My personal experience of doing a Master’s in Medical Ethics and Law
I’ve had a lot of people asking me about why I chose to undertake a Master’s in Medical Ethics and Law so I thought I would write this blog post outlining my experience so far and the advantages and disadvantages of the degree.
My interest in healthcare ethics and law came when I undertook my intercalated degree in Philosophy at King’s College London between my fourth and fifth years of dental school. This degree allowed me to explore the main theory which underpins ethics and other topics in Philosophy. Through my dissertation, I was also able to relate this to healthcare and dentistry looking at consent and autonomy in a medical context.
Following this degree and the completion of my BDS I always had the intention of taking my interest in this field further. The Master’s in Medical Ethics and Law at King’s College London allowed me the opportunity to do this, so, I applied during my foundation year to the course and was accepted onto it.
Once accepted to the course I decided to undertake the Master’s program part-time across two years and accept a job as an associate dentist in West London, also part-time, alongside. There is an option to complete the course in one year full time, however, I decided against this as I wanted to make sure I was able to keep up my dentistry.
During my first year, which I have recently completed, I was in once a week and had reading and coursework to complete during the rest of the week. I found the workload manageable in conjunction with my work as an associate dentist but it meant that I did have to be mindful of my time management.
I really enjoyed the first year which focused on ethical theory relating to a variety of topics such as mental health and the allocation of healthcare resources. If you haven’t studied ethics before it’s not a disadvantage and the majority of people on the course are in the same position. The second year is focused more on the legal aspects of medical ethics and law and features a dissertation on a chosen topic.
In the future, it may allow me to pursue non-clinical work within dentistry and the field of dental ethics and law in particular, however, in truth my main reason for doing the Masters was simply that I enjoyed the topic and wanted to learn more about it.
For those interested in pursuing something similar whether it be a King’s College London or another university, below are some of my reflections so far and some considerations to take into account in general.
The benefit of this course is that will allow me to gain a Master’s in a topic that I find incredibly interesting and which I hope to work in at some point the future. Whether this be in an academic capacity or as a dento-legal advisor in the future. Ideally this would be alongside clinical work so that I could still practice as a dentist and maintain and improve on my dental skills.
The one caution is that this is by no means guaranteed as a result of this degree and there may well be further qualifications and experience required after. It also has meant that I am only able to work part time which has limited my experience as a dentist and it means that my income is lower than it would be if I worked full time.
In general, I feel that these drawbacks do not outweighs the positives of studying the degree, however, I would think about them carefully before undertaking a Master’s in any discipline or field.
Ultimately, to anyone considering undertaking a Masters or an LLM in medical ethics and law you need to think about what you want to get out of it and how you want to weave it into your career in the future.
Whatever you decide you want to do in the future I would give the same advice and add that you should try to find a subject area that you really feel passionate about and not just follow the status quo for the sake of it. It is hard work doing a Masters and working alongside but if it’s something you enjoy I’m sure it will be a valuable experience and one in which you will learn a great deal.