Just never lose sight of the fact that a career in health should always be more about the career than about the health... just as medical insurance is more about the insurance than the medical... if you want to make a lot of money, be a doctor in the good ol' US of A... if you actually want to help people, don't attach yourself to any of the big hospitals or companies... you won't be rich, but at least you'll be able to look at yourself in the mirror...
Originally posted by HockeyHorror
it was just a question since many people dont consider plastic surgeons as physcians.
There seems to be a distinction between "surgeons" and "physicians".
Surgery seems to be made out of Cardiothoracic, Vascular, General Surgery, Breast, Plastic Surgery, Orthopaedics and even Urologists.
Emergency Physician's seem to be in between.
What falls under the "Physicians" are Respiratory, Cardiologists, Haematologist, Oncologist, Renal, Rheumatologyist, Neurologists/Neurophysiologist etc.
There are two ways to get into Med as a Grad (3-4 yrs undergrad + 4 yrs Med) or Undergrad (6 yrs). This is then followed by Internship, Residency (RMO I, RMO II etc), Registrar(sorry, no idea about the proper hirachy names of each level).
The point is, even after you graduate you are still "studying". One of the things that you will have to keep in mind is that as a doctor (physician and surgeon esp in a hospital system) and because of the nature of medicine, you are always learning/studying. Also what people do not realise when they study medicine is that you will need to teach!! Prepare to teach and do alot of presenting be it to JMOs, RMOs, Med students until you get your official "consultancy" status 😄
And don't forget you have to sit a few exams before you get the "consultancy" status 😛
And, I was talking to one of the Gastroenterologist once, he said that more and more physcians are doing what surgeons do ie Cardiologists do angiograms etc.
Anyway, good luck in your study of medicine. I do hope you are in it for the right reasons and not make the money your major reason.