Hi Friends, I know for most of us, the magical dream begins with a two letter word in front of our name. “DR” – It means lot to the society and of course to our parents. I know, the reason is very simple, why most of us got admired to this white coat profession. Wholesome salary, Prestigious, you easily got sold in the marriage market, earn till your end and so on. Is it so easy? Yeah, the big question mark starts here. Those who really want to become a doctor in near future, just work out the questions below. If you got ‘YES’ for all those questions, go further. Or else just quit.
It may spoil your thoughts. Because it’s full of truth and it’s infectious.
- Do you want to serve the needy and poor?
- Are you ready to compromise your family functions and all other stuffs?
- Do you want to earn some good hearts and souls before you die?
- Will you accept the reluctant looks of the society on you as a new inexperienced doctor?
- Have you heard the story of a doctor and the mechanic?
Well, let’s solve one by one. The very first question, do you want to serve the needy and the poor? Have you ever wondered the state rank holders, giving speech like politicians in front of the camera. Mostly, the dialogue starts like this, “I will join medicine and I will serve the poor and the needy.” But due course they will be forgotten by the media and they also used to forgot their promises. If they have kept their promises, we won’t be losing lives in the villages. Yes, here I want to accept one thing that we doctors, always look for a sophisticated life and salary per hour basis. We never cared about the lives of villages. But bear in mind exceptions are always there. Since exceptions never make a rule, I want the future and the present generation to be involved in this. So only, I made a question like this. Because, we here already loaded with lots of people who don’t want to serve the needy. Am one of them, but I want to be in the exception.
Are you ready to compromise your family functions and all other stuffs? Is the very next question to be answered. Becoming a doctor is not as easy as cracking a joke. I hope you all will all accept the fact. But how hard it is? That you want to know, before choosing yourself as a doctor. The life of a doctor starts with books and ends with books. In the era of internet, people are intelligent than a doctor with the help of ‘Google’ master. You want to know all types of fever from common viral fever to yellow fever. But they will be expert in the fever what they have got. There you will be locked. So the only way to overcome is this, reading … reading…. and reading only. Minimum of 6 hours per day in your UG life, 18 hours in your PG preparation period, 10 hours in your PG life and no time limit once you become a practitioner. In simple, you want to get updated more than a Google. The time span is also little high, UG- five and half years plus one year of rural service (will be implemented in near future), PG – 3 years and super specialty – 3 years plus your arrears and your preparation time, it will come around 15 years. Patience only makes the way. At last, You can’t postponed a life saving surgery for a reason that today is your daughter’s birthday. If it’s the fact with your daughter, I hope you know what will be with, the other family members.
Third question, the single question, I can answer you undoubtedly. You can earn more and more hearts. It’s easy for a doctor to forget their patient, but not so easy for a patient to forget their doctor. And keep in mind you are not playing with machines, so each and everyone have their own love and affection for you. That’s make our profession great. I like to add a story here from my own experience. During my CRRI, I was treating a diabetes patient in his 60’s. He was on insulin and he is not in a sound mind. I never saw their sons or daughters. The lady in his late 50’s is taking care of her husband. He always refused to take insulin and drugs. Once I entered the ward, he acts like a child in front of me. ‘Sorry doctor, here after I will take correctly’, he used to say. Once I left, he starts his own drama. So I used to scold him, care him. Time went on, I was in another department. They both searched for me the whole hospital and thanked me. That man in 60 not able to recognize me. Her wife told, ‘Without this Doctor, You wouldn’t be alive now’.
Does these 26 alphabets enough to explain my feeling?
No profession in this world will give you this much satisfaction. I’m damn, sure about that.
Fourth one, after these much toil, you will expect that the society will treat you like a great doctor. But in real, it’s not the story. They simply ignore you by saying, he is a new one, he is inexperienced, we can go to some other doctor. In this phase all the doctors
need a medicine called PATIENCE. If you are ready to face all these troubles, surely you will shine a great doctor for your grand-daughter.
I hope you all might have heard the story. Yet I share it here, because it implies more meaning. Suresh, the car mechanic was removing some engine valves from a car on the lift when he spotted the famous heart surgeon, Dr.M.Chenniappan, who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager. Morris, somewhat of a loud mouth, shouted across the garage, “Hey Doctor… Is that you? Come over here a minute.”
The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to where suresh was working on a car. Suresh in a loud voice, all could hear, said argumentatively, “So Mr. Fancy doctor, look at this work. I also take valves out, grind ‘em, put in new parts, and when I finish this baby will purr like a kitten. So how come you get the big bucks, when you and me are doing basically the same work?” Dr.Chenniappan, very embarrassed, walked away, and said softly to Morris, “Try doing your work with the engine running.” That’s the doctor’s job.In a nutshell, Life of a doctor is not so easy. Yet we live a divine and pleasant life by saving other lives. I welcome you all to the community of doctors. But be cautious you are entering an Endangered Zone.
Written by
Dr. Sathyaseelan, a District Topper in 10’th grade
Medicine graduate from Tanjore Medical College,
Professional Blogger Lyricist and Dialogue Writer.