Got my first ever paycheck yesterday!!! After 19 years of study and hard work, some would say I've finally "made it!" I've managed to enter the workforce doing one of the top 5 asian parents' ideal professions for their kids (med, law, commerce, dentistry, and ???). And when people hear that Jon and myself are both doing med, it's not uncommon to hear "wah...your parents must be soooo proud!" And yeah I guess they are proud. But it does make me think...what is it about med that makes it so admirable to others, especially the asian community??? I think in the old days, med was equated with status in society and wealth, with knowledge and wisdom and I guess many of our parents still think that today. As to whether that perception is true or not, I'm not so sure... As my anatomy lecturer said in our first med lecture on our first day "If you're here to do med for the money, you'd better leave now cos I've been a practising physician for donkey's years and I'm still driving a Mazda!" Now I wonder why he said that! I think it's because people's perceptions of doctors is that they're wealthy. Perhaps also the fact that half our year was asian!!! The funny thing is though, I think my lecturer was correct in saying that cos it seems that alot of professions pay alot better than what we get in our first year out! Apparently teachers earn stacks nowaday and my mum who's a nurse is earning more per hour than I am!!!
But the more I think about it the more I wonder..."why am I actually doing med???" Is it cos my parents wanted me to do it? Is it cos I myself fancied being called "doctor" and because of the social standing the job seemingly portrays? Is it because of the money doctors have the potential to earn? Or is it just cos there was nothing else I pictured myself doing and med was the only thing left?
If I think honestly about it, I think all of the above things had some influence in me deciding to become a doctor. I'd like to think that it was for noble reasons, that I was being truly altruistic in wanting to help others all my life and that it was my calling...but I know I'd be kidding myself. As much as I'd like to think that I was doing med for all the "right" reasons, I know in my heart that I probably wasn't. But...are there really any "right" or "wrong" reasons for doing med? Some of my colleagues reckon that hey there's nothing wrong with doing med for the money. I mean in other professions it's ok to unashamedly be doing them for the money so why not med? Isn't being a doctor just a job like any other job? And isn't the point of any job to earn money to provide for yourself and your family? So if you're not doing your job for the money then what are you doing it for??? And yet there seems to be a social stigma in western society that doctors aren't supposed to be doing med for the money. Doctors are supposed to have their patient's interests at heart first and foremost and the suggestion that doctors may have percuniary interests that may conflict with their patient's best interests is abhorrent to us! Yet one of the very reasons asian parents are so keen for their children to do med is that it supposedly pays well! And so here I find myself, an asian born in western society brought up with these conflicting perceptions of doctors and money...
But at the end of the day I ask myself - what really matters in life? Is it money? NO! Is it relationships? YES! And so I quickly remind myself that although I'm now in the workforce earning money, money should never become the sole focus of my pursuit in life. Relationships are worth far more than any amount of money could ever buy...although try telling Homer Simpson that:
Homer: "Bart, with $10,000, we'd be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like...love!"
Of first and foremost importance is my life-saving relationship with God, then with my family, and then with friends and colleagues! What is all the money in the world if you have no one to share it with! And when I think more about it, doctors do earn alot of money! And so do most of our wealthy society! The thing with money is, we're always comparing how much we have to how much some richer guy has! And so we're always gonna think we don't have enough! But as they say, the majority of Australians are just about millionaires! We are a very wealthy country and anyone living here is richer than the vast majority of the 6 billion people living on this planet! As a Christian, I believe that since God created the world, everything is His and everything we have therefore comes from him, including money. And so I would do well to remind myself of this and learn to trust and depend on God for my daily bread as it were, and not my own efforts in earning money.
I still think though that being a doctor isn't just a job. I hold to the view that being a doctor is a privelege and not in the sense that I lord it over everyone that "hey I'm a doctor! Aren't I great!", cos to be honest, I cringe when I tell people I'm a doctor and they're suddenly so impressed...but yeah I'd like to think that if I were a patient, that my doctor would genuinely care about me, that he wouldn't be concerned with making money by doing unnecessary investigations and tests etc. And I'm sure the majority of doctors are really genuine and caring. But yeah, in a world where you need money to survive, they'll always be people who value it over anything and anyone else. In these first 2 weeks on the job even, I've found it challenging sometimes to be genuinely caring and concerned about some demented and even aggressive patients I've had to look after, or the ones who complain alot and want your attention all the time when you're super busy. If I've learnt anything in these last 2 weeks, it's been that patients are people not diseases, and all they want is some respect and dignity, and to know that they are amongst people who really care for them when they may have no one else in life who does. And this is the kind of doctor I want to be I guess. People talk about what specialty they want to do and people are forever asking me whether I want to be a hot shot surgeon. But hey, I think what ever I do, if I can remember to treat patients as the people they are, to genuinely care for them and love them as fellow human beings, and to just show them the love that God has shown me, then I'll be satisfied being the doctor I am.
So now that I have my first paycheck, who wants a treat?!
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