Today a rather interesting conversation was started regarding passion in medicine. It is very interesting to hear the different points of view. At this stage most people swear that they are studying medicine in the hopes of being able to help people. There are some people that are, however, still interested in the money. It was interesting to meet the doctor at our community site this week. He was the only doctor in a clinic that serves 6000 patients every month. He has probably had every opportunity to move overseas or change to private practice, but the amazing thing is that he didn't. Clearing something else is at work. It was on the verge of tears that he told us that we still had the opportunity to change career.
In this country the health care system faces many challenges. In many cases only a fraction of the qualified doctors stay in the public sector. To not give back to the community and to not make a real difference (since you can touch more lives in public practice) almost seems a little unethical to me. If you go into a career thinking about the money you may make what is the point, if it is not something that you enjoy, or rather if you are not helping as many people as possible then surely you are in the wrong profession? Granted, working in private practice and then working one day a month in a public clinic is noble, but it does not compare to doing it every day. In many cases it is not even a question of money or working conditions. Consultants are paid more than a million rand a year, I don't need to buy my own boat, I don't even want an expensive car, it's enough for me. It's not even a question of whether you should work in private practice so that you can have a family.
Hospitals in the Gauteng area are not even underresourced. On a visit to our community site today we found well stocked consulting rooms and medicine cabinets. The problem was understaffing. It's actually shocking to see because often I think that the medical schools are not pushing the issue enough. Although we are required to do community service it still doesn't quite measure up to making a long term commitment to making a difference. One of my friends brought up an interesting example. People are always so willing to work for MSF when in fact they could make more of a difference in their own country.
For me, job satisfaction is much more than a paycheck. I would be happy just being challenged everyday, challenged to perform at the best of my ability because people depend on it. It's the thrill that I seek, something that I don't see myself ever getting in the private sector. There is also the issue of research that comes into it. If I were to ever move overseas I would move to a socialised country, it's something that I hold close to my heart.
Today a Nobel Laureate came to speak to us at university. It seems to me that not all of the discoveries are that impressive, though I do suppose that many of them occurred almost 30 years ago. Even those things discovered just 30 years ago have become common knowledge (in some cases knowledge from 10 years ago is now being taught in lectures). It was an interesting lecture about viruses and carcinogenesis. It's a rather interesting topic considering that some of the content affects us everyday in hospitals (with Kaposi's Sarcoma in HIV). It would have been a lot better if he had answered my question :) (although we did work it out afterwards).
After a day of revelations...
"How come being easy keeps getting harder?"
"If I’ve learned anything over the past 5 years, it’s that you do not know where you’re going to be tomorrow. You have to make decisions based on that; it’s almost pointless. So, you know, whether I learned, I think I’m pretty aware, pretty conscious of that point to live in the moment. It’s a hard lesson, but it’s like, I’m trying to learn to quiet my mind down, know what I mean?"
I have never been much of a fan of the whole carpe diem crap. It's one thing to say it and a completely different thing to actually put it into practice... So perhaps I have a few decisions to make, it may take a while...
The thought of the world cup still seems to send shivers down my spine, but perhaps it has to do with something my friend said: "Put away your books, your notes, your doubts, your fears and insecurities. Put away your laptops and your pens and pencils, put out of your mind that sneaky freaking suspicion that you just might have left something out. Put away the negativity and anger, put away that feeling of knowing nothing. Just remember how you got here and where you're going. Ke Nako, it's time."
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