Just remember, human is a unique species.
I have friends who really wants to be a doctor but they are fated to other professions.
I, myself who don't really put doctors as my future life, but here I am.
There are even people who are extremely excellent in medicine, but decided to continue working in other professions.
There are people who are not medicine-based staffs but they are very good to entertain people to live a healthy lifestyle.
And towards many others to mention here.
I respect her decision to quit. She knows herself better than us, so don't judge but give words of encouragement instead.
Sometimes, I encountered similar situations in the real working life. I am not an experienced doctor yet, but I do have approaching-7-months housemanship experiences. Trust me, it is hard. Doctors are totally not how they are portrayed in Malay dramas. Only those who have doctors as family members, friends or they have been in-patients and have been seeing doctors regularly will roughly understand the life of doctors.
"Doktor, dari pagi semalam saya nampak doktor kat sini. Tengah hari semalam pun doktor jugak. Petang dengan malam pun. Ini pukul 5 pagi, doktor lagi. Doktor tak balik-balik ke?"
Common. This is very common to hear.
Responsibilities. Working environment. Workload. Pressure. Stress. People's lives.
I am not here to share much about the struggles as you can appreciate those in the posts shared by the author. But, here I would love to share what can be done (or maybe what I have done) to prevent my life to be even miserable. So far, I am satisfied enough not to have that quitting thought.
1. Surround yourself with good friends.
Sometimes, in some places, it is very hard to find good colleagues - people who will not sabotage you, people who will back you up in darkest time, people who will know their responsibilities and willing to evenly distribute the workload, people who will help you with extra works.
But, honestly, they exist.
Search for them. And most importantly, try our best to be the one for them. They need us as well.
2. Always learn.
Another honest confession, no matter how good we are in theories, working life is beyond our imagination. I am not saying I am the best student but medical students usually have their own struggle to complete the course - be it 5 years or even 6 years.
Masuk telinga kanan, keluar telinga kiri.
Apa yang baik, simpan dalam kepala.
Apa yang buruk, buang dari hati.
Be tough, be strong. And always learn. Medicine is an evolving area, things keep changing for the good.
I already have juniors. Even though I believe I am still a newbie, but once you become a senior, people expect more from you. Learn faster and teach faster. Remind ourselves, we are helping community with people's lives and health.
3. Tawakkal
Every single time I step out of my room, I will try to practice this.
Bismillahi tawakkaltu ‘alallahi, walaa haula wala quwwata illa billah
- Dengan nama Allah, aku berserah diri kepada-Nya,
dan tidak ada daya dan kekuatan kecuali dengan pertolongan-Nya
dan tidak ada daya dan kekuatan kecuali dengan pertolongan-Nya
Indeed, it helps a lot to go through the day. Every single day is very uncertain. The good seniors can suddenly be stressed out and vent it out on us, the scary MO suddenly treat us very well. Pray hard that we can endure and cope well with this stress. But, if we can't, please seek help. I understand most doctors don't want to seek help (especially as it can indirectly affect our reputation especially if we have records in Psychiatry department), but please love ourselves. Our body, our mind deserves the best.
4. Enjoy the rest of the day
If you have been friends with doctors, you can see most of us really appreciate every single free time in our life - be it just by sleeping the whole day or travel as much as we can. Common dilemma among doctors will be like....
"nak qadha tidur ke nak keluar jalan-jalan"
When you go out the whole day, you regret of not spending it with proper sleep.
When you sleep much, you regret of not spending the free time outside.
Hahaha.
Use our annual leave, plan properly. Go out and enjoy. Spend time with the community with stuffs other than health-related.
Perform our responsibilities to the family - parents, partners, siblings, children. Most of times it can be stressful to imagine we don't really have the privilege to always be there for family events, even our family members may not understand us. But, keep in mind that we already have tried our best to join but the community need us more. Pray hard that Allah will open their heart to understand and most important of all, pray hard for their safety and health as we are far from them to take care properly. T_T
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However, if you think quitting is the best for you, do so. But, please, prepare well on how you want to do it. Please, meet people who have been there, who already experienced it - seek their opinions. Otherwise, check for other alternatives - what else can be done with the medical degree - though it is quite limited until we have the licence to practice. But, there are few I believe - non-clinical lecturers, researchers, medical-based companies selling surgical instruments etc.
I am still struggling but insyAllah may this journey be blessed.
To dear colleagues, we can do this :)
Fightingggg!
SM, Perak, Malaysia.
180926
