Saving someone’s life is perhaps one of the most remarkable feelings in the world. Even so, not so many of us have the chance to experience this. It takes passion, a strong personality and years of study to be able to work in the medical field.
Pursuing a Medical degree is not only challenging and demanding but also competitive. Medical degrees are shaped for people who show high motivation and commitment as well as interest for sciences.
Throughout a Medicine degree, candidates are equipped with a wide range of competences, from practical abilities required for specialized hands-on tasks to communication skills needed to interact with the patients. Thus, any medical students will be able to take a simple blood sample as well as perform a complex surgical procedure.
Undoubtedly, medicine is one of the most vital fields of work – therefore there will always be a high demand of workforce needed. The employment rate for a medical graduate student is of 90%.
Due to its diverse branches, graduates from a Medical course have a variety of career choices, according to their expertise. Nursing, radiology, anaesthetics are just some of the many specialities offered in this field. Regardless of the speciality, the most important aspect needed to be taken into consideration is that medical professionals are well-respected and well-paid all over the world.
Additionally, graduates possess a series of transferable skills, such as logical reasoning, critical appraisal, listening, written and oral communication and many others. These assets are sought and highly valuable in most fields of work.
Medical courses are usually a six-year commitment, but it can vary according to the university. Most of the modern universities integrate clinical education with basic sciences from the beginning of the academic curriculum, while traditional institutions divide them into preclinical and clinical education.
Most schools understand the importance of practical knowledge, especially in this field, therefore they encourage the students to observe professional healthcare practitioners. Another way to gain practical experience is to go to different clinics and receive specialised training, followed by actual practical work.
No matter the practices of the university, always keep in mind that medical courses are structured differently in every country. Therefore, medical qualifications gained in one country are not necessarily recognised in another country.
Basing my review on the fact that I am an international graduate who has worked abroad post-graduation and taught students from other universities, I am listing the following personal opinions/observations:
Pros:
-Well organized schedules. You get to be in one group for the full 4 or 6 years and have a fixed table for your group.
-Diverse English Division community, some are competitive and some are chill and friendly people.
-Dedicated staff and intelligent physicians.
-Clinical training is great in terms of quality and portion. From 3rd year/6, most of the seminars will be held at the hospitals followed by hours of practice.
-Orientation and guidance from senior students for the first few years.
-Various events for English speaking students. Educational, social and fun events.
-Very nice library, so practical!
-You get to enjoy the beautiful city of Warsaw!
Cons:
-As an international, it is inconvenient to study guidelines than practice others. so yeh.. you will be asked often to check your own country’s info, data and guidelines. I guess this is a general issue for studying abroad.
-Few of the seminars and lectures were outdated and somehow subjective. That doesn’t work with medicine.
-In terms of discrimination, it’s really really rare to meet any racist educators, but there is a program or two that had a few bad apples.
-Limited number of clubs for English speaking students. But am sure you can start and organize your own.
– Not all physicians are good teachers. That’s just a fact everywhere! Teaching is a talent. You will meet many “readers of the slides” type of teachers.
-No shifts, no on-calls for students. You will have to ask for it. (This is how I saw another senior student in my hospital trained. They are treated like interns)
-There is no attention paid to your career goals, no training for your future Board Exams of any kind, no 1:1 mentorships. You are on your own. I think in my last year, the USMLE Prep Course was added as an elective!! (This is another observation that I have noticed done in other universities)
I did enjoy my time at WUM! The university is great has some amazing and talented teachers with a pretty cool community. I think the English division is very vibrant and constantly being improved.
Best of luck!