LJ
09-03-2003, 07:22 PM
Hullo,
For sometime I have considered the Career path as a Medic. Now i assume there a plenty of different types out there. But i was thinking of the type that head into say third world countries or any place thats suffering and they work one on one with people.
I am from New Zealand and can't find any information apart from red Cross that would help me achieve this.
Does anyone have any idea how to go about this, what kind of trainign is required I am soon to turn 21 is that old enough??
please advise.
LJ
For sometime I have considered the Career path as a Medic. Now i assume there a plenty of different types out there. But i was thinking of the type that head into say third world countries or any place thats suffering and they work one on one with people.
I am from New Zealand and can't find any information apart from red Cross that would help me achieve this.
Does anyone have any idea how to go about this, what kind of trainign is required I am soon to turn 21 is that old enough??
please advise.
LJ
Sponsor
Sarah68
09-03-2003, 07:34 PM
Well, first of all, you need to go through med school and get qualified and the rest you would need to do as post grad qualificiations.
You probably need to do a few rotations in the ER to get you up to speed on emergency medicine and this will help in these kinds of situations. It is like practicing medicine on the front line, so you need this experience.
Also, it would probably be worth your while eventually taking an MSc or the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This is run in London/England at either the London or Liverpool Schools of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and this will give you experience of tropical diseases, their treatment and diagnosis, that you are likely to encounter in this situation too. You also get teaching on health promotion and sanitation techniques too.
Also, you could try to contact the French organisation called MedSon Frontiers. I am not sure whether this is the correct spelling, but they will be able to let you know what qualifications they would need. They send doctors and nurses and other healthcare professionals all over the world to third world countries and war torn areas too.
Anyway, good luck.
You probably need to do a few rotations in the ER to get you up to speed on emergency medicine and this will help in these kinds of situations. It is like practicing medicine on the front line, so you need this experience.
Also, it would probably be worth your while eventually taking an MSc or the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This is run in London/England at either the London or Liverpool Schools of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and this will give you experience of tropical diseases, their treatment and diagnosis, that you are likely to encounter in this situation too. You also get teaching on health promotion and sanitation techniques too.
Also, you could try to contact the French organisation called MedSon Frontiers. I am not sure whether this is the correct spelling, but they will be able to let you know what qualifications they would need. They send doctors and nurses and other healthcare professionals all over the world to third world countries and war torn areas too.
Anyway, good luck.
LJ
09-03-2003, 07:46 PM
great thanks for your help Sarah68!! That was more info than i was hpoing to get!!!! Are you a doctor???
I wonder if you could tell me how difficult it would be??? How many years would be involved in all??
Do you have any ideas on where the best place to study is??
Much appreciated.
LJ
I wonder if you could tell me how difficult it would be??? How many years would be involved in all??
Do you have any ideas on where the best place to study is??
Much appreciated.
LJ
Sarah68
09-04-2003, 02:23 PM
I used to work within a medical setting for quite a number of years, before I became a little dissillusioned and then retrained in alternative therapies.
I now work in alternative therapies in private practice and am a lot happier.
Ok, all this is going to take you quite a number of years, so if it is really what you want to do, then you need to be prepared for a lot of hard work and some long hours?
Have you finished college? If so, then you are looking at 4 years for your undergrad BS. After this, you will do 4 years of med school and possibly pre-med before that, so that is 8 to 9 years. Then you will have to do your Internship and Residency after graduation and then you need to think about specialising too, so you are now looking at at least 11 to 12 years by now.
You would need to get good experience in the ER, so that you have a good knowledge of how to deal with trauma and if you want to work abroad, it is always well worth while taking some kind of course in Tropical medicine too. As I said before, there is the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene course in London, that is a recognised qualification and they educate doctors from all over the world to MSc and PhD level. It is a well known centre of excellence.
After all this and if you have not in the meantime decided that it is not what you really want to do, you can then think about contacting Med Sans Frontiers to see about the possibilities.
You could also try applying to do VSO. If you have any skills at all, you could possibly try this before med school to try and get a taste for it to see if this is what you really want to do. It might be worth trying this after doing your BS and before applying to med school just to see. At least you would then know if it is what you want or not.
Anyway, good luck and if you need any more advice, just post back.
I now work in alternative therapies in private practice and am a lot happier.
Ok, all this is going to take you quite a number of years, so if it is really what you want to do, then you need to be prepared for a lot of hard work and some long hours?
Have you finished college? If so, then you are looking at 4 years for your undergrad BS. After this, you will do 4 years of med school and possibly pre-med before that, so that is 8 to 9 years. Then you will have to do your Internship and Residency after graduation and then you need to think about specialising too, so you are now looking at at least 11 to 12 years by now.
You would need to get good experience in the ER, so that you have a good knowledge of how to deal with trauma and if you want to work abroad, it is always well worth while taking some kind of course in Tropical medicine too. As I said before, there is the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene course in London, that is a recognised qualification and they educate doctors from all over the world to MSc and PhD level. It is a well known centre of excellence.
After all this and if you have not in the meantime decided that it is not what you really want to do, you can then think about contacting Med Sans Frontiers to see about the possibilities.
You could also try applying to do VSO. If you have any skills at all, you could possibly try this before med school to try and get a taste for it to see if this is what you really want to do. It might be worth trying this after doing your BS and before applying to med school just to see. At least you would then know if it is what you want or not.
Anyway, good luck and if you need any more advice, just post back.
amphigory
09-06-2003, 01:51 AM
The actual name of the organization is Medecins sans frontieres (Doctors without borders). I get the impression that they generally get far more volunteers than they can use, especially since receiving the Nobel.in 1999.
Fudge7000
10-16-2003, 08:28 PM
If you come over to the uk to do medicine, they generally want AAB at A level or equivalent, it takes 5 years plus a couple of years in hospitals, then you could do a masters in tropical medicine and join MSF etc. also, i don't know if you have the equivalent in New Zealand, but for UK residents, you can join the army and they do lots of aid missions to developing countries (also don't know how long it takes to become a uk resident!) and you can train in health care medicine - basically tropical diseases etc.
theres about 20 applicants for each place in medicine, but as a foreign student you'd have a better chance than that - but it'll cost you between £10,000 and £20,000 per year to study here plus living fees etc. depends if you have the financial backing.
theres some very good medical schools in australia and Grenada as well (in uk - leicester is very good!!!)
theres about 20 applicants for each place in medicine, but as a foreign student you'd have a better chance than that - but it'll cost you between £10,000 and £20,000 per year to study here plus living fees etc. depends if you have the financial backing.
theres some very good medical schools in australia and Grenada as well (in uk - leicester is very good!!!)
bluebanana
12-16-2003, 09:54 PM
If you already have a Batchelors Degree you could try and sit the GAMSAT examinatation, this allows people who have already gone through university to go to med school, possibly for a reduced number of years. They do the course at ST Georges Med school and Nottingham University. You would need to contact UCAS in the UK for an aplication form. Not sure how you go about it in New Zealand tho.
Good Luck
Good Luck