirements. Graduate entry medicine is for those already on another degree, or who already graduated from a degree, and decide to pursue medicine. It's not designed for school leavers who already know they want to pursue medicine.

I understand your points, but I don’t have the grades for undergraduate medicine. I’ve already taken an extra year out for a levels so I wouldn’t want to take another gap year.

For these reasons my aim is to pursue graduate entry medicine.

But I don’t want to do an oversaturated degree like biomedicine where getting a job is relatively hard due to the proportion of individuals who have studied it.

I would need a degree that finds me a stable job to fund graduate entry medicine.

Whether ODP is that degree I do not know. I’ve heard it’s more vocational than academic which concerns me.

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by cluelessbee

Well I wrote a longer reply to this but it seems to have been eaten by TSR, so the summary is:

It doesn't matter if you take another gap year nad you need to get over whatever reason it is you don't want to do that essentially.

Bear in mind graduate entry medicine is more competitive than standard entry medicine so you are taking longer, spending more money (including out of pocket if you actually get into GEM as you don't get full funding for that) and having a lower chance of getting in regardless of what degree you do.

GEM admissions don't care what subject your degree is in if they state they accept any subject. There's not a hidden list of preferred courses or not. However some GEM courses will explicitly state they only accept a science or bioscience degree, and ODP may not qualify for those specific courses.

You seem to think BMS grads are all competing for the same pool of jobs only against each other and there are too many of them and that's the problem. That's not how graduate employment works. Graduates of any general academic degree such as BMS all apply to the same kinds of generalist grad schemes on completely equal grounding in terms of degree subject because bluntly, employers don't care about your degree subject unless it's required for professional registration for something (e.g. healthcare professions).

As stated, if you want to do medicine you should be doing what you can now to get into standard entry medicine directly. Graduate entry medicine is for career changes, not people who didn't get in the first time and don't want to take the year(s) out to get the necessary grads; plenty of people try and use it for that purpose however that is not the intended aim for it and you don't help yourself by using it in that way.

Reply 5

HoldThisL

Original post

by cluelessbee

I understand your points, but I don’t have the grades for undergraduate medicine. I’ve already taken an extra year out for a levels so I wouldn’t want to take another gap year.
For these reasons my aim is to pursue graduate entry medicine.
But I don’t want to do an oversaturated degree like biomedicine where getting a job is relatively hard due to the proportion of individuals who have studied it.
I would need a degree that finds me a stable job to fund graduate entry medicine.
Whether ODP is that degree I do not know. I’ve heard it’s more vocational than academic which concerns me.

In addition to everything else artful lounger has written, the volume of students studying biomed does not affect your chance of getting hired if you were to study it too - that's not really how employers look at degrees. Also, looking to fund a GEM course by working after graduating your UG degree is not a good strategy as it would take years to save up the amount of money needed unless you were looking at becoming an investment banker