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If you aren't familiar with the educational system in Turkey -a developing country located between the continents Asia and Europe- yet, here's a brief summary of what you have to go through in order to become a doctor in Turkey:
1 - Survive primary, middle and high school.
2 - Take an exam (I can't give the exact name of the exam, since the names as well as the designs of the examinations change so quickly in our country) in order to be admitted to the universities. Get a pretty high score (you probably have to be within the first 1% of the pyramid) to be admitted to a university of medical faculty.
3 - Here, things get just a little bit complicated. You may choose a private or a public university. Generally speaking, public universities require a higher score, as they don't ask for any payments and one gets to see a lot of cases at the hospitals. But, exceptions exist. Getting a scholarship from a private university requires a score quite close to that of a public university.
4 - Graduate from a medical faculty after 6 years (or longer if you fail).
5 - Now, there are two options. The first option is to complete the compulsory service that the government has assigned to the new graduate doctor (which lasts approximately 1-2 years depending on the location of the service: the worse the city of compulsory service gets, the less time it requires to complete the compulsory service) as a general practitioner. The second option is to take an exam (which for a long time is called TUS) in order to get into a residency. This second option will postpone the compulsory service to approximately 4 years later. Generally speaking, surgery will require lower scores, compared to the comfortable residency branches like dermatology, radiology etc. This is where it differs from the situation in the USA: Doctors try to stay away from surgery in Turkey.
I've completed the first 4 steps so far. Tomorrow it will be my first day to be defined as a "Doctor". I've never called myself a doctor before. I'm quite confused about how I feel about it actually.
I will try to write down my new medical adventure to this blog and see if the new title helps me find a better life.
Stay tuned.
