“Every great accomplishment starts with a youthful dream”

̴̴̴̴̴-Mark Boyer

Youth is without a doubt the best phase of our lifetimes and Medicine, the dream of many, is one of the most demanding career choices, known to consume the entirety of one’s youth.

The world celebrated International Youth Day on August 12^th 2024, just a couple of days after a young doctor was brutally murdered in our country while on duty.

The Checkup Magazine asked our doctors their thoughts on the sacrifice of their youth in pursuit of this noble profession

Has it been worthwhile?

Did they give up any youthful activities that their peers from other faculties seemed to enjoy?

What are their expectations from a medical career?

Read on to know their thoughts…

The Journey (from youth to middle age)

I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse!

Don Corleone, The Godfather.

The Hook

You are in your teens. You believe your future will be brighter and higher than all your peers. You read about Dr. Albert Schweitzer and other great doctors and your altruism is aroused. You are offered a Vision. How can you refuse. You submit yourself, body, mind and soul and surrender to this most humane of all disciplines.

The Line

You spend more than a decade, the best part of your youth, studying and working with patients. 24/7. The world forgets you and moves ahead. On offer is the tantalizing possibility of developing skills to help fellow human beings and to progress personally. You are going to make this world a better and healthier place. How can you refuse.

The Sinker

You finish your education. You spend more than a decade trying to put your skills to use, to earn the respect and trust of your peers and patients. With a sinking feeling you realise it is not easy – though approaching middle age you are too “young” to be trusted with someone’s life.

The Lifebuoy

You reach your fifties and sixties and you realise this is the promised land. This is the best part of your professional life. You have traded a tough and exhausting youth for a nice middle age. You have the knowledge and the experience. You are “senior”. You have the respect and financial stability you hankered for. By now you have stopped caring and looking for outside validation. You choose your working hours and leisure time. You keep stimulating your brain by way of conferences, interactions and new knowledge. You can choose your “senior citizen” status as a shield to avoid unpleasant or stressful patients. You are never forced to retire.

Looking back through the prism of middle age, with time making unpleasant memories hazy and irrelevant, I feel the journey, though long and arduous, was worth the while. Would I come this way again? Yes, I would. I just do not know any other way.

Dr Shishir Shah is a renowned Physician and Pulmonologist in Mumbai. He likes to read, watch, observe, travel and occasionally write.

The Beginnings

Some say that becoming a doctor consumes the entirety of one’s youth. At first glance, that seems true enough. Getting into the stream via the infamous NEET entrance exam is challenging and not everyone is fortunate enough to clear it in the first attempt. Each subsequent attempt costs you a year. Once you do get in, the undergraduate degree MBBS itself takes 5 and a half years including a one-year mandatory internship. These years are full of learning, competition and most importantly, exams. To those who wish to continue their medical journey in India, it all culminates in the dreaded PG NEET exam.

Here, it is rather common for aspirants to spend several years attempting the exam, in pursuit of their ‘dream’ branch. One can easily understand the need to do so, seeing as this singular test determines how you spend the majority of your career from there onwards.

The next step for our not so young graduate is a 3-year residency, an action-packed whirlwind of a time where the work is never ending and sleep is hard to come by. Depending on the stream, residency is followed by a fellowship or super specialty program which can itself last up to 3 years.

Looking back at the premise of the consumption of one’s youth, there is some truth to that. But it is missing important context. MBBS is an unforgettable and magical experience, where the strongest friendships are formed that last a lifetime. It lays the foundation of the doctor who comes out the other end, strong and confident, ready to take on the world. Every exam cleared is a morale boost and a badge of honor on the chest of the budding physician.

Residency takes things one step further. The extreme conditions make it so that only your fellow residents can truly appreciate and relate to your experience, thus forging an unbreakable bond of trust and understanding. Every patient cured or every surgery performed can change a patient’s life for the better and the gratitude on their face is impossible to replicate.

It is this journey that makes it all worth it. One’s youth has not been consumed, rather it has been utilized to its fullest, making a true difference to the world, and setting the stage for an even more capable doctor, one who can affect thousands of lives, of the young and old, for the better.

In light of what has transpired in West Bengal this month, I would like to add that the youth of one of our best and brightest has been sadly lost. It was cruelly taken away from her at a time when she had already cleared the most difficult hurdles, and only had a few steps to go to graduate as a fully-fledged chest physician. This situation demands justice and the powers that be must deliver. The youth of our nation is watching.

Dr. Akash Lobo is an MBBS graduate from Mumbai. He enjoys reading and doing research on a variety of subjects. Through his work and writing he aspires to have a positive impact on the world.’

