You're likely to get high points in the Leaving Cert and everybody's telling you to do medicine? But, wait - is this really the career for you? If you get into medicine, you'll be embarking on a long, hard slog that could mean you'll be in your mid-thirties before your career really gets going.
"There's lots of evidence in Britain," says Professor David Jenkins, dean of UCC's faculty of medicine, "that newly qualified doctors feel very disillusioned." This indicates, he says, that people have made wrong career decisions. An ability to communicate well with people at all levels is essential, says Jenkins. If you're contemplating medicine, you should get yourself some first-hand experience of the environment in which patients are treated, advises Professor Kevin O'Malley, registrar of the RCSI. Before they make up their minds, he says, students should be exposed to what it's like to deal with sick, vulnerable people who may smell, be bleeding or vomiting.
"You can't make an informed decision by watching Casualty or ER," he warns. Doctors must work long hours - often at night. The work can be both physically and psychologically demanding. While medicine can be very rewarding financially for some, many doctors earn only modest incomes, he adds.
Nonetheless, for the right person, being a doctor can be particularly satisfying. "I've been lucky," says Jenkins. "I did obstetrics and I can't think of anything more rewarding that bringing women safely through pregnancies to produce healthy babies." It's worth noting, too, that there is room in research and academia for people who lack the so-called bedside manner.
In most schools in Ireland, medicine is a sixyear course, but this is likely to change. "There's a consensus that the pre-medical year will go in the next few years," say O'Malley. "It's felt that people leaving school now have sufficient science and are repeating in first year what they have already done in school."
UCC is already phasing out pre-med year - this year, the top 45 applicants will go directly into second year. At NUI Galway, students with science degrees or other appropriate qualifications may be admitted directly into second year.
However, TCD has revamped first year. The course now includes human development psychology, library and research skills and communications. Will medicine at TCD ever become a five-year course? "Definitely not," says administrative officer Michael Slevin.
Medical faculties have made great strides in recent years in introducing students to patients at an early stage. However, the main clinical work begins in year three, when students begin to spend most of their time in hospitals. In fourth and fifth years, students are involved in clinical attachments and spend time in surgery, paediatrics, psychology, medicine and obstetrics. "This is where they gain basic clinical skills," says the RCSI registrar.
Once you've gained your degree, you then have to spend a year in a hospital internship - six months in medicine and six months in surgery. Currently, 360 intern places are available, according to the Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board.
After internship, there is postgraduate training, either general professional training or basic specialist training. This usually takes between two or three years. Should you wish to become a GP, you need to get one of the 54 places on the three-year, structured training programme. Two years are spent in hospital and a year in general practice.
At the moment, unstructured training positions are available. This, though, is likely to change. According to O'Malley, in the future the Irish Medical Council will only register people who have undertaken training of prescribed quality and quantity.
