hat tip to Deanna Lee, UM
Being a doctor means….
Studying 5/6 long years when all your other comrades are beginning to embark on their masters/ PHDs. Or after they have all had their job promotions, you just begun to be promoted form studying to working life.
Studying 24/7 whilst your friends are shopping, holidaying, partying and having the time of their life
Doing on calls when other people are in the midst of their slumber sleep where sweet dreams means being able to sleep 1 hour, undisturbed during on calls.
Loosing 2 years of salary as we are busy studying during clinical years which we were not paid for
Instead of earning, we got to pay our tuition fees. If you get into public university or securing a scholarship- you’re sure damn lucky
If you don’t, your parents will have to spend a bomb for your education which means giving up their property like houses, lands so that you will be an educated good doctor.
What they didn’t know is-
1) They have just recruited you into a life long slavery programme
2) You will treat other people’s parents/family except your own parents; other’s children except your own and being at other people’s bedside rather then your home.
3) You will be too busy to participate in any family/ friend gatherings; be it any important anniversaries, birthdays, weddings.
4) You will even be too busy/ forget to return home
You’re forever exposed to occupational hazards and infectious disease- 1st to get sick- YOU! (Doctors are humans too with “humane” immune system- no less superior then other humans)
You give up your youth and beauty and find yourself aging faster and getting older and uglier compared to your friends
When your peers can make up and dress up you can only dream of it- for there is no room for dresses/ skirts/ heels; these are replaced by pants and crocs to ease running around the hospital/ performing procedures and preventing your beautiful shoes being splashed by liquor and placenta blood.
You’re a walking/ alive encyclopedia+ robot- expected to know everything and do anything. If you don’t know- you would still HAVE to know. Sky rocketing high expectations are expected for you to fulfill.
Friends even call you in the middle of the night/ before sunrise just to ask you if her husband is having an affair or that the pimple she is having will cause her death.
You’re phone shall never be silent again… ever ringing and buzzing (oh yea no allowance for telephone bills too)
Travelling= hospital hopping via thrown out from district hospital to Klinik Desa/ running around working place to run errands
High EQ= being able to withstand criticism by superiors, inferiors and patients
Gym = performing CPR hoping patients will regain consciousness when you know its too little but too late and also running around the hospital to send ABG’s and collecting lab results
Saving lives= your duty and responsibilities, no praises and gratitude for that
Patient’s die/ not cured/unable to cure = your negligence, misjudgment, ignorance and lack of knowledge= YOU ALSO DIE WITH THEM or SEE YOU IN COURT!
Patient’s life= your life
Your life= U Mati, U sendiri tanggung!= no life, life not worth living…
Insurance= you buy medical health insurance, Doctors buy malpractice insurance to pay for the court fees which is 10X more expensive then health insurance :p
Home= hospital
Family= patients
Socializing= meeting more patients and their family
On diet = forgetting/ not having adequate time for meals
Normal working hours= 6.30am till 7pm; on calls= 6.30am till 7pm (if your lucky on the next day) EOD=every other day calls; post call= sleep replacement therapy.
Dating and marriage= dating your patients and being married to your job (not romance between doctor and patient- unethical) ok if you get lucky you may have an actual romance date with the nurse, luckier- pharmacist, luckiest- your on call mate!
Dating grounds= hospital compound- clinics, wards, if you’re lucky -cafeteria
***It is so not Grey’s anatomy perceived scandalous life…
Just as you meet the guy whom you think is of your dreams in one of the rare parties that you are able to attend- he asked what you worked as- you shyly answered “doctor”- he then grinned, excuses himself and never to be heard/ seen again. If you’re guy, this will so never happen; gals gladly sprawl upon your feet- so I guess that’s the best benefit after all being a male doctor.
Word’s not found in a doctor’s dictionary= public holidays, any form of holidays, good night’s sleep. New Year countdown= counting down on patient’s bedside; Chinese New Year= having less Chinese patients admitted to hospital.
If you still think we are still rich and own big superhot cars and abundant properties and assets…
We already lost 2 years of salary to begin with and have super expensive fees to fund
Lost another 2 years of pay increment
Our starting pay and rank is = to nurses, pharmacists and dentist; hence there is no difference between us and them
Our pay is equivalent to a star buck’s waiter if calculated a per hour basis.
Our pay increment is only RM70/ year
Totally overworked and underpaid
Oh yeah and we just had our pay rise! Great! But the char koay teow has gone up too from RM2 to RM4 so are the house rents and bills!
We also got to pay our study loans back- which is so not modest.
Okay yeah we may be rich….why?
1) we are too busy to spend our money
2) we are too tired to spend our money
3) we forgot/ had no time to eat and buy groceries
4) we are stuck in some rural unknown area where the only shopping place available is the insufficient “kedai runcit” and YAY the nice makcik next door just cooked an awesome meal for us.
Okla… I have not regretted YET and still enjoying what I’m doing! I hope I won’t… just to clear your misconceptions… Being a doctor is not as great as the society thinks… we’re still some form of slaves maybe with a more prestigious name - unfortunately maybe not to the ones dearest/ most important to us.
And so we pray for our Healer’s adorn merciful grace not only for our sake but our patient’s…
Our Father healer in heaven
Merciful savior thy name
Thy therapeutic grace come
Thy will be done in all health centers and where there is the sick also needy
Give us this day our daily wisdom, meals, strength and sufficient rest
And forgive our misconstrue as we forgive those who irrationally demand us
Lead us not into medicolegal issues but deliver us away from occupational hazards and infections
For thy kingdom, healing power, grace and glory
Now and forevermore
Amen.
Thus reads my friend’s sms:
A doctor has a special call,
He/she must minister to all,
The Hippocratic Oath he makes,
To do no harm to those he takes,
His studies does not end there as new methods come up everywhere,
Much time is put everyday,
To meet demands that comes his way,
To be a friend to all is no small task,
In all he does he must come last,
It is complete dedication to his duty; responsibility to patients asked,
Late hours, long days are his plight;
Compassion and love are his life,
To God he answers for decisions,
Based on knowledge and considerations.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment