Monday, November 17, 2008

Med School to Doctor Transition

By Shawn Vuong

These last two posts highlighting some of the medical education we would like to give through this blog to the general public, has had me look back on my extremely short medical career (currently in week 17).  

Healhcare reform is in the air, and from what I've read and heard about the morale of health care professionals, it is at an "all time low."  Many professors and physicians come in to teach us different topics, and many say, "It looks bleak out there, I hope you know what your in for."  

What worries me is the transition.  What happens to the altruistic medical student who wants to save the world?  What beats him/her into submission and makes them into bitter doctors? Is it the troubles we deal with during our residency training?  

A recent article by Dr. Edwin Leap makes me think so.  He calls out to all residents and interns as medicine's last hope.  It is inspiring and really heartwarming, makes me want to go out and save a life.  Hopefully I can keep this in the back of my mind for the rest of my hopefully long and fulfilling career.  

Be our hope, my friends!  Be the hope of medicine, the hope of the wounded parents and febrile children, the gasping elderly and the poisoned teens.  And learn to see all you do through the eyes of a higher calling.  That perspective, if you can develop it and hold tightly to it, will keep you happier than any political reform or paycheck ever could.

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