What if I don't want to do a residency?

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I am interested in academic medicine and clinical research. Are there other options after medical school besides doing a residency?

:confused:

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I am interested in academic medicine and clinical research. Are there other options after medical school besides doing a residency?

:confused:

why go to medical school then? just go get a Phd...
 
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what is a medical consultant exactly?
 
If you are thinking of pursuing academics in medicine, you have to go pursue some sort of residency. There is no such thing as doing academic medicine without doing any residency. Maybe at some foreign academic setting. For example, I am planning to pursue an academic career in plastic and reconstrucive surgery. I will be finishing my general surgical residency (typically 5years) and will be doing 2-3 years of fellowship with research. Moreover, a consultant could be anything. For example, if you are an internist, you can consult a surgeon regarding your patient with abdominal pain. The surgeon will act as a consultant. A surgeon can consult his internal medicine colleague regarding his patient with diabetic ketoacidosis. Not doing a residency is a thing in the past unless you are doing your training at a foreign country.
 
I know of one doctor who just did his intern year and then went on to do basic science research. But, yeah that's a little unusual.


I am interested in academic medicine and clinical research. Are there other options after medical school besides doing a residency?

:confused:
 
yeah just save yourself some time and money and go do a PHD instead
 
Completion of a residency isn't necessarily a requirement for a position in academic medicine and some MSTP and MD/PhD graduates choose postdocs over residencies after completing medical school. However, the vast majority of MSTP and MD/PhD graduates complete residencies.

Your question is actually more appropriate for the Physician Scientist forum, so I recommend you visit that forum. Here is an old thread in the forum that discusses some pros and cons of not doing a residency.
 
How can you pursue clinical research without residency? In my opinion, your knowledge coming out of medical school is not nearly thorough or focused enough to enable you to have anything but a shallow understanding of clinical medicine. You can contribute to papers right out of med school, but you can do that as an undergrad. To author your own papers, you're going to need working knowledge about the field of medicine you're researching and that means seeing lots of patients and gaining the advanced knowledge that a residency provides.
 
residency is like having a real job, it'll be fun, or atleast not as worse as med school
 
I am interested in academic medicine and clinical research. Are there other options after medical school besides doing a residency?

:confused:

Medical School is not for you. Research more into various PhD programs and fields.
 
Medical School is not for you. Research more into various PhD programs and fields.

That is probably the right conclusion here. I would have to say that most, if not all, folks who plan on a career in research with an MD or a career in academic medicine will do a residency. There are always a few folks who bail on the residency each year, but they usually go into some form of business or consulting, not research or medicine. Even for them, it makes more sense to do at least an internship year of residency, as it would at least keep the medicine door partly open if they ever changed their mind.
While you may be picturing a different job than some of us when you say academic medicine, in general, academic medicine involves a combination of practice and teaching/research, and thus you would need the training. For research, you would be unable to do much in the way of clinical research with no training, because you will not have the unfettered access to and cannot work directly with patients -- you would automatically have to be an underling, relegated to study people and samples others collected for you.
 
I am interested in academic medicine and clinical research. Are there other options after medical school besides doing a residency?

:confused:

My 2 cents: if you're not interested in PRACTICING medicine, med school is going to be 4 years of the darkest circle of hell for you.
 
My 2 cents: if you're not interested in PRACTICING medicine, med school is going to be 4 years of the darkest circle of hell for you.

Agree -- professional school is really set up to be a gateway to the profession, and not a great place to get credentials to try and use elsewhere. FWIW, if you don't want to do residency, you probably won't enjoy your clinical years of med school either. Why put yourself through it if you don't like what waits at the other end?
 
I am interested in academic medicine and clinical research. Are there other options after medical school besides doing a residency?

:confused:
Sure, you can do a post doc. Your research would have to be more in the basic science areas then.

You'd probably want to do an internship so you can finish USMLE Step III first though. Having that license is very advantageous regardless of what you're doing.
 
residency is like having a real job, it'll be fun, or atleast not as worse as med school

Har har...ha ha bwaa-ha-ha-ha-he....har har har-bwah-hah-ha-bwah-hah...har har...he he..whew....ha..he

Sorry. I just couldn't help it. (Wipes tears of laughter from his eyes)

You are so in for a shock.
 
Har har...ha ha bwaa-ha-ha-ha-he....har har har-bwah-hah-ha-bwah-hah...har har...he he..whew....ha..he

Sorry. I just couldn't help it. (Wipes tears of laughter from his eyes)

You are so in for a shock.


ditto what Panda said...internship is leaving me too exhausted to actually respond independently
 
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