When I first wrote this topic, it was about criminal accusations against doctors, especially molestation charges. No one knows what is the truth but the damage is done. In my second part, I wrote about the increasing litigation rate all over the world which is also creeping into our country. I have also mentioned several times that the “Forgive and Forget” generation is slowly disappearing and the current generation do not tolerate any errors.
Few days ago, I saw an interesting article from China Radio International’s English service. It does not surprise me, as doctors being killed for mistakes committed do happen in this country as well. I have had friends who were transferred out of a hospital within 24hrs due to death threats. Of course, some were due to personal matters rather than job related.
The article below also has some good advise for future doctors. I put up these articles to give a wake up call to all budding doctors that life is not as easy as you think if you become a doctor. On a daily basis I still hear the same story from many people that doctors have the best life out there. I even had drug reps who admitted that before they joined the pharmaceutical company, they never realised how difficult and risky a doctor’s life was. Many say that I only write negative things about medicine but these are the truths that people do not know and do not care to find out. Everyone knows the noble profession but no one tells you the challenges that lies ahead.
| Med school students who once dreamed of healing the sick and rescuing the dying are reconsidering their job options, as a spate of attacks targeting doctors have led them to fear that they could be targeted as well.A report in the China Youth Daily has illustrated the jitters medical students are feeling following two recent hospital attacks that left one doctor and a head nurse dead and several others injured.
Zhang Yan, a clinical medicine student at Fudan University, still considers practicing medicine to be a worthy goal. “The meaning of life lies in serving the people,” he said. Zhang, however, found that curing sickness is no simple matter after interning at local hospitals. “It’s not only your expertise that matters. Your communication skills with different people also count,” he said, adding that he believes a lack of trust between doctors and patients has led to worsening relations. Long waiting times, brief appointments and a lack of quality care and attention have led some patients to seek “a life for a life,” attacking doctors and hospital staff who they believe have wronged them or their loved ones. In one of the most notorious attacks, a teenager fatally stabbed an intern and injured three others at a hospital in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, last March. It is a stark departure from the ideal situation in which “doctors and patients become battle companions and stay in the same trench, fighting their common enemies,” said neurosurgeon Zhou Liangfu from Huashan Hospital, which is affiliated with Fudan University. Peng Yuwen, a professor at the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, said doctor-patient tensions can erode medical workers’ morale and their willingness to take risks. “Risk-taking is the most noble trait of a doctor, while tensions between doctors and patients can only create overcautious doctors, which in turn does harm to the patients,” Peng said. “If doctors don’t dare to take risks when the patients are in a critical moment of life or death, it means they are giving the patients up,” he said. Medical students and rookie medical practitioners are weighing their options, swaying between staying or leaving. As a doctor who still conducts clinical rotations in Beijing, doctor Li Yifu earns a monthly salary of less than 3,000 yuan (about 480 U.S. dollars). Zhou Liangfu, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said young doctors suffer from meager pay, which has led some med students to switch to related but different fields after graduating. Zhou usually tells his students that practicing medicine means letting go of materialistic needs and not thinking about how much money one can make. “They need to endure hardship and hone their skills first,” Zhou said. But for some who cannot stand to wait too long, this life and death hardship is wearing them out. Medical schools are receiving students with lower college entrance exam grades compared with several years ago. This has led some schools to lower their enrollment thresholds, allowing students with below-average marks to attend prestigious medical schools. In China’s competitive national college entrance exam system, it is a signal that fewer top students have chosen to practice medicine. This means the public may risk getting treatment from second-class students in the future. “I do not object to top students going into finance or turning into civil servants, but if the best students can’t become doctors or medical professors, it is a tragedy for our nation,” Peng said. |
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Dear doctor, im a final yead med student. I would like to know what specialty/ies are in demand in Malaysia now?how to know which has this n that much place available for interested doctors in Malaysia?. I remember reading elsewhere that alot of people would choose gastro and cardiology but they have to wait for 1-2 years to get a place. Is there such thing as too much cardiologist in Malaysia?(now or forseeable future?) What kind of specialization/s is/are most needed in Malaysia now?thanks alot!
It depends on what is your intention? serving the rakyat in government hospital or going private? As for government hospitals, all speciality are still in shortage especially infectious disease, Rheumatology, haematologist, endocrinology and chest physician. Even oncologist are in severe shortage. Cardiology and Gastro are popular because it brings a lot of money in private sector. However, cardiologist in private sector is almost saturated. Gastros earn a lot of money doing scopes, a lot of unnecessary ones!
How much “take-home pay” is the newly-qualified specialist ( from UM, USM, UKM ) serving the rakyat ?
How about going to Saudi Arabia and working there as a specialist ?
Thanks
depends on number of years of service. If less then 9 years, would be around RM 8K, if more then 9 years of service, around RM 10-11K.
if you degree is recognised in Saudi, you can do so.
Dear Dr, i share a common question among most Malaysian Medical students studying particularly in a private medical university in Malaysia. What are our options for specialisation right after mbbs. Can we do housemanship overseas and proceed with a specialisation and come back to Malaysia as a specialist or do we have to go through the 2yrs of ho again? If yes, which country and how long does it take? With the government calling back Malaysian specialists overseas, do we have an option to skip the compulsory housemanship years?
p/s: Im looking at Paeds or probably O&G. Prolly microsurgery if the option is there.
How come you are posting the same questions under two different threads, and under different nicks?
i was reading both pages. i tried commenting on the earlier one and it failed. so i tried this one. didnt know both got posted. as for the nick, it was automatic as i had a blog on wordpress. my bad.
Your option of doing specialization oversea lies with whether you can get a job overseas or not. Currently your chance of getting a job at UK, Australia or even Singapore is very very very very slim let alone getting postgraduate post. If you want to do pead or O&G locally you may still got options of doing master or taking British membership exam but to complete your part 2 of membership exams depend whether you can get a recognized post or not in the major hospital in Malaysia. Microsurgery, I presume is a subspecialty so please don’t take it seriously till you complete your specialist qualification.
If his degree is NOT recognized elsewhere, he can forget about getting a job!
[…] you, over here and here . I had also written about doctor’s dilemma over here, here and here. I just had a chat with a medico-legal lawyer and what I heard from him is rather scary and I can […]
Doctor, can I know what is your view of studying medicine in Indonesia?
Depends on which university