It's not easy becoming a doctor in Australia (or anywhere in the world for that matter), but if you're interested, here's everything you need to know.
From the qualifications you'll need and how long it takes to how much doctors in Australia tend to earn, here's our quick guide to becoming a doctor.
What Qualifications Do You Need To Become A Doctor?
They don't just let anyone practise medicine and for good reason. Doctors need to be highly educated and many qualifications and prerequisites need to be met before you can become a doctor.
Finish Secondary School
In one way or another, you need qualifications equivalent to having finished secondary education in Australia. Generally, this is because these will be the requirement for doing a university degree either through a combined course that includes both the bachelor's degree and doctor of medicine or just the requirement for a bachelor's degree.
Bachelor's Degree
Doctors in Australia will also need a bachelor's degree. There are options to do bachelor's degrees in medicine before doing their graduate medicine degree, but aspiring doctors can pretty much study whatever they want for their undergraduate.
However, as a medical school graduate degree is pretty difficult, it's a good idea to study a bachelor's degree that is somewhat related to what you'll be studying later on.
GAMSAT
You'd think the whole reason that you're doing a bachelor's degree would be to get into graduate school or medical school, but that's not all. Before you can attend medical school, you'll likely need to sit the Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT).
You can sit the test in the last or second-last year of your undergraduate degree. International students have the option to complete the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) instead of the GAMSAT. As you prepare for your GAMSAT, cast about for the easiest medical schools to get into in Australia.
Medical School
Once you have your bachelor's degree, it's time to study to become a doctor. At this point, after spending several years completing your undergraduate, you're finally on your way to studying specifically to become a doctor.
The Doctor of Medicine is a master's level qualification and there are medical schools all over the country that offer it. This is where you'll learn about medicine.
Internship
You'd think that your medical school degree would be enough to become a doctor, but it's not. Medical school graduates are required to spend a year interning in a hospital.
Internships in Australia are organised at the state level and it's up to aspiring doctors to organise these themselves.
At this point, you can apply for internships as well as a provisional registration with the Medical Board of Australia.
Register with the Medical Board of Australia
Once you've completed your internship (either in Australia or New Zealand), you can fully register with the Medical Board of Australia.
Residency
Don't worry, you're almost there. Once you're registered with the Medical Board of Australia, you can start prevocational training to get ready for the medical specialty you wish to pursue.
How long this takes will depend on the kind of medical specialisation you're going to choose.
Vocation Training
Last but not least, you can start your vocational training. What this involves will greatly depend on the kind of medical specialty you do, but once you've completed this, not only will you be a qualified doctor, but you'll be a qualified doctor with a specialisation.
How Long Does It Take To Become A Doctor?
As you can see from all the qualifications needed to become a doctor, you won't become a doctor in Australia overnight.
Between secondary school and your internship, you can expect to spend 7 years in higher education becoming a doctor. Then you have at least a year for your internship to do.
The typical residency takes either a year or two. If you add this to the rest, we get either 9 or 10 years from school to vocational training.
Finally, vocational training can also take a year or two, too. What this all means is that you're looking at the best part of a decade before you'll be working as a doctor in your field of choice.
How Expensive Is It To Become a Doctor in Australia?
With all the different qualifications you need to become a doctor, you can imagine that becoming a doctor isn't the cheapest thing in the world.
Bachelor's degrees in Australia can cost anywhere between $20,000 and $55,000. The lower range is for bachelor's degrees only while the upper limit is for longer degrees or specialist degrees that take longer than three years.
For the Doctor of Medicine degree, you can expect to pay closer to $80,000 each year with the total course fees being closer to $350,000.
This means that you'll be looking to pay somewhere between $370,000 and $400,000 just for the qualifications to become a doctor, which doesn't include costs like accommodation, etc.
You also need to factor in living costs during the 7 years you'll be doing your bachelor's degree and doctor of medicine degree.
How Much Does a Doctor Earn in Australia?
After having spent nearly a decade and close to half a million dollars, you're probably wondering whether it's all worth it, especially financially.
The average doctor in Australia earns close to $150,000 a year, though this won't be the salary that you'll likely start on.
Entry-level positions for doctors in Australia pay closer to $125,000 a year, but you can expect to see this number rise over time.
Very experienced doctors in Australia can look to earn closer to $230,000 a year even though this will be after a decade or two of experience in medicine.
Are Doctors Well-Paid in Australia?
Whether or not somebody is well-paid depends on more than just their salary. While the salaries for doctors are certainly above the national average, you do have to remember that qualified doctors have spent nearly a decade training to do the job and spent a lot of money on their education.
Their salaries have to be at least close to offsetting all the time and money it costs to become a doctor.
Beyond that, their salaries also need to be reflective of the work they have to do. Doctors are usually well-paid around the world because the work they do is difficult. After all, if everybody could be a doctor, they wouldn't be paid very much.
But how do Australia's doctors compare to those around the world?
There are too many different kinds of doctors to compare them all across every country in the world, but when you average out what the average GP earns in comparable countries or economies.
Generally, doctors in the US are among the best paid but doctors in Australia aren't too far behind. Against countries with a similar cost of living, like the UK and a few other European countries, Australian doctors are quite well paid.
Can Foreigners Be Doctors in Australia?
If you're a doctor or training to be one outside of Australia, there are options for International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to work in Australia.
However, international doctors can't just come to Australia and start practising medicine. Generally, they have to be verified by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) first and then they can apply to register to practise medicine.
Get Help Studying to Become a Doctor
With so much studying to be done, it's quite easy for aspiring doctors to struggle or need help on their journey towards practising medicine.
One of the best ways to get on top of all your studies is through private tutoring. There are private tutors for all budgets and levels across a broad range of subjects including medicine.
No two students are the same and every tutor is different so you can always search for the tutor that's right for you. Tutors can teach you subject-specific knowledge or work with you to make you a better and more independent student.
Face-to-face tutors tend to be the most cost-effective even though they tend to cost the most per hour of tuition. As they'll be working with just you, they can focus fully on you and tailor every session to what you need to learn.
For those in remote areas or on a budget, online tutoring is an excellent option as you tend to pay less since the tutors don't have to worry too much about travel costs and the other overheads that can push up the price of face-to-face tutoring.
Finally, you can get cheaper tutoring by choosing group tuition. By sharing the cost of a tutor's time with other medical students on your course, for example, you can make it much more affordable.
Naturally, you won't get as much one-on-one tuition from your tutor this way, but it can help to work in a smaller group with them.
Shop around and think about what's best for you and your educational needs!
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