This illustrates my original point perfectly. People think that one visit to a doctor's practice or hospital and you will know exactly what being a doctor is like. You even touch on some of the things behind the scenes yourself and I can think of at least a dozen other things to add to the list...
the truth is, you dont until you are already balls deep. sure you can get work exp, talk to doctors blah blah blah, but all that doesnt even give you 1/100 of what med is actually like.
all medical courses require a medical degree. u sort of answered ur own question already.
dentistry and optom are not considered as part of the medical field.
ill concede that it means you are 1 step closer to postgrad entry BUT, the assumption here is that OP will get into medicine straight after graduating which might not necessarily be the case. sure you get 2 shots at the GAMSAT, but then theres also a lot of other factors that come into play...
no, you cant just try out a course for 6 months, decide you dont like it and transfer. you can only do that if un-enrol before census date (march 31st).
the scenario can play out a number of ways:
1. start undergrad degree, ace umat: get into med in NSW or miss out altogether
2. start undergrad degree, fk up umat: year wasted, HECs debt
3. gap year, ace umat: get into med in NSW with guaranteed place at UQ as backup
4. gap year, fk up umat: make...
if you do some study at university, you are pretty much eliminating a few of the top universities from your list of options for undergrad study and potential back ups if you dont make it in at a NSW university. i know the UQ and monash definitely only take school leavers and i think adelaide...
you can definitely work while doing clinical rotations. but mostly only on weekends and nights except for a few rotations which may require you to do overnighters e.g. ED, OBGYN, paeds etc
its true that med courses are very tightly regulated. but they are still very different as unis adopt different models of learning and have different structures. hence why some unis are 6 years while others are 5 despite providing the same exact same degree (MBBS).