Here’s A Health Degree That Won’t Take Ya Six Years

Like most people, the thought of working towards a career where you can actually really help people sounds pretty rewarding right? But, like most people, the thought of studying for six straight years to get into medicine probably seems just a bit too much for ya.

Fair enough.

When you’re finishing Year 12, six years is the equivalent to about a third of your life so far. Imagine that for every three minutes of every day you’ve been alive, you spent one of them studying medicine.

It’s certainly not for everyone.

Fortunately, there are other ways to study, become qualified, and land a job in medicine without dedicating over half a decade of your life to making this goal a reality.

The Sydney Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SITCM)

When ya study with SITCM, you can become a qualified practitioner in as little as one year. Their Diploma of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Remedial Massage is just twelve months long, and after finishing it you could find yourself self-employed as an independent practitioner or working in a larger health service that offers a range of therapies.

They do have some longer courses, too, however they take nowhere near as long as the health degrees you’ll find at other places.

You can knock over their Bachelor of Traditional Chinese Medicine in just four years and in that time you’ll learn the ins and outs of all the most important health practical modalities of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, including Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese herbal dispensing and biomedical sciences. Now that’s something unique and cool to tell your friends or your fam around the dinner table!

Why study Chinese medicine?

Traditional Chinese medicine isn’t all about shorter degrees.

If you’re interested in taking a holistic approach to health, then these are definitely the courses for you. SITCM’s courses teach their students the necessary skills and self-fulfilment they need to help others and serve their community through primary health care.

Chinese medicine is growing in popularity all around the world, including Australia’s complementary health sector. It now plays a vital role in the Australian healthcare system and in these degrees you don’t just master the medicine itself – you learn about the biomedical sciences and clinical studies behind everything you do – and this is something that is necessary for a tonne of different career routes in medicine!

What are the career options?

Because of its growing popularity, the career prospects in traditional Chinese medicine are pretty epic as well!

To practice acupuncture and Chinese medicine in Australia, you need to be registered. Graduates from SITCM can register with the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia to become formal Australian healthcare practitioners.

Where can this lead you?

When you graduate from their Bachelor, the most common path to take is to enter private practice as a primary practitioner. You could be a self-employed TCM practitioner or a member of a team in a clinic that offers a range of therapies.

However, you’re not limited to just that. Some graduates go on to undertake Chinese medicine research (which could see you travelling the globe), become involved in education, product development, management and sales roles in pharmaceutical and herbal companies, provide healthcare advice and consultancy online and some may practice in hospitals, community health centres and other healthcare agencies.

The world really is your oyster when you study traditional Chinese medicine. There are so many roads that you can take this degree down that you can really make your life whatever you want with it.

Just once more, how long does it take?

Definitely NOT six years!

However, if you wanna chill out a bit, they’re also super flexible. You can chuck that Bachelor to part time and take up to ten years to complete it, if you’ve got a few other things going on as well. Nothing better than getting a health degree on the side!

If you wanna know more about the Sydney Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, then you can check them out (and all their courses) and ask any questions you might have here.