Why do you want to become a physician?
They ask us this question when we enter med-school, they ask us this question when we apply for a residency and they ask us this question when we apply for fellowships. But do we really have an answer to this question? Why would someone really want to become a physician?
The Usual Reasons
Those who enter med-school, do so because, ‘They want to help,‘ ‘They want to end suffering,‘ ‘They want to provide solutions for those who are suffering,‘ which apparently is true, we really wanted to. But guess what, anyone can help, even a child can help. Anyone can come up with solutions to suffering. But no one can end suffering. Each human being has to go through their own fair share of suffering. Then why become a physician, really?
Imagine Now
After a tiring shift, where you weren’t even able to find time to eat or go to bathroom for hours, running back and forth, so much that you can’t even feel your legs anymore! The admissions keep on flooding and you can’t even say no, even though you know you have hit your maximum for the day.
Now, It’s 4am in the morning, you are finally done with paperwork and checking on all your patients, you decide to hit the bed and get at least an hour of sleep and get ready for the morning round. Suddenly, a nurse calls you for patient so and so who is crashing, guess what, you checked on the same patient 30 mins ago and everything was good. By now, your legs feel numb, your brain feels dead, you are so tired, you just wanna give up, and amidst all this you are required to run the code.
Still want to help? Still want to end the suffering? how about trying the solution? Given, you have no strength left for your own self?
Believe me, it’s more than just ‘I wanna help’ we all wanna help but to become a physician it takes a lot of strength, courage, sacrifice, determination, bravery and zeal. It wears you out. It takes years of hard work and practice, it takes hell lot of sacrifices.
This is the reason they ask us this question every time and it’s ok to have your own reasons. I have mine too. At the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves, are we ready for it? Are we willing for it? Are we determined to put our hearts and souls in it?
If you are, trust me, this is the path for you!
I hope I was able to inspire you with this blogpost! For more inspiring content don’t forget to follow me on scrubs.and.books at instagram. If you are still wondering if medicine is right career for you, click here! Read the post and make a conscious decision.