| Catherine
| Alice
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| __Here it lasts longer: two years of preclinical training, two years of clinical practice and one year of training as pre-registration house officers. It is the end of studies at medical school but after that we have a vocational training phase, which is two years long and during this phase we practice in different fields of medicine, and … it is not all yet! Then we have to choose a field and specialize in it for two or even more years depending on the field we specialize in. So, for example, to become a GP it takes about nine years!
__Exactly!
__Look, Alice, you are twenty-two, aren’t you? How come you are a freshman at medical school?
__Oh, I see now. American medical studies seem to be even longer than our British ones!
__Hm… it’s quite different from the entry to medical school here in Britain. We can enter medical school after high school. How long does the course of studies at American medical school last?
| __It usually takes medical students four years to complete a Doctor of Medicine degree program.
__Right, right! The way to become a doctor is a long and hard one, still we don’t have to complain, because it is our choice and we are studying what we are really interested in.
__Yes, Cathy, I am twenty-two, but here in America a four-year preliminary bachelor's degree is required for entry to medical school. So, first I studied at university to obtain my bachelor's degree in biology and only after that I could enter medical school.
__Well, in America, medical students gain the title of doctor upon completion of medical school, still, we cannot practice independently until completing an internship, which is postgraduate residencies in the chosen field of specialization. Residency is a stage of graduate medical training, something like British vocational training phase. A resident physician in the US is just another word for a house officer in Great Britain. Duration of most residencies can range from three years to ten years for a specialized field such as neurosurgery.
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Exercise 11. Catherine is a 4th year medical student in Great Britain. She is studying to become a physician. Her father, Mr. Bennet is a surgeon at a regional hospital. Catherine’s brother Oliver is 15, he is still at school, but he wants to become a surgeon like his father.
