Junior Colleagues!
In the past 48 hours ive met two young nigerians who want to study medicine. The first is the daughter of one of my patients sisters who apparently is the only one of her generation interested in pursuing a further education. She is from a low income family and her mother at first wanted to discourage her in view of the financial burden her dreams of being a doctor may cause.
She apparently wanted to read pharmacy but was told by ?who that the only way to make money as a pharmacist was to open your own pharmacy shop! and that being a doctor was more lucrative. I wonder whoever told her that? I tried to albeit unsuccesfully dissuade her from her pursuit especially since i could see that money was the motivation. I might as well have been talking to a cat to stop licking its fur.
Before i chose the 'glorious' field of medicine, i thought it was the only course worth studying. I had from an early age, (my earliest recollections of my decision to read medicine was when i was asked by friends of my grandparents what i wanted to be when i grew up the word doctor popped out from my mouth) known that medicine was it for me.
Not so my twin who vacillated between several end points until finally she decided that computer science was it for her. A wiser decision don't you think!. I wish i had then people who could point out other far more interesting fields and show me a few qualities that may have put me in the best positon to change course.
But like my young friend i dreamt, ate, slept and read medicine, somehow my knowing that it was medicine had been "written" long before i had anything to do with it, it was just to be and i daresay a thousand prophets of doom could not have made me change my mind.
The second young nigerian was male, both his parents are doctors and he has already gained admission to my alma mater. He must have been suprised to hear me trying to dissuade him from the chosen line especially since he had already committed himself by gaining admission to a medical school. I tried my best but in contrast to the first doctor to be he seemed quiite sure it was medicine and none other.
Why have i appointed myself a dissuader of those who are deciding on a career in medicine. First of all i think that many of the young ones have visions only of the glory of medicine. They view the profession through rose tinted glasses and know nothing of the drudgery, sacrifice and goriness of it all. I believe that any young person wishing to take on a life of medical practice should at least have an oppurtunity to visit a hospital to see what real doctors do not only watch films that show the doctors in aquamarine blue scrubs with hardly a hair out of place looking like he just stepped out of a magazine!
They should see that the doctors time is not his own. (I had the advantage of seeing my dad work long hours, asleep after long night calls in the morning on our way to school and not yet back by our bedtime, so i had adequate warning) He performs all sorts of disgusting procedures like putting his fingers in that part of the human body that about a zillion bacteria live in. He gets spattered with blood or liquor in the emergency room, operating room and labour room, he expends tremendous emotional pressure when taking care of patients. It is not as easy as it seems talking to patients about the pathology that has brought them to you, proffering options for treatment, and of course the doctor faces death daily.
The loss of a patient especially one you have cared for is a big blow no matter that you tried to be as unattached as possible. What exactly am i saying 'to be a doctor is no glamorous task'. Maybe the honor and respect you see given to doctors is what attracts you to the course, know that for the twenty patients who kowtow to your presumed knowledge and skill there are ten more who don't give two hoots about you, you get the good as well as the bad.
If i had known all this before i ran along the way to study medicine, would i have changed my mind and looked for something more benign to study? I doubt so like my friends junior colleagues one and two the dream to read medicine must come to pass*****
She apparently wanted to read pharmacy but was told by ?who that the only way to make money as a pharmacist was to open your own pharmacy shop! and that being a doctor was more lucrative. I wonder whoever told her that? I tried to albeit unsuccesfully dissuade her from her pursuit especially since i could see that money was the motivation. I might as well have been talking to a cat to stop licking its fur.
Before i chose the 'glorious' field of medicine, i thought it was the only course worth studying. I had from an early age, (my earliest recollections of my decision to read medicine was when i was asked by friends of my grandparents what i wanted to be when i grew up the word doctor popped out from my mouth) known that medicine was it for me.
Not so my twin who vacillated between several end points until finally she decided that computer science was it for her. A wiser decision don't you think!. I wish i had then people who could point out other far more interesting fields and show me a few qualities that may have put me in the best positon to change course.
But like my young friend i dreamt, ate, slept and read medicine, somehow my knowing that it was medicine had been "written" long before i had anything to do with it, it was just to be and i daresay a thousand prophets of doom could not have made me change my mind.
The second young nigerian was male, both his parents are doctors and he has already gained admission to my alma mater. He must have been suprised to hear me trying to dissuade him from the chosen line especially since he had already committed himself by gaining admission to a medical school. I tried my best but in contrast to the first doctor to be he seemed quiite sure it was medicine and none other.
Why have i appointed myself a dissuader of those who are deciding on a career in medicine. First of all i think that many of the young ones have visions only of the glory of medicine. They view the profession through rose tinted glasses and know nothing of the drudgery, sacrifice and goriness of it all. I believe that any young person wishing to take on a life of medical practice should at least have an oppurtunity to visit a hospital to see what real doctors do not only watch films that show the doctors in aquamarine blue scrubs with hardly a hair out of place looking like he just stepped out of a magazine!
They should see that the doctors time is not his own. (I had the advantage of seeing my dad work long hours, asleep after long night calls in the morning on our way to school and not yet back by our bedtime, so i had adequate warning) He performs all sorts of disgusting procedures like putting his fingers in that part of the human body that about a zillion bacteria live in. He gets spattered with blood or liquor in the emergency room, operating room and labour room, he expends tremendous emotional pressure when taking care of patients. It is not as easy as it seems talking to patients about the pathology that has brought them to you, proffering options for treatment, and of course the doctor faces death daily.
The loss of a patient especially one you have cared for is a big blow no matter that you tried to be as unattached as possible. What exactly am i saying 'to be a doctor is no glamorous task'. Maybe the honor and respect you see given to doctors is what attracts you to the course, know that for the twenty patients who kowtow to your presumed knowledge and skill there are ten more who don't give two hoots about you, you get the good as well as the bad.
If i had known all this before i ran along the way to study medicine, would i have changed my mind and looked for something more benign to study? I doubt so like my friends junior colleagues one and two the dream to read medicine must come to pass*****
Finally, I would succumb to the temptation of jotting down a few lines.
ReplyDeleteI would never forget these two statements in my first weeks of preclinical lectures. One lecturer welcomed us with this statement - "So these are the people who have the big mistake" (The mistake? Choosing medicine as a profession). Another one said, "You are suffering from intellectual over-enthusiasm". Both statements have been proved true in some aspects over the years.
Personally, though some of my close friends taunt me occasionally on why I chose this profession, I still believe there was no better path set out for me. a friend called me a few weeks ago, reminding of my high school performances in Physics and other Math-related subjects. She had secretly wondered why over the years, "why did he choose medicine?"
I must say the nostalgic memories serve up some transient periods of elation, but they are only transient!!!!! I think of NOW, and the medical world does not look so good presently.
Nonmedics watch Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs and picture the typical hospital ward as a real life soap. Many of us know that's not true. A younger friend with good business skills asked me for advice some time ago - he had wanted to study Medicine but did not have his way so he chose a related course. He recently graduated and still wants to study Medicine. He wanted to hear my opinion. For the first time as regarding such matters, I was not bashful. I told him to stick to the Nonmedical line.
To complicate matters, he gave a spiritual angle to it...someone had told him he was going to be a doctor. What should I do now? Persist or Relax.