Living the dream (in exchange of others)

Being a doctor, is always a dream for many. Millions of students strive hard every year to get in here and give 5 -10 years of their lives to be one of the noblest. Medical colleges have their own charm which set them apart from colleges of other streams. May be the aura of being a doctor, clinic rounds in white coats, (or the ragging), hold attraction to the aspirants. But the academic pressure here is different altogether, which surely diminishes the extracurricular part which other stream colleges tend to provide.

First of all, most medical students are known to be studious. You have to clear all exams and perfect the basics, as you are responsible and accountable for a life. More often than not, medical student may compare college life with a non-medico friend. From being able to bunk lectures, attending fests, participating in various events like sports/music, without the pressure of excelling is often what a medico longs for. While, many medical colleges do have various events, annual fests, sports, quizzes, workshops etc., there is a limitation in the freedom or the willingness to participate shown by the medicos. Even as the participation culture rises, it is not without some guilt/doubt in hindsight before committing themselves to major extracurricular activities. The postings and lectures play a significant role in acquiring skills in our academic course. So bunking or skipping them doesn’t help anyone.

Despite all the restrictions/compulsions, medicine is not as gloomy as many might believe, we enjoy our college life as much as our friends from other streams. The hostel life, friends, postings, cultural events, outings, all are memorable in everyone’s life. In fact, we are quite lucky to witness saving lives daily, which gives us the dopamine required to cover up for all the other missed youthful activities, what say?!

Dr. Ruturaj Rane, an MBBS graduate from Seth GSMC. He is a fun loving person, who loves to paint, play football and his passion lies towards serving the society towards greater good!

Lose some to gain some

‘The noble profession’ is the term that has always been used for the medical profession, but it has never been outlined anywhere that being noble can also be exhausting. I am from a non-medico background. So, I feel like I am a very new member of this community. And I can surely say that irrespective of the detailed research and planning I did before deciding on a career for myself, I was in complete darkness about many things. Ninety percent of the people who join the medical profession enter with the thought process that they have cleared a difficult entrance exam and now life will be easy. But the reality remains that there is an endless pile of books, postings, work, another entrance exam and emotional trauma to go through. As a result, coping becomes difficult and sooner the expectations become the reason for resentment. When this happens we search for little things to hang on to, like the joys of learning something new, the happiness we get after helping someone and the hope that one day it will be easier. The answer for whether the medical profession is rewarding or not, is yes.

It is one of the most rewarding jobs, there is no other profession that gives you job satisfaction to the extent you get after working with patients. Being an intern, I don’t make major decisions for a patient but every time a patient says that I have been good to them, every time a relative puts their trust in me, I feel worthy, the work seems easier and all those hours I spend toiling seems to pay off. So every day there is something to keep you going and the days when there is nothing, you know that the work isn’t a waste, it’s helping someone in some way. I don’t feel it will get easier or more rewarding with time but I always feel that it will be better than doing some other job. It will always be worthwhile.

Dr Shreya Singh is an MBBS student at BJGMC, Pune. Being an introvert she likes spending much of her time with books and stories. She loves to write, read, draw, paint and everything that gives her a new perspective of the world and allows her to express herself.

Being a medical student, boredom is a distant memory. We are constantly bombarded with assignments, tests and are required to study endlessly in order to keep up with the vast curriculum. And if you’re also involved in research you might as well forget the few minutes of leisure time you get during weekends. Offline PG coaching classes that usually start in the morning and finish at around 8 PM further squeeze our free time.

Exam season is another monster that we can’t ignore requiring us to

burn the midnight oil, disrupting our sleep cycle. Many of my peers feel burnt out after such a rigorous schedule.

Yes, it may be true, that non-medicos have a relatively more flexible schedule and work-life balance, but we have chosen this path. Moreover, dealing with lives is no child’s play and that means we are obligated to spend most of our time in learning about the human body. In my opinion, medical students can also enjoy life if we master the art of time management.

We do sometimes feel demotivated when we see our school friends getting jobs that pay handsomely while also getting time to go for trips or hangout with friends on a regular basis while we are stuck calculating if our attendance has gone below the 75% mark.

However, with time I have realised that we are actually the most fortunate amongst the lot because we are getting the opportunity to learn about the fascinating human body and receive training that would potentially have a direct impact on human lives.

A career in medicine is definitely not a waste of our youth. We are getting to learn so much everyday and talk to people from all walks of life at such a young age itself.

Medical field also changes you as a Medical field also changes you as a person, it helps one become more empathetic, confident and responsible.

If a career in medicine is a choice that we make willingly then our youth shall be well spent despite all the hardships that come with it.

Alret Benson is an MBBS student at North DMC medical college & HRH ,Delhi. She is a passionate quizzer and a fan of Dr. House. Writing and travelling is something she wishes to do more often.

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