Since the Dark Ages, it has been customary for aspirants to a technical profession or trade to serve a form of apprenticeship under a seasoned and veteran practitioner’s supervision. This experience allows them to gain hands-on training without risking the possibility of them doing something disastrously wrong.
Nobody throws a novice pilot into a plane and tells him he is on his own. First comes careful instruction in the intellectual fundamentals, followed by closely-supervised, hands-on training under the watchful eye of an experienced trainer. Only when he has progressed far enough, in that mentor’s opinion, is he allowed to finally take the controls for himself and fly “solo.”
That is what a medical residency program is all about. Those dedicated candidates who have suffered through medical school are entrusted with human beings’ actual care under strictly controlled conditions. This ensures that they can put their academic knowledge into practice without endangering the patients due to their relative lack of real-world experience.
Experts at Residents Medical explain, “It is essential to expose prospective doctors to the most pressure-filled environment they are ever likely to face as a physician. Lots of people can handle medical problems when they have plenty of time to think about and diagnose a single person. But what happens when they are placed in the constant grind of an emergency room setting where the illnesses and injuries are served up on an endless conveyor belt of misery?”
Some may buckle under the extreme stress, and the medical profession should find this out while they are still in a situation where other doctors are on-hand to carry the load if they can’t.
Medical residency also sharpens the skills of any physician. They must learn how to make the right call very quickly and gain exposure to many health conditions that they might not see a lot of once they make it out into their chosen specialty. A cosmetic surgeon may still see an occasional heart attack in the office, and he should know exactly what to do in that situation. Any doctor might be caught in the middle of a mass casualty event or car accident that requires them to practice skills they might not ordinarily use.
These years of medical residency are the equivalent of a new pilot learning to fly with an instructor at the controls right beside him. What emerges is a doctor who can handle the full spectrum of medical practice even if they eventually elect to focus on a narrow field where their interest or physical gifts seem to lie. They will still be a full-fledged “Doctor” in the fullest sense of the term due to residency experience.
But just because residencies are a compulsory part of becoming a doctor does not mean that they are like being drafted into the army and sent wherever ordered. There are many residency programs available to medical students. Gaining access to one which allows the student to work under a well-known physician or at a world-famous institution can lead to more significant career opportunities down the road.
Buffing up one’s CV and crafting the proper forms and documents to gain entry into one of these more desired residency programs is what a placement firm such as Residents Medical is all about. These are people who know the administrative ins-and-outs of residency programs all across the country.
Many students waste time placing inadequate applications that lead to their rejection in favor of less-qualified but better-guided competitors. In that regard, letting a residency firm like Residents Medical Group take you under their wing is a lot like learning to fly. Learning from the best helps improve your chances of getting your career on the right path.