2024-04-15 10:52:45
By Salvador Macip, professor of molecular medicine at Leicester.
It is surprising that someone who has studied medicine and is in the privileged position of choosing any of the available options, prioritizes personal comfort over maximizing the human impact it can have.
On the occasion of the publication of the recent results of the MIR exam, the other day they interviewed the person who had obtained the highest grade; and in the headline they highlighted that, when choosing a specialty, he would opt for the one that would allow him to “have quality of life.” It is worth analyzing what this decision entails.
First, it must be said that wanting a decent salary and a comfortable job is very legitimate, and a career in Medicine does not guarantee either of the two things. In our country, healthcare personnel are under intolerable pressure. The working conditions are harsh and the salaries are lower than what would correspond to these demands. This facilitates the exodus to countries where there are more resources and fairer remuneration. The clearest proof that things are not working is that many colleagues in my class have recommended their children not to choose the same career as them.
Until we fix the health system (and this, we all know, means injecting millions, to begin with), we should not be surprised that new generations of doctors are primarily concerned with finding a way to survive. If the salary were proportional to the responsibility asked of them, it would at least compensate them for having to deal with the shortcomings of a public health system that, in theory, is one of the best in the world, but which is too saturated to function at the level it is supposed to. corresponds.
On the other hand, it is surprising that someone who has studied medicine and is in the privileged position of choosing any of the available options, prioritizes personal comfort over maximizing the human impact it can have. There are certain professions that presuppose an interest in contributing to the well-being and advancement of society, what we call a vocation. It should be the backbone of healthcare, education, politics, research, etc. But make no mistake: following your vocation should not mean going through hardships for the rest of your days. An endocrinologist, one of the specialties that are perceived as “comfortable”, can make a good living without working on-call and, at the same time, help fight against the great impact that obesity has on public health and go to Africa to provide nutritional education and teach them how to diagnose diabetes for free. There are many ways to help others.
Perhaps part of the problem is that the scale we choose to measure the level and value of future medical professionals is not adequate. The first mistake is that access to university is determined exclusively by grades. In this way, we select the most academically brilliant students, but this does not guarantee that they will be good doctors. We failed again at the entrance to the residency, where candidates are stratified only by the result of a test, and those who get the best grade have the right to choose their specialty first. We do not evaluate abilities in the correct way, because succeeding in an eminently rote exam says little about your medical quality.
The evaluation challenge is difficult to solve, but we only have to look around us to find better alternatives. In the United Kingdom, for example, being accepted into medical school does not depend exclusively on high school grades. The motivation letter that candidates write has a lot of weight, which they then have to defend in an interview, where they have to make an effort to justify what will make them good professionals; the letters of recommendation, which objectively corroborate this potential; and the extracurricular activities of recent years, which have to demonstrate that the interest in contributing to the well-being of society is authentic. It is not infallible, but it means that many of those who reach higher up are there for the right reasons.
This leads me to a consideration resulting from having been able to closely observe university students over the last 20 years: the values of the new generations have changed. Millennials, and now Zs, generally seek faster reward and have less tolerance for effort, two attributes that do not mesh well with the complicated reality of the medical profession. This should force us to make the access selection even more carefully to choose those who will be able to contribute the most to our health despite the personal cost.
For me, being a doctor is the best profession in the world because it allows me to help others live better. If I had to decide again which career to study, I would not hesitate for a second, despite the many obstacles I have encountered along the way. And I would like the person on the other end of the phone when I’m sick to think the same as me.
#Good #doctors #Health #Medicine