Doctor (General Practitioner)Doctor (General Practitioner)Doctors (General Practitioners) provide primary and continuing medical care for patients. They take account of physical, psychological and social factors when diagnosing illness and recommends the required treatment. Patients may be referred to hospital clinics for further assessment and/or treatment. General Practitioners may run specialist clinics for patients with specific conditions. They work alongside other healthcare professionals to discuss care options for patients and their families.
Before a candidate can be admitted to a medical school, he/she must earn a pre-med bachelors degree with credits in certain required subjects. The most common pre-medical degrees include biology, psychology, medical technology, pharmacy, nursing, and physical therapy.
The M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) program is a four-year professional degree program dealing with medical theories, practices, technologies, and problem solving. The completion of the degree qualifies a candidate to take the licensure exam for medical doctors.
Most Doctors who are engaged in general practice have small private clinics but usually they are associated in hospitals where they refer some of the patients from time to time for further assessment and/or treatment. Their consultation fee ranges from P250 - P500 per patient. Doctors employed in hospitals get a monthly pay between P20,000 to P35,000. In the US, the average monthly pay is between US $16,000 to $20,000.
Doctors in General Practice can pursue career advancement by further studying and considering various specialization in the following fields: Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychology, Surgery, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Pathology, and Dermatology among others.
Opportunities for those interested in becoming doctors are expected to be very good. Here in the Philippines, the ratio is one doctor for every 10,000 to 26,000 Filipinos. There are few doctors to cater to the needs of Filipinos due to the high cost of Doctor’s education and its lengthy training. Opportunities should be particularly high in the rural and low-income areas, however, some doctors find these areas unattractive due to less control over work hours, isolation from medical collegues, or other reasons. Newly trained doctors face radically different choices of where and how to practice. New doctors are much less likely to enter solo practice and more likely to take salaried jobs in group medical practices, clinics, and health networks.
To be a doctor cost a fortune these days. A bachelors degree in pre-med education would cost around P35,000 to 50,000 per semester in private universities and approximately P?7,000 to P12,000 in public institutions. The four-year Medicine proper professional program will definitely be more expensive. Approximately per semester a candidate would shell out around P75,000 to 120,000 per semester in private institutions and approximately P35,000 to 45,000 in public institutions.
* Based on tuition fee rates for school year 2007-2008