Medical Residencies in Trek

[Dingo]

Has it ever been canonically (either on screen or in novels) how long a doctor’s training is in Star Trek? I figured perhaps if one went premed at the Academy they’d then go on to medical school and residency before hitting the fleet.

My question pertains mostly to residency, as I’m aware that in our world residencies (specialty dependant) are from 3-7 years in length. How long might residency last for a Starfleet doctor around the DS9 era.

 

[Timo]

There is no solid data on academic studies. McCoy is in many places hinted (or in certain timelines downright established) as having studied medicine up to gradation as MD before enrolling in Starfleet. However, there's scant time for Bashir to have done so, and apparently he only ever studied medicine while in Starfleet, through a Starfleet training institution (one apparently called "Starfleet Medical Academy"). He graduated in 2368 and got his DS9 posting in 2369; we have no data on what he did during the intervening year or so, and whether there was a postgrad residency involved or not.

Residencies are a thing in the 23rd century of TOS, though: Dr. M'Benga did (one of?) his at a Vulcan ward.

That one would have to do more than the four SF Academy years of studies before becoming MD would be a bit odd when people become qualified Chief Engineers after just those four years. Why should one type of acedemic studies be much more time-consuming than the other? "Learning by doing" either kills patients/starships or then doesn't...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tim Thomason]

There is no solid data on academic studies. McCoy is in many places hinted (or in certain timelines downright established) as having studied medicine up to gradation as MD before enrolling in Starfleet. However, there's scant time for Bashir to have done so, and apparently he only ever studied medicine while in Starfleet, through a Starfleet training institution (one apparently called "Starfleet Medical Academy"). He graduated in 2368 and got his DS9 posting in 2369; we have no data on what he did during the intervening year or so, and whether there was a postgrad residency involved or not.

Residencies are a thing in the 23rd century of TOS, though: Dr. M'Benga did (one of?) his at a Vulcan ward.

That one would have to do more than the four SF Academy years of studies before becoming MD would be a bit odd when people become qualified Chief Engineers after just those four years. Why should one type of acedemic studies be much more time-consuming than the other? "Learning by doing" either kills patients/starships or then doesn't...

Timo Saloniemi

Bashir graduated (as a salutatorian) in 2368 at the age of about 27. We can presume that this is the expected age of graduation from the Medical Academy (including residencies?) and would imply about nine years of study. Four of those may be undergraduate work, which Bashir may have gotten anywhere, although perhaps the Medical Academy offers undergraduate degrees in pre-Med as well.

His medical degree from Starfleet didn't apparently come with a requirement of minimum service, since he apparently was offered a job in Paris and mulled over leaving Starfleet during that skip year. This tells me that he may have served Starfleet in residency during those five-to-eight years of study. Probably on Earth or some inner core world station, far away from the frontier.

Of course, the real reason he wanted to be posted to the frontier (and as the chief of medicine) was likely to escape possibly being caught for who he really was. That's probably why he chose not to be valedictorian and gave up his tennis career. All of Bashir's backstory, in retrospect, is full of lies and deceit, to get him just one step from greatness, but far enough that his name doesn't show up in all the papers.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

Based on the elementary school kids we see doing frickin' calculus, I think it's safe to say most 24th century kids are well past 21st century undergrad material by fifteen or so. There's also that speedy teaching tech they used on Uhura. So conceivably, med school could start well before 18 years old.

And a good thing too, because future doctors must be the equivalent of hyper-veterinarians. They have to learn not only multiple species' anatomy from one planet, but from many worlds. Way harder than becoming a human only MD.

Crusher is actually 95 yrs old (great, free plastic surgery) and she only graduated five years ago. That's why she isn't on 'Picard,' it's because she died of old age after Nemesis.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Based on the elementary school kids we see doing frickin' calculus, I think it's safe to say most 24th century kids are well past 21st century undergrad material by fifteen or so. There's also that speedy teaching tech they used on Uhura. So conceivably, med school could start well before 18 years old.

And a good thing too, because future doctors must be the equivalent of hyper-veterinarians. They have to learn not only multiple species' anatomy from one planet, but from many worlds. Way harder than becoming a human only MD.

Crusher is actually 95 yrs old (great, free plastic surgery) and she only graduated five years ago. That's why she isn't on 'Picard,' it's because she died of old age after Nemesis.

Crusher was born October 13, 2324. She was about 55 when we last saw her and about 75 in the age of STPicard.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

Crusher was born October 13, 2324. She was about 55 when we last saw her and about 75 in the age of STPicard.

It was a joke.

 

[Tim Thomason]

It was a joke.

Yeah, I agree. Her age is pretty much a joke on the show. They even tried to make her around Picard's age (at the Academy with him) in the deleted scenes of Nemesis.