University

           Practicing medicine is with out a doubt one of the most prestigious jobs not only owing to the fact that a doctor can promote health and fight diseases but also the rewards and enormous gratitude doctors often receive from patients. Medicine is a perfect combination where art and science can coexist with a lot of human contact. I would like to encourage many students to consider medicine as their future career paths. However, unrivalled intensity, high costs and the long duration of the medical course should be examined carefully beforehand. Commitment to succeed academically and maturity to perform at their best under stress are required.

                        Numerous exceptionally bright students apply to 25 medical schools in the UK and every year, approximately 6000 new medical students embark on their five to six years of medical education. Admission to medical school effectively signifies the admittance to medical profession. Competition to the entry is fierce and this is further complicated for Korea students by limited quota system, allowing only 6% of foreign admissions per school. In the UK, the admission system to higher educations generally allows students to apply to up to six universities. However, applicants intending to read medicine may only apply to four medical schools. Unlike US medical schools, admission does not require any preliminary higher education degree, and students can generally commence medical education immediately after graduating from colleges (equivalents to Korean high schools). After submitting the applications, students must sit premedical admission tests, and their admission forms are evaluated by admission tutors. For admission, good academic attainment is required, as understanding science is core to learning medicine. In general, offers are made to obtain at least two As and one B in A levels, but one should acknowledge that over 70% successful candidates enter medical school with more than three As. However, it must be noted that great academic achievement is not the sole quality admission tutors seek. Extracurricular activities, voluntary involvement in community services, previous exposure to relevant medical environments and most importantly, personal qualities are assessed. Curiosity, creativity, initiative, flexibility, and leadership are all desirable characteristics for the aspiring doctor. Also, maintaining fit health is important, since the practice of medicine requires the highest standards of personal competence.

           On admission, you should be ready to exert yourself fully to be a doctor. Learning medicine is enforced by a formidable range of teaching methods. During the first period of medical school, students are timetabled for lectures and practicals just like the other university students. Familiarising medical terms and understanding the broad concepts in human physiology and anatomy are often focused onto scientific truths and facts in a didactic manner. Yet, many schools nowadays employ a new curriculum, where students are introduced to patients and exposed to clinical environments from considerably early stages. For instance, I interviewed my first ever patient in the first week of starting the medical course. Many medical schools offer intercalated Bsc year allowing medical students to obtain an expedited three year science degree course in just one year. This may be optional, and very often involves a wide range of choices on subjects medical students can briefly engage themselves in other than medicine. For me, this was an excellent chance to widen my perspectives into molecular basis of diseases, and to undertake my own laboratory based research. Then, a whole new era of clinical medicine embraces science-driven students and it primarily focuses on integrating theoretical teaching and clinical medicine into real life. From this stage, interacting with real patients in hospital as a student doctor forms the basis of learning.

           In presence and guidance of qualified senior clinicians, student doctors are allowed to carry out simple tasks such as phlembotomy and clinical examinations. Frequent practical sessions to exercise our clinical skills such as placing catheters to dummy arms are often good fun to students. We also practice these skills to each other, sometimes accidentally bruising each other’s arms while trying to take blood samples.  Digesting a large amount of information on the complexity of human biology is surely interesting. And yet, it requires intellectual vigorousness and diligence, qualities that are essential for every medical student.

           In the UK, the importance of the communication skills of doctors and attending patients’ needs are paramount with greater emphasis than in any other countries. Thus, a great deal of vocational trainings is spent on turning medical students to attentive and caring doctors, who know how to communicate with patients professionally and humanely. Medical students are introduced to simulated patients with common clinical scenarios and are asked to deal with challenging situations, such as breaking bad news and appropriately responding to emotional outbreaks from patients. These are enforced throughout a learning curve of medical education. I often see great clinicians with excellent communication skills earning much respect from peers and patients. Good communication skills facilitate doctors to understand the importance of physical, psychological and social aspects of patient care. Bedside teaching forms the most fundamental method of transferring hard-earned wisdoms and first-hand knowledge from experienced clinicians to budding students. As many of them glow with distinction in clinical medicine, it provides excitement and a challenge that many medical students witness in the wards. In practice, critical thinking and logical reasoning in making diagnosis and planning treatments are important for learning the management of patients. Competency on clinical performance is continuously assessed and students are required to show a sound understanding of clinical medicine as well as appreciation of ethics and laws revolving around real world medicine. As many expect, student doctors are highly motivated such that studying becomes their second nature. But they know how to survive through endless essays by playing hard and enjoying themselves. 

Korea

Cambridge

           British medical care is publicly provided under the name of National Health Service (NHS). Patients are not obliged to pay for admissions and treatments provided by hospitals, and finances for NHS are funded from national tax. Doctors freely admit NHS may always be short of resources and need more radical reinforcements. It is also true that it has been under intense scrutiny by the media. However, from my point of view, I was delightfully impressed with the medical care provision. Despite limitations of resources, the NHS system is such that all cancer patients can receive appropriate surgery regardless of their financial affordability. An increasingly secured resource allocation to NHS will underpin the constantly self-reforming hospitals and NHS will continue to serve the British community with excellence. NHS is a friendly community, where many people from different backgrounds collaborate and enrich its cultural diversity. Not many Korean doctors are currently practicing in the UK, but the number of Korean medically associated professionals is steadily on the rise. Finally, a British medical license may appeal to Koreans as an advantage because of their worldwide recognition and acceptance.