I actually am a board-certified internist…in America. I want to live in Taipei and get a medical license so that I can practice at least part-time in Taiwan.
Could someone walk me through the steps?
I am an ABC. How good would my mandarin have to be to pass the licensing exam? I’m near-fluent in Taiwanese and just conversational in Mandarin, but I can see patients in either language. My reading is like 1000 characters, that’s it.
If I can’t be a doctor, anyone have any viable ideas for me? I’d like to get a job besides English teacher. Can I teach medicine at a local college or something?
Any Dr. I’ve ever visited in Taiwan has everything on a computer in front of him, and of course it’s in Mandarine. Could you handle that? If not, I’d look into opening a small private practice for foreigners. A good western trained Dr. who speaks fluent English is always appreciated. But I’m just talking. I’m not a Dr. or business person. I have no idea how you’d do this.
I’ve met an ABC doctor from Berkeley, his Chinese was good but I wouldn’t say it was perfect and he was working here no problem. I’ve also heard there are S.E Asian and African doctors in ChangKung Hospital, they may be on training programs from Taiwan ally countries but they actually see patients also. If you speak Mandarin you may indeed have some chances to work here with Taiwanese patients, most of the doctors notes are written in English, although the computer systems are in Chinese, the nurses may be able to assist in inputting.If you know 1000 characters it wouldn’t be too long before you got up to speed. Of course you’ll probably need to take a medical board test here first, is that in Chinese?
No offense HC, but I think that’s a sure fire way to go bankrupt. Ignore 99.9% of the market and concentrate on the people who speak English? I don’t think that would work at all.
No offense HC, but I think that’s a sure fire way to go bankrupt. Ignore 99.9% of the market and concentrate on the people who speak English? I don’t think that would work at all.
Now, if he was a shrink…maybe… [/quote]
Well, I didn’t mean ignore everyone else. I guess it sounded like that. Anyway, I’m sick now and pretty tired.
Oh yes, a shrink could clean up shrinking the big noses. That is, once we all realized we were messed up enough to seek help. I’m not messed up. I’m just kinda unique.
There was an English doctor, Doctor Dale who lived and practiced in Taipei for DECADES. Very successfully too. He had his own General Clinic called The Christian Clinic. And he did very well .
He didnt speak a word of mandarin far as I know.
Neither did his English wife.
But they were leaders in their Christian mission ! And had a successful clinic.
Thought about guanxi? If you have any relatives or have met any Taiwanese folk in med school or at conferences, you could get them to introduce you to somebody in charge somewhere.
My experiences in the (mostly) controlled madness of Taiwanese hospitals and clinics was mixed. But the doctors that we wrote everything in a version of medical English, but that’s just my experience.
