Medicine abroad can be an opportunity or a necessity, depending on...

Medicine abroad can be an opportunity or a necessity...

Medicine abroad can be an opportunity or a necessity, depending on your circumstances. It can be considered either for becoming a doctor and looking for medical schools, or whether as a doctor wishing to practise abroad or even looking for reliable colleagues all over the world.

When finishing secondary or High school

....and long before your final exams, you should think ahead and make a decision about what sort of job you will be good at.

When considering being a doctor, you need to be highly motivated before you apply to medical school: it does require a serious educational commitment.

At this stage, you have no idea how many years you will be signing on for.... let's say 10 years, but it can be much longer, and what big decisions you'll have to face either in your career or in your personal life in the meanwhile.

You must be sure to be sufficiently motivated and to be able to afford tuition and living expenses, which can be very different depending on the medical school and the country you graduate in.

As you will know, Medical schools are highly competitive:

SELECTION starts as soon as you apply to med School.

Depending on your country, this means there can be possibilities or not for you even if you decided very late to apply to Medicine, but you still have to prove your motivation.

Selection and COMPETITION will last all along your training, both by the school and BY YOU TOO when deciding WHICH PROGRAM IS RIGHT FOR YOU when you are offered a choice.

In order to advance in the same field or for a change in career, you might have to live abroad too, for a short time such as an elective, or for a longer training time overseas, or even indefinitely.

... All this is long before PATIENTS can choose YOU for both your expertise and good care, which means a patient-centered approach - listening, eliciting all symptoms and signs from the patient - and ability to 1st understand and 2nd answer questions thoroughly whatever language is used.

In many European countries, in India, China and others, you start medicine right after passing your last secondary school exams.

This means students there are quite young, and usually decide to apply to the medical schools in their own country.

You know English language is the mostly widely spoken language in medicine as in any profession.

Any time, any place, you will find medical information in English, and it is a real asset for you to master the language, even if you learn medicine in your own language. You need then to try and master ENGLISH LANGUAGE as early as you can.

But let's think ahead once more : The sooner, the better..

Why not start your entire medical education in English?

... let's see it the other way, select the best medical schools for you, and start your entire medical education in English

Non-native English speakers need to be pretty good at English to be able to learn medicine in English, which means you have to practise a lot both colloquial English and the appropriate medical Language and Vocabulary.

... Why not start and obtain any Scottish, Canadian, American or Australian English A-level equivalent 1st?

Mind you, you can learn medicine:

in an English speaking country: LEARN ENGLISH ONLY

or in English in a country where no patients speak English: you will then have to LEARN both ENGLISH + ANOTHER LANGUAGE, the one used in the country which you'll need in order to be able to communicate with the patients. What an exciting challenge!
See Charles University in Prague

Where will you work afterwards?

You will HAVE THE CHOICE!

Either home in your own country using perfect medical English,
Or staying abroad and practice medicine in two or even three languages!

Had you ever thought of the possibilities?

Having a native language which is not the official language of the country where you live and work, can be of real interest for:

patients unable to speak the language of the country where they happen to live,
and for the country itself, if the language is the one used by a minority but large community.

See below Special opportunities for Health specialists speaking different languages...

cf. in US for example: As an immigrant, it is very difficult to find a job unless you have extraordinary ability or skills that cannot be provided by qualified Americans.

The U.S. has a has a need for foreign language-speaking nurses... When you are a nurse and you are fluent in English, If you are a trained nurse fluent in English, you could possibly be selected for your native language skills: Are you fluent in English?
There is also a need for specialized staff: Do you have training in a medical specialty?

If you fit either description, you may be able to obtain permanent resident status and your green card, both of which are necessary before you can apply for a job.

Ditto when you want to practise medicine in the UK or any other English speaking country:

Let's consider practising in the UK and practising in the US.

In both countries, if you graduated outside the country, you have to be prepared to pass different tests, which assess whether you can practise safely before being able to register.

... Or whether as a doctor looking for reliable colleagues all over the world

A good care and patient-centered approach implies you can manage and treat patients wherever they come from, which is difficult if you cannot understand and talk to them: Try and develop skills in your patients' language, find a good interpreter when necessary.

You could try and find or create guides in which you can tick off for your patient the translation of your question1st, and where he/she can also point out the appropriate answer.

Be sure you know the major false friends, cases where words sound the same but mean different things and the names of common diseases and medical abbreviations.

And try and find a reliable colleague you can refer them to when abroad, which means being able to communicate with them in their own language.

Let's communicate about your various language skills and create a “WORLDWIDE LANGUAGE DIRECTORY OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS”, which could be useful for both doctors and prospective patients.

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