How To Become An Medical Doctor MD: What It Is and Career Path

What is an medical doctor md and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an medical doctor md. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.25 an hour? That's $48,363 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 117,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to an medical doctor md?

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

Medical Assistant Program Director, Website

To maximize salary for a medical assistant obtaining certification from one of the credentialing organizations such as American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) can make a new hire more competitive. Continuing educations along with developing any specialized skills such as phlebotomy. Demonstrating professionalism initiative and reliability, along with gaining a strong reference from previous employers.

ScoreMedical Doctor MDUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $48,363

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 16%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.82%

Asian 9.83%

Black or African American 10.06%

Hispanic or Latino 24.23%

Unknown 4.75%

White 50.29%

Gender

female 72.61%

male 27.39%

Age - 35

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 35

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.4

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.6

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an medical doctor md

Explore medical doctor md education requirements

Most common medical doctor md degrees

Bachelor's

38.8 %

Associate

14.6 %

Doctorate

14.6 %

Start to develop specific medical doctor md skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	87.63%
Internal Medicine	2.90%
Vital Signs	2.58%
Medical History	1.66%
Medicaid	1.00%

Complete relevant medical doctor md training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New medical doctor mds learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an medical doctor md based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real medical doctor md resumes.

Research medical doctor md duties and responsibilities

Manage patient files by making new charts, keying all encounters through ICD-9 coding procedures and posting in patient database.
Require to maintain strict data security and patients' confidentiality.
Perform psychiatric examination on adult patients for acute and chronic psychiatric and behavioral disorders in an inpatient setting
Recommend and/or initiate patient management in cases of acute distress with medications, laboratory orders and initiation of CPR when necessary.

Prepare your medical doctor md resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your medical doctor md resume.

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