How to Become an Otolaryngologist Doctor

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At medical school, there is a wide range of different specialities that you can pursue to learn more and further your career. A popular career path speciality for many doctors is to become an otolaryngologist. If you are unfamiliar with what an otolaryngologist is, this is essentially an ear, nose and throat doctor and they are commonly referred to as an ENT doctor. If this is something that you are interested in and would like to know a little but more about this specialised career path, make sure to keep on reading for all the information that you need.

Education and Training

If you want to become an ear, nose and throat doctor, then you will need to start off with the traditional route which is putting yourself through medical school. You will need to score highly on your MCAT test and then move on to get a great undergraduate GPA degree. Your main focus here should be getting good scores in the core sciences which are organic chemistry, general chemistry biology and physics. A great tip that we would really recommend for you to do is shadow an ear, nose and throat doctor as this will give you the best indication of what the job is really like and whether or not this is the right career path for you. You will have to apply to complete 4 years of medical school and it is during the last two years that you will be able to specialise in otolaryngologist and take the specific coursework that comes along with this.

If you are seriously trying to start a career as an otolaryngologist, then you will need to make sure that you are prepared to put in a lot of time, hard work and effort into it as it can take you anywhere from three to five years to complete an ENT residency. During this time, it will also be compulsory for you to take one year of surgery training. After this, it will be time for you to get your state medical license and you can obtain board certification through the American Board of Otolaryngology. You will also need to get your indemnity insurance for surgeons which is a contractual alternative to the traditional discretionary indemnity products provided by the mutuals. However, it is important to remember that even after all of this hard work and training, you will still need to renew your license which varies but it is normally between every 7 to 10 years.

Your Responsibilities as an Otolaryngologist

As an otolaryngologist, you will be extremely busy and this is not a job for the faint-hearted. You can expect to see up to 40 patients per day and how much work you receive will all depend on the type of place that you work as this could be for a large medical organisation, a hospital, or in a private practice. As part of your job, you will be required to examine patients of every age but as a general rule of thumb, it tends to be mainly paediatric care that you will predominantly be dealing with. This is due to many ENT issues being present in teenagers and children. The most common problems that you will come across and will have to treat include sinus infections, ear infections, tonsillitis, cochlear issues and deviated septums. As an otolaryngologist you can also expect to have to perform as many as 250 surgeries each year and the main surgeries you will have to perform include reconstructive surgery, removing tumours and tonsillectomies.