<p>I posted on a careers in medicine thread, but that board seems dead compared to this one...</p>
<p>I am considering academic medicine and the prospect of teaching, esp. at the undergraduate level seems very appealing to me. Would I need to pursue a non-MD degree (ex. Masters of Science, MPH, PhD) to be able to do this? Also, how does one go about this after obtaining the MD? Would I have to wait for job openings? Sorry if these questions have been answered previously. Any info is appreciated. Thanks,</p>
<p>You don't need a MD degree to teach at the undergrad level. A pHD is just fine.</p>
<p>I meant that I am planning on getting my MD BUT wanted to teach as well. My question was whether or not the MD would be enough to teach at the undergrad level...</p>
<p>What exactly would you teach?</p>
<p>Even at a med school, most MD's just teach clinical skills. If you want to teach cell bio or biochem or something, you need a phD.</p>
<p>Hmm, I was thinking about doing something like an Intro Bio course or a specialty course, like special topics in X, which would be related to the research I have done/would be doing as an MD. I was thinking about teaching a course a year or something like that because clinical duties would still be my primary responsibility. That stinks about the needing the PhD, would a masters be useless?</p>
<p>What's the point? If you want to teach medicine, then you need to be teaching medical students. If you want to teach undergrads then clinical skills are irrelevant. There is a reason why medical school and undergraduate education are unique entities. </p>
<p>Medical research useful to the practice of medicine is aimed at application and results for patients. Research at the undergraduate level in the sciences is aimed at the theoretical portions of the field you're interested it.</p>
<p>Basically you're asking for portions of two different worlds.</p>
<p>The point is that I see great value in teaching undergraduates and beleive that teachers at the undergrad level can have a great impact on helping students find their area of study/ career interest just by teaching material they enjoy (In part, this desire to teach is derived from my own experience as an undergrad who has had great teaching). As far as clinical research and science research being in a "different world", that does not always necessarily hold true. I have an interest in both clinical and more theoretical biological research and have been able to thus far combine them through my research experiences. Just because I will be practicing as an MD does not mean I need to be relegated to solely clinical teaching and research.</p>
<p>A MD really doesn't qualify you to teach a science topic. Heck, you could've majored in art history as an undergrad and still received a MD, in which case, the only science classes you've taken would've been the med school prereqs and whatever you took in the first two years of med school. No college is going to hire someone who've only taken 2-3 years of college-level science to teach college-level science.</p>
<p>Which is why I asked if a MS instead of a PhD might be sufficient...</p>