Comparison of medical education in the US and our university

Comparison of medical student training in the US and  our university

As a medical student in BUCM, we usually spend seven years medical school education before we take the medical licensing examination to become a physician. However, as you may know that in the US, it usually takes four years medical school plus four years undergraduate education, totally eight years for students to get an M.D. certificate and take USMLE. Kind of shortcut to success, here in our university, we usually spend totally seven years or even five years to become a M.D. equivalent and be qualified to take the medical licensing examination and become a physician. However, in fact, if we leave the traditional Chinese medicine alone, no matter in the knowledge level or practice level, we, as a graduate from BUCM, can never compete with those graduates from medical school in the US. I have been pondering this for a long time, and it seems that we can not find a way to get more superior than most of the conventional medical students in China, let alone those US medical graduates. How can we survive this cruel world full of competitions? Students who graduate from BUCM, most of them can not be matched to relative good hospitals in China with comparison with conventional medical school graduates in China of the same level. What can we do? Theoretically speaking, we know much more than those graduates from conventional medical schools, and we should have better and more opportunities than them. But currently the fact is totally the contrary. The opportunities and the payment that the employer, the hospitals in China can offer us TCM students, compared to graduates from conventional medical schools of the same level, are much less. Frankly speaking, that is not proportionate to the work  we have done in BUCM. We spend four and a half years medical course learning at the school and hospital, learning Chinese medicine, western (conventional) medicine, biological courses or even some rehabilitation courses at the same time within this relatively short period of time; and we, like most of the readers here, also have or will have spend two and a half years in clinical settings learning and practicing both traditional Chinese medicine and conventional medicine. So , definitely we, as students from BUCM spend more time and energy working on this career, and to a certain extent, if we really learn and practice, we can be more competent in the fiercely-competing job market, and we can, of course, be better doctors than those who just know the one medical system. So, in that ideal situation, definitely, we will have more chances to be recruited into famous and good hospitals with good payments. For as you may notice, that in many cases, especially for cancer patients requiring chemotherapy, females with menstrual problems, and most patients in the neurology department, or in the pediatrics department, the effects of conventional therapies are quite limited. That’s where we, as an integrative medicine practitioner, can light the hope to our patients.

However, that is the ideal or kind of dreaming situation; nowadays, we do not have that social status, we are kind of lower than those western doctors in the food chain (this word may be not appropriate). And even in China, the fist idea when folks get sick is running into a western hospital other than TCM hospital even in some cases, TCM is their best choice, like those I mentioned in the last paragraph. Why, why patients prefer western medicine than Chinese medicine? Why, why do we earn much less than those western medicine practitioners? Once again, recall what you have done when you are in this TCM university, what you have done during you internship years. I think no doubt; you will come up with an answer.

Then, my question here is not why plus a questioning mark any more, my question is how, how to change this situation? Given the US has the best medical education, given the US doctors earn quite a lot and are among the best respected group of people in the world, we should learn something from their medical education and physician training.

Probably you have read the article in my website which is cited from the survival guide for the 3^rd and 4^th year’s medical students in the US, and something you have to admit and accept, but at the same time, those are most of the things you can not change because of different education systems.However, we can do something to get better prepared and better improved and better competent as we are having internships in the hospital. Then, how to do it? Do some comparisons between us TCM interns in the ward with the ward personnel in the US, find the corresponding level and get qualified as that level of medical student in the US requires. For example, comparably speaking, I am as a fifth or sixth grade medical student in BUCM, and I am taking my internship in Guanganmen Hospital, so, I should be kind of the intern level student in the American ward, so what I should and have to get qualified is to be responsible for the moment -to-moment patient care, be paired with an intern who will work with me on the patients i am assigned and it lies the same for all other things of this intern level.

More things should be done; more knowledge should be grasped, for me and for you as a TCM student in BUCM. No matter whom you are, what grade are you in, I think you can find a relative level in the US medical education system and get prepared as this system requires for western medicine practice. So I think, in the near future, we can change the world’s opinion about TCM doctors. One more issue, be strong-minded, unless you can not pursue the happiness of integrative medicine

something elese we can do:

Remember that there is a person on the other end.

Enthusiasm.

Assertiveness.

Reading.

Have a good time.

Respect your fellow classmates.

Be friendly with support staff, especially the nurses.

Be on time.

Ask questions.

Seek feedback .

Let your intern/resident know where you are at all times .

Work hard.

Take initiative.

Know your patients better than anyone else.

Appropriate humility.

Understand responsibilities and expectations.

Be prepared to be on -call the first night .

Appearance and demeanor are important.

Prepare/practice for oral presentations.

Efficiency is key.

Remember Patient Confidentiality.

aha. anyway, you have the rights to dispise me for this opinion and i respect you on that level.

嘿嘿,你享有鄙视的权利. (自勉文章，谢谢赏析)