It cannot be denied that the best medical knowledge and experience you can get is by going to college. However, some people struggle between wanting to become doctors and the fact that it requires a lot of money and effort to graduate from medical school. Fortunately, you can still find a way to gain information and get involved in the medical field. There are a lot of paths that you can take, and we are here to guide you through them so you can choose the most appealing one.
Shadow a Doctor
You can get medical training by shadowing a doctor in a clinic or a hospital. If you are interested in a certain specialty, you can follow a specialist rather than a general practitioner. However, we recommend starting with a GP to get the hang of the general idea of diagnosing and prescribing medicine. Some tasks such as filing records and taking phone calls will be thrown at you, but you should accept that because you will learn how to deal with patients, which are an important aspect of the medical profession as well.
Take Courses
Instead of studying every single part of the human body and all kinds of diseases, you can take one course at a time. You will get to study at your own pace without getting bombarded with information that you may forget after you close your textbook. Since you are going to deal with people from different backgrounds, you cannot know what kind of viruses they may have. Many like to start by taking a HIPAA bloodborne course to become familiar with the pathogens that live in the bloodstream. You will also learn the infection control procedures needed to protect yourself as well as the other patients.
Become a Physician’s Assistant
If the thought of medical school is overwhelming, but you don’t mind studying for some time, you can become a physician’s assistant. You will take on almost the same tasks as a doctor, such as diagnosing patients, creating a treatment plan, stitching up wounds, and prescribing medications. On the other hand, you will be unable to operate on patients. This profession has allowed more people to seek medical assistance. They are needed, especially in rural areas where they are the only source of quality healthcare.
Listen and Read
Do you know how our grandparents have great medical knowledge? They gained it through years of battling diseases that had no known medicine back then. They improvised and created remedies using herbs. Of course, this is not the most reliable way of treating diseases today; however, you can learn a thing or two from them. Moreover, most of the information about diseases and their symptoms, signs, and treatment is available online. You won’t have to make any effort to gain access to them. Credible research papers are also posted on the medical websites with the abstract, experiments, and conclusion.
Volunteer at a Clinic
The value of volunteer work is underestimated in our communities. By volunteering in a medical clinic, you benefit others as well as yourself. You deal with doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel. That’s how you gain real experience and understand how to deal with patients. You may encounter emergencies where you learn to control and train yourself and learn to stay calm even in stressful incidents.
Work as an EMT
If you want to gain hands-on experience in how to deal with stress, working as an emergency medical technician will give you the chance to do just that by working as a healthcare provider. You will be the first person at the scene of an accident, and you will get to do first-aid procedures as well as assuage the emotional toll on the victims. You may save some lives by being an EMT if you learn how to provide basic life support.
Attend a Nursing Program
If you are willing to study some more and get hired at a hospital, you can apply for a nursing program. A nurse is crucial in the after-care of patients when their situations are critical. That’s why you need to be focused and notice any change in vital signs to be able to save a life at the right time. Moreover, practitioners interested in obstetrics and gynecology can become midwives. They were well-known in the past as they were the ones that delivered babies. Nowadays, a doctor does this job, but a midwife is sometimes requested by patients for post-neonatal care.
Working in the medical field is not about studying alone, but about communications skills, controlling your emotions, and taking care of sterilization and infection control. If college is too hard or expensive for you, your dream of becoming a doctor isn’t lost. You just need to look at the available options and pick the one that is suitable for you.