Why choose medicine and engineering as my careers of interest? Medicine is a course that leads to a medical
doctor profession, while engineering is a course that leads to an engineer as a profession. Fact about medical doctors is that they save lives and together with other health practioners, they are able to cure and prevent diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle (McCarter, 2013). It has always been said that health is wealth, and I can ascertain that the best and the greatest wealth to have is life. A healthy person will be able to go to school, work and thereafter make wealth and when he / she falls seek, the first person to see will be the medical doctor who will treat and cure the whatever ailment one is facing. Medicine is a discipline that has been in existence for several years, why I choose medicine is because doctors can specialize in a number of medical disciplines such as pediatrics, anesthesiology and cardiology or they can generally practice as physicians. Medicine is a sensitive area and involves a lot of government legislations and permit because it entails dealing with human life, especially research that will require the use of human beings is a key and sensitive area that will require lots of government consultations and permissions. Medicine is one of the best career because it involve saving of lives though it’s one of the toughest course to study and requires a lot of commitment and patience.
My second preferred career after medicine is engineering, why prefer engineering? To begin with, engineering has made the world a global village; people who are several miles away are able to reach out to each other and even meet face to face in a short duration no matter how long the distance might be. I like engineering because it has simplified life, look at the mobile phones, computers, passenger’s plane, fighter jets, good roads, sky crapers and many other things are just because of engineering. All these things were discovered to make life easier and I surely life has been made easier. Without engineering there would have not been economic development and everything would have been slow. Good thing about engineering is that its practical oriented rather than theoretical, it also entails more of talent application. Engineering is the discipline that is never stagnant; it entails continuous research and new discoveries in the world of technology.
Let’s look an overview of medical career, medical doctor is a career achieved after studying medicine. Becoming a medical doctor involves several years of extensive education, the total years for training can take between eleven to sixteen years depending whether one decides to practice as a physician or as a specialized type of doctor. Medicine involves the practice of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases; it incorporates activities such as prevention and restoring of health by treating various ailments. Medicine applies disciplines such as biomedical sciences, biomedical research, genetics and medical technology to diagnose and treat conditions (Collins, 2013). Medical availability and clinical practice varies in various parts of the world depending in technological advancement and cultural beliefs, modern medicine is mainly practiced in western countries, while developing countries such as Africa is yet to fully appreciate the importance of medical doctors.
Secondly we take an overview of engineering as a career and identify what it entails, engineering can be defined as the creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing process to develop and invent machines (Astley, 2013). Engineering is broad and entails different field specializations. We have civil engineering which involves the design, construction and maintenance of natural and physical built environments. Secondly, chemical engineering entails the application of physical and biological sciences to convert raw materials to more useful products. The third one is Electrical engineering which involves the study of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. Finally we have mechanical engineering that involves the design, analysis, usage of heat and mechanical power to operate machines. Currently we have several engineering careers such as Telecommunication and information engineering, mechatronics engineering, computer engineering, geomatics engineering, agricultural engineering and several others. But the major types of engineering are the mentioned above.
What skills and education is required for a medical career? Becoming a full practicing doctor takes approximately eleven to sixteen years just as I had earlier stated above. Students will take four years in University to study undergraduate degree which will be majorly lessons from lecturers and attending seminars, after the four years, students will spend most of their time studying job in the local hospitals. After graduation, there is a compulsory paid two years of study which is majorly a foundation training program. After the foundation training program, another paid three years of study is expected and the three years can even be more for those specializing in brain surgery. To practice medicine, one must have skills that qualifies him/ her for this great career; a good Doctor must have concern and care for people around and what happens to them, a Doctor should have an enquiring mind, one who researches more on the things that interests him/her. A good Doctor should have an open mind, who gets along with people of different behaviors and attitudes, finally, patience, hard work, determination, decisiveness, ability to handle pressure and humility are what is required skills to qualify as a medical doctor.
Some skills and a comprehensive level of education are required for one to qualify as an engineer. To become an engineer, one requires a bachelor’s degree in engineering which takes at least five years; a fully accredited engineer will require a license to fully practice the engineering profession. To be accredited, one has to sit and pass a series of exams, masters’ advancement might be required for some engineering fields, and engineering majorly needs skills like innovative, love for tools and talent. (Lansford, 2013) .
A medical doctor can work in different facilities; to begin with, the major work place of a doctor is in the hospital where he / she attend to patients. A qualified doctor can practice his / her profession at the military. We’ve seen military Doctors who majors on attending to injured soldiers especially those who requires immediate attention, Doctors can also work in institutions such as university and colleges to lecture medical and other students taking health related courses. Same to engineers, they have a variety of employment opportunities depending on the ones field of specialization. A mechanical engineer can work in any place that involves machine and engine handlings, electrical engineer can work in any company handling electronics and electricity, chemical engineer can work in any place where processing and manufacturing is taking place. Finally, a civil engineer can work in any place of construction and maintenance of buildings, roads and many others.
References;
- McCarter, S. (2010). Medicine: 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Collins, F. S. (2010). The language of life: DNA and the revolution in personalized medicine. New York: Harper.
- Astley, P., & Lansford, L. (2013). Engineering: 1.
- Engineering. (2013). Berlin: Springer Berlin