Example sentences
yī医shēng生zěn怎me么shuō说？
What did the doctor say?
tā他qù去kàn看yī医shēng生le了。
He went to see a doctor.
About this word
医 is to heal and 生 is a person suffix, so 医生 is literally a "healing person". The same 生 builds 学生 (student), 先生 (mister), 留学生, which is why all of these end in a light, unstressed sheng. Register matters here: 医生 is the neutral term used nationwide, while 大夫 (dàifu) is the everyday northern word and does not have to mean a hospital doctor. 医生 is the person; the building is 医院.
The story behind the character
医
The traditional 醫 is a container holding 矢 (an arrow) and 酉 (wine). The ancients treated wounds with an arrow for surgery (lancing, bleeding) and wine for disinfection. So the earliest doctor's toolkit was one arrow and one jug of wine.
生
A sprout poking out of the ground: the bottom line is the soil, the rest is the shoot coming up. Xu Shen wrote 生, 进也, 象草木生出土上: "to grow, like a plant breaking the surface." So the 生 in 学生 and 先生 started as a blade of grass sprouting.