Medical license

In most countries, the medical profession requires occupational licenses and only persons with a medical license bestowed either by a specified government-approved professional association or a government agency are authorized to practice medicine. Licenses are not granted automatically to all people with medical degrees. A medical school graduate must receive a license to practice medicine before he or she can be called a physician in a legal sense, a process that usually entails testing or examinations by a medical board. The medical license is the documentation of authority to practice medicine within a certain locality.

China issued the <<Law on Licensed Physician>> in 1995. The law required all newly graduated medical students to sit the National Medical Licensing Examination (NMLE) regulated by the National Medical Examination Center (NMEC) in order to be able to register with the local regulatory body. The law also requires that to be eligible to sit the exam, one student should have completed one years internship after obtaining his/her primary medical qualification (i.e. Bachelor of Medicine). The exam is a two part exam which includes a Clinical Skill (CS) test and a General Written (GW) test. The CS test consists of many stations, candidates must pass the CS test in order to sit for the GW test. The GW test consists of 4 units, candidates have 2.5 hours for each unit, running for 2 days. The CS is held in July, followed by GW in September each year.

The Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior (ICFES) and the Ministry of Education regulate the medical schools that are licensed to offer medical degrees. After completing all the schools' requirements to obtain a medical degree, physicians must serve the "obligatory social service" (in rural areas, research, public health or special populations e.g. orphan children) which usually lasts one year. After completing the social service, the "medical registration" may be obtained at the governor's office (Gobernación) of the Department (province/state) in which the obligatory term was served. This registration is homologous to a license in other countries and authorizes the physician to practice medicine in all the national territory. However, in order to practice in other departments, an inscription in that department must be performed. Unlike the US, there is no official licensing exam for medical graduates in Colombia, since this responsibility is delegated in medical schools upon receiving permission to confer medical degrees.

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Wikipedia