Medicine Course Query

howdareyou wrote:

Do arts.

That's not very helpful seeming as the person has an obvious interest in medicine/science. Please keep your responses "efficacious", or at least funny.

also howdareyou please post in the who's who thread at the top of this forum.

DrIndy wrote:

My most recent experience with a dentistry referral today was a sight! A patient of mine was dispatched to the dentist to have some loose teeth examined and removed (inhaling teeth is NASTY and = lung abscess) so he got a prompt referral from me. He returned to the ward traumatised to the point where he saw me in a white coat and a shirt and tie and tried to hit me and kick me away until I assured him I was not a dentist, but a doctor and was here to help!

theres all sorts of weirdos out there , and alot of dodgy patients also, thats the only downside to it, being a specialist soon sorts out the weirdos from people who want something done

cuckoo wrote:

Bono_85, good luck with your results, and whatever course you do i hope you'll be happy in it.

There are chances to go into medicine as a postgrad - ppl i know have done so with degrees from a variety of backgrounds, but, they do have to pay fees.

However, the selection process for this is tough, and a lot seems to be based on what people have done outside of their courses, eg volunteering, working in nursing homes, running college societies plus good grades. So, if you don't end up in medicine and do decide to go to college whatever course you do it'll be three/four years in which you'd want to be happy for your own sanity, and maybe time could lead you to a different career altogether (you never know...).

So, if you do end up doing pharmacy embrace the time you are there, don't view it as second best and get involved in lots of things. If you spend your time in pharmacy learning everything that you can, getting good marks and building up a good body of activities outside of your course imho it wouldn't damage your chances to get into medicine afterwards.

Ok, i'm never likely to sit on an interview board for postgrad admissions to med school, but i know i'd prefer the candidate that said 'well, i did the leaving twice, didn't get into medicine so decided to explore pharmacy. got good grades, did an interesting final year project and learned loads about drug x, volunteered here there and everywhere, team work experience from this society, i've worked for a year now post graduation in a hospital, etc, etc' over the candidate that said 'i spent four years in pharmacy looking over longingly at the med students, wasn't engaged in my course, crammed for the exams and watched ER repeats every night on cable.....'

Life takes us in all sorts of directions, but each new direction is an opportunity.

or u could just sit ur A levels in the north and get in no problem

some interesting points made by everone

here's my two cents worth

it is very difficult for a leaving cert student to know if medicine is for them or not

I know an awful lot of disillusioned junior doctors and quite a few disilusioned physios and pharmacists, don't know any dentists really though... funny that they are all the high points courses

a survey in the past couple of years of junior doctors found that approx 40% of them would not have put medicine down on their CAO form if given a second chance at the old CAO, that's quite a high %

one problem is, that while the med course is very interesting (mostly) for those with an interst in the biological sciences and medicine in general, what you might end up doing at the end of the day might be far removed from that and not very rewarding a lot fo the time,

it might be useful if you know what sort of doctor you want to be eg GP or surgeon or whatever and then talk to someone who is doing that or training to be that and find out the story and if it's ikely to be a closed shop to you after 6 to 8 years plus intern year

also, in this day and age the doctor is not the much respected community figure of the old days, nowadays people are only too happy to bitch about the service or blame what some doctor did or didn't do 10 years ago for every little thing that's gone wrong since, and then there's the medico-legal aspect *shudders*

or there's the "€55 for that and not even a prescription " brigade...

and working in the hospitals can be great craic and all but the infrastructure is barely 20th century and some of the constraints are so frustrating, the amount of time spent dealing with bull**** can be soul destroying

I just hope that if you do do med ,that the system will have caught up (and Brendan Drumm can do this at the old HSE)

and where to go....? well you're on the Trinity board but... I wouldn't necessarily see never having to leave DUblin as an advantage for going to TCD
it can be great from a learning point of view and a social point of view to get out of Dublin for a while, more different patients for less
students in smaller country hospitals, dunno, UCD never had too many outside placements, maybe total of a month out of 6 years, maybe that's changed,

also I heard some Trinity meds (2nd or 3rd years) talking about TCD vs UCD and these were American students so maybe more conscious of the valu for their €20,000 a year factor and had been comparing the courses and felt that the Americans in UCD were maybe better off and thought more of their course than the TCD people thought of the Trinity one but they are changing the curriculum the whole time so it gets confusing

there's also talk of a 4 year postgrad med degree in Limerick at some future point

anyway good luck with whatever you decide

Dunno if it's too late but you could (if you dont get into med school here) apply to uni up the north, do your three year degree, and then apply to one of the 4 year graduate entry medicine courses in England and Wales. (you'd have been living in the UK three years then so wouldn't have to pay fees iirc).

I haven't heard any more about graduate entry med course in UL, apart from a rumour it's starting in 2007.

well here's my 2 cents.

Medicine is a tough course to do in college, alot of the meds literaly live in the library in James and have to put in more study hours then the average student. You have to have an excellent memory for all the stuff you'll have to learn off and the motivation to see it through. its not a decision to be taken likely, it would probably would be a good idea to get a more indepth look at some of the subjects you'll be learning and consider whether you are willing to spend lengthly hours in the library trying to learn them off.

certainely if its what you really want and are prepared to work hard at it, go for it and good luck anyhow whatever you decide to do!:)