Medicine (Graduate Entry – GAMSAT required) Careers
Key information
Internships for UL Graduates
In Ireland, the 'Internship' is the first year of medical practice following graduation from School of Medicine. During the Intern year, medical graduates are provisionally registered with the Medical Council. Full registration with the Medical Council follows successful completion of the Intern year.
To date there have been sufficient Intern places available for all Irish/EU medical school graduates. In line with government policy, as the number of medical graduates increases, the number of Intern places is also expected to expand.
For International students in all Irish medical schools, the future is less certain to the extent that Government policy is to advise all overseas students that for them, INTERNSHIP PLACES CANNOT BE GUARANTEED. However, UL will do everything in its power to optimise the employment prospects and opportunities for further training for all of its students following their graduation. For example, in the case of North American students, we support students seeking elective placements in teaching centres in Canada and the US, so that students can form relationships that will later help them to secure good residency training programmes.
Careers open to you with a degree in Medicine include:
- Medical Practice in all disciplines such as Family Medicine, Hospital Medicine, Public Health Medicine etc
- Medical Research
- Medical Education
- Medical Administration
- Medical Journalism
There are a lot of early starts and late evenings in medicine! Usually, the ward round would start at about 8am and we would see each of the patients in succession. This might take anywhere from 1-5 hours depending on how many patients are under the team at that time.
During the ward round, I would also have to answer any bleeps from nurses or other staff members and may also get called to an emergency situation e.g. a cardiac arrest. After the ward round, there are lots of jobs that need to get done like ordering scans and following up on results of investigations, ringing for consults and liaising with other staff members. Some patients will also need procedures undertaken like taking blood, or a catheter put in etc.
I think UL’s problem-based (PBL) approach to learning really helped to prepare me for my role as a doctor. During our PBL sessions, we encountered cases in which patients could present with anything from abdominal pain to a severe headache and it was our job as medical students to figure out what could be wrong with the patient as well as to come up with investigations and a management plan. Working now as a doctor, this process is identical - you go through the same steps as you did as a student, thanks to UL’s problem-solving approach to teaching medicine.
Eileen’s tip:
I think there is a lot of pressure for Leaving Cert students to know exactly what they want to do immediately when they finish school. My advice is take your time in deciding what you want to do; but if you do start something and find out you don’t like it then don’t be afraid to move on. I think there’s something out there for everyone - you just might need to be a bit more creative about how you get there and be prepared to work hard to get it!
