Biomedical Science/Law

[eeps]

I wasn't sure where to post, so I'll post here.

My aim (at this point, it may change in the future) is to get into Biomedical Science/Law at Monash University. I was wondering what are the types of jobs on offer after completing this double degree?.. is it similar to the careers/jobs mentioned in this thread?

Medico-legal areas:

- Medical negligence
- Legal issues in the general care/treatment of patients
- Mental disorders and legal capacity
- Guardianship issues with the mentally disabled
- Consent
- Public health
- Euthanasia
- Registration of medical practitioners
- Insurance and indemnity law
- Workers' compensation law
- Certain areas of criminal law

Anything like that?

My second query is... what does the Biomedical Science aspect of this course actually entail?.. I've read a few things here and there, but not much. Is this course similar to Medicine/Law in anyway? I don't know if this course is that popular considering not many places are offered each year.

I was hoping to be enlightened by others who know anything about this course.

Thanks to anyone who can help!

[ninwa]

I don't think the other half of a law double degree ever actually has much influence upon the type of law you practice.

I really mentioned those areas in the other thread just to highlight the crossover between disciplines. You could probably work in any of those medico-legal areas in a straight law degree simply by tailoring your electives towards them, and perhaps doing an honours thesis, masters or PhD in the area.

That said, I suppose knowledge of biomed will help you if you decide to do forensics or something? Otherwise they're pretty separate degrees.

[ninwa]

Re 2nd q:

Biomed/law: http://www.monash.edu/study/coursefinder/course/3356/

Med/law: http://www.monash.edu/study/coursefinder/course/1074/

[eeps]

Thanks for your help ninwa!

[natalie.krystal7]

Heyy,

Been thinking about and doing my research on this course too

But what ninwa says is pretty true, that your career (if in law) is rarely ever affected by the other half of your law degree. BUT! It can help in other areas should you choose to deviate from a straight law career path; for example I read about someone with a Biomed/Law degree who ended working in investment banking, but specialised in working for medical & pharmaceutical companies. It was then that he claimed his knowledge of biomedical science helped him in understanding his clients' needs and what they actually did; I would assume this could work just fine for a lawyer as well.

My conclusion is that if you plan on a pure law path, it'll take you awhile before getting into any of the jobs you previously listed, i.e. any profession that will utilise the Biomedical Science knowledge you attain from your course.

Because biomed is not as general as other double degrees with say, Science or Arts, its also difficult to score jobs in the few places available, especially if you happen to be a fresh grad without experience.

If you are into the sciences and biomedicine particularly though, then I'm sure you'd be able to find a way to utilise this double degree to a further extent in perhaps a different type of job where law and biomedical science are both helpful prerequisite knowledge, such as perhaps the investment banking industry as previously mentioned or even in management roles within medical companies.

If sticking with straight law, what your employers say usually go, even if this does mean you end up being delegated to property law depending on the firm you're with, but the more power and experience you gain in the industry, the more you allow for space to dictate your own specialties in the future.

Sorry for babbling :s But good luck either ways!!

[eeps]

Thanks for your help natalie.krystal7!

Another question. If I was to do Biomedical Science/Law and it turned out I didn't really like the Biomedical Science aspect of the degree, could I drop it after my first year and just stick with doing straight Law?.. or do I have to wait longer (to drop it)?

Alternative exit(s)

Students may graduate with the Bachelor of Biomedical Science at the end of three years of study, provided they have met the requirements of the Bachelor of Biomedical Science program and completed a minimum of 144 points of total study.

That's what it reads on "University handbook entry". It doesn't really say anything about dropping Biomedical Science as such.

Thanks to anyone who can help! I hope I make some sense.

[ninwa]

Yep just transfer into straight law, shouldn't be a problem

I'm not sure what the requirements are though (i.e. I don't know if the 78% average requirement still applies) - you might need to call up/email the law faculty for that: http://www.law.monash.edu.au/contact/contact-undergraduate-law.html

[eeps]

Thanks for the help again ninwa.

I'll email them. Is Monash even open?.. would I get a quick response from them, considering uni doesn't start for a while yet?

[ninwa]

You should get a response pretty quickly, because summer semester starts pretty soon. (so they're probably open in a couple of days)

[spizaa #5]

I'm currently in my second year of this degree. It is quite difficult. The hours are quite demanding in the first two years. You do 3 biomed subjects and 1 law subject per semester. With each biomed subject, there are 6-8 contact hours. For law subjects there are 3-4 hours per week. The content itself is quite interesting in the biomed part, but there are so many little assessments like 2% quizzes or weekly prac reports or tute presentations that are really frustrating. This means you fall behind in your law subject (Contracts, in my case). Plus the style of learning is completely different. If you have a textbook in a biomed test or exam, you will get 100%. Its like regurgitating knowledge. Law exams are totally different. Which I personally prefer (100% exam option), rather than the 50% exam with 50% of annoying assessment during the semester - means you fall behind way too much. The pracs themselves aren't stimulating either, especially when you're forced to wait an hour sometimes for incubation and limited equipment means you sometimes cant do a proper SDS-PAGE or analysing your own results. But meh. If I had my time again, I would've chosen Commerce/Law.

Ill give you an example of the frustration we biomed-ers experience. BMS2011 - ANATOMY. We were given a list of things we needed to know for the exam at the start of semester (80% exam). The lectures, we were told, were designed to 'supplement' our own textbook learning. And the degree of detail to which we needed to know things wasn't specified. We had to learn every region in detail (nerves, muscles, vessels, viscera). This led to 99% of us devoting 80% of our time to learning hte ENTIRE human body in 12 weeks and ditching other subjects. It sucked. It meant I had less time devoted to contracts, biochem and physiology. Interesting yes, but frustrating how the degree of detail required was not specified, even though we pestered lecturers constantly. The exam itself was pretty accessible, but we didn't need to know anywhere near the degree of detail that we were told earlier. It's like saying, discuss maths. And us going up to learn calculus when all you had to know were your times tables. ugh....anatomy has defs stuffed up my marks. Hopefully passed.......

Its not a bad course. The biomed component can get really irritaiting. I haven o aspirations to do med, whereas 99% of them do. For me, tis about passing and enjoying. For them its all competitive. So it can get irritiating. But whatevs........Fire away if you ahve any more questions