So you wanna be a doctor? Part I

And you are sure that your “obsession” or “insistence” of wanting to be a doctor is not because:

• Everyone around you (especially your parents) have been telling you that you should/must since secondary/primary/nursery school..
• Everyone around you (especially your parents) expects/wants you to..
• Everyone thinks that medicine is the ONLY option for “best students", and (you think) you are the best..
• You think it is cool to be a doctor because of all the television dramas such as ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, etc..
• You think medicine is all about slaving through that 5, 6 or 7 years in the university and you will have an iron rice bowl since doctors don’t get retrenched (instead they get sued, but that is another topic of discussion..)..
• You think you look good in a white coat and get high from people calling you “Dr”..
• You think you can order the nurses around to do those messy and dirty jobs so that you don’t have to since you are the “Dr”..
• You think you don’t have to have good bedside manners and can be mean to your patients, your peers, your superiors and still not get fired because you are the “Dr”, like in House MD..
• You think being a doctor is just like being in the Red Crescent (or Red Cross) and St. John’s.. Or in that commercial on TV where a bunch of medical students save a poor guy’s life..

If you have any of the above misconception, STOP!!! You couldn’t be more wrong!!

I am not a doctor, but my baby sister is.. Read this and this.. She was not pushed into medicine. She genuinely thought that she will be helping the needy and the sick by being a doctor, yet she is regretting her decision EVERY SINGLE DAY. It just break my heart every time I see how she has to drag herself to work..

It is the working environment that is killing her and her fellow colleagues. The government/ministry doesn’t give a damn about them, with everyone being overworked and stressed out beyond limits. They were told to “suck it up” and “stop being softies since their bosses had it much worse during their time”. "Doctors can die, but patients can't.." Can you imagine working in an environment where it is the norm for doctors to get an IV-drip instead of a MC when they are sick so that they can keep on working? There are many more that I will talk about in later. So I really feel that I need to burst the bubbles and throw icy cold water to all unrealistic grandeur dreams of all doctor-wannabes.

You might think I am being cold and uncaring for discouraging people from helping the society. I do not deny that indeed, we DO need people to be doctors, but I want whoever aspired to go into medicine to do it with their eyes opened wide and know exactly what they are getting themselves into. They need to see and understand the cruel reality that they are expected to sacrifice A LOT to realize their dreams of being a doctor, and ask themselves realistic but tough questions to find out if they have what it takes.

To be continued..