Random Thoughts

Doctor’s Career: The Beginning

Graduating from medical school means that we are released to the jungle right away. We, doctors, are supposed to deal with people’s lives without any assistance anymore. However “social” this job may seem to be, it’s no difference from other jobs. Doctors need to earn money for their livings from the medical service they give to patients. Don’t be hypocritical, all doctors need to fulfill their needs first before he can help others socially without expecting payment. It’s just a simple basic rule: only settled people can help others. That means, in order to fulfill our needs, doctors need to earn more money. By earning more money, that means competition among the doctors.

For fresh-graduated doctors (at least fresh-graduated GP), there is no place for us in that dreamy picture: a convenient and comfortable working situation. No. On the contrary, we must strive in our career by working in pitiful places with a very minimum salary. Not to mention that some of us receive lower payment than the regional minimum wage for doing our risky jobs, that is keeping people alive. However, this is a phase that all GPs (read: all ordinary “mudblood” GPs, i.e. who are not included in the medical kingdom) must go through.

This is us, working in a place whose building condition is concerning and receiving low salary for high risk jobs. Even sadder, our government’s regulation about internship program never mentions that doctors will receive ‘salary’. Instead, they call it as ‘basic life support’. This ‘basic life support’ is paid once in 3 months the quickest. Well, the term is literally more suitable concerning the insufficiency of the amount of money for living and the fact that even we have to wait at least 3 months or longer to receive something that is actually insufficient.

However saddening this condition might seem to be, I believe that this is not forever, nor occurring to all doctors. This is just the beginning of our careers. There are still senior doctors who are working in a very cozy practice room in a huge and luxurious hospitals. Some time later, he will need replacement. And at that time, we are no longer ‘new’ doctors. So at that time, we’ll gain what we’ve been struggling from the beginning. All we need to do for the time being is persevere with this condition, practice and be sharp as much as we could. I believe the cozy and comfortable rooms and working situation are waiting for us.

Facing a Crossroad in Life

Each person will face his/her crossroads in life. You know, that place where we face lots of turnings and don’t know which way to go. The place that all fresh-graduated doctors are reaching to. We are all asking ourselves,”Am I about to stop my education at general practitioner? Am I about to work on my own, in a clinic, in a hospital, or in a company? If I’m about to continue my education, am I able to go through all those years with all burden and stress (and money) all over again as a resident to become specialist? Or will I take non-clinical pathway as a lecturer, researcher? Even worse, can I be a doctor?”

It’s like traveling in a car and all of sudden the car stops at an intersection. It will be easy to ask others directions if we know where we want to go. But different thing will happen if we’re asked,”Where are you going?” and we answer,”I don’t know.” Well, it’s kind of difficult to tell directions to someone who is clueless as to the destination, isn’t it?

I believe that in such conditions, we need to be sure that we know where we’re going before searching for the paths there. These questions we need to ask ourselves,

Do I have a destination?

Do I have directions on how to get there?

Or am I frozen at the crossroads of life?

This crossroad is the place where we need to take big decisions that will determine our future, yet we can’t undo. I believe that we all dread these types of situations and nobody can tell us the right thing to do. But there is something that we definitely do not want to do. That something is nothing. Have you ever seen a deer stunned by headlights?  It panics as the vehicle speeds toward it in the dark of night.  It’s blinded by a combination of bright lights and paralyzing fear.  It can go left or right, forward or backward.  It can sprint, leap, walk or turn around.  But what does it do?  Unfortunately, all too often, Bambi stands frozen in place as 4,000 pounds of metal smash right into her. Life crossroads can be the same thing to us.

When it’s time to make a move and we stand there doing nothing, we pretty much get run over. Instead of making things happen, doing nothing just lets them happen to us.  This sucks for so many reasons, but primarily because it is not living. Living is taking an active role.  It is sitting in the driver’s seat of our life—deciding which way to turn, who to take with us, what path to follow. This is not a trip that we want to sleep through.

Lastly, let’s find what we want in life. This is a huge decision to make. This will affect our future in every aspect. Or at least, if this is too much, let’s start to care and think about our future. Life is not all about fun and holidays and vacations. Let’s do something.