Stethoscopes to Strategy: How to get into B-school with an MBBS

As business continues to become an integral part of the healthcare line and healthcare professionals’ daily work, we see many of them- doctors, dentists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, pharmacists and anyone associated with medical fraternity, after spending nearly a decade in medical school, turn to MBA degrees to learn and polish essential leadership and business skills. If you are a healthcare professional who still wants to continue doing what you are doing, then this article might not be the one for you. However, say you want to build a chain of hospitals. Or be the front guy leading the show in terms of business in the hospital, then keep reading on as we might just have the pro tips you need.

First things first, you have to be true to yourself as to why you want to do an MBA. There must be a certain degree of alignment between what you have done in the past and what you plan on doing and achieving in the future. So sit with that journal and a pen and write down why you want to jump into the business aspect of medical practice- maybe you want to get into a management role in hospital administration, or start a healthcare service business (might be health-tech), or set up and expand medical practices. Essentially, you must be able to leverage your past experience, complement that with an MBA, and add value. You chose a noble profession, to begin with, and the business aspect not only opens up a plethora of opportunities but also helps you add value to people’s lives on a much larger scale.

Now that you know why you want to do an MBA, lets explore the “how”- how do you convince the Admission Committee members of your preferred Business School that you are a right fit for their program? You can start by saying, “having worked in the industry for so many years, I have some insights around how things work and the challenges that come with them. Now, I want to leverage my skills to start my own venture. However, having no formal education about how to manage people and businesses, I want to do an MBA.”

Apart from this, there are numerous other ways that healthcare professionals can add value to a classroom of MBA aspirants-

1. They can share with their peers the rigorous program of the medical institution that they have gone through for almost a decade.

2. If someone in their batch from a technology background wants to start a healthcare-based software, the experiences of the medical professional will be essential for them to understand the dynamics of the healthcare business.

3. They have a strong emotional quotient- i.e., they are brutally honest, objective, and don’t mix emotions with logic. They can share their knowledge about how to decouple emotions from work and not bring an emotional angle into things that require one to think logically.

While a second degree or a career in management may not be for everyone, it has been helping more and more physicians to reclaim control of their lives. Even if you don’t have a degree, you can stay ahead of the game by paying attention to the business parts of your professions, asking questions, gathering information, and arming yourself with business knowledge. The same goes for medical practitioners. After all, patients are frequently referred to as “healthcare consumers,” therefore it’s no surprise that hospitals and medical practices have altered their attitude from “practice of medicine” to “business of healthcare.”, and it’s time to catch up.

So if you are wondering how to showcase skills learned in the medical field in a Business school application, register for a pro bono session with our experts (who have guided several others like you) at CrackAdmission.

There’s no better time to blend clinical knowledge and management acumen!