[recom.org] Why I Choose Medicine

Babikia wrote:

Top students want to be doctors, not so top students also want to be docs, really bad students also want to be docs. The nightmare is that all of them, including the really idiotic ones can become docs someway or another. The nightmare worsens as the number of not-so-smart but $$ minded docs exceeds the nearly extinct smart with a heart of gold ones.

Tab wrote:

also, how can you justify the fact that someone is 'not so smart'? Can you point to a person and say, "hey, your SPM/ STPM result is crap... you're not cut out to be a doctor!"?
Can you point to a high achiever in exams and say that 'oh look, that student is bound to be a good doctor!"?
The fact is that we won't know who will make a good doctor UNTIL that person finally graduates from med school and becomes a real, bona fide doctor. It is then, and only then, that one is able to judge whether or not that individual is really competent and cut out to be a doctor.

I rest my case.

Babikia wrote:

That's how many msians are. Judging everyone by their academic results. You've just elaborated a typical msian with all the typical elements: exam results, medicine. Damn, you guys are fun. But I'm still gonna hack on all you future docs. One day, going to med school will be like going to high school. Anyone can get a medical education.

I agree with your point that Malaysian and most Asian country society has a biased emphasis on academic result and a neglection of other human qualities. And also, many parents indeed exerted pressure on their children towards becoming doctors so that they have something to boast of. Uncomfortable, but it is the truth.

But I don't get the point you keep on "hacking on all future doctors". Now I tell you:

I wanted to become a doctor because I derive great pleasure from being able to help others (ask those who know me personally in ReCom if you don't believe it). Just being able to see a doctor joining the tendons in a crushed finger and re-enabling the finger movement, gives me sheer thrill and excitement with a magnitude of more than the one you can derive from rambling around in an online forum. You feel happy when your patient recovers; you feel gratified when your patient looks at you with a grateful glance; even when your patient failed to recover or even died, you know that if there had been a chance for her, you were there to give her that chance. You know, talk about job satisfaction, cliche but it's true. Last but not least, the "taboo" - I want to earn money, a good amount of them to ensure a good life quality for my future family.

In my secondary school years, I obtained a fairly good result and I was involved in quite some array of extracurricular activities. Today, here I am, a first year medical student in Melbourne University, fresh and naive. It's only the tenth week of my course today, but I have already had some idea of life as a medical student. Stark picture? A bit grey, but not really stark. Studying medicine indeed involves a lot of memorisation and I totally agree with the saying that you don't need a rocket scientist brain to study medicine. You need to be astute, professional, disciplined, empathic, well-resourced, endowed with fairly good memory etc; but I can assure you, intelligence is not a prerequisite.

Let's go back to life as a medical student... Take an example, embryology, the subject I am studying now. Embryology is challenging and confusing, it takes ages for me to read, let alone understand and remember. But you know, it amazes me, it's something I want to know more about and have great interest in. It's something I like. How the zygote transformed from two layers to three layers, how 3 layers of cells fold into the shape of a fetus in the womb, they are all things that captivate my imagination whenever I read it and put myself in the embryo's shoes (weird expression huh?). I know it might be hard for me to do well or score in the exam, but the crux of the matter is, at the end of the day, I knew I enjoyed learning. That's it.

If everything turns out fine for me, I will be a GP in 5 years time. Yes, if you ask me, I can definitely foresee that the life as a doctor is going to be stressful and strenuous. Although I know the immense magnitude of the work pressure, the peril of the hospital environment and the sacrifice of the family and social life I have to make, but I am sure it's a trade-off I have chosen with a right frame of mind. I want to be an excellent doctor, someone who can make a difference in people's lives. I can come home dog-tired physically but I want my psyche to be contentful of what I have done everyday. With my good work, I want to be repaid with some handsome but well-deserved income because I know that my family deserve nothing but the best. Of course I know money is not everything in this world; but everything else being equal, money certainly helps you attain a better quality of life.

I hope that I can live my life to the fullest. Period.


And now, hack on me.