Ignorance Is Not Bliss

Here is the whole heartfelt article by a senior doctor about the attitude of the house-officers he has worked with in the past.

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How do you call yourself a doctor when you do not even know how to perform CPR? Most importantly, one must work with a conscience. Yes, they are allowed to make mistakes, but never at the expense of the patient’s life due to their lousy attitude or severe deficiency in knowledge.

To the parents of these young doctors, have you heard the other side of the story before defending your children? Did they tell you why they got scolded at work?

And if you find out that your child caused a patient’s death, simply due to his poor knowledge and lousy working attitude, will you be able to sleep well at night?

To the house officers who complain a lot, if you can’t even handle negative comments from your senior colleagues, how can you survive when you face demanding patients and family members?

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Being a medical student myself, I am a tad disappointed to hear this. I'm not saying that I am very good, far from it actually - but I plan to improve myself in the next few years, hopefully I will be able to meet all the expectations one would have of a houseman by then. Must gambate!

It saddens me when there are people who choose medicine purely just because their parents force them into it or they are just out hunting for the glory - and when they are deep in it, they realise they have no passion for it at all - and yes sometimes they managed to scrap through and pass out as a doctor. But after that what happens?

You get doctors who are not passionate about their line of work, are sloppy and do not care about patients' welfare. In one word, they are dangerous.

I remember what a doctor used to tell us students - his aim is to not to make us into smart Dr. House-like doctors. His aim is to train us into competent SAFE doctors. So simple yet so true.

I can't figure out how these housemen cope with it. Does the fact that they had indirectly cause the death of a patient due to their carelessness or incompetence pains them? Do they wake up in the middle of the night with a guilty conscience? Do they even care that people's lives are in their hands?

Of coz, this is just a generalization and the group in question is probably a minority. There are many good hardworking housemen/doctors out there who are doing their best for their patients - and for that, I applaud them. Keep up the good work! I hope I will be able to emulate in your footsteps...

I will never forget the doctors who scolded (or will be scolding) me harshly in medical school. Coz they are the ones who woke me up to the fact that my knowledge is not up to scratch and I need to buck up more. Coz they are the ones who sincerely want us to be good doctors like them, serving the masses with their best effort.

I hope I will remember these words the next time I'm reprimanded by a senior doctor. Cause when they do, it means they care about us. I hope I will not take their harsh words to heart but instead use them as a motivator for me to gain more knowledge.

I also hope that the next few years will serve me well so that I will be able to become a competent and safe doctor. It's not an easy journey but I will give it my very best!