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Asked by George to Psychiatry Ward Team, Ed - Mental Health Nurse on 24 Jan 2019.
Question: How long approximately does the process of medical school and learning take before you can become a hospital doctor/nurse?
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Sheffield Psychiatry Ward Team answered on 24 Jan 2019:
Hello George, Emma here 🙂
To be a doctor it looks a little bit like this:
Medical school (5 or 6 years depending on where and whether you do an extra research degree in the middle)
Then…
Foundation training where you rotate round lots of jobs and work as a doctor in lots of specialties but generally in hospitals, e.g. in A&E, cardiology, surgery etc (2 years)
Then…
Core training where you choose psychiatry specifically but work in lots of environments, like on a ward, in CAMHS, in the community and more to get lots of psychiatry experience (3 years). For different specialties this length might vary.
Then…
Higher Specialty training where you would work as more senior and guiding the core trainees until you are a consultant (3 years)
Then finally…
Consultant!Most Medicine degrees are 5 years long. As a doctor you are always learning, so you get to be an increasingly senior doctor the more experience you have, until you’re a consultant.
Comments
Neel - Psychiatrist commented on :
Hi George, Emma’s done a great job answering this. Speaking as a consultant, I know it may seem a long time to get there, but believe me it goes in the blink of an eye, and it is totally worth it. Even when you’re in medical school they do let you into the hospital wards to learn and it is really exciting. I couldn’t think of anything better than helping real people get back on their feet. I think I’ve become a better person just going through the training myself. You’re always surrounded by loads of people so you never feel like you’re left alone to do something you can’t do. There’s always someone you can ask for help.