Medicine doesn't work as a graduate programme

Editor - I wish to make two points in relation to Seye Abimbola's article.¹ Firstly, medicine as a graduate programme will mean that the students able to pursue a medical career will be the ones from the richest backgrounds. No proof whatsoever shows that graduate medical school entry, as is practised in the United States and Canada, for example, produces better or more qualified doctors. All it does is make universities richer. Thinking that graduate students will make the atmosphere richer by virtue of experience is great, but this will not make the acquisition of the knowledge needed to graduate any easier.

Secondly, anyone entering medicine should have the foresight to try to get as much information as they can about what it is to be a doctor, in the form of work experience. Shadow a consultant, or work with a preregistration house officer for a month instead of entering medicine on the back of youthful exuberance.

Competing interests: None declared.

Tarek Arab, PGY-1 (specialist registrar equivalent), Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Ottawa
Email: captflashheart@yahoo.com


studentBMJ 2006;14:309-352 September ISSN 0966-6494

1. Abimbola S. Just a guinea pig. studentBMJ 2006;14:262. (June.)