Medical School In Argentina
I’ve just had a fascinating look at the structure of medical school in Argentina, from a medical student who emailed me last week (the email follows). I think often we assume that teenagers in the US could never decide by 18 to pursue medicine for the rest of their lives, but starting medical school after high school is, I think, the norm in most other parts of the world. Although I definitely was leaning toward a career in medicine by the end of high school, by no means was it definitive. I definitely grew a lot during college and learned many things about myself that were important in strengthening my decision to apply to medical school. Clearly countries that structure their medical training more like Argentina have a longer medical school program, and it sounds like their curriculum is probably more extensive than ours; I imediately noticed several areas of traning that my friend has that I feel like I’m severely lacking, and some very different emphases.
Some of the highlights:
- Starting early with training physicians about mental health
- Multiple specific courses on Public Health and Bioethics
- Splitting up semiology (signs and symptoms, if I’m not mistaken) from diagnosis and treatment
- Required toxicology, trauma, legal medicine, and dermatology
- Separate full years of Internal Medicine (2y) and Surgery (1y)
- A seemingly different residency/fellowship program
Here, we finish High School when we are 18 years old., after that it depends in which University you will study the career, at UBA( wich is the very best here) we have to do the CBC,(common basic cycle) a whole year, then, if we can make it that, we start with:
First year :Anatomy , Histology, Embriology( i´ve been teaching it for 6 years) , Molecular biology and Genetics and Mental Health.
Second year: Phisiology and Biophisycs, and Human Biochemestry
Third year: Pharmacology I, Pathology I, and Microbiology
Plus Bioethics I , and Family Medicine( 1st or 2nd or 3rd year)Fourth year: Internal Medicine I( Semiology) and Pathology II, Public Health I, Bioethics II
Fifth year:Internal Medicine II( diagnosis and treatmente, Nutrition, Radiology(Image diagnostic), Neurology,,Nuemonology, Pharmacology II( I ve been teaching it a year so far), Infectology,Public Health II, Toxicology. Psiquiatry, Dermatology
Sixth year:General Surgery, Ginecology, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Traumathology,Oftalmology,ORL, Nuerosurgery, Legal Medicine, Urology
Our career is devided in to cycles, the first one: “Biomedico” I°, II°, III° year
The second, “Clinico” IV°, V°, VI°.But there are exceptions, there are some Hospitals where you can finish before or even after.
And to finish, we have to do a whole year Internship( for free), in a Hospital from 8 AM to 17 PM.
We have a whole month from the ” Internado” to rotate where ever we want and in the subject we choose.
the italian sistem is like the argentina one
In Venezuela it´s very similar, I started my medical studies at the age of 16…..the main difference with other systems remains in the period of time that we start to have contact with patients…..that is at the third year of the career.
I’m 21 and a 5th year med student in Venezuela, and here it is almost the same, except that instead of two, we have three years of internal medicine; and instead of two, we have five years of Public Health. The first three years are the same as Argentina, but the rest is as follows:
Fourt year: internships of 4 and a half weeks in cardiology, gastroenterology, Neumonology and Nuerology, traumatology,Ophthalmology,ORL and urology, and OBGYN. Tropical medicine (infectious bacterial, parasites and viral diseases more common in the tropical areas with treatment and diagnostics).
Fifth year: four internships of 9 weeks focused on therapeutics, diagnostics and cost effectiveness in internal medicine Surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics (with a minimum of 15 deliveries attended only by you with the supervision of the resident). Legal medicine (clinical forensics, toxicology, legal right and forensic psychiatry).
Sixth year or “internal rotation” as it is called here, in which you have to rotate half a year in primary care and the other half in different areas of the hospital you choose working all day for free.
Then you graduate and after that you’ll have to do a whole year also that is called “Rural work” in which the faculty asigns a rural area for you to go and work there for free.
The whole reason of working without payment is that in here the medical career is for free, the state pays your career, and then you’ll have to pay them back by working two years for free in the communities that need primary medical care the most
I´m 4th year med stuident an i wish we have a 7 year program here in Guadalajara, México.Here in the U de G (government payed University) we have a 6 (and a half) year medical program divided in 8 semesters (technically 8-4 month periods), an internship year and a public-service final year.
Only in the first semester (from Sep to Dec) we take Anatomy, Histology, Biochemistry, Embriology, Introduction to Scientific Investigation, Phsycology, Sociology and Public Health I; in the second semester we take Phisiology, Molecular Biology etc, and even only two months of Inmunology and that is how it goes on. We only have 4 months of Internal Medicine, Patology, Semiology, Physio and Physiopatology and all the clinical asigantures.
In a period of 3 years we´ve seen all of the asignatures that our Venezuelans and Argentinians fellows take in 5 years in a teorichal- semicnlinical way. This is mi 7th semester, and from aug 22 to Dec 16 we hav to cover a program that includes the following sinlge week clinical asignatures:
medical Oncology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Pneumology, Hematology, Emergencies, Endocrinology, Dermatology, Rheumatology and Nephrology as clinical Internal Medicine; and as clinical Surgical assignatures: Oftalmology, Anestesiology, Plastic surgery, Trauma, ORL, Proctology, Urology and Cardiotoracic Surgery. Yes all of these in this semester alone, sometimes taking two asignatures per week (half and half day 7am to 7 sometimes 8 pm)
Nex year will be our last semester whit 2 months full time and 24-36hours wards of Pediactrics and two more of Ob/Gyn. Then becomes our obligatory Internship year in wich we rotate in a lot of services full time and our last year is the Social (comunity) service in wich we are “pasantes” some sort of licensed but not Titled MD´s with a simbolic payment. In this service we get to choose our place by a califications Rank. Those with the best califications are free to choose in any of the third level Hospitals, but when those positions are ocupied by our classmates we only have the choice of going to small town away from the top medical atention. And this is how we become Medical Doctors here in Guadalajara. In my opinion the only advantage is the clinical practice we get since we become med students because this university and the State`s Goverment support two third level public Hospitals were the atention is free and we get to practice in patients as much as we desire to.
I met a physician in Canada who told me that he did not do biology. He later said that he had a lot of problems with biochemistry. Can someone do biochemistry without biology? Is this possible…or is he lying?
Im a 6th yr med. student ib Ainshams uni. in Cairo.
I entered medical school at age of 16 in egypt..we have a slightly defferent course…
6 yrs course followed by a 12 months intrenship…
1st 2 yrs: Physiology,Anatomy,Biochemistry and histology along with embryology
3rd yr: pharmacology,pathology,microbiology and parasitology(imp in tropical areas)
4yh yr: public health, forensic(silly),toxicology,opthalmology and ENT
5th yr:internal medicine(all specialities) , pediatrics
6th yr: Gynacology and obstetrics , surgery