2024-02-16 13:55:23
First you have to say what you want a decent salary and a comfortable job It is very legitimate, and a career in medicine does not guarantee either of those things. In our country, health personnel are subject to intolerable pressure. The working conditions are harsh and the salaries are lower than what would correspond to these demands. This makes it easier the exodus to countries where there are more resources and fairer remuneration. The clearest proof that things are not working is that many colleagues in my class have recommended their children not to choose the same career as them.
Until we fix the health system (and this, we all know, means inject millions, to begin with), we should not be surprised that the new generations of doctors are concerned above all find a way to survive. If the salary were proportional to the responsibility asked of them, it would at least compensate them for having to deal with the shortcomings of public healthcare that, in theory, is one of the best in the world, but which is too saturated to function at the appropriate level.
On the other hand, it is surprising that someone who has studied medicine and is in the privileged position of choosing any of the available options, prioritizes personal comfort to maximize the human impact it can have. There are certain professions that presuppose an interest in contributing to the well-being and advancement of society, what we call a vocation. It should be the backbone of healthcare, education, politics, research, etc. But let’s not get confused: following your vocation should not mean suffer hardships the rest of your days. An endocrinologist, one of the specialties that are perceived as “comfortable”, can make a good living without working on-call and, at the same time, help fight against the great impact that obesity has on public health and go to Africa to do nutritional education and teach them to diagnose diabetes for free. There are many ways to help others.
Maybe part of the problem is that the scale we choose to measure the level and value of future professionals of medicine is not adequate. The first mistake is that the University access is determined exclusively by the grades. In this way, we select to the most academically brilliant students, but this does not guarantee that they will be good doctors. We fail again at the entrance to the residence, where candidates are stratified only by the result of a test, and those who get the best grades have the right to choose the specialty first. We do not evaluate capabilities in the correct way, because succeeding in an eminently rote exam says little about your medical quality.
The challenge of evaluation is difficult to solve, but we only have to look around us to find better alternatives. In it United Kingdom, For example, being accepted into medical school does not depend exclusively on high school grades. It has a lot of weight the motivation letter that the candidates write, which they then have to defend in an interview, where they have to make an effort to justify what will make them good professionals; the letters of recommendation, which objectively corroborate this potential; and the activities extracurriculars of recent years, They have to demonstrate that the interest in contributing to the well-being of society is authentic. It’s not infallible, but it means that many of those who reach the top are there for the right reasons.
This leads me to a consideration resulting from have been able to observe university students up close from the last 20 years: The values of the new generations have changed. The ‘millennials’, and now the Z, generally They seek a faster reward and have less tolerance for effort, two attributes that do not fit well with the complicated reality of the medical profession. This should force us to make the access selection even more carefully to choose those who will be able to contribute the most to our health despite the personal cost.
For me, being a doctor is the best profession in the world because it allows me to help others live better. If I had to decide again which career to study, I would not hesitate for a second, despite the many obstacles I have encountered along the way. And I would like the person on the other end of the phone when I’m sick to think the same as me.
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#good #doctors #Salvador #Macip