MD and BMBS

chanste

As I understand it American med school students are aiming for their MD while over here we only get BMBS, a level 8 Bachelors degree. Does this bother anyone else?

Normally I wouldn't give a rats ass about titles or anything else, but its part of the job that we will claim to patients that we are Drs. BMBS is not a doctorate so why is it the norm that physicians refer to themselves as doctors when in actual fact only some of them are on account of further education.

When I qualify and the patient asks me am I the doctor, am I legally allowed to claim that I am, because I understood them to mean physician, because technically couldn't they have been looking for someone with the further education?

Sitric

Hi,

A lot of people mix this one up. An MD in the states is not a doctorate, it's a basic medical degree. it's entirely equivalent to an hons bachelors degree in Ireland or the UK.

An MD degree in Ireland and the UK is a research degree like a PhD.

Question for people, are they entirely the same degree in Ireland, ie. PhD = MD ?

Vorsprung

As above

MB in Ireland/MD in US - basic degree
MD in Ireland - Masters in Medicine
PhD - Doctorate

Sid_Justice

In US MD is a first professional degree not a doctorate. Only people who are 'real' doctors are people with PhDs.

It's purely academic, BMBS is exactly the same as a MD in the US. I've been assured the differences never make any difference to anything.

chanste

Does anyone know where it comes from though that an entire profession became known as "doctors" if most won't have a doctorate?

In fact I think a case could be made that the general population consider a physician to be a proper Doctor.

Sid_Justice

something with the term doctor being another word for teacher and all doctors having the obligation to pass the profession on by teaching it etc.

i probably read that on wikipedia 10 years ago so don;t know if it's true.

Bathsheba

As far as I know the "MD" in the US refers to the person being a Medical Doctor-to avoid confusion with PhDs who may be doing research etc. This is a graduate degree but more or less the same as an undergraduate medical degree here. Most of the "professions" in the US require a basic undergrad degree plus graduate school-law, accounting, medicine etc
I did an elective in NY a few years ago and my intern was a DO or Doctor of Osteopathy. They practice as MDs do but have a slightly different degree with focus on Osteopathic Medicine-I never could figure out the difference to be honest but DOs are able to apply through matching to most of the the same residency schemes as MDs.