Aspire to be a doctor? Prepare tad better!

The other day, I overheard a conversation between two top-notch officers of their respective companies about getting their offspring admitted into Medical Schools. One was of the view that dental would be a right choice for his ward whereas the other looked down upon dental stream of medical and vigorously advocated for M.B.B.S. So, here is also the class differentiation. M.B.B.S the elite class and Dental the pariah.

Anyways, my point of discussion is different. When people talk about their children getting into medical stream, their objective is the social honor that one is conferred upon when one gets the appellation of M.B.B.S and with the honor comes the glamour quotient with this profession. But, hardly, one ever thinks that why a doctor is needed in the first place while talking about sending their wards to medical schools?

A doctor is needed because there are patients. A patient is one who gets convulsions, who has bowel control problems, who has difficulty in passing stool or urine, who has white patches on his/her skin or who has body parts eaten up by lethal bacteria among many other mental and physical problems. In other words a doctor is needed to alleviate the pain that a patient suffers from.

And there is hardly any romanticism in dealing with such situations, but it is the romanticism of medical that first attracts parents and their wards towards medical stream.

When the society primarily talks of becoming its progeny doctors, the romance is about the Social Status, the Moolah, and the Stable Career. We seldom discuss about medical profession as an opportunity to understand and mitigate the pain suffered by patients in the first place.

We as humans have an ingrained ability that pushes us to be able to help, to serve. The philosophy of serving others gives us a moral kick/high. We tend to be looked upon as magnanimous in our attitude that gives a sense of satisfaction after being able to serve somebody. That is why first thing that our psyche lures us to is: to serve…not to suffer. Because serving is godly and suffering is lowly. And in the garb of serving lowly, we become godly. We humans are innocent hypocrites!

Furthermore, because being an M.B.B.S pushes you up in social echelons, there comes a sense of hubris after being a doctor. And this hubris leads sometimes to uncalled-for behavior by Doctors. They shout at patients and misbehave with them. And the reason under which they conceal such unreasonable behavior is: work load.

If workload is such that it is grinding you, then you should talk about this to your higher management or if workload is sapping up all your mental energy then you should talk about this to your fellow shrinks. But stress doesn’t give you license to behave rudely. I mean what would you say to a pilot if he/she says in the mid- air that only because he/she felt stressed and overworked, so he/she would take dangerous somersaults putting lives of his/her passengers (who also happen to be from upper strata of the society like doctors) in danger or to a waiter who would pour piping hot coffee onto your shirt instead of the cup because he/she was feeling stressed?

You would call them irresponsible and unprofessional, won’t you? And the same applies to the breed of doctors also who behave in wayward way in the name of stress. This ugly behavior stems from the rudiments of the thought (ingrained in society) which says that if you are a doctor then everything is right for you and around you.

No…the thing is that if you are a doctor then you will see the pain and suffering from close quarters and you will get affected by it too. And people around you will have pain and problems for which you will have to provide solution. So, your preparation should include conditioning about the situations that are not lenient and convenient in life.

I mean the romance of becoming a doctor doesn’t start with the perception of behaving in unruly manner; it starts with the notion to serve not to slice.

Therefore, as a society we must learn that becoming a Doctor is not only about the social stateliness and paraphernalia attached to it, but it is also (and mostly)about understanding human suffering and emotions tad better than uninitiated ones.

And when we talk about the polymath & dexterous doctors, we forget diametrically about the patients. I mean being a patient also deserves social accolades (not only sympathy, empathy and on some occasions affront that patients are meted out by society), because when patients suffer, it needs gallons of gallantry to surmount the challenges posed by their destiny. I am waiting for the day when gallantry award or higher order civilian awards would be conferred upon patients who fight valiantly with dreaded diseases and defy them and sometimes (many times) succumb to them intrepidly.

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P.S: Though this article deals with the rude behavior of doctors, it is not in any way an allusion that all doctors are the same. The good and great souls are always there in every field.