The Status of Practicing Medicine in the United States

The onset of medical practice is as old as colonial times in the United States, in one form or the other. With the changing phase of medical profession along with time, evident advancements have always been appreciated. With the beginning of 1601, medical practice in England was classified into three categories that enabled the medical practitioners to practice in the specialty that they were expert in. The much confident ones chose for being surgeons, those who loved to diagnose, investigate and treat diseases opted for medicine, and some chose orthopedics as the field of interest.

Physicians were at the top of the list. Surgeons were usually practically trained at the hospitals and they did traineeships.

A Perfect Opportunity for Doctors in the United States

The New Jersey Medical Society was established on July 23, 1766 for the medical specialists, with the aim to tackle all the professional hurdles and to help out the medical practitioners in most critical situations. This medical society provided clear and concise guidelines for medical practice and clearly explained the code of ethics that the doctors must implement. Later this association grew into a big organization known as the Medical Society of New Jersey. It has the honor of being among the first established medical society in the United States. It was an open opportunity to the doctors of the entire world. Doctors from different countries were allowed to apply in this society for the progress of this society as well as the progress of themselves.

Professional societies were then originated in 1760, which aimed to legalize medical practice by inspecting and authorizing practitioners. By the primary 1800s, the medical societies were made responsible of founding principles, level of practice, and authorization of doctors. The doctors were now able to operate globally as they were now certified and authorized doctors.

A usual subsequent stage was for such societies to establish advanced training and teaching packages for medical practitioners. These programs established by these societies were entitled "proprietary" medical colleges. Among these proprietary programs, medical college of the Medical Society of the County of New York was the leading and most admired one and was created on March 12, 1807.

On May 5, 1847, approximately 200 ambassadors signifying 40 medical societies and 28 colleges from 22 states and the District of Columbia came in front of each other and the first conference of the American Medical Association (AMA) was held. Nathaniel Chapman (1780-1853) was designated as the first leader of the association. The AMA has developed and has transformed into an organization which hasa great deal of impact over matters correlated to health care in the United States. This act was like turning into a new leaf for the doctors in USA and they had now more chances to advance their medical skills on international levels.

During the productive and privileges 74 years that is from 1802 and 1876, 62 medical schools were founded and recognized. In 1810, 650 medical students got registered and 100 successfully qualified from USA medical. By 1900, these statistics had increased to 25,000 learners and 5,200 medical graduates. The teaching opportunities were open to doctors due to the foundation of this institute.

Opportunity of Practice

The practice of medicine involves a variety of things which are related to health medicine. These involve the diagnosis, correction, treatment, prescription for a disease, injury, deformity, infirmity, pain, or several other condition; mental or physical, real or just imaginary.