Dear Nemesis,
Medicine is an unqiue experience. It is definitely more than just a job because we are here to help and care for the sick and you don't do that just during office hours.
When you become a doctor, you are a doctor every second of your life. Your relatives and friends might call you up in the middle of the night for help. If you see someone collapse while you are shopping you WILL jump on him and start CPR.
That is the beauty of medicine. The satisfaction is not from the money(which i reiterate again that there is none), not from the compliments of your patients (sometimes it is just blind idolization) and definitely not from the prestige (now doctors are much hated people).
It is simply that we can fulfill these responsibilities: to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always.
Your soon-to-be Colleague
oh! a blog entry to me! *honoured*
ReplyDeleteyup, i definitely agree that medicine is a unique experience - the fact that i could be useful *anytime, anywhere* is what draws me to the profession.
but there are times when i get caught in dilemmas, like the time when i was in a cab, which was caught in a jam along CTE. i saw a motorcyclist falling sideways onto the ground. on one hand, i wanted to ask the taxi driver to pull over, on the other hand, i saw him getting up, perhaps with some slight scratches and hence assumed that he was alright.
my final rationale was that he was alright and hence i shouldn't add on to the bad jam coz' the cab driver would have to stop in the middle of the last lane.
the satisfaction would definitely not be in the money, or lack thereof, and i am pretty aware of the verbal abuse that a doc has to be put through.
i guess it will be a road of discoveries, and i really hope there are no killing of chickens, no staying over at the morgue, no floating patients in the middle of the night...
will probably pester my church leaders about this abortion issue - non-objector vs "the accomplice". =)
hope you pull through it. sometimes don't rationalize too much.
ReplyDeleteas the chinese saying goes, just treat what comes before you with a 平常心.
Hate to be the "bubble-burster" & devil's advocate but medicine, for me, it became just another job. The only way live normally was to push every human consideration to the back of my mind and just get back home in one piece at the end of the day. One thing is for sure, if you go into this, not only will your value system be challenged but your relationship with loved ones will change. You will probably end up with one of these 3 things when you go through the medical practice: 1. Fulfillment. 2. Indifference. 3. Doubt. Unfortunately you can't take your pick on which.
ReplyDeletei agree with you totally. most doctors start out with much passion but the system always has a way to kill the fire.
ReplyDeleteas we become more senior we can better handle these conflicts, to be a good dr vs doing a job. It is a balance of both becoz you will fatigue quickly just doing the former.
For the younglings, I hope they don't lose their passion even b4 working. So lets shower them with lots of encouragement instead of projecting our own angst at them. :)