“Being a woman is not a limitation to aspire to what one wants to achieve in life”, are the words of Montserrat Sandova Vega, who today with great satisfaction works as a general practitioner in the Family Medicine Unit (UMF) No. , 52 of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), in Jilotepec de Molina, in the State of Mexico.
Dr. Motserrat Sandoval never cared regarding the long journeys she had to face every day from home to school, and physical fatigue was not an obstacle due to the hours of night study.
This tenacious general doctor goes for more, she already knows the path of effort and dedication, but she knows the taste of the honeys of success, the next objective is to obtain mastery in her field.
Her purpose was always firm: she was willing to continue on this path of effort, which one day would allow her to reap the fruits, and she wholeheartedly accepted the beginning of that path of effort and was never discouraged by her cleaning work in medical units , every effort would be worth it, as long as she achieves her dream and completes her career, graduates and becomes a Social Security General Physician, and today she works at UMF No. 52, of the IMSS State of Mexico East.
The general practitioner had to face, as if they were five-year-old children, the ridicule of their classmates, already at the university level, they bullied her, because Dr. Montserrat, -then a medical student-, polishing floors and washing bathrooms.
Contrary to what she experienced with her university colleagues, Montserrat, a worker at the Hospital General de Zona (HGZ) No. 57, or in the Family Medicine Unit (UMF) No. 52, her co-workers were able to recognize her effort , dedication to study and enormous desire to get ahead to forge a different future.
Today, Dr. Sandoval Vega remembers everything she had to go through and is grateful for that invaluable support: “They gave me time grants, licenses, financial grants. Everything was beneficial to continue studying; the support of the bosses, of the institutional and union part, what is more, the medical colleagues gave me books, they advised me and assisted me in some subjects”.
THE BULLYING THAT HE EXPERIENCED WAS ONLY THE MOMENTUM TO MOVE ON
She explained that the university student harassment to which she was subjected never limited her: “the truth instead of falling, all that gave me strength,” says the general practitioner assigned to UMF No. 52, in the municipality of Cuautitlán, her second unit as a general practitioner following UMF No. 55 in the municipality of Jilotepec.
He does not stop preparing, now he wants to obtain a master’s degree in his field and to achieve this he continues in his daily effort, traveling more than three hours from his home, south of Mexico City, to the northeastern part of the Mexican entity. to get to your unit.
Because of her effort, she has become an example for her colleagues in the Intendancy, who, like her, study and prepare to be nurses, therapists, psychologists, laboratory technicians, radiologists and doctors.
“Sometimes, when I get to go to the places where I started, I am filled with pride and joy to have been there, it satisfies me to know that the colleagues who were with me have surpassed themselves and fill a medical or administrative position,” he commented.
She affirmed that the obstacles and setbacks that women face as professionals are overcome with the strength to overcome, “that leads us to have better opportunities, and although the fight is tireless, it is not impossible.”
The now doctor thanks the IMSS for recognizing her effort, “it is a beautiful institution, quite valuable to which I owe a lot. That is why I offer empathy, reinforce and update knowledge so that the beneficiary has better options, better treatment and better recovery in their health, it is a limitless commitment as a doctor”.
Monserrat Sandoval joined the IMSS in 2009 with the category of Intendancy services. She later managed to position herself as a medical assistant and at the end of her Medicine degree she obtained her admission as a General Practitioner in 2018. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree to obtain a specialty in Family Medicine.
In her office where she attends to her patients, she recounts her career and how she achieved the goal of being a doctor, which she considers “quite difficult” for the simple fact of being a woman, “but not impossible, it is not a limitation to aspire to what one wants to achieve”.